Fourth Sunday of the Year - January 29, 2012
Deuteronomy 18: 15-20 1 Corinthians 7: 32-35 Mark 1: 21-28
When I begin the day in the morning, one of the first things I do is go to the sink in the bathroom and turn the handle on the left side of the faucet. I expect that hot water will come eventually and I can begin the process of washing up, shaving, brushing my teeth - the usual routine that starts another day. Then there is that morning when no hot water comes out. Faced with this dilemma, another chain of events begins. Perhaps it is just a pilot light that is out. Perhaps it may end up with the purchase and installation of a new hot water tank. It was something that was unexpected. It certainly was not anticipated. It is inconvenient, it is disruptive, but it also can be a learning experience. So much is really taken for granted. It is a real opportunity to appreciate the convenience that is present.
The same sort of thing might happen when any of us goes to our car with the plan to go somewhere - whether to work, to school, or to the store. Our plans are disrupted when we discover that we have a flat tire. Again, there is a chain of events - an unexpected and unplanned chain of events - that occurs as we seek to correct the problem and return to our original plans. The unexpected can occur at any time and in any place, and it can have a significant impact for that day, or even for our lives.
Such examples relate to what I understood in the passage I just read to you from Saint Mark. It is not too difficult to imagine the setting. The townspeople in that area of Capernaum when to their synagogue that day following their regular routine and practice of prayer and worship. But the unexpected happened. The first was the teacher about whom they might have heard, Jesus from Nazareth, was present. That may have been something they knew and looked forward to with anticipation. Then, a deranged man, possessed - as he is described - of an “unclean spirit,” shouts out and upsets the whole setting. “What are you doing here” he asks. “I know who you are, the Holy One of God. The situation was thoroughly disrupted, what was unexpected happened that day.
What was the result of what happened? They were amazed. However they looked upon it, they had experienced the reality of God in their midst, in their ordinary local synagogue.
Openness to the unexpected, to the revelation and experience of the presence of God and being amazed at that presence, even in ordinary circumstances, is basic to understanding the message of the good news of Jesus Christ as told to us by Saint Mark. There needs to be an openness to this revelation as it takes place in the ministry of Jesus when we hear about it in the Scriptures. But there also needs to be an openness to this revelation as it is experienced in the routine of daily life.
It is this openness, this willingness to be amazed within whatever situation we find ourselves that is a way of understanding the point that Saint Paul is also making. Whether we are married or not, we have certain expectations about what happens in life, about what we are supposed to be doing. But this may not always be so. It does not always work out that way. Thus, we should never be closed off to the possibilities of how we might experience the goodness and love of God, whatever our circumstances. We might just be amazed!
We can also appreciate the teaching of Moses, speaking to us through the writing of the author of Deuteronomy, reminding us to be willing and open to be amazed at how the reality of God can be experienced in our daily lives and in our daily activities. God’s presence will not be found in thunder and lightening, in fire and smoke, but in the words, in the teaching, in the actions of those who are genuine messengers of God, speaking of God and not of themselves. God’s presence can be found both in the words, teachings and actions of Jesus in the Gospels, but also in the unexpected persons and experiences in the simplicity of daily living.
We come together here in Eucharist to hear the good news told to us through Saint Mark and to be nourished by the living presence of our God that we can receive when we are here. We are to prepare to be amazed. We are to prepare to be disrupted in our lives. We are to prepare for the unexpected because the revelation of God’s loving and gracious presence can and will be evident in simple things, in simple insights, in unexpected and challenging ways. This is so, much like these thoughts I have shared with you about our good and gracious God are the result of turning the handle on the left side of the faucet of a bathroom sink early on a Tuesday morning.