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[Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] welcome to first congregational united church of christ in la crosse wisconsin no matter who you are no matter where you are on life's journey you are welcome here this is our virtual worship celebration for the fourth sunday after epiphany january 31st 2021 if you're joining us this morning through the link shared in the e-greeting i remind you that there is another link there to a pdf file you can open that and it will provide you with the order of service and the hymns that we are singing this morning so that you may participate more fully with us i want to remind you that next sunday february 7 at 10 30 a.m we will be holding a virtual annual meeting of the congregation this is a called special meeting of the congregation to consider two important questions that we must act on as a congregation the adoption of our budget for this year and the election of new officers and members of ministries and committees you should have received a packet of materials this week in the mail that include the annual report book for 2020 as well as ballot for each voting member of your household so that you can cast an absentee ballot by mail for the two questions adoption of the budget and election of the slate of officers we encourage you if you have reviewed the materials to mark your ballot put it in the envelope send it back to the church this week we would like to have a clear vote on these matters as we have our virtual annual meeting that meeting will take place on zoom for those of you who do not do zoom or have not in the past there are some instructions about that in the materials that were sent out you can also join the audio of the meeting by a regular telephone you don't need to have an internet connection and there are instructions in the mailing about that we hope that you will participate in this so that we can hear the report of our moderator and the report of our treasurer and also act on the business before us this is a different way of doing it this year but it's the safe way that we are able to invite the full participation of the congregation once again thank you for your continued support of our mission and ministry you can make gifts to our mission and ministry by mailing a check to the church office at 2503 main street in la crosse wisconsin 54601 or you can go to our website www.firstcongolax.org there you will see a give tab but click on that tab and that will provide you with information about making an online gift to support the work of our congregation now let us come into god's presence in thanksgiving to worship god our maker in spirit and in truth [Music] so [Music] [Applause] you [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] aw before god is the beginning of wisdom holy and awesome is god's name let us praise our god forever [Music] so [Music] [Music] praise the triumphs of his grace my graciousness [Music] the honors [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] we know that nothing is able to separate us from the love of god in christ jesus let us therefore be free to confess our sin faithful god we have claimed knowledge that we do not have we have presumed to judge others on the basis of our limited understanding we have grasped for freedom without taking responsibility for our actions our witness is sometimes weak by our actions and our inaction some are excluded some are misled and some are unjustly accused if we have violated another's conscience if we have caused someone to fall we are truly sorry for failing to do all that christ asks of us we turn and seek your forgiveness amen god is gracious and reaches out to welcome us claim the life of discipleship that is offered know that there is good news of forgiveness and healing to be shared amen [Applause] [Music] oh is [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] the peace of christ be with you and also with you we greet one another in the name of christ peace a reading from the book of deuteronomy in chapter 18 the lord your god will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people you shall heed such a prophet this is what you requested of the lord your god at horeb on the day of the assembly when you said if i hear the voice of the lord my god anymore or ever again see this great fire i will die then the lord replied to me they are right in what they have said i will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people i will put my words in the mouth of the prophet who shall speak to them everything that i command anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name i will hold him accountable but any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods or who presumes to speak in the name a word that i have not commanded the prophet to speak that prophet shall die we will join in reading responsibly from psalm 111 as printed in the order of service praise god i will give thanks to god with my whole heart in the company of the upright in the congregation great are the works of god studied by all who delight in them full of honor and majesty is god's word and god's righteousness endures forever god has gained renown by wonderful deeds god is gracious and merciful god provides food for those who fear god god is ever mindful of god's covenant god has shown god's people the power of god's works in giving them the heritage of the nations [Music] all god's precepts are trustworthy they are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness god sent redemption to god's own people god has commanded god's covenant forever holy and awesome is god's name the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom all those who practice it have a good understanding god's praise endures forever reading from the gospel according to matthew in chapter one 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 listen for what the spirit is saying to the churches if john's gospel tends to read like an ivory tower philosophical treatise mark's gospel is closer to an indiana jones action movie mark's primary literary device for linking the brief scenes and sound bites of his gospel is the adverb immediately jesus does one thing and then immediately he is