First Presbyterian Church
Facing Demons
Sermon for January 29, 2006
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Our unison reading is found on page 562. This is a psalm that celebrates God's presence in the Hebrews' lives, and the covenant of blessing the people made with God. Listen for the word of God as we read it together in Psalm 111.

Psalm 111:1 Praise the LORD ! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

2 Great are the works of the LORD , studied by all who delight in them.

3 Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.

4 He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the LORD is gracious and merciful.

5 He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant.

6 He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.

8 They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

9 He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.

This ends our reading from the Psalm. Our gospel reading is on page 35 of your pew bibles. You may follow along, although we'll be reading from my translation.

Remember in Hebrew tradition, repeated words or ideas are those that are especially important. Although the new testament is written in Greek, it is full of Hebrew ideas, culture, and traditions. As you hear the gospel reading, pay attention to the repeated words. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Mark 1:21-28.

21 They entered into Capernaum; and then it was the Sabbath; he went into the synagogue and taught. 22 They were struck out of their minds about his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out 24 saying "What's with you and us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be muzzled, and come out of him!"

26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud cry, came out of him.

27 Everyone was astonished so they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching -- with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him."

28 Report of him immediately began to spread everywhere throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

This ends our reading of God's word.

Did you hear the words ‘teaching' and ‘taught' used four times? This is what's going on in the story. Jesus is teaching. He taught not as the scribes did, and immediately, an unclean spirit appeared. What was something unclean doing in the synagogue? It is a place that should be ritually clean. The unclean spirit appeared because of Jesus' teaching; it knew the teaching was a threat. Jesus drove out the unclean spirit from the synagogue.

The spirit was loud; we had forms of the word ‘cry' three times. Jesus told the spirit to be muzzled. When you muzzle something, you tie its mouth shout so it can't speak, eat, or bite. Jesus took away the unclean spirit's ability to feed itself and to harm people.

Jesus came to shake things up. He came in the tradition of Jewish prophets and kings who want to purify worship, to feed the widows and orphans and welcome the stranger. Let's listen to the anthem.

Anthem: Sing a New Song

What does Jesus teach in the gospel of Mark? He forgives sins, eats with sinners, and feeds people. He is a Jew who brings good news to people. But his good news angers the religious and political leaders. In our scripture, he teaches differently than the scribes do. The scribes were the ones who said what the law meant. They didn't want any rival interpreters. People in power generally don't like it when someone usurps their authority. They lose their monopoly, which means they lose power and money.

This is what I believe our story in Mark is about. I forgot all that when I had to title my sermon for the press release and the bulletin. I didn't look at the text carefully enough, so I titled my sermon “Facing Demons.” But demons are not at all what the text is about, and I regret the title.

Here's another thing the text isn't about. It is not about how bad Jews are. Jesus didn't correct Jewish error. Jesus criticized Jewish leaders, but he did so as a Jew, in the best old testament tradition. We have plenty of Jewish stories still, about rabbis criticizing the status quo, besting each other with their wisdom, reminding one another of scripture. Just because Jesus criticized the Jewish leaders does not mean Jews were bad. Jesus was a Jew. There are still some Christians today who are uncomfortable acknowledging Jesus' heritage, and so they deny it. Our forty-year old statement of faith affirms it.

In Mark's gospel, this was Jesus' first appearance in a synagogue. What happens here revealed his intentions. He didn't cast out the man who had the unclean spirit, he got rid of the uncleanness itself.

These days, it seems that we have to choose between being pro-Israel or anti-Semitic, or between being anti-Arab or pro-terrorist. It suits people's political hopes to demonize their opponents, and expect others to do the same. Moderation is hard to come by, at least publicly.

Christian voices of welcome and love are being drowned out or accused of not being patriotic. The Christian Arab voices are not heard at all. We haven't heard much lately about how Muslims and Jews have lived peacably together for centuries in many places in the world.

For these reasons, we have to be careful about the way we Christians speak of Jesus and his criticisms of the religious leaders.

Perhaps you've heard of the international Jewish conspiracy where the Jews are trying to take over the world. Or maybe not. I have.

In 1864, a French writer wrote a political satire about emperor Napoleon III, attacking his ambitions by writing a dialogue in hell 1, where the bad guys were Masons. He was imprisoned for it. In 1868, a German forger named Herman Goedsche, plagiarized part of that work for his novels. He changed the bad guys in the French satire to the Jews, and his books were about a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world by controlling the banks, the press, and popular opinion. In 1895, Russian secret police consolidated and translated the German novels into a shorter publication in Russian, calling it “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” It reads as a plan by Jews and Masons to conspire together to enslave all non-Jews and take over the world.

