Pentecost Sermon: June 8, 2014

Pentecost Sermon

June 8, 2014 

Preacher: Pastor Carrie Smith

John 20:19-23

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Less than a month ago, it was snowing in Crystal Lake. Can you believe it? But summer is finally here. School is out (or almost out, depending on your district!). And the arrival of summer means one very important thing for kids of all ages: Summer Superhero Movies.

In case you hadn’t noticed, superhero movies are kind of a “thing” right now. Just in 2014, movies have been released featuring Robocop, Captain America, the Amazing Spiderman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Transformers, and the upcoming flick that’s getting a lot of buzz around my house: Guardians of the Galaxy. Moviemakers (and the bankers who fund them) have figured out that we Americans love our superhero movies. It can be the umpteenth reincarnation of Batman, or a complete retelling of Spiderman, or just a really bad comic book script about a minor character, and we will not only shell out the money, but will stand in line for hours (in costume!) to see it the first night.

I’m not an expert on movie culture and history, so I’m not sure if this is truly a new phenomenon. But I suspect there is something about the times we live in that makes these movies so attractive right now. I wonder if it has to do with the fear we’ve been conditioned to have about the state of the economy and the threat of terrorism.  Or maybe it’s a result of the instant information about world tragedies that comes to us, day and night, on our smartphones. It could be that we flock to see characters with super-human powers because we regular mortals often feel quite power-less. After all, if we don’t have the power to rid the universe of evil, it does feel good to sit in a dark, air-conditioned room and watch the Man of Steel or Catwoman do it without breaking sweat.  

If you’ve ever felt powerless or lost, confused or afraid in the face of the world’s problems, then you have good company in the ones Jesus called his friends and disciples. In today’s Gospel reading you heard how, on Easter evening, after hearing the news of Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples were all gathered in the house behind locked doors. These were men who had left everything and everyone they knew to follow an itinerant preacher and prophet. They had spoken truth against power. They had fed the poor. They had touched lepers and eaten with sinners. They had taken nothing with them, but relied only on the kindness of strangers for food and shelter. They didn’t always get it right, but they had walked boldly with Jesus, doing brave and risky things they never imagined they would do.

And now, here we see them, hiding behind locked doors. And why?                                                                                                                                        

Because they felt powerless.

They felt powerless to stop the so-called trial that convicted Jesus.

They felt powerless at the foot of the cross.

They felt powerless when he was laid in the tomb.

They felt powerless to fight the grave-robbers they imagined when they heard the tomb was empty.

They felt powerless (and skeptical) when the women told unbelievable stories of resurrection.

And now, hiding in this locked room as darkness fell, they felt powerless to face the future without Jesus. Gone was all the bravado and passion and activism that had inspired them on the journey. Now, they were just regular mortals, with regular powers, and no superhero to lead them in the fight against evil. They were afraid.

Then, suddenly, he was there, standing in front of them!  

Although the doors to the room were locked, the risen Christ came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” He proved who he was by showing them his hands and side. Once they were convinced, Scripture tells us “the disciples rejoiced.” Picture that room for a moment: Can’t you just hear the whooping and hollering? Can’t you see them crying and embracing, breathing sighs of relief? Can’t you see them releasing all that fear and tension, their shoulders resting a bit lower, their faces relaxing into smiles?

The disciples were ready to party, because their hero was once again with them, but Jesus had more important things to talk about. One more time, he said to them firmly, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And then, knowing how they had locked the doors, knowing they were afraid, and understanding how powerless they felt, Jesus gave them a gift.

With all of the disciples gathered around him, Jesus breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  

And bam! Those who were once Fearful Followers of a Failed Prophet are now Mighty Members of a Movement. Each and every one of the disciples received the Holy Spirit and became powerful beyond their wildest imaginations. The presence of the Holy Spirit, a gift from God, empowered the disciples to continue Jesus’ mission.

And what was that superpower? What was it that the Spirit empowered them to do?

It was the power…(Drumroll…) to forgive sins!

Wow. Picture that room again. Can you hear the dead silence? Can you see the perplexed faces of the disciples?

I don’t know about you, but I might have liked to receive a different superpower in that moment. I mean, there are so many choices, Jesus!

I don’t need to fly or climb walls or turn things into perpetual winter.

But I might like the power to cure cancer!

Or I might be interested in the power to take away a family member’s addiction;

The power to predict the future;

The power to grow money trees;

The power to make someone love me;

Or the power to make everything the way it used to be!

Really, any of those would be just fine, Jesus.

But Jesus said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

The disciples, once aimless, powerless, and afraid, had received both a purpose and power through the gift of the Holy Spirit. They were empowered to go…and forgive.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, on this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate how we, too, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, have received purpose and power beyond our imagination. On the day of our baptism we were brought to the waters of salvation, just like Alyssa, Eli, Peyton, Mason and Kaylee, who are baptized today. And there, at the waters, we were marked with the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

We've been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and that means that we, who often feel powerless and afraid, have nothing to fear. Just as the tongues of fire fell upon each and every head on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 1, each of you has received power through the Holy Spirit! You did nothing to earn it. You didn’t even have to prove you could use it. The Spirit of God is a gift, bestowed upon you at baptism, empowering you to continue God’s mission in the world. 

