Based on Mark 1: 21-28

My friends, will you pray with me?  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto you, my God, my strength and my redeemer?  Amen

Right after Jesus walked along the Galilee, calling the disciples, he went to the city on the lake and taught in the synagogue.  While he was speaking to the assembly, a heckler began to berate him.  Jesus recognized that the man was possessed by a demon.  He commanded the unclean spirit to leave and the man was cured of his affliction.

This is the first miracle reported by Mark.

When we look at this miracle with today’s psychologically informed eyes, we might think, “Ah, multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia.” Maybe.  But, just maybe, we can take a little different angle.  Jesus taught differently from the other Rabbis.  Most of the people marveled.  They understood and apparently agreed with what he was saying.  This person said, “Wait a minute, this is not what we have been taught.  You’re turning things upside down.  I don’t buy it.”  Maybe the demon, the unclean spirit was disbelief.  Maybe it was resistance to change.  Maybe this person was comfortable with the way things were and didn’t want to shake things up. 

Did you ever move to a new home?  You may have been driving home from work and suddenly realized that you were heading to the old place.  The car knew the old path.  So you had to turn around and go the other way.  Or maybe you have decided change a behavior.  You do pretty well for a while, and then you find yourself reverting to the old way.

There is a part of us that doesn’t want to change.  We get comfortable, even when a behavior is not good for us.  Maybe the old, familiar ways are our unclean spirits.

What other unclean spirits do we harbor?  What unclean beliefs do we have?  Many of us come to MCC believing that we are mistakes, that we are not loved by God.  We call it internalized homophobia.  We believe that somehow we are not as good as heterosexual folks.  We say that we believe that we were created as we are and that God loves us as we are, but, deep down, we don’t quite buy it.  We accept taunts and put-downs; we put up with marginalization.  After all, it’s what we deserve.  That deep belief, no matter where it came from, is a demon, an unclean spirit, for each of us.  We need to let Jesus cast it out!

As a church community, we have some demons, too.  Our unclean spirits tell us that this church is poor, even though, especially in difficult financial times, we are doing pretty well.  Our unclean spirits tell us that we can’t afford to make the changes required to reach outside this small community.  In fact, our unclean spirits tell us that we shouldn’t try.  They tell us that we need to hide.  We can’t let others know who we are.  We need to keep Milwaukee MCC the best kept secret in Milwaukee.

We are getting better at that.  We have been outed in the press!  We have outed ourselves in the community.  We have been working to both make some money to use for the church and to make ourselves visible at Hamburger Mary’s.  We have been more visible at the local colleges and universities.  We see our congregation growing.  Maybe we are pushing the demon, the unclean spirit away.  At least when a new person comes into the church, we hear that she or he feels at home.  We are welcoming.  The unclean spirit is not here.  We just need to keep working to clear the area around the church: the city and the state.  We need to think about how to do that.

Maybe it’s time for MMCC to become more visible in other places.  On outreach Sunday, you will have the opportunity to join a group to make our ministry plan a reality.  Take a look at your copy of the plan.  Pick a ministry.  Then we can choose three or four and begin.

There is a new teaching.  God loves us.  God loves all of us.  God loves Christians and Jews and Hindus and Zoroastrians and Sikhs and atheists.  God loves people of all complexions.  God loves people who speak all of the languages of the world.  God loves Africans and Asians and Europeans and Australians and North and South Americans and Antarcticans.  God’s love is so big that we can all be included with room left over.

Yet, we don’t quite believe it.  We have it in our heads but not in our hearts.  We hold on to our demons, our unclean spirits.  We need to hear the new teaching.  We need to let our unclean spirits be cast out.  We need to grow into the people, and the church, that we are meant to be.

It’s a new teaching.  God loves us, all of us!  Study the teaching.  God loves us, all of us!  Learn the teaching.  God loves us, all of us!  Accept the teaching.  God loves us, all of us!  So let the unclean spirits be cast out.  Leave this place knowing that God loves us, all of us and act as one loved by God!

Amen.