Confident Teacher by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

     Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not born an advocate for “nonviolence” and he rarely used the term in the early days of his activism. In fact he practiced self- defense and owned guns to protect himself and his family during the early days of the civil rights movement. One of his advisors, Bayard Rustin, who came from the Christian pacifist tradition is credited with introducing Dr. King to the work of Mahatma Gandhi and non-violent resistance.

    King was inspired by Gandhi’s success with non-violence and wanted to travel to India to learn more. He went to India in April 1959 at the age of 30 on a trip arranged by the Quakers. The trip deepened his commitment to non-violent resistance and to the American Civil Rights movement. In a radio address made on his last night in India he said: “"Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity” (Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.).

    When Dr. King spoke, he spoke with authority. He was deeply grounded in the principles of non-violence which he found in the work of Gandhi and in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. You cannot lead a movement such as the Civil Rights movement led by Dr. King, without having a strong foundation upon which to stand. When people start coming at you from all directions, you have to be sure of who you are and what you believe. Dr. King never wavered in his convictions that all people should be treated equally regardless of the color of their skin. He never wavered in the belief that justice could be achieved by non-violent means. He spoke with authority that comes from within, authority that comes from a deep relationship with his God.

    We see this sort of authority in Jesus in our scripture for today. This story marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry as told in Mark’s Gospel.

Jesus and his disciples go to Capernaum. Mark writes that “When the Sabbath arrived, Jesus lost no time in getting to the meeting place. He spent the day there teaching. They were surprised at his teaching—so forthright, so confident—not quibbling and quoting like the religion scholars.”

    Jesus taught as one with authority. Even though his ministry was just starting, he did not preach like a newbie. He was confident and self-assured. Because, you see, Jesus knew that he was the Son of God and Jesus preached knowing that he had the Word of God to offer the people.

    Very quickly, Jesus encounters his first conflict. A man with a disturbance in this spirit comes up and says: “What business do you have here with us, Jesus? Nazarene! I know what you’re up to! You’re the Holy One of God, and you’ve come to destroy us!” Now we don’t know if this man was demon possessed or just evil, an evil man. But here is the thing, he recognized Jesus as THE HOLY ONE OF GOD.

This man was full of evil but he knew God when he saw God. This is because Jesus was so full of confidence.

    Have you ever encountered someone or something so good, that you just know it is of God? Perhaps a beautiful scene in nature, or an act of pure generosity that you know must be motivated by love for God? You are overwhelmed by a sense of being surrounded by goodness, right? That is what happened to this demon possessed man. He saw Jesus and he knew he was in the presence of God’s goodness. But the man was so evil he did not know what to do, so he accused Jesus.

But Jesus has so much authority that Jesus just speaks to the demon, or the spirit of evil in this man and tells it to shut up: “Quiet!” Jesus says, “Get out of him!” The afflicting spirit threw the man into spasms, protesting loudly—and got out, left, went away.

    Just like that. Jesus saved the man from the evil within him.  The people who stood by and watched were amazed. They were buzzing with curiosity, “What’s going on here? A new teaching that does what it says? He shuts up defiling, demonic spirits and sends them packing!” News of this traveled fast and was soon all over Galilee as you can imagine.

    The people were amazed because they had never seen anyone with the authority that Jesus had.
    My spiritual director, Sr. Breta, has a phrase to describe what it means to speak with authority – the kind of authority that Dr. King has when he rallied the crowds around the cause for Civil Rights; and the kind of authority Jesus had that day he commanded the evil one to come out of the man. Sr. Breta tells me simply “stand in my truth”. You see when I stand in my truth, I have the confidence of Jesus. When I stand in my truth, no one can shake me, because my truth is my truth.

    For example, my truth is that I am a beloved child of God. I hope that is your truth too. So when some experience happens that might make us think we are not beloved, or when someone condemns us or excludes us and tries to make us feel as if we are unworthy, well, that is not the truth. God has spoken the truth to us. I am God’s beloved child, and so are you. We can stand in that truth with confidence.

    Jesus stood in his truth that day in the meeting place in Capernaum. A man came up who was overwhelmed by some sort of evil spirit but Jesus said, “The truth is, that force of evil does not have the last word in your life. I command the evil to leave so you can be free to be the person God created you to be.” And lo, and behold the evil was gone. The people were amazed.

    Jesus spoke the truth. None of us have to be hostage to evil in the world. We can say to evil, “Get out of my life, I am going to live for God.” This is our truth.

    So the call for today is this, it is a simple one: will you stand in your truth? Will you listen to God’s truth for you and live into that truth? When you catch yourself giving into negative thought patterns and giving into forces of evil, can you say “No, Go Away”?

    Jesus lived with confidence because he lived his life for God, centering his life in God’s way for him.   In our baptismal promises at the Village we ask you to stand up to the forces of evil in this world, in no mater what guise they present themselves.  With Jesus, you can stand in the confidence of your truth and stand up and change the world.  Amen.