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I speak in the name of one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Amen.

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Sometimes, as a clergy person or priest, you can sort of get into a routine of saying the

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same things over and over again, like at the beginning of a sermon in the name of one God,

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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And then you read passages like the one from Deuteronomy and you realize or remember how

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awesome and maybe even dangerous speaking in the name of God can be.

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It says, but any prophet who presumes to speak in the name, in my name a word that I have

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not commanded, the prophet to speak shall die.

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So that being said, another prayer.

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May God use and overrule my words.

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May God's word only be spoken and God's word only be heard.

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Amen.

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Today's lesson from Mark records the first public act in Jesus' ministry.

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He's just been baptized, tempted in the wilderness, and called his first disciples.

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And now he's on the main stage, you might say.

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He's the guest preacher at the synagogue in Capernaum.

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He immediately starts to make an impression.

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The people gathered remark, he speaks as one with authority and not as describes.

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In other words, Jesus' words have power behind them.

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They're not idle.

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They're active.

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They do something.

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The power of Jesus' word is demonstrated powerfully in the casting out of this unclean spirit.

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Just as God's word brought order to creation in the beginning of time, Jesus' word cast

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out this unclean spirit and restores this man to life.

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Unlike the scribes, Jesus doesn't have to cite his source.

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He doesn't have to give a bibliography because Jesus is the source.

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Jesus is the word made flesh.

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Now as I reflect on this passage, I think it's remarkable that the community gathered

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there seems to be okay with this unclean spirit or this negative energy that resides in this

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man.

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Have they just figured out how to live with this negative energy?

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Have they not tried to heal this man?

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Or maybe they did attempt to heal this man at one time, but it didn't work.

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I imagine the subtext might have sounded something like, hey guys, why haven't you healed this

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man?

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Asked Jesus.

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The religious leaders might reply, well, we tried it once and it didn't work.

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We tried it once, but it didn't work.

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How often have we heard that in our religious circles over time?

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Oh ye of little faith, I can hear Jesus saying.

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As most of you know, I spent a week and a half in London as a part of a continuing education

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program called Learning from London.

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We explored the unlikely ways in which the Church of England is growing.

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Just a word of note, it's not like they're growing by leaps and bounds, but they are

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growing enough to keep up with the decline, which is actually pretty remarkable in and

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of itself.

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And during a conversation with the Bishop of London, Sarah Malali mentioned that the

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Church of England has always been really good at diagnosing the problem, but historically

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very bad at doing anything about it.

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They've been aware of the numerical decline for decades, but they've felt powerless to

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respond.

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The, we've tried that attitude, was pervasive in the Church's posture.

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However, in an organic, excuse me, in an organic way, in a non-centralized way, growth started

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happening all over the Church in both small and big ways.

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And when asked to pinpoint why, the Bishop attributed the growth to the power of prayer.

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Well duh might be your first thought.

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That's a great place to start is with prayer.

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But there was an authenticity to what she was saying that I wasn't necessarily always

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used to hearing.

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She spoke as one with authority, not just because she wore a purple shirt and had a

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collar on, not as the hyper-religious spokes.

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And it wasn't just that her authority came, I was one step ahead.

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She spoke as one with authority, not as the hyper-religious spokes.

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And it wasn't just that her authority came from the purple shirt and collar, but it came

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from a deeper, more authentic space.

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And as I later reflected, I would say that authority comes from the power of the Holy

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Spirit working within her.

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When prayer becomes a humble act of faith and not some kind of performative act, we

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are allowing the Spirit to move and make room to work.

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When we pray in faith, when we invite the Spirit to be a part of the conversation, a

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liberation kind of, there's a liberation that happens in us.

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We are no longer beholden to the seemingly unsurmountable task.

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We no longer feel paralyzed or overwhelmed by a job that's too big.

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Because while, yes, the job is too big for any one of us, it is not too big for God.

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With God's help, nothing is impossible.

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God can move mountains.

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God can raise even the dead to life.

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And so prayer expands our vision of what's possible, because prayer opens us up to the

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work of the Spirit moving in our midst.

