Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
Sunday, Feb 9, 2003
The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

The Danger of Half-Truths
The Rev. Dr. Robert R. Hansel

Gospel:Mark 1:29-39
(This sermon is also available in audio)

In our house it always seems that somehow everybody manages to gather in the kitchen. Even if we invite people for a dress-up dinner they still wind up standing around and talking in the kitchen. It's actually a tough job to shoo them out into the living room where all the snacks and drinks are readied. The same is true, I have to admit, even when Dale and I are home by ourselves. The kitchen seems to be the place where everything happens. That's the reason, I suppose, that we have a radio there under the counter that's never turned off. It's tuned to 91.1 WKNO, so all day long we hear this beautiful music and are kept up to date on the latest news. Well, come to think of it, there are actually a few occasions when that the radio's not on--at least in the sense of being tuned to something that we're listening to with some attention. Here's the thing: there must be something about the electrical circuitry in the kitchen that causes signals to get crossed up between, for instance, the radio and the freezer compressor. What happens is that WKNO starts to "migrate" or something. Another radio station starts taking over, first as a kind of vague duet, then eventually an incomprehensibly garbled blurring of messages that you can't make head nor tail of. No amount of fiddling with the dials, turning the radio around, or moving it to the other side of the room will stop the intruding sound from distorting and then obliterating what you really want to hear.

The reason I'm thinking about that quirky radio right now is because we just heard in the Gospel story for this morning what Jesus did when he found the airways jammed and garbled. What a strange situation we encounter in the first chapter of Mark. We are told that Jesus would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. What are we to make of this "gag order" that Jesus declares on the demons? What did those demons know? What is it that they would say if they were allowed to speak?

By way of responding to some of those questions, let me begin by saying that the author of Mark's Gospel has a definite literary plan. What he does is to tell you a series of anecdotes that are amazing and surprising so that you start wondering who Jesus is and how he's able to do that these things. That plan would be spoiled if the suspense were taken away in the very first chapter. Mark's writer plays with the reader, giving him all sorts of clues about this man Jesus. It's a kind of "Who was that masked man?" approach. He wants the reader to come to his own discovery that this man Jesus is, in fact, God translated mysteriously into the language of a human life. Mark wanted to avoid the notion that God would demand or force our acceptance of Jesus as the chosen one. The importance of suspense and the necessity of personal "discovery and conversion" is central to what the writer of Mark wants us to know about God's plan of salvation. You can't come to that perception until you know the entire story, not just a few possibilities. The demons can't contribute much because they have a very limited understanding--they know nothing of God's message of love and salvation at all. They simply thought of Jesus from their own negative experience and selfish perspective. To them Jesus was the ultimate threat--a very powerful enemy, the judge who had the power to overthrow and destroy them. Mark has Jesus silence those demons until the events of Easter make it totally apparent--to them and to everybody else--exactly who Jesus really is. So, until all the facts are in, the whole truth known, Jesus simply silences those demons.

Now this silencing that Jesus does to the demons can be a temporary thing or it can be a permanent thing. That's up to each of us and, of course, to our culture as a whole. If we reject the truth that Jesus brings to us then the airways suddenly are opened and those ancient demons come through loud and clear. It seems to me that we're living right at this present moment in a world where modern demons are threatening to jam all the circuits of human communication and perception. I'm not talking about extreme examples like we see in the film "A Beautiful Mind," in which an absolute genius has voices and delusions that literally drive him mad. I talking about ordinary people who can't seem to find any peace from the constant "monkey chatter" going on within their consciousness. There are, in short, legions of modern demons who will rule your airways if you let them, if you can't find a way to silence them.

Let's look at some of these modern demons--voices of death and destruction that are continuously speaking out in our own time, tempting us, calling us to embrace some partial truths over against God's whole truth. What are these demons telling those of us who are listening? Here are some samples from three of the loudest that I know are hard at work these days:

The Demon of Want

· "I'm tired of hearing about the hungry and homeless. Those people are always begging for a handout.
· The way I see it, it's every man for himself.
· This is the land of opportunity. You can't be lazy and shiftless.
You've got to set your sights high and work for it.
· The poor have only themselves to blame. Why should I share? What's mine is mine. I've earned it. If you're in want, why don't you do something about it?"

