Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet
Here at Mystic Side, our sanctuary is set up according to the traditions of our forebears, the Puritans. It is simple, and reasonably unadorned, which reflects the Puritan ideal of simplicity. Early Puritan churches, or gathering places, were starkly undecorated, had plain whitewashed walls, and offered very little comfort.
However, before the Protestant revolution, and since, for centuries the Church worshipped, and still does worship, in huge buildings built in the cruciform style, in the shape of the cross. The altar faces east, from whence Jesus is expected to return, while the congregation sits in what is called the “nave”, from the Latin “navis”, which means ship. In such spaces the congregation is sitting in an ark, the Ark of Salvation. But who is the captain?
(musical moment) I am the Captain of the Pinafore; And a right good captain, too!
Ask a Christian who is the Captain, and the most spontaneous and correct one is likely to be God, Jesus. But is that how we live – with God as our captain? While all agree that that is how we are supposed to live, we are human, and thus the folks in the pews sometimes get so attached to their priest or minister or a lay leader, they forget that he or she isn’t the person steering the ship. When for whatever reason the beloved individual leaves, the folks in the nave, the ship, can and often do become upset and even angry. Cult of personality is a problem in many congregations.
Then, there is the individual or individuals who want to run things their way or, as they like to put it, the way it either “used to be done” or is “supposed to be done”. One ship, but always arguments over who is in control, who is the captain.
Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”
The book of Deuteronomy, from which this morning’s first lesson comes, claims to be Moses’ final words to the Israelites as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. He has warned them that they must shun all things that are not holy. Now God, through Moses, promises to help the Children of Israel remain loyal. God assures them He will continue to guide them.
Moses is the unquestioned leader of the Children of Israel, and they have no doubt Who guides him and tells him what to say and do. Moses is God’s servant, and it is God who is the captain, with Moses as, perhaps one might say, First Mate. Still, considering the human tendency to form cults of personality, it must have been a terrible jolt for the Children of Israel to learn that Moses will not, cannot, go with them into the Promised Land.
But God loves the Children of Israel and has gone so far as, through Moses, to ask them what they would like for leadership in the future. Do they want God to continue to appear in fire and cloud, in thunder and lightning, or would they prefer God to speak to them as He has through Moses.
The Children of Israel haven’t been shy in their response. "If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die." So, God has promised to raise up another prophet like Moses, and God will speak through this prophet, and the prophet will repeat God’s words to the Israelites.
And for a while, that is exactly what God does. The Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, what we call The Old Testament, is filled with the prophesies of those prophets who came after Moses, prophecies we often hear as our First Lesson on Sunday.
But, after a while, the prophets seemed to vanish. By the time Jesus was born, they had been absent from Jewish life for roughly 400 years. The Children of Israel had become accustomed to their absence. By the time Jesus begins His ministry, they are still waiting for the “prophet like Moses”, that special, powerful prophet - the Messiah, a leader, a savior, a captain who will bring back the Jewish nation in all its former glory.
Of course, it has been such a long time since God’s promise, that they must have wondered if they would recognize the Chosen One, but there was no need to worry. God has told the Children of Israel, When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
If the thing does not come to pass, the so-called prophet is not speaking the word of God, is not speaking with authority.
Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, He entered the synagogue and taught.
This morning, Mark, the writer of today’s Gospel, means for us to sit ourselves down with the members in the synagogue and prepare to listen to Jesus. We are to have the same attitude as the rest of the worshippers. Jesus is just another Rabbi come to address the congregation. This is a normal practice within the synagogues in Jesus’ time, and Mark wants us to feel like we are right there in the crowd. The man Jesus gets up and begins to speak, but immediately, along with everyone else, we realize there is something different happening.
In Jesus’ day, when scribes and rabbis spoke in synagogue, much like many academics today, they quoted other authorities in support of their own opinions. “Rabbi so-and-so said thus-and such…” or “This is how these words have been interpreted in the past…” But as Jesus speaks, the people in the synagogue were astounded at His teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
In case any doubt Jesus’ authority, Mark includes the proof needed. Thus, we have the exchange between Jesus and the unclean spirit. No one else sitting in the synagogue could tell the spirit to leave the man, no scribe or rabbi could do so, because no one but Jesus had God’s authority.
Jesus speaks to the unclean spirit, “Be silent, and come out of him!”, and the response is immediate. The people in the synagogue are astounded. No doubt about it, for the first time in their lives, they have come face to face with the Truth. For the first time it is personal, not just what someone said once long ago, but living and active in their midst.
Up until this moment, the truth has been contained in dusty scrolls, quoted over and over by scribes and Rabbis, and because of this, the truth, like our news today, is something that people have been able to manipulate and control. But this day the Truth is a man, living and breathing, there in the synagogue with them. They have come face to face with the real thing.
Jesus has the authority. Do we have the slightest intention of surrendering to it? In our present day lives we may every now and then, in difficult situations, let Jesus take control, but that tends to happen only when we’ve exhausted every solution, every means of control we can think of. We prefer to be, the one in control, and anyway – where is this Jesus now? The answer is – right here – for those who look for, listen for, and pray for the awareness of His Presence.
Here we are this morning, sitting in the ship, the Ark of Salvation, probably worrying, not about how to surrender to the One who is in authority over us and over our lives, but about how we can better control our life situations to insure our comfort, our progress, our success. We have worries, and cares, and bills to pay – and the Church tells us to just let go and let God. Or it gets very serious and tells us we must surrender to Jesus – to let go of our control and give all that we are and all that we have to Him. It doesn’t sound very appealing. It sounds difficult and scary.
If Jesus isn’t coming back tomorrow, if the world isn’t about to end, what reason do we have to trust to Him amid all our worldly cares and distractions? The answer is – because we have within us the power to help all those in the ship with us and ourselves to become true children of God, and because we have been commanded to do so.
(music) And I said to myself "Sit down, sit down you're rocking the boat". And the devil will drag you under with a soul so heavy you'd never float. Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down you're rockin' the boat".
The teachings of the Church, the responsibilities of being one of the baptized persons sitting in the ship, can often seem oppressive. Surrender is a both a demanding and terrifying word, but it is the way that lies before us if we wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Does it hurt - to let go and fall into the arms of God? There can be struggles and sacrifices, but overall, there is one universal eternal response to surrendering to God - joy!
(musical interlude) Joyful, Joyful, Lord, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love. Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, Hail Thee as the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away. Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day. Amen