Be the Bubbles
January 28th, 2024
4th Epiphany
Deuteronomy 18: 15-20
Psalm 111
Mark 1: 21-28
Jesus and his disciples 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.
Homily by Rev. Megan Limburg
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our
hearts be acceptable in your sight,
O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
A few days ago, I was driving home in the evening, and realized the sun was still shining! We are almost 6 weeks beyond the winter solstice, and the sun is setting later, and up a little earlier in the morning, lifting our tired hearts in this season of Epiphany.
Epiphany is a beautiful and brief season of light, and we only have two more Sundays in it, before we begin Lent with Ash Wednesday on February 14th.
The word Epiphany is a Greek word meaning manifestation, showing forth, revelation, and our gospel passages in this season focus on Jesus, seen, revealed, as the Son of God.
The arrival of the wise men to see the holy child, the baptism of Jesus with God’s voice ringing out as Jesus comes up out of the water, saying: “This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus calling his disciples, telling them to come and see.
And now today and next Sunday, healings as the revealing, healings as the seeing of Jesus.
These Epiphany readings push us to see beyond the fences we build, beyond the borders we erect. Because the revealing of Jesus is not just to an inner circle, not just to the privileged, and not just to one town or area or country. In Epiphany we are challenged to see and remember that Jesus came to be seen, to be revealed, to be known by all, all of God’s children, which is all people, and throughout all time.
Which brings us back to today’s gospel, and another boundary pushed.
Jesus and his friends have come to Capernaum and Jesus goes to the synagogue to teach. Folks are drawn to his words and are listening keenly.
All of a sudden, a man interrupts their time with Jesus, startling folks, and perhaps even scaring them, with his shouts, his questions, and his disturbing behavior.
Our translation describes the man as having “an unclean spirit”.
The Message translation from Presbyterian scholar, The Rev. Eugene Peterson, describes the scene this way:
23-24 Suddenly, while still in the meeting place, he was interrupted by a man who was deeply disturbed and yelling out, “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!”
25-26 Jesus shut him up: “Quiet! Get out of him!” The afflicting spirit threw the man into spasms, protesting loudly—and got out.
I really appreciate the language Peterson uses to describe the man’s behavior: “deeply disturbed…afflicting spirit…..spasms” as helping us to hear with modern ears that remind us that Jesus was reaching out to a man deeply buried by mental illness.
Jesus is seen, revealed, known in this situation for healing a man wracked by mental illness, and the man reminds us that Jesus came not for a chosen few, but for all of us, all of us, even with our own versions of afflicting spirits to cope with. Jesus leaves no one out of his revealing, no one out of his love, and no one out of his healing, in this world or the next.
And we as a chuch community are called to offer this revealing too, this love to one another, and beyond our doors.
Now it has occurred to me that I have not preached on lyrics from Jimmy Buffett in many months. In case you have not heard me do so before, Buffett is a favorite of mine, but not for his popular songs, but for his more thoughtful and yes, even spiritual lyrics. And in case you need a better music critic than me, Bob Dylan has said Buffett is his favorite lyricist.
As you likely know Jimmy Buffett died this past September, having struggled with a rare form of skin cancer for the past four years. His final album came out posthumously in November, though Buffett had been working on it for many months as he knew his time was short.
This last album includes a song that reminds me of the light of this season of Epiphany in our hurting and broken world, that we are called to offer to one and other, and to all folks beyond our doors.
The song is called Bubbles Up.
Buffett was known to hear a new phrase and file it away for years until a song emerged from the phrase. The stories vary as to when he first heard that phrase, in his years in the Navy, as a sailor and pilot later in his life, but all of them point to the advice he got when you are suddenly in the water, turned all around and upside down, as when a boat capsizes, or plane goes down in the water. What to do, where to look, when you are shaken and in the dark, confused, topsy-turvy and unable to tell up from down.
Buffett was told to let a little air out of his lungs, or perhaps fart, and watch which way the bubbles go, and you will find the surface again. The song begins:
When this world starts a-reelin' from that pressure drop feelin'
We're just treading water each day
There's a way to feel better, be well set to weather
The storms 'til the sun shines again
When your compass is spinnin' and you're lost on the way
Like a leaf in the wind, friend, hear me when I say
Bubbles up, they will point you towards home
No matter how deep or how far you roam
They will show you the surface, the plot and the purpose
So when the journey gets long
Just know that you are loved, thеre is light up above
And the joy is always enough, bubbles up
I wondered as I heard the song whether Buffett, raised Catholic, was channeling the prodigal son, when he wrote that line:
Bubbles up, they will point you towards home
No matter how deep or how far you roam
We are all prodigal at some point in our lives, and many sadly spend all their lives prodigal, wandering, starting for home and wandering off again.
The song and oh, yes, Epiphany reminds us to watch for the bubbles heading upward when we are down deep, when our compass is spinning.
But where are the bubbles here above the surface of the water, where life can be dark and folks can feel they are a leaf in the wind, treading water each day?
Look around you now; behind you, beside you. You are the bubbles. Or in our language of Epiphany the light, vessels of God’s love.
We never can know what folks carry each day, whether it is painfully obvious, like the man in our gospel today with his afflicted spirit. Or quietly held inside.
The church is called first and foremost to show forth, to reveal God’s love as we know it in the incarnation, the earthly life of Jesus.
So, keep it simple, offer the light, and be the bubbles, pointing the way home.
Amen.