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hey so me so so the works of god's hands are faithful and just all divine precepts are trustworthy we come together today to worship this constant god in spirit and in truth we still our bodies and minds we let our hearts hush we allow ourselves simply to be in the presence of this good gentle and steadfast god it is here in the quiet knowing and being known that we are transformed healed and empowered to participate in the great works of the lord let us practice now the fear of the lord the all of the one who has made us well for therein lies the beginning of wisdom i see the mighty power of god that made the mountains rise that spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies i sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day the moon shines full that he's come and all the stars obey i sing the goodness of the lord formed the creatures with his word and then pronounced them good lord how thy wonders are displayed gaze upon the sky is and everywhere that we can good morning church and welcome to worship at wilshire whether you are a long time member or this is your first time joining us we are thrilled and honored by your presence thank you for being here if you should have any needs or prayer requests that you would like to direct to our ministerial staff please email pastor wilsherebc.com this morning it's my privilege to share three upcoming wilshire traditions with you that are among my favorites first it's time for super bowl for caring this is a long-standing tradition at our church in which we raise money to help feed the hungry our partner this year is mission oak cliff and i hope that you'll participate even as we do so virtually there's a super cool wilshire branded food thermos that you can get as a part of your super bowl of caring box you can do this by making a donation on our web page and picking up your box that will include your thermos as well as recipes from the wilshire kitchen pickup times are this sunday from two to four under the portico shea or during this coming weeks wednesday meals on lunchtime and dinner time that are part of koinonia cafe to go which is another of my favorite things that we're doing right now you can get online and order a meal to pick up at lunchtime or dinner time on wednesdays and the food is fantastic i can't tell you enough how much you'll enjoy getting to have this meal and supporting our kitchen staff and our chef so please consider hopping online and making that order by tuesday at noon and finally upcoming february 4th through the 6th is our annual faith in 3d production this year we're performing the living it's a great look at what it's like to be living through a pandemic and we've spent a lot of time creatively preparing it for you it'll be on our youtube channel you have three opportunities to watch on thursday friday and saturday and february 4th through the 6th so please consider doing so all of these opportunities can be explored further on our social media channels as well as on the wilshire website and now let us continue in a spirit of worship a reading from the psalms praise the lord i will give thanks to the lord with my whole heart and the company of the upright and the congregation great are the works of the lord studied by all who delight in them full of honor and a majesty is his work and his righteousness endures forever he is gained renowned by his wonderful deeds the lord is gracious and merciful he provides food for those who fear him and he is ever mindful of his covenant he has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations the works of his hands are faithful and just all his precepts are trustworthy they are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness he sent redemption to his people he has commanded his covenant forever holy and awesome is his name the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom all those who practice it have a good understanding his praise endures forever speak o lord as we come to you to receive the food of your holy word take your truth plant it deep in us shape and flash in your likeness that the light of christ might be seen today in an acts of love and our deeds of faith speak o lord and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory teach us full obedience holy reverence true humility test our thoughts and our attitudes in the radiance of your purity cause our faith can words fail let their truth prevail speak o lord and renew our minds help us grasp the heights of your plans for us truths unchanged from the dawn of time that will go down through eternity and my grace will stand on your promises and my faith will walk as you walk with us speak o lord till your church is built and the earth is filled with your glory that the light of christ might be seen today our deeds of faith and fulfill in us for your glory this morning i have the privilege of introducing a friend and colleague to you kevin pranato kevin is a three-time baylor grad sick and bears with a bachelor's in nutritional sciences a masters of divinity and a masters in social work making him uniquely positioned to do what he is currently doing now prior to coming to serve as the executive director of mission oak cliff kevin served at the cbf office in decatur working alongside past executive coordinator susie painter kevin thank you for being here and we look forward to learning more about you and more about your ministry this morning so let me first yeah let me first ask you this question some of us may be a little bit unfamiliar with mission oak cliff so can you share a bit about your mission as an agency and particularly how this past year has impacted your work and also the community in which you serve yeah so mission oak cliff has been a part of the oak cliff community for over 70 years we are ministry of cliff temple baptist church and we really exist in order to improve food security to encourage meaningful