somewhere else doing something else and then immediately something else happens in mark's gospel jesus steps on the scene as an adult gets baptized by john the spirit immediately drove him out into the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness john the baptizer gets arrested and jesus begins his ministry calling two sets of the brothers simon and andrew and james and john as disciples and all of that in the first 20 verses of the gospel then they go to capernaum where jesus begins his ministry in the synagogue by teaching as one with authority not like the scribes which is to say not like we professional preachers and teachers and religious authorities what is remarkable about this teaching what is it that so astonished the congregation at capernaum well we don't know mark is in too much of a hurry to give us those details mark's gospel uses the title rabbi teacher for jesus again and again but mark doesn't record all that much of what jesus taught no extended sermon on the mount that so impressed matthew few extended parables or stories as in luke instead in mark's gospel we see rather than hear the message of jesus on this day at capernaum worship is suddenly interrupted with one of those unforgettably uncomfortable moments when all hell seems to break loose in worship a man with an unclean spirit disrupts everything after jesus has finished his teaching the man begins ranting 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 now in the good old days of in-person worship this is the sort of thing that ushers dread because they're the first line of defense it's their job to restore some order by asking him to be quiet and take a seat until after the service or failing that perhaps to escort him out to the narthex where the rant can continue been there a few times done that it's uncomfortable but that's not what happens at capernaum instead the preacher comes closer and without any special incantation or ritual says to the voice within the man be silent and come out of him and suddenly with that the incident is over the crowd moves from shock silence to buzzing questions they were amazed mark said well duh who wouldn't be the congregation at capernaum got a whole lot more than they bargained for that day in many ways it's a strange beginning to jesus ministry the disciples surely wondered what they had signed up for as for authority the principal witness seems to be an unclean spirit who says that jesus is the holy one of god that's not very satisfying for us most of us in the third christian millennium do not talk in terms of unclean spirits demons and possession we look at this story and ask what is this evil spirit is this the crippling legacy of post-traumatic stress disorder is this the dark hole of depression is this the gradual fading and discombobulation that accompanies dementia or alzheimer's sometimes is this the overpowering consuming power of addiction is this the fractured world of bipolar disorder or the paranoid world of schizophrenia we can imagine all sorts of possibilities and explanations but but our frame of reference is medicine psychology and related sciences and so our solution is to do something to treat the symptoms through various therapeutic means i dare say we would even seek if possible to be welcoming and understanding perhaps seeking to do something about the disruptive outbursts in worship but hoping to be a community where this challenged one might be affirmed that is our world and our system of understanding and there's nothing at all wrong with that it's a good thing we live in a world of laser eye surgery and cornea transplants stem cell therapy and nuclear medicine not the world of traveling healers who make mud from dust and spittle to cure blindness but that makes it difficult for us to experience mark's gospel in the way his first hearers and readers would have their world was one in which they could not exercise that sort of control when people were possessed when people were ill by whatever there was no control when people were possessed by what was thought to be an unclean spirit or an evil spirit they were no longer in control there was little to be done other than try to keep them at bay because that spirit was a power stronger than human volition there was no human cure or understanding so the only solution so often was to isolate the possessed from the rest of the community and so one thing we suspect about anyone possessed is that that person was also surely dispossessed someone forced to live on the margins of society someone not welcome in the marketplace or the synagogue perhaps it is just those someones on the edges and on the margins who are also key to understanding the authority of jesus and his teaching mark doesn't give us all that much so we have to look carefully if we're to understand this teaching this new authority but look in the gospel stories and you will often see jesus doing all the wrong things at all the wrong times and with all the wrong people at least as compared to what one would expect a religious teacher to do look at jesus eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners touching untouchables healing on the sabbath dropping his boundaries when confronted by the feisty faith of a syrophoenician woman in all these scenes he crosses lines established by generations of authority we see this new authority breaking out in his actions as much or more than we hear it in his words we see this new authority and one who ministers to prostitutes and welcomes children into his teaching circle we see it whenever rules and people are in conflict and he places the needs of people ahead of the rules of traditional lines of authority have you ever noticed that again and again in mark's gospel it's the demons who know who jesus is the ones who are labeled mad or crazy or possessed call him the holy one the same ones call him a false prophet a glutton a drunkard a blasphemer the sane ones put him to death the insiders possessed of power see him as a threat an anarchist a revolutionary but the outsider the dispossessed like the criminal on the cross say truly this was the son of god the con the contrast of authority of absolutes and the new authority that confronts us in the life of jesus is captured in a poem