And we begin that mission, says Jesus, by practicing forgiveness.

Now, the power to forgive might seem a small thing in the face of the world’s great problems.

Forgiveness might seem an insignificant weapon in the war on poverty, for example, or in the struggle against oppression and injustice.

But then, consider: How many people are walking around needing peace and forgiveness?

How many are burdened with guilt over past wrongs?

How many walls have been erected out of fear, resentment, and misunderstanding?

How many poisons infect the lives of those who harbor anger?

How much war has been committed because world leaders could not (or would not) forgive centuries’ old grievances?

How much pain, how much sorrow, how much evil in the world do you suppose is a direct result of the human need to forgive, and to be forgiven?

Jesus said “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” Jesus was sent to walk among us because God, the creator, loves the world more than we can imagine. God loves us so much that through the cross, the sin of the world is already forgiven. All of it! Every one! Yours, and mine. The mistakes we’ve already made and the ones we haven’t thought of yet. Finally, and forever. Once and for all.

So if the cross already took care of it, and all is forgiven, why do we need to practice forgiveness? 

Because even if we’ve heard the good news, we don’t always remember it—or believe it applies to us. Even if we believe we are forgiven, we may not extend the same gift to others.

And it’s all that guilt, fear, anxiety, judgment, and secrets that become the cosmic poison that creates war, conflict, resentment, distrust, and evil.

But you are not powerless, sisters and brothers. You, who are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism, have superpowers! You, who have been forgiven, are sent by Jesus to continue the powerful divine work of forgiveness.

 Through the Holy Spirit, you have the power to release hearts from prisons of guilt and shame.

Through the Holy Spirit, you have the power to put to rest age-old family conflicts.

Through the Holy Spirit, you have the power to tear down walls.

Through the Holy Spirit, you have the power to make peace. 

Sisters and brothers, united by the Holy Spirit, you are Mighty Members of a Movement. And this powerful movement starts with forgiveness.

 Repeat after me, saying: “In Christ, I am forgiven.”   

And the next step goes something like this: Turn to your neighbor and let them know: “Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I forgive you.” 

The peace of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit be with you all! 

January 29, 2012: Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

January 29, 2012: 4^th Sunday after Epiphany

Mark 1:21-28

Preacher:

Pastor Carrie B. Smith

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Oscar nominees for Best Picture were announced last week, and it came as no surprise to anyone that The Devil Inside wasn’t included on the list. In fact, the only award this little horror flick has earned is having achieved the second largest drop in popularity in the week after its debut. It dropped 76.2% in one week, second only to the demise of Jonas Brothers: the 3-D Concert Experience. The Hollywood Reporter said “The Devil Inside proves as scary and unsettling as a slab of devil's food cake - only considerably less satisfying”; and Slate magazine declared it to include “the worst movie ending of all time.”

The Devil Inside is just the latest of many movies dealing with a favorite cinematic topic: demon possession. Ask anyone on the street what possession and exorcism look like, and they’re likely to cite the 1973 film The Exorcist. This is where we get the idea that demons speak in tongues, holy water burns the skin, and heads can spin completely around. At least The Exorcist was a well-made movie—the stream of exorcism movies that followed can best be described as appealing only to our fears and our appetite for exploring the power of evil in the world.

These movie images have become such a part of our culture that we hardly know what to do when we encounter Bible texts like Mark 1:21-28. When we hear the words “Just then, a man with an unclean spirit was in the synagogue, and he called out in a loud voice, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?’”; when we hear Jesus rebuke that spirit saying, “Be silent! And come out of him!”; when we learn that the unclean spirit makes the man convulse on the ground as it vacates his body—suddenly the Gospels are transported to the realm of cinema. The man with the unclean spirit becomes Linda Blair, and Jesus becomes the exorcist with his bag of holy water, crosses, and special prayer books.

As interesting as this mental movie experience might be, the problem is now this biblical account is so easy to dismiss. Because our minds are filled with Hollywood demons and pseudo-religious exorcisms, this powerful story of Jesus asserting his authority over an unclean spirit becomes just another unbelievable script, good only as a plot for a B-movie, and perhaps a spot on the Rotten Tomatoes list of Worst Movies Ever.

Demons, possessions, and unclean spirits seem very far from our everyday lives. And yet—chances are everyone in this room knows someone possessed by an addiction to alcohol, drugs, or gambling. Chances are you know someone whose inability to forgive has completely taken them over to the dark side. Perhaps you even have personal experience with being possessed by an unclean spirit of negativity, or judgment, or despair. These are not Hollywood scripts. These are everyday, true stories of powers and principalities claiming to have authority over us. Whether it’s alcohol or food, depression or grief, mental illness or fear—any spirit that takes hold of our lives and claims to have more authority than God is a demon. Demons make us say and do things that aren’t true to who God created us to be. And demons deserve to be cast out.

