Love's Liberating Authority

Sunday, January 29, 2006
Central Lutheran Church

Interim Associate Pastor Gayle Bintliff, Central Lutheran Church

I was thinking about titling this sermon, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”, but then I thought you know, that could be setting them up for a lot of false expectations as to any similarity between me and Tina Turner—So, for this first time in the pulpit of Central, I decided to play it a little safer. What’s love got to do with it is, however, a pretty fair restating of the question posed to Jesus that morning in the synagogue—and playing it safe was not at all what he had in mind.

There is no easing into Jesus’ ministry for the gospel writer Mark—Jesus was baptized, spent 40 days in the wilderness in a face-off with Satan and all his temptations, went into Galilee and gathered up his work crew of disciples—and, as Mark is so fond of saying, immediately they left their nets and the mission is up and running—barely into the middle of Chapter One. They won’t be having cottage meetings to discern the needs of the people or establish Jesus’ credibility; there will be no transitional plan or long-term goal setting. The time is RIGHT NOW—and Jesus’ agenda is set by one thing—the kingdom of God arriving in full force—the fulfillment of all that had been promised. His agenda was set by the will of God which was bent on liberating all that were in bondage—and so, like the long-awaited prophet, or a bull in a china shop, he gets right into the middle of it—in church, on a Sabbath morning! And he definitely attracted some attention. The people showed up like they always did for the Sabbath morning teaching—but that morning, it was clear that something new was going on—this was a little different than the scribes who mostly quoted chapter and verse based on the ancient wisdom of the rabbis—Jesus laid it all out there as only he could do, like the difference between reading the book and being face to face with the author—what they had waited for was what he embodied-- the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand—repent and believe in the Gospel. OK—they were impressed, astonished, amazed, but it gets better—Suddenly, out of nowhere, there is a man in their midst with an unclean spirit.

Before he made a move, Jesus had a believer—I know who you are, the HOLY ONE of God. A confession—coming from the least likely source, from one most threatened by what that authority could accomplish. What have you to do with us? Or, in other words, what’s love got to do with it, what’s it to you, how are you connected to us? And with a word Jesus commanded the spirit to leave the man and it left, convulsing and crying with a loud voice. Like I said, nothing like starting out your ministry with a bang!!

Can we even fathom how very radical and scandalous Jesus was??—in a time when purity and law was everything, Jesus would touch lepers, confront demons, eat with those who were unclean and step over a million boundaries. It wasn’t that he set out to anger the religious leaders, but when you are the Word made Flesh, there is only one choice, the choice on the side of love and compassion, the choice on the side of engaging the powers of darkness, the choice of naming evil for what it was, the choice of being completely tuned in to the will of God.

We like to shake our heads, slightly smug about the way those poor religious folks just didn’t get it, but even here and now Jesus would be quite out of place—we would probably say he has boundary issues, doesn’t comply, and is pretty disinterested in being politically correct. Most of us try to maintain a little tighter circle of security—Imagine our reaction right now if someone stood up and started railing at the preacher, yelling at me—what are you doing here? Who gives you the right!!! What have you to do with us?? I like to think the ushers would snap into action, or Barrett at least would come and quietly invite the person to calm down, or move on—and I would be silently praying that I would not have to deal with it…Fear takes over sometimes, doesn’t it—or maybe a sense of discomfort over all the ones who aren’t “like us”—whatever that means for whoever we call “us”—but it wasn’t that way with Jesus—It’s like he could not help himself, and he would continue to walk through the countryside encountering and confronting and healing all sorts of people who had no business at all getting his attention. People who were unclean, people who were sinners, people who were outside the acceptable circle of law-abiding, rule-keeping, ritually pure, God-believing faithful—People who didn’t count, or worse than that, people who got in the way of what the religious and the self-righteous were all about.

In walks Jesus, and no wonder the very demons cried out, what have you to do with us—they could see the writing on the wall, they knew their number was up—and so it was. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. This was the authority of a love and compassion so strong that it has the power to heal and to cleanse. It has the power to change lives, the power to liberate and reclaim. Jesus would completely reverse the old rules and turn the world upside down. Now, instead of the pure being defiled or made impure by the unclean as the ancient laws prohibiting such contact declared—What had been unclean was made whole, made clean by the one who entered in where everyone else feared to go.

I was thinking about that scene in the movie “Philadelphia”. Tom Hanks’ character has been fired from his law firm, he has AIDS, and he goes to Denzel Washington, looking for a lawyer who would take on the discrimination case. Tom is sitting across the desk from Denzel, explaining what had happened—and Denzel is sympathetic about the situation, but then you see this movement within him as he gets a good look at Tom. He sees the sores on his face, and thinks about the illness that is coursing through his body. We see him withdraw in every way, We see stone cold fear take over—we see him try so hard to be cool, but he can’t help himself, his eyes travel to the picture of his wife and child and he starts wiping off his desk, his phone, whatever he thinks might have somehow been infected by Tom’s disease.—he is practically sick himself as he tries to erase all that he imagines to be unclean. Later of course, he comes to know and love this man whom he had been so afraid of, and in part, it is his love, his support that liberates Tom. And it is Tom in all his broken humanity who liberates Denzel—What’s love got to do with it??

Love has that kind of power; it breaks open the prisons of our judgment and fear. It releases us from all that would prevent us from being who we are called to be, it has the power to transform us, to make us new. That is what Jesus did in the lives of all whom he touched, that is what the power of God does in our lives, frees us from sin, death and the power of the devil!! That is the redeeming, liberating love that we are called to proclaim and live out in all the places of brokenness and evil in this world. Now, the ministry has been passed on to us. We who have been freed from all that would bind us, we who have been made clean every new day by the saving love of the crucified and risen Christ; we have been given a mission.—to be signs of that healing love in the world, to walk right into the middle of the powers of darkness and announce that death no longer has dominion, that the power of God is stronger than any power that would undo us. And we go with authority, for now we are the Body of Christ, and we are the ones who are bold to speak against the forces of evil, the ones who are bold to trust that the Spirit is at work to give us the strength and the courage to take the risk and dive in.

To be sure, there is still darkness around us, there is still pain and suffering and the powers of evil—but they do not have the last word, and we see around us signs, little glimpses of the power of love, reminders that the Word became flesh, that the light shines in the darkness and no darkness will overcome that LIGHT.

One of the members of the community who was here passing the time on Tuesday morning was talking to me about his life and his plans, he said, you got to carry God out into the streets, that’s what I tell everybody—you can’t just show up for cookies and coffee and food, you got to go out there. Well said, to all of us.—And when we do go, we find that our compassionate God is already out there, working to redeem and restore, ready to hand us a towel and a basin, ready to put us to work so that we too might participate in God’s liberating and healing love for the world. AMEN.

Return to main Sermons page.