Throwing out false gods

 In the Mark's gospel one of the first things that Christ does is throw out a "spirit" from a man possessed (Mk. 1:21-28). This amazes those in the synagogue and his fame spreads through the countryside. Christ denies the existence of the false and revitalises life within the community. The falseness of wrong ideology and beliefs that deny life is something that we, as Christ followers, need to be able to do on a regular basis. Life revolves around our understanding of faith in God and not in false prophets and false ideas (Deut. 18: 19-20; 1 Cor. 8:1-13). So often, in the modern era we make false gods of some tightly held beliefs, which actually have very little to do with life but rather with our own set beliefs. Yet despite that we defend them to the same extent and in some circumstances to the same extent that the Corinthians did regarding meat and idols.

Let us take a really recent example, and yes, I know I am going to cause you to find it difficult to grasp probably as much as the Corinthians with Paul's discussion around food, Australia day. The bitterness that the debate creates in the country is akin I would say to the Pauline communities feelings around meat offered to idols. The division created in that community was sufficient for Paul to address in a letter, the division created in the community in the debate around Australia day needs a letter to the country from Paul. I am no Paul but it seems to me that the heatedness that is produced each year is around something that requires discernment and understanding with listening compassionately to solve. I do not think that polar opposites assist and neither does the clear curtness of Deuteronomy help (Deut. 18:20). Rather we need to debate our understandings and seek for a clear way forward rather than idolise a specific day, perhaps asking ourselves the purpose and the need of such a day so that it does unify rather than create divisions.

Let us celebrate God's direction and not our own desires

Needless to say we do this with passion with every idol that we proclaim in the world and every false witness that leads us away from God and what God is saying to us. Australia day happened to be a good coincidence but there are other idols that we proclaim and fight over (for example refugees and what they mean to Australia). God calls us to be united in the community of faith but we ourselves put stumbling blocks up that circumvent our ability to unite. This can be either from a sense of national pride and protectionism to a sense of fear of change and instability. More often than not the stumbling blocks we place in front of ourselves are those things that we interpret in our own thoughts. It is surprising that we are so contentious over each others interpretation of either facts or stories. We automatically ensure that our interpretation aligns with what we want the history, story, facts to be rather than someone else's interpretation. For those in the synagogue when Christ dispels the spirit there is a sense of awe over his authority. This is something new and wonderful, yet, if we continue to read the awe soon turns to jealousy and an understanding that Christ goes against everything that is taught. Eventually, those in authority realise that their power base is weakening in the light of Christ's presence with the consequences of the cross.

In much the same way that Christ challenges the thoughts of his day, we to must challenge the false gods and powers of today. They may appear to us as innocuous but when we think about the creation of division we can see that they are not. God requires a harmony in community that is celebrated in justice and peace not in division and rivalry. To often we see ourselves driven along a dual approach to everything. It is either this or that, Australia day is on the 26th or not at all. The dual approach argument is all that we have ever considered, one way is wrong and the other right. In a manner of speaking this is what Christ does in throwing out the Spirit but Christ goes beyond the this or that when he welcomes the cleansed back into the community. God shines through in the forgiveness and reconciliation that follows. We need to be careful that we are not projecting our false gods on those around us when we make counter arguments. We need most of all to bring harmony and peace to divided communities for this is what God calls us to and the moment we begin to see that harmony  and that peace and justice shining through is the moment we know we can agree that we are on God's path.