Loving God, your Son, Jesus, revealed his identity in deeds of great power and yet lived his life in great humility. We thank you for his life of loving service, and ask that you would empower us by your Spirit to follow where Jesus leads; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

One of the "sci-fi" series that airs quite regularly on television these days is called Stargate SG-1. (I have Austin to thank for getting me started watching it.) As has been the case with some of the series that have aired in the past (like the original Star Trek series), Stargate is actually quite theological in many of the episodes. The characters portrayed include at least a couple of different types of beings that claim to be gods. These beings are called the "Goa'uld" and the "Ori". However, the stories told always make it clear that these are not real gods, but false gods. They are false gods because they force people to worship them, and they enslave people. These so-called gods have authority only because they take it for themselves. They use powerful weapons and even torture in order to keep people living in fear. People are forced to worship them or to face the consequences of their disobedience.

In contrast to all of this, we hear in today's gospel about the kind of authority that Jesus has. He does not have authority because he has taken it for himself by force, or even because anybody has given it to him. Rather, Jesus has authority simply by virtue of who he is. He is the only Son of the one true God. He speaks and acts by the power of the Holy Spirit which descended upon him at his baptism (Mk. 1:10). His very presence is such that the unclean spirits and the demons recognize him immediately and know that he has the authority and the power to cast them out (Mk. 1:23-24).

In today's gospel, as in other places in the gospels, people are amazed at Jesus' teaching. They are wondering how he has such authority, for he doesn't occupy any of the traditional positions of authority among their people. He is not a Pharisee or a Sadducee or a member of the council. He has not gone to school to become a rabbi or a scribe. Yet, he knows the Scriptures inside and out, he has the power to heal and to raise the dead, he has power over the demons, and he has power over the forces of nature like the wind and the waves. People know that Jesus is unique, but they don't know where he has gotten this power and authority that simply emanate from him. Some conclude that Jesus is, in fact, the Son of God - "the Holy One," as the unclean spirit says. Some simply don't know what to do with Jesus, and because he doesn't fit in with their preconceived ideas about how God works, they reject him.

In fact, Jesus probably could have forced people to worship God and forced people to follow him. After all, his word is powerful enough to command the wind and the waves, the demons and the dead. Yet, in doing so Jesus would have been just as false as the fictitious gods that are portrayed on shows like Stargate. One of the things that the SG-1 team on Stargate is constantly working on these days is trying to convince people that real gods would not force people to worship them. In this they are correct. The one true God who is revealed in both the Old and the New Testaments never forces people to worship him. God is worthy of worship simply by being our Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. God has created human beings with free will and has always called people into a relationship with God, rather than forcing people to believe and to worship.

Thus, it is also true that any time throughout history that people have been forced to accept Christianity or tortured because of their beliefs or conquered by military means in order to "Christianize" them, these are actions that have nothing to do with Jesus Christ or the God who is revealed through him. Jesus wouldn't allow his disciples to defend him with the sword (Mt. 26:51-54), and Jesus invited people to "come and see" rather than using fear in order to get them to follow him (Jn. 1:39). Jesus, as the fullest revelation that we have as to what God is like, reveals to us a God who first and foremost loves us and even sacrifices himself for us. Yet, people continue to try to use fear as the primary motivation for getting people to worship God and to believe in Jesus Christ.

Such tactics do not come from God, in spite of the fact that God is quite powerful enough to be feared. Even Jesus, in his teaching, communicates that if you're going to fear somebody, then fear the one who has the power to cast both soul and body into hell (Mt. 10:28). Yet, in the same breath Jesus is teaching that God has such love and care for even the little sparrows that not one of them falls to the ground without God's knowledge. In this passage that's found in Matthew, Jesus is saying that God is the only one who is worthy of our fear - because of God's power. However, this same God has counted every hair upon our heads and loves us enough to give his Son's life for ours.

And so, yes - the Scriptures do talk about "the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 111:10). In fact, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" is a recurring refrain in the Old Testament. And yet, if we look up the Hebrew word for "fear" that is used here, we find that it has far more to do with revering God, and worshiping God, and the knowledge of God than it does with being afraid. At the same time, "the fear of the Lord" involves hating evil and avoiding evil (Prov. 8:13; 16:6). So, rather than being afraid of God, it has to do with acknowledging who God is and living our lives in a way that will worship and glorify God.

In the same way, today's gospel invites us to acknowledge who Jesus is and to live our lives in such a way that God will be worshiped and glorified. Now, it is true that there were people who were afraid of Jesus (Mk. 5:15). I think especially of the people who witnessed the healing of a man who had many demons in him and lived among the tombs. This was the time when Jesus ordered the unclean spirits out of the man and allowed them to enter a herd of pigs that was nearby. The whole herd of pigs rushed down the hill and into the lake and drowned. The people were so afraid of Jesus that they asked him to leave their neighbourhood. Yet, notice that these people were not forced to follow Jesus. Instead, their fear kept them away from Jesus and kept them from getting to know how much love he had for them.

Today, we are reminded of Jesus' power and authority: His authority over demons and over illness and over death and over the forces of nature. Yet, Jesus did not use his power in order to manipulate people or in order to force them to worship God and to believe the right things. Instead, he used it to reveal his true identity and to reveal the nature of God. As Philippians reminds us, Jesus did not go after power for himself. Instead, he "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave" (Phil. 2:7). He humbled himself for our sake, using his life on this earth not to gain power over others, but to submit himself to God's will, giving himself for the life of the world.

We, too, are invited to follow Jesus and to submit our lives to him - not because we are afraid of what God might do to us if we don't, but because we recognize who Jesus is and what he has done for us. We have been offered a marvelous gift through Jesus: forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Let us take hold of God's gracious gift, living not out of fear but out of love - serving God for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, and serving the people around us just as Jesus would.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (Jn. 3:16).

Amen.

Epiphany 4(B) Mark 1:21-28
January 29, 2006 Psalm 111
St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore
? 2005 Lynne Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved