Today's Church is possessed by dogma, ideology and privilege. Time for an exorcism | Opinion
Editor's note: As part of our commitment to foster civil conversations in Viewpoints, we're inviting faith leaders to submit edited versions of their homilies that transcend religion, with messages that can appeal to people of all faith traditions.
The Gospel of Mark moves quickly. In just the first 20 verses, Jesus gets baptized and picks up some disciples. They immediately go to Capernaum, where the first thing Jesus did was go to the synagogue, which surely pleased his mama. By verse 25, he’s performed an exorcism, which usually gets most of our attention when we read Mark 1:21-28. But what we should know by now is that the miracle is never the point of the story. What is often overlooked is that before the exorcism, Jesus preached.
It would be great to know what Jesus said, given its reported impact: “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” With that kind of review, you’d think someone would have taken notes.
Astounded seems like a word preachers want to hear from the congregation in the post-worship receiving line. Not the lukewarm, “Good sermon, pastor,” but “That was astounding!” A review like that surely comes with a book deal and a bigger steeple.
But the Greek word we translate “astound” is ekplēssō, which means “to strike one out of self-possession; to cast off by a blow, to drive out,” so perhaps no one was patting Jesus on the back after this sermon.
Although the moment seems to be interrupted by the story of a man possessed by a demon, it is really a literary device to describe the experience of the whole. The man is said to have cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” But we should think of it as the reaction of the gathered body. After all, they were astounded. Jesus’ preaching had cast out of them self-possession. No wonder there was an uproar. The story goes on to say that Jesus didn’t back down or pivot to a softer message. He channeled his Magnificat-singing mama and held fast to the Good News. Jesus knew there was salvation underneath all that self-possession, and called it right out of the congregation, out of that man.
We don’t know what so disturbed them about the message, but we can certainly name a few ideas that would cause such a disruption in today’s Church. Try casting the American flag out of the sanctuary or arguing that Christianity is not a form of government.
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In actuality, we do not need the manuscript of Jesus’ sermon from that day to know what we need to do. We are a people possessed by dogma, ideology and privilege. White supremacy, Christian nationalism and the idea that God’s blessings are for the chosen few must be cast out from our hearts, minds and congregations.
It will certainly be like the exorcism described in the text, for as Hari Kondabolu said, “The last place the colonizer leaves is your mind.”
Let us borrow a line from our teacher Jesus: “Come out of them!” May we be astounded.
The Rev. Lori Allen Walke is senior minister at Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ.