By Reason of Insanity

Our lesson this morning is from the third chapter of Mark’s Gospel. Starting with the 20th verse of that chapter. Hear these words.
And the crowd came together again so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, he has gone out of his mind. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, he has Beelzebub. And by the ruler of demons, he cast out demons. And we called them to him and spoke to them in parables. How can Satan cast out Satan? if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man. And then indeed, the house can be plundered. Truly, I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins, and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an internal sin. They have said he has an unclean spirit. Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside asking for you. And he replied, who are my mother and my brothers? And looking at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.
Friends, this is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

You may have seen it on a old fashioned legal lawyer show. Was trying to think of one old fashion, and all I came up with was Perry Mason. And that’s right. Too old fashion. I remember L.A. law. There you go. Just have a show. 40 years old L.A. law, where an attorney would stand up. He said, ladies and gentlemen, the jury, I ask that you find my client not guilty. Yes. My client had motives. And it’s established that his fingerprints were all over everything in the crime scene. And there’s no doubt he pulled the trigger. But that doesn’t mean he should be convicted. Why not? Because my client is absolutely, positively, 100% certifiably insane. He’s nuts. I rest my case. We’ve all seen it. Sort of the cheap, cheesy courtroom dramas. We’ve even seen it in real life. President Reagan’s would be assassin, John Hinckley Jr. Used an insanity defense against his crime. Indeed was declared insane, and now is running around a free man because of that insanity defense. The insanity defense is this: one who is insane, lacks the malice aforethought or the intent required to perform a truly criminal act, because the person is either incapable of discerning the difference between right and wrong, or incapable of restraint, even in the face of such knowledge.

The problem with our culture is, today, who’s insane? What’s the difference between insanity and being quirky or just crazy? We all know the difference of insanity in the church. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, and expecting or anticipating different results. We’ve seen insanity. We’ve lived it out in the church. But what happens when people accuse Jesus of being insane? His popularity is growing. People are hearing about him and his preaching all over the place. He has healed the lepers. He has healed the paralytic. He has given his disciples power over demons and the power to heal. He has told the people, I am Lord of the Sabbath. And this whole thing you’ve done of keeping people under your thumb with all these Sabbath laws. You’re missing the point. The Sabbath was created for them, not day for the Sabbath. The Sabbath gives them an opportunity to rest and to fellowship with God and to just spend time in God’s presence, abiding in that presence. You’ve missed the point. And when he says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath, anyone tells the man the paralytic, your sins are forgiven.

They decide he’s crazy. So they go to his family and they say, look, he’s nuts. Now you need to hear that part of the text, the way we were to set it in Alabama. His butter, has done slid off his toast. He’s nuts. And you’ve said that of somebody. They’re nuts. They’re crazy. You don’t mean they’re certifiable or they belong in an institution, or they need psychiatric or psychological help. They’re just a little nutty. But then the scribes show up from Jerusalem, and they have been threatened by Jesus’s change of the Sabbath. When Jesus talks about the Sabbath, when Jesus releases the people from the Sabbath. He is pulling the foundation away from the Jewish economic system. He’s crazy. And crazy people become a threat to our society, and they become a threat because the Romans don’t like what crazy people do.
Was Jesus crazy? C.S. Lewis, at the beginning of World War Two, preached a sermon and one of his broadcasts on the BBC. He asked a three-part question. He said, you’ve basically got three choices about Jesus. He was a liar. He was a lunatic or he’s Lord. You have to decide, and you live out of your view of who Jesus was. Jesus said, the prophet Isaiah said of the Messiah that there’s no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He’s not one that comes to us in strength. He’s one that comes to us in weakness. So, what I wondered today is what would happen if the church got its crazy on? What would happen if we really started living out and doing the things that Jesus did, and behaving in the way that Jesus behaves? The people might say of us. They’re insane. They’re nuts. Down there at Trinity Methodist Church. Well, look at it. Our world idolizes logic and reason. You want to make somebody happy in today’s world? Hand ‘em an Excel spreadsheet. Boom. And then you look at that Excel spreadsheet and all the columns add up, and it’s colorized and it’s coded, and every everything equals everything else. And people go. Logic. Reason. And Jesus said, my people will live by faith.

I’ve tried to explain faith to a finance committee before it was back in the 80s. They didn’t believe me then because it doesn’t make sense. Sometimes Jesus calls us to take the next step, even when the next step isn’t clear. Even when we can’t see it. Even when we can’t feel it. Because Christ has told us to take the next step. The world says you are entitled to hurt those who hurt you. Yes, you are allowed to get an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But we say in the church, what? Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. The world is filled with people who are trying to stock up with earthly treasures. Man, they want some earthly treasures. They want a good stock portfolio. They want to have it all. And they want to have it all before they die. Because when they die, they’re not taking it with them. I’ve yet to do a funeral procession where there was a Ryder truck in the middle of the funeral procession. I have not seen that. But why are we working for things that don’t satisfy?

The world sleeps in on Sunday, sleeps in on Sunday. Brunches before noon. And we drag ourselves up out of our nice warm beds. And we come and drink some bad coffee. And we sing praises to a God we cannot see, but one we believe is present with us and is coming back. Maybe, like Jesus, the church needs to call us crazy. Maybe we start, should start acting a little bit crazy. You see, Jesus warned the church what was going to happen. The Gospel of John, the end of the abide section. The 15th chapter. If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belong to the world, the world would love you as its own, because you do not belong to the world. I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you. Possibly because the world thinks you’re nuts.
It is crazy. The incarnation, the Lord God of the creation of the cosmos, who did not think equality with God that was something to be grasped or held on to, but emptied himself, humbled himself, came to us in the form of a servant, and being found in human form, he became obedient, obedient even to the power of the death. Death on the cross. Jesus came down. He got off the throne of heaven, and he came down. He came down to lift us up. He came down to get up under us. He came down to, to get into the mud and the mire and the muck with us. To lift us up. The incarnation is crazy. God is a human being. And then what happen? He walked around healing and preaching and teaching. He loved people. He loved people that nobody had ever loved before. He loved the prostitutes and the tax collectors and the sinners. He loved the outcast. And the world crucified him. How crazy is that? He could have called down 10,000 angels. And when you do the Sennacherib math, you understand that one angel can take out 127-128,000 people. So if you can call down 10,000 angels, you can do a lot of damage. He should have gotten himself off the cross, gotten himself out of that situation. But no, it is for that purpose He came. He came to die for us. He came to give his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He came to straighten out the mess sin had caused for us And humanity. He came to give us a second chance and eternal life.

How crazy is that? And he came to offer us salvation. How do we talk? We don’t talk about salvation like any other religion talks about salvation. Go and look in the world religions. And in the end, if you’re going to be a Hindu and you’re going to achieve Nirvana, and Nirvana is ultimate nothingness. I’ve experienced ultimate nothingness. Hmm. A Buddhist. And you keep working to this stuff and you reincarnate, reincarnate, reincarnate and finally become an incarnation of a Buddha yourself and all these religions. You got to work and you got to do something and you got to accomplish something. And Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners. As a matter of fact. Paul says in Ephesians, while we’re yet dead in our trespasses, Christ died for us, and that there’s nothing you can do to earn salvation. For by grace you’ve been saved through faith. And it’s not; It’s not something you’ve done. It’s a gift of God. How crazy is that? And I won’t even talk about the resurrection. That’s crazy.

I will tell you in Vacation Bible School this week we talked about the resurrection. And it’s obvious it was my Sunday because I know the story. I was telling the boys and girls that the church gathers on Easter Sunday. And our first words, he is risen and you’re supposed to respond. He is risen indeed. But the new response for Easter is going to be he is risen! They know it. They know it. So next year, just get ready. That’s the official Vacation Bible School response of Easter. Wow! He’s risen! And then the risen Jesus turned us loose. How crazy does this sound? Jesus said, very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will do greater works than I do, will do the works I do, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I’m going to be with the father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name. So the father may be glorified in the son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. That’s crazy.

He’s Turning us loose with his power. He’s turning us loose with the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s turning us loose with the same power that resurrected him. Jesus has turned us loose with his power. We don’t mess with that one. That one scares us. Because what if we were walking in the power of God? What if we were walking in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? What if we were seeking God’s face all the time, and all we wanted to do was what God wanted us to do? That’s crazy.

So what happens to the church? What happens to Trinity if we get crazy in Jesus name? If we do the things Jesus said to do? Forgive 70 times. Seven. Simon Peter was ready to forgive seven times, that was a perfect number. But Jesus said, no, Simon, you forgive 70 times seven 490 times in Hebrew numerology. That’s an infinite number of times. Jesus called us to forgive an infinite number of infinite number of times. You know what happens? Preacher. That’s crazy. You can’t say that. ‘Cause what you’re doing is condoning dysfunctional behavior. What if somebody just keeps doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again? Forgive them. Forgive them. That’s what Jesus said. The Son of God, the one that died on the cross for our forgiveness. He said, forgive him. How many times? An infinite number. Are you condoning bad behavior? No way. But you’re forgiving a human being. You’re offering them the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ. You’re offering him a second chance.

What would happen if the church became a community that forgives? Jesus said. Turn the other cheek. Somebody smacks you on one cheek. Stand up. Give them the other cheek. What would happen? What would happen? What would happen? If, instead of responding to the Facebook post the way you wanted to respond you just said, not gonna bother. Forget it. I’m going to put it down. But, preacher, we gotta tell them they’re wrong. The gospel of Jesus still says, tell everybody you’re right and they’re wrong. Do you ever see Jesus saying I’m right and you’re wrong? What would happen if we turn the other cheek? If we didn’t respond on X formerly known as Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, if we didn’t respond to the editorial section of the newspaper or the whatever, Lincoln Parish Journal, we just let it go.

Jesus said. Go the extra mile. Here’s what I want to challenge the church to do. What if we greeted everybody like they were walking in Chick-Fil-A? Don’t you just love walking in Chick-Fil-A? I spent the spring semester going to chick fil A, and with the students and their little prayer gathering, and by the time I’d been there my fourth Wednesday, they knew my name and they knew my order, and they were glad to see me. Are we glad to see guests and visitors come to our church, or do we look around at who or who are they and why are they sitting in my seat? They should know that’s my seat. And the one I love is. We don’t know anybody in the church. And we’re afraid. We’re afraid. We’re afraid to go up and say, who are you? Okay, I’ve got the solution for you, Bubba. Here it is, Bubba. And by the way, you can have male Bubba’s and female Bubba’s. A new technique at Trinity. You see somebody you don’t know and you go with that hand out. Hi. My name is Doug de Graffenried. Because what’s the proper response when somebody introduces themselves by their name? You’re supposed to give them the name back. Is that not correct? Yeah. So I’m going to watch y’all. I’m going to see if we got a lot of people walking out of church like this. How are you ever going to get to know people if you’re afraid to introduce yourself to people you’ve been worshiping with for 25 years? Come on people. Jesus said, go the extra mile. We can say we’re a friendly church. But until that culture becomes ingrained in us, until we start acting like we’re a friendly church and we are friendly to each other.

But what about the stranger that walks? Do you know the scariest thing I do? The scariest thing I do? I’ve been a minister longer than most of you been alive. The scariest thing I do is walk into a new church for the first time. Do you know what kind of anxiety is created walking through those doors? Do you know how you can lower the anxiety? Walk up to them and tell them your name. Say, I’m glad you’re here. Is there anything I can do for you? Do you have any questions? That’s crazy. Preacher. We’re quite comfortable sitting on our seat. Jesus said. Don’t judge. Don’t judge. He didn’t say, don’t use good judgment. He said, don’t judge. By that, he meant don’t precondemn someone. And that goes back to the forgiving seven times seven. You and I are all sinners saved by grace. I steal the Tony Campolo line that if I knew what kind of sinner you were, I wouldn’t preach to you. And if you knew what kind of sinner I was, you wouldn’t listen to me. We are all sinners saved by grace. We are all children loved by God. We are all ones for whom Jesus Christ hung on the cross and died.
Our calling is to love each other. To walk the journey of life together. To walk the transformative path of faith together. What happens if a church gave up our Protestant Reformation proclivity to be right and just became gracious? And just loved everybody? How would that transform our world? How would that transform our church? I pray that we get our crazy on. In Jesus name. Would you stand and pray with me?

You challenged us Lord, in ways that make us uncomfortable. You challenged us to look at our world with wide eyed wonder, to look at our world as a mission field that’s wide under harvest, to look at our world as an opportunity to show the love of God in Jesus Christ to others. Oh God, help us to be crazy as we carry out that task. We pray in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.