29 January 2012 Sermon

SERMON – EPIPHANY 4B – January 29, 2012

By The Rev. Dr. Jane A. Tomaine at Calvary Episcopal Church in Summit, NJ

Mark 1:21-28, I Cor. 8:1-13 and Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Does anyone here carry a tape measure with them, in pocket or purse? They’re handy. They come in lots of different forms. I have a few here. (Show these.) Different forms for different purposes but all help us to measure things so that we can calibrate the length, height, width, depth of whatever it is we need to measure. But, there’s a particular kind of tape measure that I trust we all carry around with us and may not even consciously realize it. Author Ed Hayes writes,

“Check your pockets. If you’re like most people, in your pocket you carry around an invisible tape measure. When we go to a business or social gathering, we instantly get out our tape measure. We use it to measure ourselves against those who are present in a variety of categories. These tape measure judgments are made instantaneously as we calibrate ourselves compared to others’ degrees of physical beauty, levels of education, wealth and social skills. Then we take our calibrations and judge ourselves as being inferior or superior.”

The Great Escape Manual: A Spirituality for Liberation, 177

The invisible tape measures must have been flying out of pockets or bags in Capernaum when Jesus arrived in town and started teaching in the synagogue! People were measuring him up, calibrating his words and his authority. And what did they find? Instead of citing precedents from earlier generations, as the scribes did, Jesus spoke and acted differently. A new teaching and with authority! All were amazed. Jesus had the authority that was referred to in the passage from Deuteronomy regarding the successor to Moses.

“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.”

Not only did Jesus speak with authority, he further revealed that authority by commanding the unclean spirit, an evil demon, to come out of the man. Unlike you or I who might take out our tape measures and conclude, “What is wrong with him? I’m glad I’m not like that!” Jesus confronted the evil, and with compassion for the man who was no longer himself, restored him to life and wholeness. Jesus taught with authority. He confronted evil with power.

While psychiatrist M. Scott Peck was writing his profound work, People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, he was looking for a definition of evil. He admits, “I can do no better than to heed my son, who, with the characteristic vision of eight-year-olds, explained simply, ‘Why Daddy, evil is live spelled backward.’”

Evil is live spelled backward. Evil—that backward entity—stands in the way of people experiencing the abundant life Jesus came to bring them. Evil brings bondage. Freedom is lost.

In his letter to the Corinthians Paul was addressing a practice that held some in bondage—whether or not a person should eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Most available meat was sold from temples. When a sacrifice was presented part of it was burned, part became a feast for worshipers who brought it; and the rest became the property of the priests at the shrine. The sale of such sacrificial meat was their primary source of income. When people chose to serve a meat meal, chances were the meat had been sacrificed.

Paul explains that for the followers of Christ Jesus, idols have no real existence – it’s carved wood and nothing more. There is but one God and one Lord, Jesus Christ. So since the idol doesn’t exist, the meat carries no sigma nor would eating it be an affirmation of the idol. But if a Christian still believes that it is truly food offered to an idol, seeing another Christian eating this meat, that action could draw them to do the same. But they would believe that they were really eating a forbidden food and so compromise their beliefs.

Even though this food issue for us is foreign, Paul presents a lasting directive.

Be mindful of what you do, for what you do has an impact on the whole community.

The real point is that in Christ we have freedom to act. How are we to use this freedom? What is to be our authority? Is the final authority to be me and my tape measure, or is it to be Jesus, who he was and what he taught that will have authority in my own life? Paul says our authority is Jesus Christ and this means that our guideline is consideration for others and their faith journey. The key is to always ask what is beneficial for other brothers and sisters in Christ. What would be the loving thing to do that would build up that sister or that brother?

In his monastic Rule Benedict gives us a guideline for this loving way of living. He says,

“…keep your tongue free from vicious talk and your lips from all deceit; turn away from evil and do good; let peace be your quest and aim.” (Prol 15-17 and Ps 34:13)

Peace is our aim; not competition, not controlling, not antagonism, not measuring.

Yet peace is so difficult to have as an aim. How and when are we not ourselves but are possessed by a force that seems to have a life of its own, that takes us over like the evil demon took over the man? How does this force, whatever its origin, impact our ability to do what is beneficial for someone else or for our relationship with that person? You and I can be possessed by an “unclean spirit” of many different names—our fears, our unexamined commitments, our drive for control, our ambitions, our pride, our need to save face, our need to be all things to all people or our resistance to be something important to anyone, and, of course, we can be possessed by our tape measure. All of these are food for the addiction to self.

When we measure ourselves against others, the demon within will either convince us that we are more articulate, smarter, more attractive, more fun, than the other person, or throw us into despair at our own woeful inadequacies. Our calibrations and judgments block any hope of real relationship and understanding. We’re too busy measuring to see the beauty of the person before us, the gift they bring to us, or to allow us both to experience the blessing that God is creating between us. Possessed and in bondage, we miss Jesus’ offer of the abundant life that will bring us energy, joy, hope, purpose and living into the person that God made us to be.

Ed Hayes says,

“Throw away your incarcerating tape measure and know the intoxicating freedom of entering any gathering and being able to simply enjoy other peoples’ companionship because you no longer need to measure up….Conduct constant tape measure searches and if you find one in your hand, throw it away. With practice and discipline you can put other things in its place, like gratitude and joy.” (177)

Surely, you and I want to live joyfully in the fullness of Jesus Christ, and as his eyes, ears, feet and hands, to continue his ministry of blessing and healing. We desire to live the journey on this earth with God. And this is a deep-seeded desire in all of us.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “… we must remember that the soul is but a hollow which God fills. Its union with God is, almost by definition, a continual self-abandonment—an opening, an unveiling, a surrender, of itself.”

“We are a hollow into which the bright metal of God is poured. And in this Gospel, we see Jesus clearing the hollow of the man’s soul, banishing the evil presence and offering the man the opportunity of nothing less than to be filled with God instead.” (Isabel Anders in Synthesis)

As you come to Holy Communion today, I invite you to take a step towards living with a peaceful heart that will pave the way finding the loving and compassionate path. When you come forward, mentally place your tape measure on the altar. Let the space it took up in your heart and mind be filled with Christ as you take the bread and the wine, his Boy and Blood.

Then be ready for the freedom of simply enjoying being with another person as companion and child of God, and be thankful for the grace Christ brings.

Before Holy Communion I placed a tape measure on the altar to remind us all to mentally place our personal tape measures on the altar.