relationships with people in our community and especially people who are experiencing homelessness and experiencing poverty and we also provide people with the tools that you need in order to live a thriving and flourishing life through our adult education classes so we are fully immersed people in the community love us and trust us and they know that they can depend on us in their times of crisis we are open every day monday through friday and um are really there to just serve and live on the people um within that oak cliff area so we do serve five zip codes in the oak cliff area and we're looking to expand in the near future how has the pandemic i'm sure like many ministries um has really impacted your work and your community and people you serve can you share a little bit about that yeah the pandemic has hit oak cliff really hard um as you may know south dallas has been um just in total crisis over this pandemic not only because of the disparities in health outcomes but also economically a lot of the people that come through our doors are migrants they are immigrants here who have come here to work and they were one of the first ones to have lost their jobs many of them come with large families with many children and one loss of income in the household is huge it puts a tremendous amount of burden on the parents and the children we've also seen just so many people who have also been affected by covid personally they had to go to the hospital and be hospitalized for two weeks to a month and then medical bills rack up and so there's just a lot of uncertainty there but um we hope that through our services and through the hope that we provide at least we try to provide um they can have better outcomes in the future so um as you know wilshire has chosen mission oak cliff as our annual super bowl super bowl of caring beneficiary which is a long-standing annual fundraiser used to support hunger alleviation efforts these funds will go to help mission oak cliff launch a new initiative can you share more about why you want to begin a food to families initiative and how this program in particularly will help those who are facing food insecurity in your community yeah during the start of the pandemic we were talking with some of our school partners and just asking them what are the greatest needs in the community what are they seeing with the students that they are teaching and a lot of the school counselors said that the number one main concern for parents is still food security um it's not the accessibility of technology it's not um getting the virus but it's actually where are they gonna source the food and so we decided that we wanted to kind of tackle that problem and be a part of the solution we know that many families in our community are burdened with transportation they don't have a car to go to the grocery store or to food pantry like ours they might have small children that they can't leave at home while they wait in line at a food pantry and so we thought what is something that we can do and how can we mobilize people in our community to do something about this food and security crisis in oak cliff and so that's when we started the idea of foods of families where we get volunteers to help deliver groceries to families in our neighborhood our school counselors are the ones who refer the families to us so we know that um i mean we know that there's so many families that are hidden um they won't pick up the phone in order to ask for help sometimes they don't know that there's assistance available but these school counselors have actually identified these families for us um the most vulnerable families for us to help provide food for and when are you kind of hoping to to launch that as soon as possible it sounds like partnerships are kind of in place yeah so we've already partnered with three schools who are participating in this program there are four more schools actually five more schools that are waiting to be um brought on onboarded into this program we've already done a soft launch um last term um and with 30 families i am hoping that we can reach at least 120 families by the end of the year awesome you know there's so much to be said about the um the gift of working and collaboration and in partnership and so thank you for reminding of that of us reminding that um reminding us of that this morning is you know as we as wilshere looks to collaborate and partner um particularly with ministries and non-profits like the one that you oversee and direct we look forward to watching this develop and seeing where it goes and we're so grateful that you could be with us and to share your vision for mission oak cliff and the communities and zip codes in which you serve so thank you kevin for everything that you do thank you so much heather we really appreciate the partnership with wilshere all right well take care all right you as well will you pray with me gracious god as we gather in our homes today we marvel at your spirit that draws us together we are grateful for your constant presence a presence that rides with us through twists and turns of joy and sits with us in moments of grief may we continue to learn to be present for one another like you are for us today we ask for your comforting presence and healing for the beloveds in our congregation for david and jolie in the hospital and bob in hospice we pray that they will be surrounded by your loving care comfort all who are healing from covet 19 today may they be strengthened and restored we ask that those who were grieving the loss of someone from coven 19 feel your comforting presence and lord today we are grateful for science and for scientists who are making it possible for us to get through this pandemic renew our hearts and our imaginations as we wait we pray today for frontline workers for doctors for nurses for chaplains and all hospital staff who care for patients in the midst of this pandemic we pray for teachers retail workers