Who's in charge here?
Mark 1:21-28
The line that troubles me most in this text is Mark's aside--He (Jesus) taught as one with authority, not as the scribes.
As a scribe--ouch!
The scribes were part of the Temple hierarchy whose aim was to protect and ensure the orthodoxy of the faith practiced in the Temple. The scribes were biblical scholars who knew the Hebrew Bible in every way that it could be known. Tradition holds that they memorized the entire canon, along with several centuries' worth of rabbinic interpretation of the scriptures. I bet they won every game of Bible trivia they played!
In other words, if there was anyone who could claim to be an authority on what the scriptures said about God, God's covenant, God's expectations of us human beings, and how to deal with life before God, it would be a scribe.
But Mark dismisses them with a quick word. They are pretenders. They are know-nothings. They don't know their elbow from their kneecap.
Here is a cautionary tale for all of us who are preachers--we don't know much about much of anything. Start there, then preach.
Why?
Because in the presence of God, we really do not know very much. We know only what God chooses to be known. Karl Barth, one of the most famous voices in 20th Century theology, argued this point vehemently with his fellow theologians, many of whom were more liberal-minded about how one could come to know God and know of God. They added basic human experience as a source of divine wisdom. They added depth psychology as a means by which to find God within us. They added the philosophers to the suggested reading to find the truth of God. Mr. Barth issued strident, "Nein!" after strident "Nein!" to these efforts--no and no and no! Mr. Barth argued that all anyone can ever know of God is what God reveals in Jesus Christ and the witness to Christ found in scripture--both the anticipation of his revelation (Old Testament), the record of that revelation (the Gospels), and the response of humanity to that revelation (Acts and the Epistles). Mr. Barth warned theologians and preachers alike to stick to the text, follow the readings, and therein is all the authority one could ever hope for.
Why?
Mark lets us know that clearly, too--the scribes, for all their knowledge, could save no one, but Jesus could. Case in point--Jesus preaches in the Capernaum synagogue and there is a man bedeviled by demons. No one can help him. But the demons know power when they see it. They cringe before Christ, who flicks them out of the man like shreds of lint from his garment. To paraphrase--Jesus saves!
Ministry is a dangerous game. Ministry is a call to lose oneself in Christ, allowing Christ to shine through you. But as the affirmation comes in, as one's sense of the rightness of one's work sets in, and as people call seeking help, there is the constant temptation to fall into thinking it is about the preacher after all. This is as true for the folks in the pews as it is for the person in the pulpit.
It reminds me of an old joke from North Carolina--an old gentleman normally seen in good, old bib-alls seven days a week suddenly appeared in town in a shiny new three piece suit, tie, shiny new shoes, and a beautiful carnation stuck in his lapel. When one of his buddies asked him what was going on, he said proudly, "The doctor told me I was important!" Well, actually, in Carolina twang, he said, "Im-POH-tunt!"---ah, impotent....
Stick to the story.
It has more than enough to say.
Christ saves, we just join together to point the way.
The line that troubles me most in this text is Mark's aside--He (Jesus) taught as one with authority, not as the scribes.
As a scribe--ouch!
The scribes were part of the Temple hierarchy whose aim was to protect and ensure the orthodoxy of the faith practiced in the Temple. The scribes were biblical scholars who knew the Hebrew Bible in every way that it could be known. Tradition holds that they memorized the entire canon, along with several centuries' worth of rabbinic interpretation of the scriptures. I bet they won every game of Bible trivia they played!
In other words, if there was anyone who could claim to be an authority on what the scriptures said about God, God's covenant, God's expectations of us human beings, and how to deal with life before God, it would be a scribe.
But Mark dismisses them with a quick word. They are pretenders. They are know-nothings. They don't know their elbow from their kneecap.
Here is a cautionary tale for all of us who are preachers--we don't know much about much of anything. Start there, then preach.
Why?
Because in the presence of God, we really do not know very much. We know only what God chooses to be known. Karl Barth, one of the most famous voices in 20th Century theology, argued this point vehemently with his fellow theologians, many of whom were more liberal-minded about how one could come to know God and know of God. They added basic human experience as a source of divine wisdom. They added depth psychology as a means by which to find God within us. They added the philosophers to the suggested reading to find the truth of God. Mr. Barth issued strident, "Nein!" after strident "Nein!" to these efforts--no and no and no! Mr. Barth argued that all anyone can ever know of God is what God reveals in Jesus Christ and the witness to Christ found in scripture--both the anticipation of his revelation (Old Testament), the record of that revelation (the Gospels), and the response of humanity to that revelation (Acts and the Epistles). Mr. Barth warned theologians and preachers alike to stick to the text, follow the readings, and therein is all the authority one could ever hope for.
Why?
Mark lets us know that clearly, too--the scribes, for all their knowledge, could save no one, but Jesus could. Case in point--Jesus preaches in the Capernaum synagogue and there is a man bedeviled by demons. No one can help him. But the demons know power when they see it. They cringe before Christ, who flicks them out of the man like shreds of lint from his garment. To paraphrase--Jesus saves!
Ministry is a dangerous game. Ministry is a call to lose oneself in Christ, allowing Christ to shine through you. But as the affirmation comes in, as one's sense of the rightness of one's work sets in, and as people call seeking help, there is the constant temptation to fall into thinking it is about the preacher after all. This is as true for the folks in the pews as it is for the person in the pulpit.
It reminds me of an old joke from North Carolina--an old gentleman normally seen in good, old bib-alls seven days a week suddenly appeared in town in a shiny new three piece suit, tie, shiny new shoes, and a beautiful carnation stuck in his lapel. When one of his buddies asked him what was going on, he said proudly, "The doctor told me I was important!" Well, actually, in Carolina twang, he said, "Im-POH-tunt!"---ah, impotent....
Stick to the story.
It has more than enough to say.
Christ saves, we just join together to point the way.
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