Category Archives: sermons

The Strong Man’s House

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Some memories are picture clear. It is a day in late October and we are traveling in the van with my in laws to the Aransas wildlife refuge. I am attempting to school a known pedophile on the need for repentance.

We have reported the abuse. We lock doors at night to make the children feel safer. We are waiting and terribly broken.

The pedophile is merely annoyed. Sullen. We are discussing the human heart as though it were a house. A house Jesus could walk through, clean, excavate.

I remember this whenever I read

Mark 3:25-30 (NIV)
If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. [26] And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. [27] In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. [28] I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. [29] But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” [30] He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”

… because Charles is the one who taught me…about the strong man’s house.

This parable can and will go either way. Either the strong man is hell plundered by Jesus or He is the strong man robbed on the cross.

Which is it?

You can guess my opinion. I put my money on Jesus.

But for years I lived in that divided house, torn by my adopted children’s violence and anger.

Don’t wanna go back. Don’t wanna live that way no more.

Divided house; broken heart.

Daemons, spirits oracles and messengers

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We have lost our history of words. The word demon comes from Latin which comes from Greek which is linked to Hebrew concepts of spirits, messengers, idols, and gods.

Socrates wrote about having a guiding spirit which counseled him. Plato discussed these spirit entities with a secular focus.

We moderns are uncomfortable with the idea–an invisible world of possibly invasive personalities?

The English translation of the Bible draws clear lines between angels (malak messenger) and demon (daemon spirit, idol).

Do we think that in our material world these have dissipated like a primordial mist?

Or are they still there? Trapped unless we listen? Perhaps we need to revisit Socrates and look closely at the way evil moves in the world. And good as well, depending on the power of the voices in our heads?

Preparing for the zombie apocalypse through Bible study?!

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Mark 3:10-12 (NIV)
For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. [11] Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” [12] But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.

First we see people with problems just like ours pressing toward him. He can heal them. So far sounds good…

Then things get weird.

Whenever the evil spirits saw him? What evil spirits? Whose eyes? When Mark says,

they fell down before him

it seems clear they are inhabiting bodies. Huh. Already in Mark we see demons in church and at public events, now they pop up at flash mob.

How did they get where they were? Where were they headed? How did they feel about Jesus?

Jesus was the penicillin for their infection. They couldn’t have been fond of him, but their reaction is worth noting–they bowed and acknowledged his deity.

They did not have a choice. He was God.

There is a time in his story where they might have thought he had been beaten–the Cross.

But even then in the mystery of death spent for us, I think they knew. That he alone could not be beaten.

Mark, the Gospel

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Mark 2:21-22 (NIV)
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. [22] And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”

Pretend you were in a secret club.
The rules weren’t secret.
The membership was deceptively open.
But it was still a secret club.
Because it was a club for losers, villains, fools and children….
And only the last group would make it, their faces smudged with joy and perhaps some finger paint.
They would come bursting through the gates of heaven
Laughing
Unconcerned about whether they had conquered Europe or won at scrabble

Never, never forget. This parable is a test. Always a test of love.

Ah! The lake!

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Mark 2:13-17 (NIV)
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. [14] As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. [15] While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. [16] When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” [17] On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I like Jesus. I known he is

not a tame lion

as CS Lewis would say, but I trust his personality. I draw comfort from his anger and his grief, his compassion and his sense of humor. The best way to see Matthew is as a money launderer or an IRS auditor. Maybe an unscrupulous politician. He had sold out for cold cash. All these people Jesus was hanging out with were bad guys. Why would God hang out with the bad guys?

He answers the question with an incisive elegance: the sick need a doctor, the sinner needs a savior.

Good news for me, I am a dying mess, a real disaster. So grateful he is willing to hang with me.

Not just with…for.

The cowboy and the judge

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Mark 2:1-12 (NIV)
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. [2] They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. [3] Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. [4] Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. [5] When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” [6] Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, [7] “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” [8] Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? [9] Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? [10] But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, [11] “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” [12] He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

I love this story and I especially love the way it is portrayed in the movie The Miracle Maker, so I have been somewhat puzzled by why I could not finish this story. I have talked about it numerous times. It is not that complicated.

This is a story about waiting with or without hope. It is a story about faith and urgency. It is a story about love, value and forgiveness. And it is a story about willfully refusing to see.

Someone I love has a prominent tattoo on his chest. He likes to go shirtless a lot so it is easy to see. It says,

only God can judge me

His tattoo is true, but somehow incomplete. What it is missing is any understanding of love, fear, and holiness.

Love carries the man to Jesus
Love pushes through the crowd
Love punches through the roof
Love lowers the mat
Love forgives the man his sins
Love heals the man on the mat
Love never fails
But…
When love shows his power and his judgment.
You better duck.

Because the guy who crushed the gates of hell and death for us?
He don’t play, cowboy, he sure don’t play.

Breaking and entering!!!

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Remember I left this story at trespassing.. Let’s see what happens next…

Mark 2:3-4 (NIV)
Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. [4] Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

Huh…. Breaking and entering?!! Destruction of property?!? This story gets more violent and illegal by the minute.

And what does Jesus do? More calls to the po-po? Vigilante justice?

Nope…

Mark 2:5 (NIV)
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

I once preached a sermon on this passage. My daughter’s favorite part was when I said that we neglect the violent, intrusive nature of what the men did breaking through the roof of the house

…but it turns out ok because luckily, there was a carpenter in it.

I can obsess over the damage we fallen, messy humans can unleash on each other. The truth is Jesus: fixer, healer, resurrectionist.

He rises from hell to save us.
The messy rest is a cakewalk for him.
Roof repair and all.

Door-to-door salesmen

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Mark 2:1-2 (NIV)
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. [2] So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

…and then called the cops because they were trespassing, dog-gone it.

I think you get where I am going with this<3

Celebrity Perils

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Mark 1:38-45 (NIV)
Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” [39] So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. [40] A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” [41] Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” [42] Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. [43] Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: [44] “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” [45] Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Jesus came to seek and rescue people. He is a superhero, the only real one…

The guy could have been anything, done anything. He could have ruled the world. Instead he wandered the lonely hills of an agrarian outpost casting out demons?. Curing skin diseases?

Yep. He loves people so he helps us with our sadness, our loneliness, our hunger. But for him that is not enough. He came to take away our curse–death itself. He came to restore the kingdom of life.

So the strong injunctions to varies entities to shut up about his superhero identity make more sense.

He did not want us to be so blinded by his bling, his miraculous events, that we lost sight of his heart.

Jesus is in love with each of us
I am afraid not all of us get close enough to him to love him back.

The comfort zone

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Mark 1:35-39 (NIV)
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. [36] Simon and his companions went to look for him, [37] and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” [38] Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” [39] So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Jesus left his comfort zone.

The poet in me says–don’t write anymore. That sentence covers all the territory–homesickness, poverty and misunderstanding. Betrayal. Torture. Death. Hell.

He did it all for us.