Now in the movie version of a typical exorcism, the priest comes carrying his bag of tricks and special prayers, desperate to rid the poor possessed soul of the unclean spirit. Often, in the end, there’s some kind of proposition that must occur:

If the exorcist believes in evil, then he can believe in God, and can cast out the spirit.

If the possessed person says the right prayers, then the spirit will leave.

If the other people in the room confess their sins, then the spirit loses its power.

But in Mark chapter 1, Jesus enters the scene, and he requires no such bag of tricks or propositional theology. There’s no mention of the other people in the synagogue saying prayers for him or participating at all. And the man with the unclean spirit? He didn’t have to do anything but stand there and be unclean! There was no show of special courage, no confession of sins, no sign that he was a particularly faithful person. There he was, in the synagogue, face to face with Jesus, and he just let it all hang out—crying out in a loud voice, mocking Jesus, and even stating “I know who you are!”

But Jesus, speaking with authority, said simply: “Be silent.” The Message Version of the Gospels puts it this way: Jesus shut him up: "Quiet! Get out of him!"

And that unclean spirit, pitching a fit and causing a scene, left the man’s body. The spirit left his body because Jesus spoke with the authority given to him through God the Father. The spirit was exorcised, cast out, and sent back to the devil because, as Bishop Desmond Tutu once proclaimed: “Goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, light is stronger than darkness, and life is stronger than death.” Jesus of Nazareth, son of God, crucified and risen, speaks with authority over every power and principality, and even over sin and death! Amen!

Though our lives may not resemble a Hollywood horror flick, we love these movies because the so-called demonic powers and unclean spirits that appear in them are recognizable to us. We are hungry for a cure for the spirits that plague us. We need healing as badly as the unclean man in the synagogue. All we need is for Jesus to enter the scene.

And the Good News is—he always does! It’s just that Jesus rarely looks like a movie exorcist. In fact, he may not be recognizable to us at all. Sometimes, in the midst of our possession or in the throes of our despair, Jesus enters the scene unexpectedly through a doctor, or a friend, or even a stranger on the street.

In the case of my friend Sean, Jesus entered the scene in the voice of his ex-wife.

Sean was a high school classmate of mine. He found his calling early on as a disc jockey for a local radio station. He is funny and smart, well-known in the area for his good humor and big personality. What most people didn’t know was that Sean had struggled his whole life with food addiction and morbid obesity. From the safety of the radio station studio, where no one could see his downward spiral, he gained more and more weight. In 2008, he weighed 505 pounds.

And it was then that his wife came to him and said, “I’m done watching you kill yourself. I love you, I do, but I can’t stand by and witness your slow suicide any longer. I want a divorce."

Now this may not sound like the voice of Jesus, but it was. This was the voice of the Holy One of God—the God who created Sean and loved him—speaking truth and demanding that the unclean spirit be cast out. Sean tells me that this moment (along with a “come to Jesus” talk with his employer”) is what set him on the path to where he is today.

Today, Sean has lost over 270 pounds. He did it without surgery or fad diets. He did it slowly, blogging about it every day, chronicling with painful honesty the process of becoming a new, healthy, man. He learned a new way of eating. He exercised. He faced long-held beliefs and fears. These are things which seemed impossible before—but once that unclean spirit was named, rebuked, and cast out, he was free to start on a new path, a path he calls “The Transformation Road”. In fact, Sean just celebrated the publication of a book with the same name: “Transformation Road: My Journey to 500 Pounds and Back.”

Jesus entered the scene and made Sean’s transformation possible. But let me be clear: the unclean spirit that was cast out of Sean was not morbid obesity. He wasn’t possessed by fat, and Jesus didn’t take the pounds off for him! Sean did that, through hard work and perseverance—but only after he was cleansed of the lying spirit which had whispered to him for years: “You’re not worth it.” “You can’t do it.” “You are nothing.” “You are not lovable.”

This is an unclean spirit many of us can recognize. It’s a demon that enters our lives in various ways—through an abusive household, a violent relationship, a racist community, or unjust systems of oppression. It’s a spirit that holds us back, keeps us down, gives us excuses and stops us from experiencing joy. This is a demon, and demons deserve to be cast out.

But thanks be to God for Jesus of Nazareth, son of God, who always shows up! Thanks be to God for the ways in which Jesus’ life, death and resurrection speak truth to power and cast out demons from our lives. Thanks be to God for Jesus, the holy one of God, in whom we find healing, wholeness, and a perfect love which casts out fear. In spite of our demons—and perhaps because of them—Jesus always enters the scene and helps to re-write the scripts of our lives. God is good! Amen.