"(Jesus) taught them as one having authority."

Some make the claim that Hank Williams was the greatest of all country singers - basing that claim on the fact he wrote over a thousand songs before his death at twenty-nine. For my money, I like Cash - Johnny Cash. He sings a song sharing the excitement of a small town in the deep south. Townsfolk are anticipating a concert in the high school gym - with none other than the great Hank Williams! Nobody could sing this song like Johnny Cash ... in a few moments you'll agree nobody could sing this song like Tim Kennedy ... nor would anybody want to! "Harry Truman was our president; a coke and burger cost you thirty cent. I was still in love with Mavis Brown, on the night Hank Williams came to town." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4nzopqHlN8 I know what you might be thinking: "Forget Mavis Brown; when we need her most, where is Pastor Mary Brown?" And the song continues to build with the excitement and preparation for the mighty Hank Williams. It concludes, "The affect on all our lives was quite profound, on the night Hank Williams came to town." There's something almost magic about being in the presence of greatness!

Most of us have special times in our lives that our memories have memorized. When I was seven, my Mom took me backstage at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (actually, we got lost after a concert was over) ... and we literally bumped into, and I shook hands with: Gene Autry. Almost six decades later, the memory is vivid. There's something almost magic about being in the presence of greatness!

Capernaum - a fishing village on the shores of Galilee. If it were merely any given Sabbath, the people would have gathered as usual at the synagogue. If it were any given Sabbath, no one would have expected the worship experience to be much different than most other worship experiences. Sort of like this morning -except for my karaoke attempt - nothing much out of the ordinary. At Capernaum they would sing some familiar hymns - and God help the worship leaders if the hymns were unfamiliar. There would be scripture readings and some commentary on the readings - and God help the rabbi if the commentary droned on a bit long. And when the last "Amen" echoed from the stone walls of the synagogue, people would return to their homes to continue their Sabbath Day activities - which meant a lack of activity, of course, this being the Sabbath and all. But this was not any given Saturday. This was the day Christ Jesus came to town!

To be sure, no one in the congregation had the sense that this was Christ Jesus. The Greek word "Christ," means "Messiah," and there were no hint of that in the very first chapter of Mark! For all anyone knew, he was only a teacher - yet, whatever it was that Jesus taught that morning,, he "taught them as one having authority."

Many of us have red letter Bibles. You know what that means: it's a Bible where all the words of Jesus are highlighted in red ink. In our Gospel lesson this morning, there is no red ink highlighting the teaching of Jesus, because Mark does not share what Jesus taught. Mark merely tells us that it was a new teaching. It was an authoritative teaching. Since this all takes place in the synagogue on the Sabbath, it's not a stretch to surmise that whatever Jesus was teaching, it included a focus on God. Any preacher in the pulpit, even if he gets sidetracked with a fellow like Johnny Cash, any preacher better somehow end up talking with the focus on God! So surely the teaching and preaching of Jesus centered on the reality and presence of God. And he taught them with authority.

There's a wonderful story told about Pope John XXIII, who was the head of the Roman Church in the early 1960s. Pope John was having an audience with a group of people, including the mother of several children. At one point the pope said to this woman, "Would you please tell me the names of your children. I realize that many people in this room could tell me their names, but something very special happens when a mother speaks the names of her own children."

I suspect we know what the pope meant. And maybe it was something similar that people sensed about Jesus. Maybe this is what they meant when they said he had an authority others seemed to lack. The Jewish scribes at the time of Jesus, the "teachers of the law," were good at teaching about God. They drew off their book learning and seminary training, but not so with Jesus. There was an intimacy to his knowledge about God. He spoke as though he had spent a long time personally being with God. Oddly enough, it almost seemed at times like he was speaking as God. (I am indebted to Pastor Scott Hoezee of Calvin Seminary for this story and his commentary).

Probably no one in Capernaum that day went quite so far as to conclude this was God in the flesh, but when Jesus talked about God, it was like hearing a mother speak the names of her own children - the love and the personal involvement Jesus had with his subject matter made it clear that this was not coming out of his head so much as his heart. (I am indebted to Pastor Scott Hoezee of Calvin Seminary for his commentary).

Now a curious part of this Gospel text is the man with the "unclean spirit." Whatever it was that Jesus was teaching, in the midst of his teaching there was a noisy interruption. Preachers, in general, don't like interruptions. Personally, I get so focused in what I'm doing that over the years people have fainted during the sermon, an ambulance or two has been summoned during the sermon, babies have screamed during the sermon, and it all went over my head. But at Capernaum that day, nothing went over the head of Jesus ... and beyond the heart of Jesus. And the man with the unclean spirit was healed. Was it epilepsy or some other sort of seizure? Was it a schizophrenic outburst? Again, who knows? But the power and the love of Jesus was the medicine that cured a broken spirit.

Pastor Barbara Lundblad makes the ironic point that over and over in Mark's gospel it is the demons who know who Jesus is. Those who were crazy called Jesus "the Holy One"; those who were sane put him to death. And when Jesus died, it was a centurion soldier, an outsider, who proclaimed, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

Now up to this point, except for some careless karaoke at the beginning of the sermon, nothing much out of the ordinary has occurred during our time of worship. It has been the usual. The routine. But soon enough, as usual, the routine of bread and wine. "The affect on all our lives is quite profound, as on this day Christ Jesus comes to town." There's something almost magic about being in the presence of greatness!