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In today's lesson, and in Mark's Gospel in general, and Scripture in general, Jesus

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doesn't spend a whole lot of time diagnosing the problem.

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In Mark and fashion, Jesus immediately acts.

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He doesn't have a committee to talk about what's wrong.

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He says to the unclean spirit, be silent and come out of him.

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And after Jesus speaks these words, the unclean spirit is forced out of the man.

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This word casts the negative energy and makes room for the Holy Spirit.

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Jesus doesn't have time for this negative energy to fill our places of worship and teaching.

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Jesus cleanses this man in the synagogue from the unclean spirits.

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His fame begins to spread across the surrounding region, and now he's the most sought after

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speaker and miracle worker in the land.

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Now I don't have to tell you that we live in a world that is filled with too much negative

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energy, and the people who often get the most press, the most TV time or media time, are

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the people who sort of perpetuate that negative energy.

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This negative energy fills our workplaces and our news feeds, our schools, our homes,

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our big league and little league sporting venues, our radio waves, even our places of

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worship.

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This negative energy constricts our vision of what is possible.

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These unclean spirits diminish and limit our faith in the power of the Spirit.

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And as we see in today's lesson, prayer isn't just a conversation with God, but it's a conversation

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with the community.

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Prayer has the power to drive out the negative energy that exists in the world around us

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and the world inside of us.

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And yet, yes, prayer is something we can do quietly to ourselves, and we Episcopalians

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are really good at doing prayer quietly to ourselves.

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But prayer is also something that we do aloud with others.

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And we as Episcopalians, that's a growing edge, you might say.

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We do have a prayer book, which is a great place to start.

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Our prayers aren't just words that we speak, but they're also words that God speaks through

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us.

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One of my favorite verses in Scripture is from Romans 8, which says, we do not know

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how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

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So when you pray silently and aloud, listen to your breathing and trust that God's word

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is being spoken into this world and driving out those negative feelings and energies in

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our homes and our schools, our workplaces, our communities, our little league sports

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complexes, our places of worship, our news feeds.

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God's Spirit, so that God's Spirit might give us the vision of hope and healing, so that

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God's Spirit might give us the vision of the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

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Now tomorrow night, I'm going to ask our bestie to kick around a question.

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How can we create a culture of prayer at Ascension?

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That's not to say we don't already have a culture of prayer.

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But how can we make it more of a priority in all facets of our life together?

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For example, what would it look like if those who gathered to pack lunches for the Abbey

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stopped and prayed for the hungry who were receiving the meal, prayed for themselves,

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for their families, out loud?

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Maybe we'll have like a scripted prayer that you can go off of.

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What would it look like if we prayed every time we gathered, not only as large groups,

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but as small groups?

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And likewise, I want to ask you a similar question.

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How much you create a culture of prayer in your homes and your workplaces even, in your

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own life?

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Like the Church of England, you might be tempted to diagnose why it's hard to do that.

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But I invite you, however, to take a tip from Mark's Jesus and just start doing it.

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If you need help, don't hesitate to reach out to Emily or me.

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There might be other people in your orbit that are especially faithful in prayer.

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Reach out to them.

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I'm sure they'd love to talk to you.

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And if you have ideas that might inspire a culture of prayer at Ascension, please don't

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hesitate to let someone in parish leadership know.

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So often revival and renewal come from out there and work their way to the center, not

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the other way around necessarily.

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Lastly, think of prayer not as a tool to change God's mind about something, but as a way to

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change your heart and the hearts of those around you about what is possible with God.

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We don't have to live with negativity in our midst.

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Remember this is an election year, so this is really important.

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Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have been given the authority to speak God's word

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into the world and drive out those unclean spirits, those negative energies, so that

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peace may prevail.

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And the next time you start to say to yourself, we've already tried that, it didn't work,

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or I already tried that and it didn't work, I encourage you to take a deep breath and

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invite the Holy Spirit to expand your vision of what is possible with God.

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Ask the Holy Spirit to drive away that negative energy that exists in you and around you so

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that you may never be ceased to be amazed by the power of God's word as it is lived and

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breathed through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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Amen.

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Now let us proclaim our faith with a nice and creed.

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We believe in one God.