Sermon - January 28th, 2024 - The Rev. Jack Alvey

I speak in the name of one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Sometimes, as a clergy person or priest, you can sort of get into a routine of saying the

same things over and over again, like at the beginning of a sermon in the name of one God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And then you read passages like the one from Deuteronomy and you realize or remember how

awesome and maybe even dangerous speaking in the name of God can be.

It says, but any prophet who presumes to speak in the name, in my name a word that I have

not commanded, the prophet to speak shall die.

So that being said, another prayer.

May God use and overrule my words.

May God's word only be spoken and God's word only be heard.

Amen.

Today's lesson from Mark records the first public act in Jesus' ministry.

He's just been baptized, tempted in the wilderness, and called his first disciples.

And now he's on the main stage, you might say.

He's the guest preacher at the synagogue in Capernaum.

He immediately starts to make an impression.

The people gathered remark, he speaks as one with authority and not as describes.

In other words, Jesus' words have power behind them.

They're not idle.

They're active.

They do something.

The power of Jesus' word is demonstrated powerfully in the casting out of this unclean spirit.

Just as God's word brought order to creation in the beginning of time, Jesus' word cast

out this unclean spirit and restores this man to life.

Unlike the scribes, Jesus doesn't have to cite his source.

He doesn't have to give a bibliography because Jesus is the source.

Jesus is the word made flesh.

Now as I reflect on this passage, I think it's remarkable that the community gathered

there seems to be okay with this unclean spirit or this negative energy that resides in this

man.

Have they just figured out how to live with this negative energy?

Have they not tried to heal this man?

Or maybe they did attempt to heal this man at one time, but it didn't work.

I imagine the subtext might have sounded something like, hey guys, why haven't you healed this

man?

Asked Jesus.

The religious leaders might reply, well, we tried it once and it didn't work.

We tried it once, but it didn't work.

How often have we heard that in our religious circles over time?

Oh ye of little faith, I can hear Jesus saying.

As most of you know, I spent a week and a half in London as a part of a continuing education

program called Learning from London.

We explored the unlikely ways in which the Church of England is growing.

Just a word of note, it's not like they're growing by leaps and bounds, but they are

growing enough to keep up with the decline, which is actually pretty remarkable in and

of itself.

And during a conversation with the Bishop of London, Sarah Malali mentioned that the

Church of England has always been really good at diagnosing the problem, but historically

very bad at doing anything about it.

They've been aware of the numerical decline for decades, but they've felt powerless to

respond.

The, we've tried that attitude, was pervasive in the Church's posture.

However, in an organic, excuse me, in an organic way, in a non-centralized way, growth started

happening all over the Church in both small and big ways.

And when asked to pinpoint why, the Bishop attributed the growth to the power of prayer.

Well duh might be your first thought.

That's a great place to start is with prayer.

But there was an authenticity to what she was saying that I wasn't necessarily always

used to hearing.

She spoke as one with authority, not just because she wore a purple shirt and had a

collar on, not as the hyper-religious spokes.

And it wasn't just that her authority came, I was one step ahead.

She spoke as one with authority, not as the hyper-religious spokes.

And it wasn't just that her authority came from the purple shirt and collar, but it came

from a deeper, more authentic space.

And as I later reflected, I would say that authority comes from the power of the Holy

Spirit working within her.

When prayer becomes a humble act of faith and not some kind of performative act, we

are allowing the Spirit to move and make room to work.

When we pray in faith, when we invite the Spirit to be a part of the conversation, a

liberation kind of, there's a liberation that happens in us.

We are no longer beholden to the seemingly unsurmountable task.

We no longer feel paralyzed or overwhelmed by a job that's too big.

Because while, yes, the job is too big for any one of us, it is not too big for God.

With God's help, nothing is impossible.

God can move mountains.

God can raise even the dead to life.

And so prayer expands our vision of what's possible, because prayer opens us up to the

work of the Spirit moving in our midst.

