A Youth Dialog Sermon
4 Epiphany B January 29, 2012
Deut. 18:15-20 Ps. 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Mark 1:21-28
Katie: In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit Amen.
Please
be seated.
(Kalum tries to whisper something into Katie’s
ear….Katie pushes him away)
Katie: Kalum, what are you doing?
Kalum: I am just trying to do a set up for learning
something from the Gospel today.
Katie: What
kind of set up? Hot air in my ear is not
much of a Gospel set up, in my humble opinion.
Besides, it was my ear that you were blowing into.
Kalum: I wasn’t
blowing into your ear, I was whispering into your ear. You’ve heard about the famous horse
whisperer. He had a gift of taming wild
and spirited horses and that is what is called horse whispering. And I thought that I would be a Katie
whisperer.
Katie: Hold it
right there; don’t go any further with that metaphor. Why would you think that I need to be
whispered by you or anyone? I’ve got a
fist here that could be called a Kalum shouter!
Sometimes shouting and not whispering is called for.
Kalum: Well, I was trying to make a Gospel point about
Jesus.
Katie: Why
don’t you get to the point? Your detours
may keep us at church until noon.
Kalum: Well, you know that we have not always had
modern medicine. And we’ve not always
had modern psychology.
Katie: And the
entire world does not yet have modern medicine or modern psychology. There are still many traditions of folk
medicine in the world today.
Kalum: You mean
like medicine men and shaman and faith healers and gurus?
Katie: There
have been many traditions of health and healing in the history of humanity.
Kalum: During
the time of Jesus there were health and healing practices. Just like our times people suffered with
diseases of the mind and the body. And
every community has a way to deal with issues of poor health. And even though we might think that they are
primitive, rather than give into despair and defeat each community tries to
find a way to treat situations of suffering.
Katie: So are
you suggesting that Jesus was more like a medicine man in his healing?
Kalum: Maybe I
am suggesting that Jesus is what we would call the ultimate people
whisperer. So now do you get my attempt
to whisper into your ear?
Katie: So you
think that Jesus was the ultimate people whisperer. He had a special way with people and that
special way with people helped to calm their lives and bring them to good
mental health.
Kalum: Yes, I
think that Jesus was quite a medicine man even though the health and healing of
his time was understood in a different way than we do today. The Jewish religion of which he was a part
used to classify things into two categories:
things were either clean or unclean, pure or impure, permitted or
restricted.
Katie: So this
man in synagogue was classified as one who had an unclean spirit. This was a way of saying that his inner life
was so troubled that it was known to the people of his community.
Kalum: How would you like to be classified by your
community as a person with an “unclean spirit?”
People were probably saying, “Stay away from John; he has a real unclean
spirit….he a bit temperamental…he a bit spirited….maybe a bit out of
control. I am frightened to be around
him.”
Katie: Being
shunned and neglected by the community did not help his mental health one bit.
Kalum: Unclean
was a category of classification for lots of things by the rabbis…For example
if you liked pork or shrimp or any shell fish, you could not eat them because
they were declared as unclean and whatever was declared unclean had to be
avoided.
Katie: Why do
you think the religious leaders declared shrimp and pepperoni as “unclean?”
Kalum: I don’t
know, it could be that at a religious convention they served some rancid pork
and shrimp and so in the throes of food poisoning, they declared pork and
shrimp as “unclean.” Who knows the
ancient roots of lots of practices in any culture?
Katie: I guess
Jesus was concerned most about restoring this shunned man back into
community. Jesus had a way of making a
once described unclean man into a man who was clean and fit for the community.
Kalum: Being a Christians does not mean that we are
exempt from any potential unpleasant human condition; being a Christian means
that Christ and Christians welcome all into human fellowship.
Katie: In
receiving the shunned and troubled man in the middle of the synagogue, Jesus
was saying “This is what true people of faith do, they welcome all into their
communion and fellowship. There is no
one who is unclean to God.”
Kalum: And so the medical and psychiatric practice of
Jesus might be called “People whispering.”
Katie: A horse
whisperer is able to help a troubled horse make friends with people and not be
left alone without the care and interaction with others.
Kalum: So Christ calls us to be “folk medical doctors.” Christ calls us to be people whisperers.
Katie: But that
does not mean indiscriminate whispering into people’s ears.
Kalum: That’s
true, but God gives us a gift of being with people and God gives us people whom
we are to give a special welcome into our community. And we need to ask God to help us do good
people whispering.
Kalum and Katie together whispering to the
congregation: “God loves you and welcomes you and so do we in the name of
Christ.” Amen.
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