Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

DEUTERONOMY 18:15-20 Before we go to the passage at hand, we need to explore some of the events in Israel and Judah that produced the book called "Deuteronomy." Its name comes from two Greek words - deutero (second) and nomos (law) - and it presents itself as a second Law of Moses to stand beside the first given in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

The group who produced this book of Deuteronomy traced its ancestry back to Isaiah the prophet who had lived in Jerusalem one hundred years before, during the time that Samaria, the northern kingdom, had been captured by the Assyrians. Isaiah had insisted that King Hezekiah of Judah not try to fight the Assyrians but trust God that God would save the holy people of Judah from destruction. When the King did not listen to him, Isaiah left the city and went to a little village north of the city, and there be established a small group of followers and disciples.

Because this group of people were not popular with the king, they had to exist mostly underground. But they were very active. They began to collect the speeches of some of the prophets who had prophesied before Isaiah had. Amos was one of these, Hosea was another, Micah a third. They wrote down these prophecies, along with those of Isaiah of Jerusalem whom they considered to be the founder of their group, and kept them in their sacred libraries. They also began to write an official history of Israel and Judah (our books of Samuel and Kings), and they wrote it from the point of view that these little kingdoms had prospered when they were faithful to Yahweh and had been punished when they were not. They began their history with the time of David and Solomon, the only kings of the two kingdoms, and they kept bringing it down to the present day. In addition, they wrote down what they remembered Moses had said and put this series of sermons into a single book, which later became our Book of Deuteronomy. Armed with these writings, and quietly gathering more followers to their group, they waited their chance.

The chance came when King Josiah ordered the temple of Jerusalem to be cleansed of Assyrian elements. Hilkiah the priest was probably a member of the underground group. He brought the book to the temple, and then he brought it to the King. The King took it to Huldah the prophetess - note the place that women had in Judah at this time; she was the one that the King turned to in order to interpret the Word of the Lord. She was certainly a member of the group, for she could trace her ancestry back to Isaiah. Then the king took it to all the people, and they accepted the Law of the Lord as their law.

This book became one of the most important in all the Bible. All Judah abided by it. Jesus, during his ministry, quoted Deuteronomy more than any other book of the Bible, and here he found what he called the chief commandment: "Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." The Israelite underground had done its work well. Saving and preserving prophecies and laws that came from an earlier time, risking their lives in opposing Assyrian rule when the rest of Judah did not, working out their understanding that God is pleased when we worship and serve God as Moses did, and passing that insight on to later generations as a standard of faith and practice, they have put all of us into their debt and given us a heritage the implications of which we are still working out today.

Our passage in Deuteronomy 18:15-20 described the office of prophet and how it is to be regarded in Israel. This is set in the midst of a section of the book that describes the other offices of Judah as well: the office of king, of priest, and of judge. Taken together, these four offices provide the framework for the governance of God's chosen people.

The purpose of prophecy in Israel was to remind the appointed officers and the people that God - not king or priest or judge -is still sovereign of their nation and that they each need to be attentive to the Word of God which the prophet brings in order to do their own work in the right way. But the prophet is not free to speak any word that he or she wants, and part of this passage sets out the standards by which the word of the prophet is to be judged.

Standard One: The prophet has to come from God's own people, Judah and Israel. Without proper allegiance to the covenant God made with Israel under Moses, the prophet will not know what the Word of God is. Only Israel knows this, so the prophet must be from the people of God's own choosing.

Standard Two: The prophet can speak only for the God of the covenant and then only a word which the Lord has commanded. The prophet cannot speak in the name of any other god (in our day, substitute the word "value" for "god") than Yahweh. If he does, he will die. But if anyone in Israel or Judah does not listen to the word of the prophet when it is truly spoken in the name of the Lord, that person shall die.

Standard Three (this one is not included in our text but follows it in verses 21 and 22): The Word of the Lord is validated by whether or not the thing spoken of takes place. Moses had said that God would lead the people to the Promised Land. God did. Amos had said that unless in Israel justice should flow down like the waters and righteousness like a mighty stream, the people would be destroyed. They were. Isaiah of Jerusalem had said that Judah should not put its trust in horses in order to be saved from Assyria but in the arm of the Lord. They did, and they were. Prophecy is verified by the results of its word.

Standard Four (and most important of all): The prophet should be like Moses. He or she is mandated to witness to the God of the exodus, the covenant, the commands and the promises of Sinai. This covenantal ethic given through Moses at Sinai is precisely what makes Israel's life unique and demanding. A prophet who arises in Judah must be like Moses: sensitive to the word and work of God, willing to carry out that work even if it leads the people into the desert of deprivation and temptation, willing, finally, to lay down his life for his people. All this Moses had done, and the only prophet worth having was one who would act "as Moses did."

PSALM 111: The best-known verse in this psalm is the last one, and we can begin with it. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." What does fear have to do with wisdom, we often ask ourselves? This, primarily: those who fear the Lord fear doing anything that will disturb the Lord and go contrary to God's will. Those who are "wise," as the psalmist says, will practice the Lord's ways and give praise to God forever.

The psalm in its totality is set in the atmosphere of praise. Its first words are "Praise the Lord." Its last words are "God's praise endures forever." In between we are reminded that the works of the Lord are great.

These "works" are laid out for us. "Righteousness" is one. The Lord is known to live in right relations with his people at all times, whether they respond in kind or not. "Wonderful deeds": God did after all create the heavens and the earth. With a powerful arm God led the people from slavery in Egypt. God brought avenging enemies upon Israel when it acted unjustly toward its own people, and God took Judah into exile in Babylon when it did the same. But God brought Judah from exile and gave it a second chance before the nations. The Lord is indeed "gracious and merciful."