and all employees whose livelihood puts them in harm's way during this time grant them peace comfort health give them a cleansing breath lord today as we turn our attention to the needs of our neighbors facing food and security we ask that you will keep our hearts open to giving may your spirit continue to convict us to evaluate what is really enough may we never lose sight of our neighbors even the ones whose situations make us want to look away as we prepare to gather in the future may we always make space for our hungry neighbors at our crowded tables and lord as we eagerly await the day when we can be together again may we all feel your loving presence that connects us in your loving name we pray amen a reading from the gospel of mark they went to capernaum and when the sabbath came he entered the synagogue and taught they were astounded at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes 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 they were all amazed and they kept on asking one another what is this a new teaching with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him at once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of galilee this is the word of the lord thanks be to god i like to keep things neat and orderly like if you look at my desk at home or here at the church everything is arranged just soap books and papers the clothes in my closet are lined up logically everything is hanging in well in the same direction for instance and then things are separated in groups and i don't mean just like shirts and pants i mean even dress clothes and casual clothes and then there's a whole section for golf clothes by themselves and well even my sock drawers are systematized and i i did say drawers plural it is a bit of a mild sickness don't you know but for all that i still perpetually fail my wife's test for housekeeping kim is a deep cleaner i like to see things properly placed but i don't see dust apparently now from time to time she will invade the sanctuary of my spaces with her alternative authority and give it all a good scrubbing she goes beneath the surface of things to make things shine we have a story here about jesus doing just that kind of work he is a deep cleaner he exercises a demon and sets a man free but before we get too deep into the story there's just so much to look at and it will take eyes more like kim's than mine to see it so mark has jesus getting right to the bottom of things he takes us beneath the surface he confronts the invisible demonic world that hides in plain sight and disrupts the intentions of god for humanity and in doing so he invites the faith community to join him in this proper work after being baptized in the jordan by john the baptist jesus goes north to galilee and begins to enlist his disciples and then he goes to simon peter's home village capernaum and enters the synagogue on the sabbath now watch this holy space and holy time that's already a clue to what's going on here he begins to teach and his teaching catches their attention it isn't so much what he says but the authority with which he says it now that doesn't mean just that he had a strong gift for teaching or that he was particularly charming in his style it's that unlike the pattern of the scribes who taught by referring to the interpretations of various other rabbis across time jesus gave his own interpretation he didn't couch what he said in terms of what others said in order to show that he had a mastery of the tradition that they should then admire he spoke as though he knew the right interpretation of those texts for the people of god in their time so right off a contrast is made between jesus and the scribes just then a man with an unclean spirit speaks up note he didn't burst into the synagogue he was already there now we aren't told if everyone already knew that this man had an unclean spirit but he was there among them as one of them now this is important because of our tendency to other the man right off like you know the good unsuspecting worshipers are on one side with jesus and then there's this one oddball lunatic over here on the other side who is threatening their peaceful assembly and you can just imagine how this would play out at wilshire i mean if such a guy were to stand up around here the ushers would come rushing in and escort him out so that we could all return to worship as usual well worship was not going along as usual in capernaum that day we've already seen that because jesus taught with authority and so something was already different so if we're not supposed to see this man as a weirdo to whisk away a one-off mentally disturbed person that jesus would deal with individually so that the good folk could go back to being good how should we understand him as being possessed with a spirit i want to suggest to you that this man was possessed with a spirit that was already present also in the rest of the people gathered there but it was most acutely manifested in this one man he symbolically represents the social arrangement between the oppressive roman empire and the complicity of the scribal authorities who had settled for a life of quiet acceptance of their domination and therefore had lost the power of god in the people of god to resist it look at what the man says what have you to do with us jesus of nazareth have you come to destroy us so who is the us here isn't he a single individual who is speaking well yes and no this man has been more thoroughly taken over by the same spirit that was present to a lesser degree in all the people gathered that day so why him more than others we don't know but we do know don't we that when people are living together in an abusive environment say a family for instance there is usually one identified patient in the family who takes a disproportionate measure of the abuse and internalizes it it's not that that's the only person in the family who is sick though the whole family is afflicted the