An Open Table where Love knows no borders

A Back-To-School Exorcism!

A sermon on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 & Mark 1:21-28 by Nathan Nettleton

It is great to have all our children back with us this week. There have been so many amazing adventures over the summer holidays in various parts of the state and in far flung places around the world. But this week, it is back to school, or for (I think) three of them, off to school for the first time. So it is a big week, and I’m going to keep the sermon short so that we will have plenty of time for our back-to-school blessing rite when I finish. Although the rite focusses mainly on school, it also reminds us to think about the role that we, as a church community,  play in the formation of our children. And so as I reflected on the bible readings we were to hear tonight, I wondered whether they might shed any light on this formative relationship between the generations in the church, and I think they do, even though they don’t mention children.

Some Christians are very worried about sending their children to school. They see secular schools as godless places intent on leading our children into godless pathways, and they champion the cause of either Christian schools or home-schooling as the way to keep our children safe from corrupting influences. But in a funny kind of way, I think the gospel story we heard tonight might sound a note of caution about such separatist approaches to education. You see, Jesus was confronted by a demonised man in a synagogue while he was teaching, and a synagogue is a kind of school – a religious centre of teaching. So if we were going to separate ourselves off from the godless world to do our educating in a safe place, this is the kind of place we would expect to go. But Jesus exposes it as a place where demonic forces can still be actively destroying people.

It even seems that the very act of trying to separate ourselves from evil influences in order to keep ourselves holy and pure might be the thing that gives the demons their foothold. You see, the man with the “unclean” spirit is exactly the sort of person who we will try to keep out if we are trying to keep things pure and holy. The whole concept of purity and holiness is about separation. Be ye separate. Holiness demands separation from the impure. When the demon sees Jesus, it cries out, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” The Holy One. The Pure one. The Separated One. Mr Exclusive. But the one who came for sinners rejects that label and silences the demon. And then he expels it. Not the man, take note, but the demon. Jesus is able to distinguish between the man and the demonic force that had taken hold of him, and he is able to deal with the one without harming or ostracising the other.

Now the most surprising thing about this is that the gathered people respond by expressing amazement at his teaching. I’m guessing that if some demonic force suddenly manifested itself in here, and I successfully completed an exorcism in front of you all, the major talking point out of the service is not going to be my teaching. But for Jesus, the content of his teaching and his confrontation with the evil spirit were two sides of the one coin. He was identified as unusually authoritative precisely because of the integrity of word and deed. He practiced what he preached, and he preached what he lived. If we want to be a really positive influence in the education and formation of our children, and for that matter of our adult learners, then the teachings that will have impact and take root are those that are backed up by our actions and our lifestyle. So if we talk about loving our neighbours, or even loving sinners, but what we actually model is distrust, fear, exclusion, and keeping our distance from those we regard as ‘unclean’, then unfortunately our example is more likely to form our children than our words, and we may falling into the same demonic errors that were infesting the Capernaum synagogue.

The Apostle Paul made some closely related points in the reading we heard from his letter to the church in Corinth. He speaks about it as knowledge rather than words, but his contrast with actions is similar. He is concerned about people whose heads are full of big ideas, however true they might be in theory, but who do not act with love, compassion and concern towards the vulnerable ones around them. Paul doesn’t mention children here, but what he says about the perils of leading people astray is almost identical to something Jesus once said about “these little ones of mine”.

Paul focusses particularly on issues that may be morally contentious. There are some things which some people feel are wrong, but which other people feel quite sure they can enjoy without any problem. Pick your issue. And Paul says that just because you have concluded that this or that is no problem for you, that doesn’t mean that you should go flaunting your freedom and your superior knowledge in front of those who are feeling more conflicted about it. Because those people watching you are just seeing what you do, not what you know about it, and your example may plunge them into confusion and even derail them completely. When knowledge and learning become disconnected from love, they become hazards instead of helps.

This is not about giving narrow minded legalists the right to dictate what everyone else can do. We are not being told that we have to avoid upsetting the church’s self-appointed moral guardians. They are powerful people, quite sure of their own rightness. They are not the weak and vulnerable people Paul is talking about. Instead he is talking about people who are still in the early stages of finding their way in the faith. We all begin with simplistic, black and white understandings. That’s simply how we learn. And if you trample blithely over some youngster’s black and white view of the world, crowing about your rose-coloured view of reality, you may wipe them out before they can learn to see the colours. Our primary focus, says the Apostle, is love for the vulnerable one, not pride in our own supposedly superior knowledge. If it fails the love test, then it is not superior at all. Jesus gave up his life for this vulnerable person, Paul says, so the least you can do is give up one or two of your precious entitlements to help them on their journey.

Once again, it is not our words or knowledge, but the integrity of how we relate to others that forms the deepest impressions and contributes most to the way we shape and guide those who are in our care, be they children or adults. If we exclude or disregard people, either because we see them as ‘unclean’ or just as immature and inferior, we will not be able to contribute anything much of value to their formation. We may misform them, or we may simply lose them as soon as they are able to act for themselves and escape from us. But on the other hand, if what they mostly see and experience in us is welcome and love and compassion and generous inclusion, then even if our theology is a bit off the rails, they will probably see Christ in us and learn and grow in healthy ways.

So this rite we are about to celebrate with our children is not some cute little pageant to make everybody feel nice. It is a real recognition of the importance of our role in the lives of these children, and the place that role has in the call of God on our lives. We’ve been talking a bit lately about new areas of mission, but let us not forget the mission we already have of raising up new disciples in our midst, young or old. Our call to welcome others and teach, in word and deed, all Jesus has taught us, begins right here.

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