God also provides food for those mindful of him, as he did in the wilderness, and God keeps covenant with us. God is our God, and we are God's people, and as such we are to organize our lives in a manner pleasing to him. God has given us his commandments and precepts, God has redeemed his people, God has established his covenant in faithfulness and righteousness forever. God is holy and awesome, and therefore, as we said at the beginning, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of our wisdom."

MARK 1:21-28: The new-found followers of Jesus went with him from the spot by the Sea of Galilee where he had called them to the small city of Capernaum. It was the sabbath. Jesus went into the synagogue and taught those who were there; what he taught is not specified. But his teaching astonished them, "for he taught as one who had authority and not as the scribes."

Apparently this means that his teaching about God had a directness that spoke to them. Scribes would derive all kinds of statements from other writings, citing this authority and that one as proof of their teaching. Jesus taught direct from the Scriptures to the people, and his authority was the authority of God.

Almost at once as he was teaching there was a disturbance in the synagogue. A man with an unclean spirit was there. He cried out to Jesus: "What to me and to you, Jesus of Nazareth (this is the literal translation)? What have you to do with me and me with you? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God!" These frenzied words came out of his fevered spirit. But Jesus rebuked him (this is the same word later used for the rebuke of Peter when he asked Jesus not to speak of his death). He said to the unclean spirit: "Be silent. Come out of him." The unclean spirit convulsed the man. He cried out with a loud voice. Then he came out of him.

This time the crowd in the synagogue was even more astonished, and voices rose from everywhere: "What is this?" - "A new teaching!" - "with authority!" - "He commands even the unclean spirits!" - "They obey him!" A report swiftly went out into all Galilee: here is a new healer, here is one with authority.

The event seems as strange to us as it must have seemed to the people of the synagogue that evening. We do not live in a world peopled with demons and unclean spirits. Branscomb tries to take us back into this world. "The thought was that the world was filled with disembodied spirits, or demons, all under the leadership of the Prince of Evil. Satan, formerly one of God's angels, and 'the adversary' of men in the divine court, became more and more the embodiment of evil and the opponent of God. Demons were unbelievably numerous: seven and a half millions, says one authority. Though they were invisible, they could assume visible forms, which, however, would not cast shadows. They lived mostly in the wilderness, where their howling could be heard; and they lived in unclean places like cemeteries or around ruined structures. They could enter human bodies and work all sorts of harm. They caused plagues and calamities, diseases and accidents, and tempted people to sin. Prayer, reciting the Shema, reading the Torah, obeying the commandments, various charms, protected people from demons."

At this point the "authority" of Jesus dealt with the demon.

When Jesus speaks, God acts: in casting out a demon, in healing a paralytic, in forgiving sin, in addressing his people at worship. This is what cannot, according to Mark, be said of the words of the scribes. For Jesus, word is action.

Whatever else we can say about this event, it is clear that this was one of the first skirmishes between the newly released power of God and the unclean spirits of the day. What occurred in that synagogue that evening was in fulfillment of Jesus' claim that the kingship of God had drawn very close. The power of this kingship would be with Jesus in the coming months. Wherever he went and whatever he did, that power would be exhibited through him.

FIRST CORINTHIANS 8:1-13: The first few verses reflect the arguments that had gone on in Corinth over the matter of eating food sacrificed to idols.

"All of us possess knowledge," Paul's opponents had said.

"Knowledge puffs up, love builds up," Paul had replied.

"No idol really exists in this world. . . . There is no God but one," his opponents said, thereby excusing their actions.

"For us there is one God," said Paul, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." In other words, said Paul, don't try to hide behind some religious arguments about 'No idols," "one God." There is only one God, and that God has revealed himself through Jesus Christ, and the issue is that Jesus Christ would not permit you to harm other Christians by eating food offered to idols.

The issue, as Paul saw, was not so much religious as it was ethical. When Corinthian men were invited to go to a social dinner, most often the dinner was held in someone's temple. As Moffatt told us a generation ago, "When the hunting club of the Artemisians held a banquet, e.g., they began by sacrificing a part of the meat to Artemis. Or a private party might be given, nominally as a 'table of Lord Serapis,' the proceedings being opened by a similar sacrifice. It was integral to the formal etiquette of the society.

"But some of their fellow members shuddered at the very thought of eating food which had been contaminated by consecration to an idol. Demons could not only possess human souls but infect food, they believed. To them it was a dreadful and dangerous exposure of the soul to pagan spirits of evil, if anyone ate food, which must surely be charged with their impure, potent influence."

In 7-13 Paul goes on with his argument against attending these social functions at pagan temples.

7. Some new Christians are so accustomed to idols that they continue to think that food sacrificed to idols and eaten in temples really does belong to the idol. Their consciences, inner resources, are weak. Do not contribute to their weakness by eating such food. This is a prudential argument.

8-12. Food will not bring us close to God or distance us from God. But some may see you eating such food and then they might try it themselves. You are their model. Act like a model. If eating food is a stumbling block to others, don't do it. This is the behavioral argument.

13. The final argument has to do with the nature of the Christian church. If a member of the church is offended by your action, cease your action. Sinning against these members of your family is a sin against Christ. Therefore, says Paul, I for one will not do it, so that I do not cause any of them to fall.

The problem in the solution Paul's gives is that it may lead to domination of the "weak" over the "strong": we may not do anything that some member of the church fails to call Christian. Where is the point at which this argument no longer prevails? I see it at the point of social justice: is an act that we might perform just in itself or is it not? In the matter of eating food offered to idols in their own temple, Paul does not raise the question of the intrinsic ethical nature of the action. When we determine that issues of justice for others than ourselves are at stake, we have to act in the interests of that justice. The justice of God and the justice of Jesus Christ will permit no other course than this.