January 28, 2024        Mark 1:21-28  

My friend Licha called me maestra (teacher) for the longest time.  That was because I first met her when she attended the English class I was teaching for recent Latino immigrants.  In Mexico, maestra is a title of respect.  She would never call me by my first name or even my last name.  She would never call me pastor or reverend, even though she knew I was a minister.  It was always maestra, teacher.  Years after I stopped teaching English classes, when Licha and I would go together to an appointment or an event, or when she would call me on the phone, she would still call me maestra.

Jesus starts out as a teacher first and foremost in all three of the synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke.  In the gospel of John, his first act of ministry is the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding.  Mark, who loves to add “immediately” or “right away” or “just then” to his story, describes Jesus as hitting the ground running.  He grabs four disciples and gets to work.  He starts out in the synagogue, the gathering place for worship and teaching, and he teaches.  People get to know him first as a teacher.  It becomes natural then, for people to call him teacher, or rabbi—a Jewish scholar or teacher– throughout any of the gospel narratives.  It is an oft repeated way to address Jesus throughout his ministry.  And the only places anywhere in the Old and New Testaments to find the word Rabbi is in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John, each time used as a title for Jesus. 

So, Jesus is a teacher.  Have you ever thought about using that title at times when you pray?  We tend to be more comfortable addressing Jesus as Christ or Messiah or Lord if we do pray to Jesus.  But why not Teacher?  Directing our prayer to Teacher indicates that we are seeking instruction in the ways of God.  We can use “Teacher” to address him when we share with him the holes in our life, the mistakes we have made, the confusion we get stuck in.  I wonder how our prayer experience would be different if we began our prayers, Teacher…. 

Jesus is a teacher, but Jesus’ teaching is different.  In contrast to other teachers of the faith known to the people gathered in the synagogue that day, Jesus teaches with definite authority, including authority over unclean spirits (also referred to as demons in other places in the gospels). Jesus’ teaching includes a lot more than words.  It includes mending, mending people who are broken and in need of repair, whether physical, spiritual, social, or emotional.

Think about teachers who have made a positive impact on your life somewhere along the way.  The one who refused to give up on you when you could not get the hang of handwriting.  The one who stayed after school to help you with math.  The one who invited your whole class to her house to prepare for an AP exam. The one who encouraged you to go ahead and apply to colleges when you were not too sure of yourself and your ability to make it in college. The one who was outside of the formal school setting who taught some of the life lessons that you still use today.  Can you think of that teacher as a mender in your life?  A teacher as a mender of twisted thinking or blocked motor skills or a broken self-image?  A teacher who takes the student who is awkward or shy or underestimates herself and, by giving time, attention and instruction, mends that student, helping him to be the whole person God created him to be.  A teacher who takes the student who always acts out, the class clown, the bully, the one who gets in fights and, by giving time, attention and instruction, mends that student, helping her to be the whole person God created her to be. I believe teachers are very often menders of their students, and we must continue to give them our respect and our gratitude.

The people gathered in the synagogue that Sabbath day were not only respectful, but they were astounded by the way Jesus taught.  He had a way with words.  He had a life-giving, not life-draining message.  He painted hope in their minds and love in their hearts.  He was mending the aching souls they did not know they had, be it the tiredness, the grief or maybe the lack of direction in life.  Wow. He was a teacher!

Just then (there is Mark’s “immediately” again!) a member of the community shows up who clearly needs mending.  He is described as having an unclean spirit, sometimes referred to as a demon.  In Jesus’ day, physical or mental illness was often attributed to an unclean spirit, an unhealthy, perhaps even evil force that basically took over an otherwise healthy person. Physically or mentally ill members of the community would not have normally received the kind of time and attention that Jesus gave this man.  Jesus’ teaching is continuing as he shows them how to respond to a person in need of mending.  The spirits (they speak in first person plural, so it appears there is more than one) immediately (I put that one in!) recognize who Jesus is—he is the Holy One of God.  They know exactly the kind of power and authority this teacher has—and they are scared and angry– “What have you to do with us? Have you come to destroy us?”  For some reason I have very screechy, high-pitched voices in my mind. The spirits were right to be afraid.  They knew Jesus had the power to end their domination of the man.  They knew he could mend this broken man simply by silencing them and sending them out. And that is what he did.  The spirit shook the man—it probably looked like a convulsion or a seizure– and left him standing there in front of the gathered community, whole and healthy.  The crowd is amazed at what they have seen, shaken themselves.  He even has authority over the spirits.  He has the power to mend the broken. And then Mark tells us that immediately (of course) the word about this Jesus spread from community to community around the region of Galilee.  No one had taught with this kind of authority before. This is someone to pay attention to. He runs demons out, mending people.

You may think that unclean spirits are only something you read about in the past. Even those of us who are not medically trained know that there are many factors leading to disease or illness, ranging from heredity to food choices to sanitation to amount of exercise. Surely there are diseases that make no sense, physical conditions that we can’t explain, but rarely would we say that our physical malady was caused by a demon or an unclean spirit taking hold of us. 

But we too face demons within. I mean demons like the past that haunts us. Our fears. Our feelings of inadequacy or lack of self-worth, feeling that we are just not enough.  Stress that pushes us down. Our anxieties. These kinds of demons do cause us harm, and many of them actually have a physical impact. Perhaps it is difficulty sleeping or eating or lethargy or reduced exercise.  These kinds of demons can have a social impact—making us withdraw, having discomfort at being around others, or, at the other extreme, being too loud and talking excessively.  These kinds of demons often have a spiritual impact—blocking our connection with God in some way, getting in the way of relating to other believers, taking over and silencing our voices. 

During his earthly ministry, people saw that Jesus clearly had authority over demons.  Any kind. There are seasons in our lives, or maybe all of our lives, when we pray and pray, asking Jesus to remove the demons within us, trusting that this Teacher does have the power to mend us.  So what do we do when those demons don’t stay quiet, but pop up in our mind as we go about our day or as we lay in bed at night? What do we do when the demons do seem to be controlling us? When we can’t shake them or ignore them or stomp on them? When we see the toll they are taking on our physical bodies, on our social interactions, on our relationships with God? What do we do? 

We remember that the Teacher is the Mender of people, all people.  That the Teacher gives us a way to live, a way for us to think about ourselves, a way for us to be, that is healthy and whole. And we remember that one of the most empowering truths in the New Testament is to echo the words of Paul to the Romans that there is NOTHING that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, not even the demons hiding under the bed or inside your head. When the demons can’t be silenced, it is time to look them squarely in the eye and say, “You can’t get between me and Jesus!  Jesus has power over you.”  Do the demons melt away like the wicked witch of the west did when water was poured on her?  No, they may not disappear completely, but when you determine that the demons are not in charge, and Jesus is, then the demons lose power and control over you. 

You are ordaining a new elder today and installing four elders to serve on Session.  In front of the congregation they will commit to follow the Teacher in their own lives.  They will be commit to be guides for this congregation as we all seek to be living testimonies of Jesus the Mender of People, and as we do our best to work alongside Jesus in the mending business.  After all, are we not in the mending business, continuing where Jesus left off?  How do we do it?  We welcome in those who have been broken or maimed in the battle of life, those whose demons seem out of control, those who are uncomfortable in a “churchy” setting because they don’t feel like they are enough.  We offer support and love to one another in times of grief and loss.  We mend other by being authentic Jesus followers, by listening to the Teacher, by living out his lessons on a daily basis, not just on Sundays.  May these new session members be our guides and may we observe their action and listen to their words as together we go about the mending business.  Amen.