Mark 1:29-39 "At Hand" Scott Hoezee

In a cartoon I once saw there were two somewhat rough-looking characters emerging from a church after a worship service. As they walk down the church steps, the one man is saying to the other, "Well, the news wasn't all bad--at least I ain't made no graven images lately!" Among other things, this little cartoon may remind us that here in church, we can be rather casual in tossing around language that you mostly don't encounter the rest of the week. We even read whole stories from the Bible that are so different from anything we have ever experienced--or even anticipate experiencing--that there may be a quiet and subtle disconnect between what we say here in church and the rest of our lives.

If the gospel is true, however, then any apparent gap between what we talk about here in church and what goes on the rest of the week must be only apparent and so not a real gap. That is to say, if there is simply no such thing as "graven images" in life, then talking about such an unreal thing here in church ushers us into the realm of fantasy, of a fictional world that has no true connection to the actual world. So also this morning: Jesus is going around announcing the kingdom of God and as he does so, he casts out demons left and right. Scarcely a day or an hour goes by without Jesus bumping into, and then driving out, yet another unholy, unclean, demonic spirit.

Probably you heard the passage read this morning without batting an eye. Once upon a time there was a man named Jesus. He cast out lots of demons. And we all nod our heads. Yes, we've heard about this before. Once upon a time and far, far away Jesus did this, but it doesn't have much to do with us, does it? I mean, not really. Most of us have run across some odd characters in our lives. We've sat on airplanes in the company of grungy-looking folks, we've sat across from young people with purple spiked hair whose noses, tongues, eyebrows, ears, and chins have been pierced with dozens of silver studs. We've worked with some very disagreeable people and have even had conversations with cynics who clearly believe that Christianity is a pack of lies calculated to deceive the naive and dim-witted of the world. Perhaps at one time or another we have even encountered someone who seemed very nearly evil, someone who was so conniving and manipulative as to be scary.

But in all likelihood few if any of us have ever looked at another person only to conclude, "Well, he's demon-possessed all right. No doubt about it." Some people may be weird or untrustworthy or hostile, but that's a far cry from thinking they are full of an unclean spirit. So what do we make of Mark 1's presentation of Jesus the exorcist? Is this demon business a little like graven images--something that used to exist but is now just a throwback to a bygone era? Is this just old fashioned? If you go through an antique store with your grandpa, you'll run across lots of outdated stuff. Maybe you'll ask Grandpa, "What's this thing?" and he'll reply, "Well, long time ago we used this to make toast." Is that what Mark 1 is like--a kind of theological antique, a relic from an age long gone?

I hope that is not so. Because if it is, then a big gap has opened up between our faith and our lives. So maybe what we need to do is take the Bible's language seriously in the belief that on some level, this does describe a vital aspect of reality in also this day and age.

Maybe one way to help you see what I mean is to return for a moment to that notion of graven images--a concept that is actually related to the role of demons in our midst. If God's command against idolatry and graven images referred only to taking a hunk of wood, carving it, and then calling it your god, well then clearly the area of application for this commandment would be rather limited these days. But suppose you were more discerning. Suppose that rather than throwing this concept out by consigning it to the ancient past you believed this was still a valid concern and so you wanted to look for idolatry even today. What might result from this?

Just before Christmas last year the New York Times ran a series of articles on the Ten Commandments, looking for contemporary examples of this ancient law code. Mostly it was a rather odd series of articles that took very peculiar slants on the meaning of the Decalogue. But there were flashes of insight, too, especially in the article that dealt with the injunction against images and idolatry. To make the point, the article profiled a 35 year-old woman named Beth Senturia. Ms. Senturia believes she has seen the reality of idolatry in her own life in her obsession with the musical group Phish. She spent a few years following Phish from concert to concert. She couldn't hold down a job or think about anything other than the band and its lead singer Trey Anastasio. In the end she attended 207 Phish concerts, joining thousands of other fans who sported t-shirts that said things like "Trey Is God!" and who treated each concert like a worship service. Ms. Senturia thankfully snapped out of her slavish devotion to this band and the nomadic, rootless existence it brought about for her. But if you talk to her now about graven images, she'll know exactly what you mean.