I read about a third of the 109 pages of the protocols. It is old-fashioned, grandiose, and confusing. I can't imagine how any thinking person could take it seriously, but people have.

Politicians have found the protocols useful. “In 1933, excerpts were read at the Romanian parliament by Fascists as a reason to expel Jews from the country. Hitler cited them in Mein Kampf and again when castigating the Jews as warmongers in 1939. Franco cited the Protocols in his denunciations of the Jews.… Communists in the Soviet Union used the Protocols to stir up anti-Jewish sentiment…” 2 Henry Ford published the protocols in his newspaper, then found out they were a hoax, and apologized publicly in 1927.

You can find the protocols on current Christian websites and in books. It doesn't matter who proves the protocols to be a hoax, the lie lives on. It wasn't written by Jews, there is no international Jewish conspiracy. But when we are looking for scapegoats, the protocols provide a ready villain: the Jews. Apparently the Masons are harder to scapegoat.

And it isn't just Christians who are taken in. Just three years ago, Egypt showed a television miniseries based on “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” as if it were true

This hoax is over 100 years old and people are still ready to believe it. Anti-Semitism is still a problem, so much so that some Christians are reluctant to admit Jesus was Jewish. This is on of the problems addressed by the Presbyterian creed called “The Confession of 1967.”

Ethnic hatred and anti-Semitism has been around for a long time and we can't get rid of it quickly. Even people committed to multi-faith dialogue have a hard time. Jane Smith is professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim relations at the United Methodist's Hartford Seminary. She was part of a Jewish-Christian-Muslim women's group. They met for several years and began to share with each other on a number of levels. She wrote, “Finally, we decided to participate in each other's religious rituals. We had a Hanukkah luncheon at one member's home, and even exchanged small gifts. In preparation for an Iftar dinner during Ramadan, all the members of the group fasted for the day. My task was to find a Christian observance in which we could all participate. Unwisely, I chose the Maundy Thursday service at my own church. We sat, four Christians, four Jews, and four Muslims at a special reserved table. As the service came to its conclusion—the candles were extinguished, the readings became more somber, and the clanging sound representing the nails being driven into Jesus echoed outside the worship hall—I realized I had made a great mistake.

The Jews… believed they were being held to account for the death of Jesus, and the Muslims felt they were intruders in a ritual that was deeply Christian and affirming of basic theological claims denied in the Qu'ran. Because the church requested absolute silence after the service, our group never had a chance to un-pack the experience until much later.” 3

Multi-faith dialogue is a huge challenge because of our history of misunderstandings, hoaxes, wars, and oppression among the three groups. Nothing is neutral. Historical baggage interferes with current truth, even when no religion is involved.

I remember in 1999, in the Washington DC mayor's office, white staff member David Howard used the word ‘niggardly.' He was at a budget meeting and wanted the staff to spend more money, without being grudgingly mean or miserly. That's the definition of the 700 hundred-year-old word ‘niggardly.' But because that word sounds like a modern racial epithet, people couldn't hear what Howard truly said. Black staff members had been insulted by whites in other places, but expected to be respected by their white co-workers in the mayor's office. I understood their anger, but I didn't understand when Howard was asked to resign. Eventually he was rehired, but it took awhile for the vocabulary misunderstanding to get cleared up.

Religious language is like that. Because of our bloody Christian history, people interpret perfectly good Christian language in unchristian ways. So we have to be careful, and know what it is we say. We have to hold onto the truth we know and be willing to explain it when people ask us. There are plenty of people in the world surprised and delighted to learn there are Christians out there who can be respectful and even welcoming of those from other faiths.

Sometimes, we're not sure of what Presbyterians are supposed to believe, but we know what we don't believe. We don't profess our faith in prejudice, hatred, or hoaxes. We profess our faith in Christ, who makes the unclean clean. I would love for Christ to cast out all the uncleanness in me. And so every Sunday I make my prayer of confession with the rest of the congregation.

When we join the church as members, we promise to be guided by our church's creeds or confessions. I put a statement of faith in our worship bulletins on the fourth and fifth Sundays of the month. I hope you can appreciate the guidance they offer. We can dare to hold on to the truth we know in Jesus Christ, even when that truth is not useful socially or politically or militarily.

The last line of today's statement of faith speaks of carrying the gospel. That means we are to behave like the Christians we are even when we are with non-Christians. Part of carrying the gospel means recognizing what is unclean inside us and among us. We need Jesus to point out hatred and prejudice so we can muzzle it so it will do no harm and eventually die out. Please join me in our statement of faith.

1Joly, Maurice, Dialogue between Machiavelli and Montesquieu in Hell , 1864.

2www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mzionprotocol.html

3 Smith, Jane I. “When Dialogue Goes Wrong,” Zion's Herald Jan/Feb 2006, p. 35.