First and Foremost

Mark 1: 21-28; 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13
January 28, 2018
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL
Christina Berry

Ordinarily, when the scriptures are read in worship, the gospel reading would be the last one read. I guess we usually want to have Jesus to have the last word. But today, we are going to read the gospel first, because this Sunday, we want Jesus’ words to come first, and the words of the Apostle Paul to come second.

So our first reading comes from the first chapter of Mark, in which we see the first miracle Mark records, as Jesus heals a very ill man at the synagogue. Mark is, I think, less interested in the miraculous healing, and more interested in us understanding the identity and authority of Jesus. He places that statement of identity and authority in the mouth of an unclean spirit, right in the middle of this story, Let’s listen for God’s word to us in Mark 1:21-28:

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!"
And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him."
At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Our second reading is from the letter of Paul to the church at Corinth. That congregation was a house church, a gathering of a diverse group formed around the year 40 – less than a decade after the resurrection! Paul’s letters address issues that have arisen in this congregation, as they learn to be this new creation, this new kind of people which has just begun to be called “Christian.” Let’s listen for God’s word to us in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13:

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge."
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something
does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him. Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one."
Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. "Food will not bring us close to God."
We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?
So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

God’s word for God’s people.
Thanks be to God.


Do you ever notice the sermon title?
It’s something that I put a lot of thought into, frequently the last thing I turn in on the order of worship. Many weeks, I’m getting a text from Amy as she tries to finish the slides: Sermon title?

Usually my sermon titles are meant to give you something to mull over, maybe a phrase or word with more than one meaning. Today, the title is pretty straightforward. “First and foremost” tells you exactly what we’re looking at: who is first, and what is foremost.

For those of you who are newer to this congregation, we have a running joke with the kids that came from the children’s time, that the right answer is always Jesus. There’s an old, old story about that. It seems a new young pastor was giving the children's message. He thought it would be good to have the children guess what he was thinking about, so they would discover the answer for themselves.

He said, “I'm going to describe something, and I want you to raise your hand when you know what it is. This thing lives in trees (pause) and eats nuts (pause)...
And it is gray (pause) and has a long bushy tail (pause)...
And it jumps from branch to branch (pause)
and chatters and flips its tail when it's excited (pause)..."

Finally one little boy tentatively raised his hand.
"Well...," said the boy, "I’m pretty sure the answer must be Jesus...

but it sure does sound like a squirrel!"

So every now and then, we’ll ask a question, 

and one of the kids – or sometimes an adult! -- 

will shout, “Jesus!”

Do you know who is first?
Yep, Jesus.

The writer of the gospel of Mark would agree, that the answer is Jesus, the firstborn of all creation. Mark’s gospel wants us to meet and recognize Jesus as the Messiah. So what happens first, in the first chapter, after the first introduction, is that we see Jesus making his first visit to the synagogue, and the first miracle he does is to heal this man who is captive to evil.

And in this first scene, the unclean spirit recognizes Jesus right away! “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” All the onlookers recognize immediately that Jesus has authority, authority like they have never seen before.

He is the holy one of God.

This authority that Jesus has is the authority over everything that is wrong or broken in our world: broken relationships, divided churches, arrogance and pride, resentment and hatred. Jesus, the holy one of God, speaks, and even the unclean spirits obey. So, then, Jesus is first, in all things.

We next need to ask what is foremost.

For that, we turn to Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, which was written around the year 50 AD, at least a decade before the gospel of Mark. Even though it was so far away and so long ago, you will recognize this congregation when I describe it.

This congregation in Corinth was an extremely diverse group of people who were constantly in the midst of struggle. It was almost as if every culture war that could be had was happening among the Corinthians.

They had so many differences!

Some of these new Christians were literally one-percenters: wealthy, high status Jewish converts, well-educated and well-off. They were competitive, aggressive, and tough. They liked to win, and they liked winners. They bristled against this idea of being servants to others.

Some of the new believers were out and out pagans, people with no religious background, and not a clue about living a Godly life, or worshiping in a temple or a house church or anywhere. Some were poor laborers who were literally hand to mouth – if they got some food, they ate it. They had gotten used to being excluded and pushed around, and now they were learning to live in community with people who looked just like those who had mistreated them.

So imagine – it shouldn’t be hard – a congregation
that is always fighting about something,
always divided into competing factions,
always having arguments about which sexual behavior is forbidden,
always pitting superior knowledge against simple faith,
always trying to reduce Christianity to a list of intellectual propositions
completely divorced from the daily realities of life and living.

Imagine a community that had lost sight of the importance of love.

Paul loved all of the people in this congregation. He had put great effort into guiding and teaching them how to follow in the way of Christ. It was in this letter to this congregation that he wrote those beautiful words about love – love is patient, love is kind… Love is foremost.

All of them, rich and poor, Jew and Greek, male or female – loved Jesus. But they didn’t seem to know how to love each other. They wanted to demonstrate their superior knowledge.
There’s nothing wrong with knowledge, but without love, knowledge puffs up.
It makes us arrogant, over-confident, and condescending.
So we can talk about love, and three different Greek words for it,
and how important it is…. but we don’t do it.

Love, on the other hand, love builds up.
It makes us kind, humble, and generous.
Love makes knowledge into wisdom.
Love tunes out the snark and hears the anxiety and frustration.
Love overlooks the gruff expression and see the intense emotion.
Love walks toward the mess and pitches in on the project.
Love opens the door so we can open our hearts to welcome the stranger.
Love speaks up for those who have been silenced.

Love takes a diverse, disparate, divergent bunch of people
and teaches them that the right answer is always Jesus.

Love puts Jesus first,
and sees others as Jesus sees us,
so that we can love those for whom Christ died,
not just in knowledge or in words, but in action.

Jesus first, love foremost.
Always the right answers.

Amen.