“Astonished by Grace” January 29, 2012

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 & Mark 1:21-28 Stephens City UMC

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

I. If the Gospel of Mark took the form of photographs Jesus would be in every picture and you and I would only appear in one of the pictures as long as that had something to do with Jesus.

A. Mark is totally focused on Jesus and we’re truly secondary.

1. The Bible is generally that way but Mark really is that way.

2. Matthew takes some time to relay accounts of Jesus sitting down and explaining things to his followers.

3. And Luke recalls Jesus sharing some profound parables.

B. But Mark, Mark focuses on Jesus himself and moves the story right along.

1. For instance, Mark informs us that Jesus was a teacher, but he doesn’t write much about what Jesus taught.

2. Mark also informs us that Jesus was a preacher, but he reports the briefest of summaries of our Lord’s sermons.

C. That’s bothersome to me because you see – I’m a preacher and I think I could benefit from knowing more about how Jesus preached.

1. I mean, if I studied how Jesus went about it maybe I’d engage you better through the sermon and get more of a response.

2. So I read this passage for this morning with great hopes of learning something and I start to get excited when Mark writes for the first time in his Gospel about Jesus teaching and then Mark doesn’t include any of the content of Jesus’ teaching.

3. I’m frustrated because I had anticipated that Mark would illuminate what Jesus is doing and what he believes and where he is heading, and there’s not a word about any of that.

4. Instead, Mark writes about the congregation’s reaction to Jesus’ preaching and that reaction was “astonishment.”

5. Now Mark is clear that the congregation was astonished not by the content of Jesus’ message but by what they thought of Jesus.

D. What that congregation thought of Jesus as a preacher makes me think of the often told story about the preacher who was shaking hands with people at the door following the worship service and a little boy came up and handed the preacher two quarters.

1. The preacher thanked him and asked him what the two quarters were for?

2. As his family stood behind him the little boy looked up and said, “I wanted you to have that because my Daddy says that you’re about the poorest preacher he’s ever known.”

E. That wasn’t the type of astonishment that the congregation had long ago after hearing Jesus teach, rather they were astonished by the way he taught because he taught with authority.

1. Now let’s be clear in understanding this authority.

2. On occasion you will hear someone speak and you’ll think to yourself “That is a very wise person. That person knows what he or she is talking about. They are an authority on that matter.”

3. That’s why we professional preachers place our diplomas on a wall in our offices so that you’ll recognize that we are well educated and that with that training along with our ordination that we are persons of authority.

F. But Jesus goes so far beyond that in this passage from Mark because he spoke with divine authority to the unclean spirit or spirits that were present who were trying to portray themselves as all-powerful, as sort of mini-gods.

1. Note that the congregation on that day long ago was trying to determine just who this Jesus was, but the unclean spirits knew.

2. First, they try to avoid any connection with Jesus by saying “What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”

3. In other words, they don’t want to get into a relationship with Jesus because if they did they would be changed and who wants to change?

4. Second, they address Jesus as “Jesus of Nazareth.”

5. Now you and I know that to be correct terminology but hopefully you are also aware that much more can be said of Jesus such as he is “the Holy One of God.”

G. Oh my, Jesus is not just a teacher, but he is a unique teacher for he is “the Holy One of God” which makes him God among us.

1. That is astonishing!

H. The congregation was astonished long ago and there are many other accounts of people who have been astonished over the centuries.

1. In 1738 John Wesley, who was a priest in the Church of England, went very unwillingly to a Bible Study on Aldersgate Street and when someone read a section of Martin Luther’s preface on Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Wesley felt an authoritative movement of the Holy Spirit that “Christ had died for my sins, even mine.”

2. That astonishing moment led to the initiation of the Wesley Revival that historians say saved England from a bloody revolution such as France would later experience and what had astonished Wesley and astonished others was that grace was meant for them and that that grace made it possible for them and for their society to change.

3. Grace isn’t just a concept to consider and discuss.

4. Grace is Jesus Christ who has authority over unclean spirits and disoriented lives to set things right.

5. It’s kind of a mystical thing.

6. Impossible to fully explain and yet so real.

I. Sometimes we preachers who are the ones to preach this stuff start to despair.

1. There can be long draughts of witnessing grace at operation in people’s lives.

2. Will Willimon tells of one such time early in his ministry.

3. He was working on his sermon and the text was the Good Samaritan.

4. One of the points of Jesus’ parable is to be like the Good Samaritan and “Go and do likewise to those in need.”

5. While Willimon was typing on his typewriter (This is an old story) he overheard a group of men in the hallway outside of his office and they were talking about some people in a very negative way.

6. “Poor people are leaches. Let ‘em dig ditches and if they won’t take that job let them starve.”

7. And Willimon could hear the whole group agree.

8. “We’ve been generous to ‘em, now let them look after themselves.”

9. And again there was widespread agreement.

10. Will began to think to himself, “Well, that does it. Here I am getting ready to preach on Christian service and there they sit bashing the poor.”

11. Will began to contemplate telling them off and asking the Bishop to assign him to a different church.

12. He got up from his desk and headed to the door when Harry walked in who had been part of the group whose conversation Will had been overhearing.

13. “You still working on your sermon?” he asked with a smirk.

14. “Thought we gave you enough time during the week for that.”

15. Will felt his blood starting to boil when Harry changed everything.

16. First he reached into his wallet and second he handed Will a check and third he said, “Here’s $5,000. It’s the church’s to buy breeder pigs for people in Haiti. I want to see if you can raise five thousand more by Easter. Do you know what the swine flu has done to those poor people? Without their pigs, they die.”

17. Will stood there rather stupefied because the last two conversations he had heard in the church didn’t exactly go together.

18. “How do you know so much about Haiti?” he finally managed to ask.

19. “Me and Edna have gone down to Haiti most years when I get my two weeks vacation from the plant,” Harry responded. “Great people down there, in great need. I have helped them on a variety of projects. I wish our church could do more. I promise you that I’m going to do all I can.”

20. At that point I think Will’s mouth was hanging open and he realized that Harry had been astonished by that astonishing Jesus.

21. As Will looked once more at the check he pondered the strangeness of the moment for he was himself astonished.

J. So as I worry about learning from Jesus about how to preach I guess what I’ve learned once more today is that if you leave here having encountered Jesus and you’ve been astonished by his grace then the Holy Spirit has been at work and yet again the Gospel has been proclaimed.