The Demon of Walls

· "God must like walls of separation. That's why we have fences and borders. That's why people were created with different skin colors.
· Think about all the different languages in the world; they keep us with our own kind.
· Social classes and restricted housing are logical because who wants to have a bunch of dirty, smelly street people right in your own neighborhood?
· Why shouldn't I be able to associate only with
people who have the same standards of living that I do?"

The Demon of War

· "Maybe might does make right. We're the most powerful nation on this
earth and we're the good guys. God is on our side.
· Anybody who threatens the USA is up to no good and it up to us to do whatever it takes to get rid of them. Let's kill them before they kill us.
· Bombing and shooting may, after all, simply be necessary evils. Death and destruction may actually turn out to be for everybody's good, even if thousands of soldiers and thousands of bystanders have to die in the process. After all, it's the peace following the war that we really want, isn't it?

What is it that we are we hear in the babble of these demon voices? Notice carefully what they're saying. These are not actually lies. Demons are more subtle than that. Demons tell us half-truths--not the whole truth. It's a thin rationale that provides us with an excuse, an excuse for doing what we know in our hearts may be completely wrong and selfish. What makes those demon voices so attractive is that they allow us to go ahead and act in ways that are prideful and violent and still be able to feel good about ourselves.

Those demon voices are all around us these days, shouting, whining, whispering in our ears without any letup. There's just enough truth in their message to sound pretty convincing unless we are also listening to the other voice--the voice of Jesus who ALONE is able to silence those demons. Jesus speaks to us with a calm and a reason that challenges every single one of those partial truths that make the demons' voices so convincingly seductive.

Pentecost is a time of light and truth. We're asked during these Sundays between Christmas and Lent to reflect on the life and ministry of Jesus, the one who would not let the demons speak until he had had His say. His is a message of universal and permanent truth that dispels the demons' darkness. Once you've heard it and truly embraced it, you can be free forever from their seductive half-truths. What is the whole truth that Jesus has to offer?

Jesus says, not too surprisingly, exactly the polar opposite of the demons. He tells us that the whole reason for his coming among us was to put an end forever to Want, to Walls, and to War. His whole life and ministry are dedicated to filling our hearts with such an immense, booming voice of Truth that, through us and through our lives, the whole earth will be transformed. Think of it, a world transfigured by love, forgiveness, compassion, and generosity--no more Want, no more Walls, no more War.

How is that possible? Jesus came among us two thousand years ago. Why does it taking so long? Where is the plan and why isn't it working? Are the demons actually the one who are speaking the truth?

The voice of Jesus calls us not to solutions and answers. He doesn't give us a blueprint for how to transform the world. Jesus is a whole lot smarter than the demons. Instead of offering quick and false solutions to tough enduring questions, Jesus challenges us to work with him by ruling out the dead ends--those false answers that will never lead us to a world at peace in which the dignity of every human being is assured. He tells us in no uncertain terms that those ways don't work. No amount of Want, Walls, or War will ever lead to justice and peace. Those phony but tempting strategies offered by the demons are silenced before the astounding vision of a world at unity with itself, a world that can be a reality when God and mankind turn a deaf ear to all those demons who keep fooling us into trying to do it in the tired old ways that history has discredited from time immemorial.

Whose voice are you listening to these days? Do you still believe, in your heart of hearts, that ageless pack of lies that the demons are still beaming your way every day?

· The lie that it's OK to turn your back, allowing your brother and sister to be in Want?
· The lie that it's OK to put up Walls as a barrier to keep out anyone who's different from ourselves?
· The lie that it's OK to launch a War rather than never giving up on the patience it takes to keep on seeking the ways of peace and understanding?

If those are the messages you're hearing, I have to tell you, you're tuned to the wrong channel. There is another way. That way has never been tried and found wanting. Instead, it's been found demanding and therefore not tried.

What all of us need to do is to consider well the source of those many voices vying for our attention. We need to listen harder…to invite Jesus in, because the Bible tells us very clearly, "You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free." That truth is still on the air everywhere twenty-four hours a day. You can hear it loud and clear. All you have to do is shut out the competing static and noise. Why not give it a try? Follow the example that Jesus gave us: "He would not permit the demons to speak."
Amen.

Copyright 2003 Calvary Episcopal Church

Gospel: Mark 1:29-39
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of
Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were
sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." 38 He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is
what I came out to do." 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. NRSV

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