There are realities and spiritual forces at work in this world that are undeniably anti-God and anti-Christ. And that is so because there really is such a thing as the kingdom of God. What's more, because that kingdom is real, it inevitably conflicts with and is at war with any and all people and powers and regimes that embody or proclaim any message other than the cosmic truth that Jesus is Lord.

Usually we are far too casual about this idea of God's kingdom. "Your kingdom come, your will be done" we solemnly say each time we intone the Lord's Prayer, but when we finish our prayer and open our eyes, we do not see any such kingdom. It is difficult for us to conceive of a kingdom that is not also a definable place on the map--a realm with borders and with visible signs that this particular place is different from all other places.

Most of us know what such markers might be like. Cross the border into Canada and immediately lots of things look different: highway signs, street signs, traffic lights. Everything is in kilometers, some traffic lights have something called a "Delayed Green." The lines painted on the roads may be a different color. In England the entire flow of traffic is reversed, which is why some of us very nearly got hit when crossing some London street because we instinctively looked the wrong way to see if any cars were coming.

A kingdom or country or nation or realm would rather be like that, we think. Kingdoms are defined by their different customs, signage, currency, and habits. So it is perhaps no surprise that when even Christians pray for the coming of God's kingdom, they quietly assume that this is something that will happen only, or at least mostly, in the future. When God's kingdom comes, we'll all know it because living inside the borders of that kingdom will be just as obvious as being in a different country even today. But although we do believe in the reality of the New Creation that is yet to come, it is nevertheless wrong to relegate God's kingdom to any other place, dimension, or time than this place, this time.

As Dallas Willard has written, the kingdom is real and it is real now. Because a kingdom is that realm where the effective will of the king determines what happens. In a sense, we all have our own little kingdoms in life--those places where what we want happens. If we say it, it goes. Maybe this is in our households, maybe it happens at work in the department of which you are the manager. But wherever a person can say, "Well, that's the way I want it and so that's the way it is going to be," then that is in a real sense a kingdom, a place where your influence rules and makes stuff happen.

That's why the kingdom of God is real and that's why we can see it, right now today. The kingdom is present wherever people pray the way Jesus taught us to pray. The kingdom is present wherever Jesus nurtures certain behaviors and lifestyles that we call the fruit of the Spirit. The kingdom is present wherever people pour water over the heads of babies or take bread and wine to their lips all simply because Jesus told us that this is the way we are to act in remembrance of him.

The kingdom is present wherever a believer somewhere refuses to go along with some scheme because she believes it is untruthful and that going along with it would make her less transparent to Jesus. Whenever and wherever a woman says no to abortion, whenever and wherever a college student refuses to participate in some binge-drinking party, whenever and wherever someone refuses to cut corners on his taxes, whenever and wherever a kindly old woman brings light into a neighbor's darkness by speaking a word of peace, whenever and wherever a man sits down to tutor a homeless child, and whenever and wherever all such things are done because all these people believe there is a cosmic Lord named Jesus, then there--right there and right here and right now--the kingdom of God is present because the effective will of Jesus is calling the shots.

When the Son of God came to this earth, he announced the arrival of the kingdom. That kingdom is so real, and is such a viable alternative to all things evil and dark and wrong, that of course it only makes sense that the demons knew who Jesus was and fled before him. What's more, if this same Jesus, who himself embodies the fullness of every kingdom virtue, could walk the streets of Grand Rapids, New York, or Chicago this very day, don't doubt for a second that he would even now cause any number of unclean spirits to come out of the woodwork. Perhaps they would not present themselves in the seemingly epileptic, quasi-psychotic forms we read about in the gospels. The devil is, if nothing else, a great improviser. Like the Big Bad Wolf who knew enough to dress up as Grandma before Little Red Riding Hood showed up, so the devil and his hosts are smart enough to know that red tights, horns, and pitchforks are no more necessary for them to do their anti-God work than are spectacles like naked men who sit on top of graves and howl at the moon.

