As I sat at my gate at the Nashville airport last week, reading a book and waiting to board, the voice of the gate agent crackled through the overhead speakers. It was the routine introduction to the boarding process, but before the agent got too far into his script, the mic cut out, and a different voice alerted any traveler who lost a cell phone to return to the TSA checkpoint to claim it. Our gate agent’s voice came through shortly after with another sentence of instructions, only to be interrupted again, this time by a call for a passenger from a neighboring gate. The agent came back on a third time, but only got about half a word out before the mic was abruptly cut off. As we sat, waiting, people joked about when - if ever! - the gate agent might get to finish his sentence.
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| Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash |
Interruptions are a part of life. So often a frustrating and annoying part of life! Interruptions can break our concentration and derail our train of thought. As caretakers of young children especially know, interruptions can make it difficult to attempt to work from home, eat a meal while it’s hot, or even go to the bathroom in peace!
At other times, though, interruptions can help re-orient us, or draw our attention to what really matters. A fire alarm interrupts so that we can get to safety. The constant tugging on our sleeve can make it so we look up just in time to notice a bright rainbow arcing through the clouds, or a colorful bird outside the window just before it flits away.
In today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark, there are a number of interruptions that take place even in this brief passage. At the beginning of the text we heard, it is Jesus who is doing the interrupting. He and his newly-called disciples head to the seaside town of Capernaum, and Jesus teaches in the synagogue there. The people listening take notice of this interruption to what they are used to hearing from the scribes, the religious leaders. Though we aren’t really told what the difference is, we read that Jesus taught them as one having authority - perhaps in the way he spoke, or the weight of his presence. Whatever it was, Jesus’ interruption left the crowd feeling astounded.
As Jesus continued to teach, the crowd was enraptured, listening in awe and wonder to this man who commanded their attention with his authority. Imagine how startling it must have been to suddenly hear a voice cry 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.” Jesus, the Holy One is interrupted by the unholy one, an unclean spirit that has possessed this man. In this interruption, we see the unclean spirit scrambling to regain power. Something in Jesus’ words or presence put the unclean spirit on the defensive, reactive and fearful as it called out to him. Stay in your lane, Jesus - what have you to do with us?
But then Jesus interrupts the unclean spirit’s hold on this man, for indeed nothing is outside of Jesus’ authority or power or care. What have you to do with us? Everything! With this simple command for the unclean spirit to be silent and come out of him, Jesus interrupts the way this man had been accustomed to living. Jesus interrupts captivity with freedom, and false authority with true authority.
If Jesus’ particular way of teaching was not enough to convince the crowds of his authority, certainly this exorcism did the trick. After all, how can one truly have authority unless one is obeyed? Word of Jesus’ power and authority spread throughout the surrounding region. I can imagine those who had been present in the synagogue that day returning home, eager to interrupt their friends and neighbors in order to share what they had seen and heard. Listen! There is a new teaching, a new teacher! Listen! Even the unclean spirits obey him.
In these interruptions, we see Jesus’ presence and care – teaching with authority, and speaking life and salvation into places of fear and difficulty.
Jesus’ presence and care continues to be with us, too, in the interruptions we experience in our own lives: the interruptions of family obligations, unexpected needs, illness or accident. Of unexpected opportunities, new relationships, and moments of wonder and joy. In the midst of these interruptions, and sometimes even through them, God surrounds us with love and brings forth life.
Yes, what good news it is that Jesus still speaks and acts with authority in our lives today. As we gather here, we experience God’s living word in the person of Jesus; in the scriptures, read and proclaimed; and in the sacraments. This living word is a word of truth that interrupts illusion and falsehoods. This living word is a word of hope that interrupts despair. This living word is a word of forgiveness that interrupts shame. This living word is a word of life that interrupts death, proclaiming to us God’s everlasting promises and never-failing love.
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