In today's lesson, and in Mark's Gospel in general, and Scripture in general, Jesus

doesn't spend a whole lot of time diagnosing the problem.

In Mark and fashion, Jesus immediately acts.

He doesn't have a committee to talk about what's wrong.

He says to the unclean spirit, be silent and come out of him.

And after Jesus speaks these words, the unclean spirit is forced out of the man.

This word casts the negative energy and makes room for the Holy Spirit.

Jesus doesn't have time for this negative energy to fill our places of worship and teaching.

Jesus cleanses this man in the synagogue from the unclean spirits.

His fame begins to spread across the surrounding region, and now he's the most sought after

speaker and miracle worker in the land.

Now I don't have to tell you that we live in a world that is filled with too much negative

energy, and the people who often get the most press, the most TV time or media time, are

the people who sort of perpetuate that negative energy.

This negative energy fills our workplaces and our news feeds, our schools, our homes,

our big league and little league sporting venues, our radio waves, even our places of

worship.

This negative energy constricts our vision of what is possible.

These unclean spirits diminish and limit our faith in the power of the Spirit.

And as we see in today's lesson, prayer isn't just a conversation with God, but it's a conversation

with the community.

Prayer has the power to drive out the negative energy that exists in the world around us

and the world inside of us.

And yet, yes, prayer is something we can do quietly to ourselves, and we Episcopalians

are really good at doing prayer quietly to ourselves.

But prayer is also something that we do aloud with others.

And we as Episcopalians, that's a growing edge, you might say.

We do have a prayer book, which is a great place to start.

Our prayers aren't just words that we speak, but they're also words that God speaks through

us.

One of my favorite verses in Scripture is from Romans 8, which says, we do not know

how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

So when you pray silently and aloud, listen to your breathing and trust that God's word

is being spoken into this world and driving out those negative feelings and energies in

our homes and our schools, our workplaces, our communities, our little league sports

complexes, our places of worship, our news feeds.

God's Spirit, so that God's Spirit might give us the vision of hope and healing, so that

God's Spirit might give us the vision of the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Now tomorrow night, I'm going to ask our bestie to kick around a question.

How can we create a culture of prayer at Ascension?

That's not to say we don't already have a culture of prayer.

But how can we make it more of a priority in all facets of our life together?

For example, what would it look like if those who gathered to pack lunches for the Abbey

stopped and prayed for the hungry who were receiving the meal, prayed for themselves,

for their families, out loud?

Maybe we'll have like a scripted prayer that you can go off of.

What would it look like if we prayed every time we gathered, not only as large groups,

but as small groups?

And likewise, I want to ask you a similar question.

How much you create a culture of prayer in your homes and your workplaces even, in your

own life?

Like the Church of England, you might be tempted to diagnose why it's hard to do that.

But I invite you, however, to take a tip from Mark's Jesus and just start doing it.

If you need help, don't hesitate to reach out to Emily or me.

There might be other people in your orbit that are especially faithful in prayer.

Reach out to them.

I'm sure they'd love to talk to you.

And if you have ideas that might inspire a culture of prayer at Ascension, please don't

hesitate to let someone in parish leadership know.

So often revival and renewal come from out there and work their way to the center, not

the other way around necessarily.

Lastly, think of prayer not as a tool to change God's mind about something, but as a way to

change your heart and the hearts of those around you about what is possible with God.

We don't have to live with negativity in our midst.

Remember this is an election year, so this is really important.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have been given the authority to speak God's word

into the world and drive out those unclean spirits, those negative energies, so that

peace may prevail.

And the next time you start to say to yourself, we've already tried that, it didn't work,

or I already tried that and it didn't work, I encourage you to take a deep breath and

invite the Holy Spirit to expand your vision of what is possible with God.

Ask the Holy Spirit to drive away that negative energy that exists in you and around you so

that you may never be ceased to be amazed by the power of God's word as it is lived and

breathed through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

Now let us proclaim our faith with a nice and creed.

We believe in one God.