February 2, 2003

Mark 1:21-28

 About 25 years ago one Sunday morning a woman minister from the U.C.C. office in NYC came to preach in my home church.  This was new for us, wed only had male pastors before, but being a fairly progressive congregation we were open to this new experience.  As she preached in her white robe and stole,  I listened intently from the balcony and when she had finished, after the closing hymn, she gave the benediction.  She held her hand in the air and blessed us, saying these words:  May God bless you and keep you. May God make her face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.  May God shed the light of her countenance upon you and may she give you peace.  Amen.

 Well, the gasps were audible.  Half had their eyes open in amazement and the other half their jaws open down to here.
  They had - and I had - never heard God referred to as "she" before.  As you can imagine it was quite the conversation during coffee hour.  No one could remember much about the sermon , but we could all remember the benediction.  May God shed the light of her countenance upon you, and give you peace.  Those words of hers opened up all kinds of possibilities to those of us who were there that Sunday morning - maybe God is bigger than a he or a she.  Maybe God has feminine as well as masculine attributes.  We had never thought about that before, never been introduced to the possibility of God as mother as well as father...it got us talking and it
x got us thinking.   It was a new teaching - with authority - and we were astounded.

 When Jesus entered that synagogue in Capernaum - with the two fishermen Andrew and Simon Peter in tow - when he stood up before the congregation and taught - he taught them something new. Something they hadn’t  heard before or thought about before.  It was a new teaching - with authority - and the people, we are told, were astounded.

 Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus taught, but we can suppose, because we’ve had some familiarity with the story, because we’ve read ahead, that he talked about God;  how God is like a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go after one lost sheep, or how God is like a father who after his youngest son has run off,  frittering away his inheritance and running loose around the countryside, welcomes him with open arms, instead of scolding him.  Or maybe he taught about t
he kingdom of God, how those who think they’re first in the kingdom are really last and those who are last are really first, and how the kingdom of God is like a wedding feast where even sinners are invited to sit and eat with the host.

 Or maybe he taught about how the greatest commandment of all is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and with all your mind and second is like it.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
 

 Or maybe he told them about how God especially loves the little children and the poor and the sinners among them.  Or how with God, the impossible is possible.

 The people were astounded because this teaching was so very different than what they were used to.  They were used to the scribes, the experts in the law - reading from the Torah - the first five books of the Old Testament -  the most sacred book of the Jews - which holds the stories of God’s covenant with God’s people: of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and his wives and his sons, who became the 12 tribes of Israel.

 It holds the story of Moses and how by God’s mighty hand he led the Hebrew people out of Egypt, up from slavery into freedom.  It holds the stories of their long journey wandering through the desert, of ho
ww God gave Moses the ten commandments on Mt. Sinai, and many other commandments and decrees as well, and how the people’s faith was tested and failed and was restored. And it holds the hope that the Jewish people would keep all these things in their hearts and love God as much as God loves them.   It is a powerful and sacred book.

 This was what the scribes read from each
= week, the only problem was, the scribes had taken this powerful and sacred book with all it’s wonderful stories about God and turned it into a book of rules and regulations which were to be followed at all costs.  Their lives and their faith depended on it.  The scribes attention to rules and regulations for daily living had overshadowed the good news the Torah held for whole lives.

 So when Jesus taught that day in that synagogue, it was, says the N.T. scholar William Barclay, like a breeze from heaven for the people who were listening.  Like a light in the darkness.  Like nothing they had heard before.  And it was good.  It was a new teaching.  And they were astounded.

 New teachings can do that sometimes.  They can astound us, get us thinking and talking and doing, doing things we wouldn’t expect, wouldn’t
have thought of, things we didn’t think we could do.  Once we get past the rules and regulations, that we set for ourselves or that others have set for us, once that box is open so to speak, anything is possible.  The teachings of Jesus have that kind of effect.

   One of the first times I realized this was when I working in Public Relations at a hospital in Bridgeport, Ct.  I had spent a week the summer before as a chaperone on our church’s youth mission trip and I was hooked.  I had decided to apply to work on staff the next summer - to spend my summer working with high school church groups helping to repair homes in Kentucky.
 