individual needs to be set free from this unclean spirit but so does the family so look how the man speaks with the unclean spirit he speaks first in the plural and then in the singular that is he speaks as if he's representing a spirit that has taken them all hostage he is no longer identified by his own unique voice but by the voice of the oppressive force that has taken control of them and when he does use the singular i know who you are the holy one of god it's as if he speaks now in the collective voice of that invisible power that is in mortal conflict with the invisible god this is the nature of the demonic it lurks in ideologies and systems of oppression it hides in plain sight it speaks in a way that makes sense in one sense to everyone who is wittingly or unwittingly caught up in it until that is the holy one shows up to show us how to speak with authority in order to break the grip it has on the minds of people is this not what we are seeing in american churches today we have some among us whom we have known for years but who have seemingly been taken over by spirits that have changed them they have imbibed the false narrative of christian nationalism or american exceptionalism or white supremacy or cultural entitlement to the point where we hardly know them anymore the southern baptist research group lifeway released results of a study this week that found that in churches of more than 250 people 61 of those pastors said that they are dealing with members who are spouting conspiracy theories while hundreds of people stormed the capital the report says there are millions of americans who share their views there is no doubt the united states has a serious problem with pathological political delusions it continued pessimistically once people have gone far enough down the rabbit hole of conspiratorial thinking it can be nearly impossible to get them back out nearly impossible but not impossible wherever jesus is present deliverance is possible and i want to hasten to say not just because i want to be fair in balance but because it's true that it's not just the far right radical element of christians that is susceptible we all are even if we are people of a more progressive view of politics or theology because rome empire mentality is what i'm talking about seeks domination of everyone and everything it doesn't discriminate group think is dangerous and demonic whether from the right or left it robs people of compassion for others and and it divides us from one another we all need to be delivered and set free so jesus rebukes the unclean spirit and casts it out of the man which is something the community had not done itself because they had lost touch with the power of god to identify the demonic and defeat it but the unclean spirit wasn't cleansed easily it came out convulsing and crying loudly and this is because it had such a deep foothold in the man's personality james baldwin said that people are trapped in history and history is trapped in them we see that with racism blacks as well as whites because we internalize it all until we can't even see it being present let alone get free of it it has taken residence in us this is why the rabbis said about the israelites after they left egyptian slavery you can get the people out of egypt but it is harder to get egypt out of the people so how do we do this first trust the power and presence of jesus among us as he is always here to seek to free us and he never leaves us helpless second recognize that we all need his deliverance when we see someone who seems to be far gone in our eyes rather than dismissing that person look for ourselves in him or her try to find how true that is even in our own spirit don't write off the person and act as if we're fine and the problem is just with that person we will never come together and experience salvation and renewed community if we scapegoat others and demonize them as the enemy while letting ourselves off the hook third we can't settle for worship without dangerous encounter with the presence of god we need word and deed enlightenment and exorcism illumination and transformation we need jesus to shake us and change us even if that is uncomfortable the church has to address the demonic within the community with an honest interrogation of our hearts if we are to get free and live as free people finally address those who are most disturbed among us with power and grace at the same time see beneath the surface to find the tender humanity that is still present there jesus isn't satisfied with being among nice people who have adjusted to the cultural and political powers that hold us hostage he goes deep and he calls us to join him tom troger wrote a hymn on this passage that carries the truth of it silence frenzied unclean spirit cried god's healing holy one cease your ranting flesh can't bear it flee as night before the sun at christ's words the demon trembled from its victim madly rushed while the crowd that was assembled stood in wonder stunned and hushed amen lord glory and lord thank you so much for worshiping with us today it may be that you're local in the dallas area or the greater dallas area or somewhere in the united states or around the world it's amazing that we've been hearing from people from everywhere that they've been joining us and worshiping with us and we so thank you for doing so we'd love to be a spiritual community for you whether you live nearby or far away obviously when the pandemic lifts and we're able to gather in person we'd love to see you in the pews but we we have virtual memberships as well so it may be that you would like to know more about membership whether resident or non-resident it doesn't matter please email me at pastor wilsherebc.org and we will communicate with you as soon as we can well as you go now may the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god and the communion of the holy spirit be with and upon you all now and forever amen foreign uh so you