by gerhard frost titled loose leaf when your options are either to revise your beliefs or to reject a person look again any formula for living that is too cramped for the human situation cries for rethinking hardcover catechisms are a contradiction to our loose leaf lies when it comes to the possessed and the dispossessed maybe there is not all that much difference between the gospel worldview and our own oh we may use other terminology but there are real demons deep within us unclean spirits we cannot shake angers we just cannot let go of deceptions we have maintained so long that they begin to have the ring of truth resentment that clings like velcro social poisons of racism and sexism and ableism and nationalism there are demonic paranoias of xenophobia and homophobia and anti-semitism all these unclean spirits that speak the worst in us in our society in our nation in our systems we do our best to hide them to keep those spirits at bay swept under the rug locked in a closet the sooner or later in our loose leaf lives the demons spill out as they did at the capernaum synagogue our madness our unclean spirits rear their ugly heads and shout even on holy days in holy places most of us i dare say if we had experienced something like what mark describes at the capernaum synagogue would not consider it a good day at church we do not come to church to confront that which is ugly frightening and evil we come for solace for comfort for support and encouragement for stability we come trying to look our best we put on a good face we smile and welcome one another as authentically as we can but sometimes deep down we also know that there are real places of pain there are deep wounds vast empty places of the heart sometimes there are hurts we might even hope to talk about but we do not dare we do not know how it would be received our fear of rejection leaves us dispossessed and distanced from the one who comes to bring all of that brokenness out into the open i wonder sometimes why did we button it all down somehow we seem to have adopted the idea that worship should be tame something for folks who have it all together or at least look like they have it all together on that day in the capernaum synagogue worship exploded and exhibited both teaching and transformation i wonder why do we so often put all our eggs in the teaching basket is it our way of keeping a safe distance from the transformational power of christ in worship are we afraid of what might happen and yet is the church not a place where we can confront the worst bring it out into the light of christ and exercise it because the demons are real we may use different terminology but they are so real maybe we don't call them unclean spirits but sometimes things we cannot control hold us captive we've witnessed that so often this past year around race in our nation around the privilege that we as white people are accorded for no reason other than the fact that we were born white things we cannot control hold us captive and such demons sooner or later bring out the worst in us in our nation in our society in our systems if we sweep it under the rug keep it in the closet pretend it isn't a problem we insulate and dispossess ourselves from the one who came to bring out the worst in us so that we might be freed from its control over us my friends the heart of the gospel is not just illumination it is also liberation it is release from the worst that is within us release from the angers and resentments release from the fear and bigotry release from that which shrivels our wholeness we can let it go we can be set free and the first step is naming it naming the demon is a way to recognize that it exists it is real because if we do not name it it will surely name us as disciples we are called to model the authority expressed in the life of jesus offering healing speaking truth practicing forgiveness and saying to our most frightening demons come out the power to do that is nothing less than the presence of the living christ in our midst the interesting thing is the unclean spirits recognize the authority of jesus perhaps the question is can we [Music] so [Music] how can we fail to be restored when we try to [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] faith [Music] is [Music] as people gathered in capernaum to worship and listen to jesus words so we have come together to hear god's word let us boldly offer our prayer to god for the world in which we live and to which we are called god in your mercy hear our prayer for all nations and peoples and for your peace with justice god in your mercy hear our prayer for the church of christ bold in mission and compassionate in service god in your mercy hear our prayer for this congregation that we would hear your word and respond god in your mercy hear our prayer for all who share christ's message in the world and in the church god in your mercy hear our prayer for those who are sick and those who care for them for yolanda melanie joanne andy cindy adeline jenny heather eileen carol lyanna and all whom we name in our hearts r in your mercy hear our prayer for the homeless for refugees for all who flee violence and abuse god in your mercy hear our prayer for ourselves that with the power of christ we would name the unclean spirits that hold us captive and call them out god in your mercy hear our prayer oh god we commend to your care all for whom we pray confident that your love for them is greater than anything we can imagine as christ has taught us we are bold to pray father and mother who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever [Music] amen [Music] so [Music] praise the lord [Music] praise the gospel and feeding thousands praise the lord [Music] praise the lord [Music] jesus died [Music] grace [Music] [Applause] is may almighty god who that magi by a shining star to find the christ the light from light lead you also in your pilgrimage to find the lord may god the savior who turned water into wine at the wedding feast transform your lives and make glad your hearts may god the holy spirit who came upon the beloved one at his baptism in the jordan pour out plenteous gifts on you who have come to the waters of new birth amen [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] you