 
 
 
 

 Now I had been raised to be a fairly responsible adult; I knew the rules, the expectations of my family, the rules and expectations that society, particularly Fairfield County where I had been raised - had placed on me.  I was supposed to graduate from high school with good grades, go to college, get a job, make a decent living, some day buy a house, have 2.5 children, a dog, maybe a cat, and try not to take any unnecessary risks that might jeopardize this path that was laid out for me.  I knew the rules and regulations, those spoken and unspoken.

 And I had tested them just once.

 One day driving while somewhere with my Dad - I think I was a junior in high school - I mentioned that my friends, Cindy, Betsy, Diana and I were thinking of skipping college and buying motorcycles and biking across the country, to see  the world, or at least California.  We’d sleep in tents, if we needed, too and depend on the hospitality of strangers - we’d be safe, I assured him. There’d be four of us and we would be gone about six months.  My father who was a very articulate person, a master of the English lan
gauge - words were his livelihood - was speechless and in fact, he did not speak to me for two days.  I went to college.

 But this mission trip I had been on with our youth group had gotten to me.  I had heard a new teaching that week in Clay County, KY.  We helped build an addition onto a trailer for a family of four, sang songs and prayed back at the school with our high school youth and talked about God and Jesus and what it mean to be follow Jesus and to love our neighbor like ourselves.  It was like a breeze from heaven, a light in the darkness, unlike anything I had heard  before and I began to think that maybe I could do something a little different with my life.

 I went back home, back to work and when the following summer came around I asked the hospital for a leave of absence.  Three months tops, I said, was all I would need.  It was for a very good cause and I promised to return.   Like a good employee I filled out all the paperwork, in triplicate, sent it to the appropriate people in Human Resources and waited for their answer.

 I’m convinced their conversation went something like this.

 I’ve got this application from Linda in public relations requesting a leave of absence.
 Linda, who’s Linda.
 You know, about this tall, blue eyes, thinks she’s a blonde, always has a cup of coffee in her hand.
 Oh...Linda.  I know her.  What does she want it for?
 She says she wants to spend the summer working with volunteers repairing
 homes in Kentucky.  She doesn’t strike me as someone who could repair a home?
 No, she doesn’t.  How long does she want it for.
 Three months.
 Three months?  We’ve never given a leave of absence for three months before.  We need to the manual.
 It says here on page 450, rule # 5 under the heading of Hospital Leaves that a leave of absence may be granted for special circumstances which may include but are not limited to personal sickness or caring for a sick child.  Recommended leave is 2 weeks and must be approved by human resources, all the department heads,  the president and his mother.

 So, what do we tell her.
 Well...the manual says two weeks so that’s what she gets.  Type that up in triplicate and send it to her.

 I got the letter about a week later, opened it at my little desk in my little office, and read their decision.  I understood their policies, their rules and regulations - how if they gave me three months to do whatever it is I was going to do down south, well then everyone would want three months off and what would happen to the hospital then?  They
 had a point.  But I had heard a new teaching - with authority.

 And I remember very clearly, sitting at my little desk in my little office  holding the letter - and I weighed the rules of the hospital - in one hand - and the teachings of Jesus in the other and I knew what I was going to do.

 I went to Kentucky.

 Now I’m not saying rules are bad and should be ignored.   We need them to function as a society.  Even the church has rules - by-laws - which help us function as a people - as an organization.   But sometimes, our attention to rules and regulations in our daily lives can overshadow the good news that Christ brings to our whole lives.

 The teachings of Jesus Christ are meant for our whole lives, are meant to encourage us, inspire us, comfort us, get us thinking and talking and doing, doing things we wouldn’t expect, wouldn’t have thought of, things we didn’t think we could do. They are meant...to astound us.  And change us.

 Jesus stood up in that synagogue that day
N in Capernaum and began to teach, and then he began to heal, and forgive sins, and preach... about God’s love, the kingdom and new life, eternal life.   Then he gathered with his disciples for a final meal and said to them, "this is my body broken for you, take and eat, this is my blood poured out for you, take and drink and remember me."  He died on a cross, was resurrected and lives today through the church, through you and me.   We have heard a new teaching - with authority.  It is like a breeze from heaven and a light in the darkness.  It’s us unlike anything we’ve heard before.  And it is good.  Let us listen,  be astounded and follow.  Amen.

 Let’s pray.

 Awaken us O God, to your word, your way and your will for our lives.  May your Holy Spirit give us strength, courage and a heart to serve you as best we are able.  Amen.

Linda Brain Hirst