Holy Power

Sunday, January 05, 2020
Pastor Mark Aune

Mark 1:21-39

Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace. Amen

Last Monday, the 30^th of December I had an early morning hospital call and when I came to church after being at the hospital the Matrix clients were still here. Sunday the 29^th was their first night at Augustana

I wandered into the kitchen as the clients were packing up and leaving for the day and one man, as he shouldered a very large and what looked like a very heavy backpack said to me as he was leaving for the day, “thank you for the sanctuary.”

Then he walked out to north door and was gone for the day.

I was really struck by his choice of words.

He could have said thank you for a warm place to sleep last night or thank you for sharing your building with us but he said, “thank you for the sanctuary.”

We think of this as the sanctuary and it is but for the man I spoke with on Monday morning the 30^th of December, the whole building was a sanctuary. The welcome he received was a sanctuary. The warm and dry place to sleep was a sanctuary.

The sanctuary as a place of refuge, healing. A place free from evil because a holy power is at work here.

As Jesus begins his ministry in today’s reading, we find him in a sanctuary, a synagogue.

When the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.

What strikes me about this story, the first healing story in Mark’s gospel, is that there is a man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue. In the Jewish sanctuary.

I wonder if he was homeless as he carried that heavy burden, an unclean spirit.

I am surprised that unclean people were allowed in the synagogue. And do I see myself that way and if I do, in what ways am I unclean and am I in the right place today?

The man with the unclean spirit in the synagogue is an encouraging sign for me and it makes me think about this sanctuary. Are we a place where ‘unclean’ people are welcomed?

Do we, as a place of refuge, a sanctuary if you will, allow people in who carry large and heavy burdens?

I hope we do and I believe we do.

If the presence of Jesus is going to be made known in and through this place then this is something we must do as we seek to both welcome Jesus and follow Jesus. If the holy power of Jesus is going to be revealed then it will happen because of you and me.

Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, ²⁴and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

The two questions asked by the unclean spirit tell us something about the mission of Jesus.

What have you to do with us?

Jesus says, I’m here to show you the Kingdom of God has arrived.

Have you come to destroy us?

And Jesus replies, yes I have.

The demons know Jesus as Jesus calls them out.

Even before the people are entirely sure of who he is, the demons know him.

How do we hear the news that Jesus has power and authority over unclean spirits and demons?

Do we believe it to be true and do we act like we believe it to be true?

How do we recognize and name these evil forces in our lives and what does it mean to know that Jesus fights directly against them on our behalf?

Evil has many names and it is present in our world, in our own communities and yes, even in our lives.

We call it different things, we have clinical names for it and it manifest itself in many different ways but we know it when we feel it.

Because the power of evil always diminishes life,

it creates darkness and fear
it thrives on secrets and lies.
it keeps us broken and separated from God

Jesus calls it out into the light. That is what holy power does. Consider the questions asked by the unclean spirit in the story; what have you to do with us and I know who you are Jesus of Nazareth.

The holy power of Jesus calls the unclean spirit out into the light and it leaves the man.

The holy power of Jesus is here today.

When we as individual followers of Jesus or as a church body actively look

for those in our midst who are on the fringes,
those who seem to carry a heavy burden,
those who have an unclean spirit
and those whose lives and hearts are shattered by evil forces.

Then we are doing the healing work of Jesus. We are casting out the demons of apathy, indifference and judgment of others. We are facing evil forces with love, with mercy, with a healing hand and an open heart.

We are using the authority and holy power of Jesus to cast out demons and heal the sick

In the beginning of His ministry Jesus fights directly against them on our behalf.

He hasn’t stopped fighting and He never will.

His holy power is given to you and to me and to the church as we gather in this place to hear God’s promises, are filled with God’s power and sent out into the world.

That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. ³³And the whole city was gathered around the door. ³⁴And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

This is what holy power looks like.

This is what the world’s need looks like as well. They are gathered around our doors and they are even in this sanctuary.

We have His holy power and authority to do this work. This is the ministry of Jesus. This is the work of the church. This is our call to ministry.

To bring evil into the light and to heal the sick and brokenhearted in Jesus name. Amen

Past Sermons

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

The book of Romans is a letter. An actual letter. Like, a letter written by hand and then sent to someone else for them to read. Paul, the author of this letter, wrote a lot of letters. Paul was an apostle, that is, someone who is sent – in this case, he is one who is sent to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the furthest reaches of the known world. He’s really, really good at it.

At the time that Paul writes this letter to the church in Rome, he’s been doing this work for probably twenty years and is at the peak of his career. He’s developed a great pattern in his work: visit a place, get to know the people, continually share his faith with them, help gather a community of believers from all walks of life, and stay with them while they learn how to be followers of Jesus. Then Paul leaves – after all, he’s got other places to visit and more people to teach. He is an apostle – he is sent. But he doesn’t leave the church abandoned. He writes letters back to these churches, especially when he hears about crises or conflicts. Sometimes they need comfort, sometimes challenge, sometimes critique, but always he writes as one they know and love. They welcome his input.