In the frightening film Devil's Advocate actor Al Pacino is a very convincing demon in a designer suit. He's also a lawyer, which may not strike some of you as much of a stretch, but lawyer jokes aside, the point of the film is that the law is as susceptible to demonic influence as anything. The devil will always survey the landscape to see where the cracks are, and they won't always be the same from one society or place to the next. Our friends the Dykgraafs come back from Nigeria and tell us stories about evil spirits that work through African native religions in ways that are undeniable. We hear that and some of us come away wondering why demons are so active way over there but not here.

But let us not fool ourselves. Someone once suggested that the reason there were so many demons around Jesus all the time may be similar to the reason why when you go to the E.R. at Butterworth you find so many injured people. It would be rather foolish to see injured people at the E.R. but to then turn right around and say, "Earlier today I was at Woodland Mall but I didn't see any injured folks lying around there! How come so many cluster at Butterworth?" The answer is so obvious as to make the question absurd. So also here: as the very incarnation of God's kingdom, Jesus attracted and drew out and unmasked the forces that opposed him.

Again, the same would happen today were Jesus to walk through this land bearing all the fullness of the kingdom. But the gospel, the good news, in Mark 1 is not simply that Jesus drew out the forces of opposition, but that he sent them into retreat! The kingdom of God makes a difference, and no one of us should pray "Your kingdom come" unless we are willing to let the reign and rule and effective will of God call the shots in our lives. And who is to say that when we live in kingdom ways among our neighbors and coworkers that we are not also sending the powers of darkness into retreat?

As Jesus makes clear in verse 38, his main task was first and foremost to preach and proclaim the message that has now become the gospel. That's why even now we need to be willing to proclaim the truth of God's kingdom. Earlier I made a list of things that indicate the kingdom's presence and that list included, of course, the exercise of moral virtues. But let's not be confused: we don't bring the kingdom by our moral deeds. The kingdom is already here! We lead distinctive lives and perform acts of morality but we do that as a result of our already being in the kingdom, not as a way to earn our way in. And if we want others to come into this kingdom, we cannot force them but we invite them simply by letting them know (as Jesus did) that it is real. It is in fact so real that we ourselves are every day affected by the kingdom. It shapes us because we are being ruled by the desires of God.

The message we have to proclaim and to embody and to exemplify is the same now as it has always been: the kingdom of God is at hand. Today as much as ever, people need to know that this kingdom is real and available. They need to see the joy and the possibilities of that kingdom in us. Because often people are too easily satisfied just to make do with what is quick and easy and cheap. People settle for sex or liquor or a rock band or the distractions provided by entertainment. They look to these things to save them, or at least to help them move forward in a grim world. But, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, we are far too easily satisfied. We're like a child who turns down an invitation for a day at the beach and chooses instead to stay sitting in a slum alley making mud pies just because the child really can't imagine how much better a day at the shore can be. "What could be better than making these slimy mud pies?" the child might think. Ah, if only he knew!

Or as Dallas Willard writes, when he was a boy, rural electrification was just happening and power lines were being strung throughout the countryside. But suppose even after the lines were up and running you ran across a house where the weary family still used only candles and kerosene lanterns for light, used scrubboards, ice chests, and rug beaters. A better life was waiting for them right outside their door if only they would let themselves be hooked into the power lines. "My friends," you could proclaim, "electricity is at hand!" But suppose they just didn't trust it, thought it was too much of a hassle, and anyway didn't believe the promises that things might be easier with this newfangled juice running into their house. "If it's all the same to you, we'll stick with the old ways."

Maybe the kingdom is like that: it's here, it's real, it's right outside your door. The kingdom of God is at hand! Don't be so easily satisfied with the temporary pleasures of sex and money, power and food, cable TV and the wonders of technology. A better, exciting, hopeful, joyful kingdom of life is real. We need to be in the business of driving away the demons of doubt, despair, cynicism, arrogance, and anything else that hinders people from believing our message and so entering Jesus' kingdom. The kind of unclean spirits Jesus so routinely encountered have not gone off duty, my friends. Just look around. It is because they remain so real and powerful that we must proclaim and also live under the rule of God right now. The kingdom of God is at hand. We live knowing that this is true! We live to help others believe it, too. Amen.