Epiphany 4B
January 28, 2024
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
INTRODUCTION
The theme of today is authority: who has it, and who does not. Moses tells the Israelites about how prophets speak with God’s authority. Jesus’ encounter in the synagogue impresses everyone because of the authority with which he teaches and speaks. And Paul explains that while we may think knowledge gives us authority and power, in fact acting lovingly and for the benefit of our neighbor, is all the authority we need.
Authority is something we understand, but I admit, the texts today are a bit… archaic. They might be a bit difficult to follow or relate to (at least they are for me!). So let me see if I can help, with some things to listen for in each reading:
Deuteronomy speaks to the inevitability that Moses will not always be with the Israelites as their leader and prophet. Yet here God promises that they will not be left to flounder without faithful leadership. God will (and always is) lifting up new leaders, new prophets, to lead God’s people.
Corinthians speaks to the practice of sacrificing food to idols. In the largely pagan city of Corinth, this was a typical practice, but it surely isn’t for us! Rather than getting stuck on that detail, focus on the underlying issue: the practices we engage in that get in the way of our care for one another. More on this in my sermon.
And finally Mark, a story about exorcising demons – which I assume few if any of us have ever witnessed. But we do have experience being possessed by things: fears, unwelcome thoughts, unhealthy patterns, a need to work… So as you listen to this one, recognize how Jesus is willing to confront whatever it is that possesses us, or takes our attention from God. Ok, let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
If you’re happy and you know it, eat a snack! If you’re sad and you know it, eat a snack. If you’re sad because you’re angry, feeling down or generally bad, if you’re sad… eat a snack.
If you’re bored and you know it, eat a snack. If you’re lonely and you know it, eat a snack. If you’re sleepy and you know it, if you’re guilty and you know it, if you’re stressed… eat a snack.
If you’re human and you know it, then your face will surely show it. If you’re human, eat your feelings. Eat a snack.
Anyone remember this commercial? It’s a Weight Watchers commercial from about a decade ago. I think it ends with something like, “We’ll help you with the hard stuff.” It’s sort of a cute approach, using a child’s song, and it makes me chuckle, but I also find it deeply unsettling. It is a pretty accurate assessment of the relationship so many of us have with food. Food is this wonderful gift from God that serves to nourish our bodies and provide what we need to be strong and healthy – and yet for many of us, it is something with which we have a complicated relationship: we eat when we’re stressed, when we’re bored, when we’re tired, when we’re sad… just like the song on the commercial says. What should be a gracious gift from God becomes for many of us an enemy to combat, a temptation to overcome, a continuing foe, which stalks us and grips us every moment of the day.
And that is just a reflection on our personal relationship with food – it says nothing of our global relationship, and the broader impact of our food choices. In the Western world, many of us don’t know what all goes into our food’s growth, harvest, and production – including how many pesticides are used, how much water, how farm workers are treated, and in the case of livestock, how the animals are treated, what drugs they are given, how much land is used, how much toxic gas they emit into the atmosphere, how much oil is used to get all this food to our communities from far away… And that’s to say nothing of the highly processed food we love so much, with all its chemicals, sugars, and preservatives to give it lasting shelf life and appealing taste. The decisions we make about what food we buy and eat affects a long line of people, not to mention animals and the environment.
Yes, the human relationship with food is complicated, whether you are thinking about it in terms of you and the delicious looking pastry in front of you, or in terms of the larger scheme of food production. What should be a gracious gift from God and a supplier of nourishment for our bodies becomes one of our biggest challenges.
Apparently human relationship with food has long been a challenge, albeit in different ways. We see it in our passage today from 1 Corinthians. This is one of those passages that might at first seem completely inapplicable to our 21st century context, as it begins, “Now concerning food sacrificed to idols...” Sacrificing food to idols is not something most Christians today think about ever, so we may be tempted to disregard the rest of the passage. But in fact, this passage has much to say to us regarding our own relationship with food, and our relationship with the other myriad things that demand our attention.
The original question, about eating food sacrificed to idols, likely arose out of a dispute between members of the very diverse Corinthian church, who came from varied backgrounds. When you bring such varied backgrounds together, you are bound to get a clash. But Paul’s approach to the dispute is not only about the particulars of that question, but more broadly how to live as a Christian, a Christ-follower, in a world that often makes this a challenge. Corinth, you see, was a largely pagan city, and so being a Christ-follower there was particularly challenging: how do we follow Christ when there are so many cultural norms all around us that go against what Christ calls us to do?
Now that question, about how to live as a Christian life in the midst of so many contrary cultural norms, is something we can relate to. Because there are lots of cultural norms that are, or can become, contrary to living a Christian life: a need always to have more, or better; a devotion to a political leader who acts in a way or carries our policies that harm God’s children; working so hard and so much that we have no energy left for spending time cultivating our relationship with God; pursuing our own success and the American dream, even if it means others suffer for it. Even things that seem good – like sports or other hobbies, school or work – can run the danger of taking our time and devotion away from God and our relationships with others, and then those relationships suffer.
In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes clear that our ultimate concern is not knowing intellectually what is wrong and what is right, but rather, having awareness of how our actions and behaviors affect our relationships – with God and with our neighbor. Our behaviors are to be guided not by knowledge, which “puffs up,” but by the love of God, which “builds up,” and how that love is expressed in community.
For example, does eating tomatoes that I know were unethically harvested reflect love for my neighbors working in the field? Does our alcohol consumption negatively affect familial relationships? Does allowing fear to guide our actions and behaviors allow us to treat people lovingly? Paul says that the question that should be our guiding light in deciding how to act is this: Do the things that possess us, toward which we put our emotional and physical energy, enable or prevent us from living in love of God and neighbor?
That question puts things in perspective, and personally, I feel very convicted by it! It drives me to our Gospel text, where I find some hope for actually overcoming my various possessions. This encounter that Jesus has with the demon-possessed man is, in Mark’s Gospel, his first public act of ministry. In other words, this is significant – our first impression of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This action sets the tone and frames Jesus’ entire ministry. What it says to us is that Jesus is someone who is here to confront our demons and possessions with authority. He is someone who not only walks with us, but who stands up for us, who says to the voices of the world that would challenge our efforts to live faithful lives, “Be silent, and come out of them!” And while it may be a rough exit (the man in the story convulses and shouts loudly), we are left in a state ready to seek healing and new life.
We will not always be successful in navigating the complicated relationships we have – whether they are with food or other substances, with our work, with past failures or fears, or even with each other. But, we can always be certain that Jesus came to confront our challenges with us, to help us face the temptations of the world, and to offer to us not death and failure, but life and freedom.
Let us pray… Ever-living God, we live in a world full of things that demand our attention and try to take our focus away from you. Help us to trust in your Son, who confronts our possessions, and promises to bring us into everlasting life. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Service through the sermon can be viewed HERE. (It'll be at the end. There was an issue, and the second half is a different link.)
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