The letter to the Romans is not like that. Paul has never been to Rome. There is already a Christian church there, one brought over likely from Jerusalem very early in the faith. And the church in Rome has recently seen conflict. A few years before the writing of this letter, the Roman emperor expelled all the Jews from Rome. Because Christianity was effectively a form of Judaism at the time, Christians were also exiled. After the emperor died and the Jewish Christians returned, they found a church that had continued to grow and develop – this time with Gentile Christians.

It’s hard for us to understand how shocking and despicable this would have been. Two weeks ago I preached on Acts 10, and how Peter’s vision of God calling all animals clean and good to eat flew in the face of millennia of culture, history, and society for Jewish Christians. Jesus himself was Jewish and kept these laws – surely if anyone else wanted to be Christian, they could likewise follow these rules. Peter’s vision and the general movement of the church revealed otherwise.

That didn’t mean it made things easy. It is hard to let go of tradition and expectation and legislation as the Spirit moves us to new places. I hear people struggle when someone sits in their pew or wears sweatpants to church. Let’s be honest: those are enormously trivial things. If still we grind our teeth at the thought of these worthless infractions how much more might faithful people be driven to despair by moving on from the purity laws ordained by God?

This is the faith community to which Paul writes. He writes to a church redefining and fighting. It is a church that feels a deep rift, a painful split, one that goes deep into matters of identity and righteousness, one that threatens to dissolve into name-calling and condemning and finger-pointing and disgrace to the very name of God in whose name they mean to gather – and if we’re honest, we know how that feels. Those fears are not unfamiliar.

So how does Paul start his letter? He has no standing in that church in Rome. They don’t even know who he is – and if they do, it’s possible that they might still remember him as he was in his youth, an aggressive persecutor of the early faith. What can he say that would possibly invite them to listen to him, to hear the word he will share, to receive the message that he hopes will join them together in the work of the gospel?

He keeps it simple: he tells them the truth. He tells them who he is, and it is fully wrapped up in who Jesus is. His self-introduction is the story of the gospel. Nothing he can say about himself means more than who he is in Jesus Christ.

He tells them he wants to come see them, that he wants to be with them, that he hopes he can share some spiritual gift – but even more than that, so that they might mutually encourage each other in faith. He doesn’t want to come to them because he’s better than them, because he can fix them so they can get things right, because they’re obviously sinful mess-ups who just haven’t been taught the truth. No, he wants to join them for mutual encouragement in faith. He wants to walk with them. He hopes he has something to offer them in his teaching and leadership, but just the same, he knows he will grow by being with them as well.

What if that’s how it’s supposed to be? What if we’re supposed to talk about what we believe and why, not because we’ve got it right and we want to establish our superior knowledge, but because we know that God works through our mutual encouragement in faith? What if we were not ashamed of the gospel, not afraid of getting it wrong, not worried that someone would think we were weird for talking about what we believe and why and then asking others the same? What if we trusted that the power of God was at work in this mutual encouragement? What if we were not so proud and short-sighted as to think that the way we see God is the only way God works in the world? What if we actually believed that God is at work in the world, that God has already been working long before we showed up, that we arrive as much to learn as to teach?

Ah, but I know the argument against it: we’re supposed to keep polite conversation, right? What don’t you talk about at the dinner table? Religion and politics, right? Look where it’s gotten us. It’s gotten us to a place where we can no longer have civil discourse, where we are more likely to condemn than to seek to understand, where we claim a Christian can only look one way, live one place, vote one direction, take one moral position. It’s gotten us built up and walled off and fighting against our own beloved members of the family of God.

So don’t do it. Take Paul’s example. Tell people who you are. Tell them where you’re from. Tell them what you believe. And then invite them to do the same. Make your story of faith as natural a part of your introduction as where you work and where you live and who’s in your family. And when someone’s story is different, listen to it. Hear it. See God at work in it. Be amazed. Allow for the mutual encouragement of faith, because this is how the gospel is shared.

No matter where you go from here, no matter where you find yourself, no matter what comes next for you – you can do this. You are called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel which is the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith – no matter what. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Holy Power

Sunday, January 05, 2020
Pastor Mark Aune

Mark 1:21-39

Past Sermons

Reclaiming our Place as Creatures of God

Living a New Life with Christ

The Power of God’s Love

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

Past Sermons

Reclaiming our Place as Creatures of God

Living a New Life with Christ

The Power of God’s Love

About Augustana

Quick Links

Contact Us

Worship Hours

Holy Power

Sunday, January 05, 2020 Pastor Mark Aune

Mark 1:21-39

Past Sermons

Sermons

Mutually Encouraged by Faith

Sunday, May 19, 2019 Pastor Megan Torgerson

Romans 1:1-17

Past Sermons

About Augustana

Quick Links

Contact Us

Worship Hours

Sunday, January 05, 2020
Pastor Mark Aune

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Pastor Megan Torgerson