Homily – Sunday, the 28th January 2024

Reading: Mark 1:21-28

Many of us grew up singing the Sunday School Hymn

I have the joy, joy, joy, joy Down in my heart

Down in my heart to stay.

What is Joy and What is happening to Joy in our Lives?

The Weekend Away is one signature event of the Anglican Church of Freiburg. This year from May 9-12 at Harodberg, France we will have the 20^th edition of our Weekend Away. Please mark the date in your diaries.

The speakers this year would be someone the seniors of this congregation know very well, Geoff Read and Marie Lousie and we have decided that the theme would be JOY.

The question I would like to ask today is What is Joy? And What is happening to Joy in our lives?

Last week we discussed on the Third Day. Pope John Paul II used to say “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song”. Whatever be the terrain we travel in, whatever be the life realities we face, we are the hallelujah people.

It was Khalil Gibran who said, “Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.”

Leo Tolstoy in War and Peace states “Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.”

What then is Joy?

Joy is a positive emotion which is best reflected in contentment and tranquillity whatever be the storms that we face in life. For us, we believe it stems from the peace that passes all understanding and the love of Jesus that is able to lift us up from any abyss into which we have fallen.

Joy stems from meaningfulness and purpose in life and is not always about accomplishments and achievements.

Bishop Sam Amirtham always spoke of the pain of estrangement and the joy of reconciliation. It is the inner feeling when you reclaim something that you thought was lost for ever or you would never reclaim. Never lose hope, he always said, joy could be temporarily lost but cannot be stolen from our hearts for ever.

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone precious to love, something tangible to do, and something purposeful to hope for.” But to be truly joyful is an experience beyond these. Joy is the river that flows within you when you cherish doing something with your soul.

Tagore once said- “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

How would each one of us define joy? It is also worth remembering what Mark Twain once said- “Comparison is the death of joy.”

How does Jesus deal with the man who lost his Joy?

Before we look deeper into that question let us take look at the gospel lesson for today
We had been discussing on the question- Who is Jesus?

Here is an unnamed man. The only thing we know about him is that he had an unclean spirit. Though this term is used totally in the religious and spiritual realms we often see that mental health issues and behavioural aberrations are often attributed to the impact of a negative force. The gospel lesson is testimony to how Jesus deals with the person affected and redeems him into normalcy of life. A person who has lost all joy in life is back to the possibilities of joyful living.

Therefore, if we have lost joy in our lives here is Jesus who can make a difference. The Christology of the gospel lesson is manifest in three ways- what Mark says, what the spirit within the affected person testifies and what the person affected experiences.  

Mark mentions three things:

Jesus went to Capernaum.

Capernaum was the town that Jesus made his home after living in Nazareth became untenable. He made his home in the new town. It was the town of Peter and Andrew and Matthew. If we visit the place today, we are taken to Peter’s home where they claim Jesus used to live in.

For those of us who live far away from their roots… Jesus knows what it means- for he himself lived away from his home-town.

Jesus meets us where are. Jesus meets us as we are.

Jesus went to the synagogue and taught with authority.

Jesus the worshipper and Jesus the teacher who taught with authority are images we should not miss out.

My grand-mother used to tell me two things when I went to church. Don’t forget that you might see Jesus today.

Don’t miss out on what Jesus wants to teach you today.

The joy that this love connect with Jesus gives is inexplicable.

Jesus encountered a man with an unclean spirit who was at the synagogue.

It is possible that we have a troubled inner self even when we are at church. That’s why I always say- the pew is full of the brokenness of the people. And the good news is Jesus meets us where we are and touches where we need that touch so very badly.       

That’s why our prayer always has been

Beauty for brokenness 
Hope for despair 
Lord in Your suff’ring world 
This is our prayer 

God of the poor 
Friend of the weak 
Give us compassion we pray 
Melt our cold hearts 
Let tears fall like rain 
Come change our love 
From a spark to a flame

Lighten our darkness 
Breathe on this flame 
Until Your justice 
Burns brightly again 

The unclean spirit makes three statements.

What have you to do with us? Jesus of Nazareth.

The statement basically means- Jesus please do not interfere with my life.

We hear this quite often around us today. I do not want to have anything to do with church or God. Some people think spirituality is an aberration.

Some inner prompting from within- I do not want to have anything to do with Jesus.

Jesus of Nazareth. The spirit identified Jesus as one among us- the downtown boy. Not a myth. Not a stranger. Not a hallucination. Not a tall claim of the spiritually oriented. He is someone in real flesh and blood whom you could see, touch and experience.

Have you come to destroy us?

The unclean spirit is aware of the authority and power of Jesus that could ultimately get rid of him. Therefore, dares to ask, have you come to destroy us. Friends many a times Joy is affected when the unclean in various forms becomes part of our lives. It could take different forms. But everyone knows that the holiness and goodness of Jesus and the unholy intent of the unclean influence cannot co-exist. Once Jesus is given the authority, everything unclean will be cleansed. That’s the spirit of our prayers of confession and the absolution in our liturgy.

I know who you are!! You are the Holy One of God .

This is a prolific statement. Don’t think that only we know who Jesus is. Even the unclean spirits can tell you who he is.

You are the Holy One of God- The testimony of the person with the unclean spirit is the voice of the force within him trying to pacify Jesus- we give you your due space and you let us alone.

When we see the other instances where the concept of the unclean spirit is used in contexts of health in Mark 3:11 we see the person calling out- you are the Son of God.

The three experiences of the affected person

Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit.

Be Silent Come out of him

Jesus heals the person.

The spirit convulsing him, crying out aloud, came out.

In Mark 5 we see a man who lived in the tombs and the unclean spirits coming out of him into the swine. In Mark 7:25 we find the healing of the daughter of a woman who came pleading to Jesus. In Mark 9:25 we find Jesus healing a man with a spirit the constrained his hearing and speaking but in all these cases there was healing too.

Jesus was seen with amazement by the people

What is this, A new teaching with authority- even unclean spirits obey.

Interestingly in Mark 6:7 we find Jesus giving authority to the disciples to cast our evil spirits. But we read in Mark 9:17 a father complaining that “I brought son to your disciples but they could not heal him”. It is there Jesus sighs, you unbelieving generation. He then heals the boy affirming that what seems humanly impossible is possible with God.

Having said that we should also be very clear that Healing is not always curing. It is also the strength that God gives us to face the realities and challenges of life. Healing also has an eternal dimension, beyond the confines of the here and now.

It was Joni Eareckson who said- I am glad that I have not been healed on the outside, but glad that I have been healed on the inside. Healed from my own self-centered wants and wishes. Remember God is never closer than when your heart is aching. She said with a heart full of faith- “He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.”

The important question we therefore must ask ourselves today is: What takes away joy from our lives?

The spirit that takes away joy from our lives can take different forms today.

• Stress and Anxiety
• Negative Thinking
• Unhealthy and strained relationships
• Unfulfilling work
• Lack of appreciation and motivation
• Isolation and Loneliness
• Health Issues- physical, mental, emotional or spiirtual
• Unrealistic Expectations
• Financial Struggles
• Lack of Self Care.

How does Jesus deal with us when our joy is stolen away

• Jesus Meets Us Where We Are, As We Are
• Jesus Meets with the spirit that takes away our Joy
• Jesus redeems us from the Unclean spirits

We therefore should be able to sing

I have the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy, Down in my heart

Where

Down in my heart

Down in my heart to STAY

Vinod Victor

28 January 2024