We need to do a quick recap because Mark's Gospel covers a lot of ground quickly.

This Gospel constantly shifts scene with terse bunches of rapid-fire prose.

Jesus baptized by John and the heavens were torn apart.
Water still dripping from him, Jesus was driven out into the desert.

Temptations of all kinds were offered ­ and refused.
Forty days served to strip away all that was not essential.
Jesus had been hammered by the devil, quenched in water and the spirit.
Now he was strong, tempered for the task at hand, and ready to begin.

Jesus emerged with clarity and conviction.
He went to Galilee selected two disciples, then two more.
Immediately they departed for Capernaum and headed for the synagogue.

This was a logical step. Jesus had been prepared. Now it was time to begin.
It was time to proclaim what he knew. It was time to teach the truth.

The synagogue was primarily a place of teaching.

The service in a synagogue had three components:

prayers, reading of the scripture and the exposition of those readings.

Synagogues had a certain officials. There was a Ruler. The Ruler was responsible for the administration of the synagogue and the arrangement of its services.

There were Distributors of Alms. They made sure that the daily collection
was distributed to the poor, according to their need.

And there was the Chazzan. The Chazzan was the person who was responsible for the elementary education of the children. It was he who blew the silver trumpet to remind people that the Sabbath had come. During a service it was the Chazzan who the took out and later stored away the scrolls on which scripture was written.

But there was no permanent preacher or teacher. It was part of the synagogue Ruleršs responsibility to call on any competent man to read the scripture and give an exposition.

There were many itinerant preachers. It was not uncommon for a stranger to be asked to read and speak. Wisdom might have delivered God's word to your doorstep in the person of the unknown. The Ruler might even have called on strangers preferentially whenever that option presented itself.

The study of the Law was the search for life and righteousness. It was the responsibility of all who could to pursue that study. To read the Torah was to seek God's word.

But the law had two parts ­that which was written, the Pentatuch, or the books of Moses as they were called­ and the oral law. The Oral law was the domain of the Scribes and Rabbis. The oral law was a body of interpretation of the written law. It was the result of generations of study and reasoning. This body of precedents attempted to present how any situation in life should be approached. The oral law was handed down verbally from generation to generation. It grew in stature even as it grew in volume.

By Jesus' day the oral law was held to be more binding than the written law. A Scribe with a good memory stood on the shoulders of many, backing his pronouncements with precedents that stretched back for centuries.

But a good memory is only one virtue among many possible ones.
The ability to remember what many have said does not ensure
that the one remembering is living what he professes to know.
And no transmitted knowledge is as powerful
as that which one gains through experience.

This is the context into which Jesus walked
when he entered the synagogue at Capernaum,
shortly after his the time in the desert.

Jesus spoke out of the authority of who was
and what he had discovered in the water and the sand.

The heaven were torn apart and the desert was a cosmic battleground.
Jesus knew what he knew through direct experience.
Jesus was a good Jew: he knew scripture.
But his knowledge was deeper than even the collective memory.

The Scribes could draw from the well of remembrance,
but Jesus had been to bedrock and back.

The power of Jesus' authority was palpable.
He didn't quote earlier teachers.
He didn't put up with the presence and protestations of the unclean spirit.
Jesus would not allow truth to be obscured by the voices of others.

We live in a time that does not admit to demonic possession.
We are too sophisticated for such explanations.
But the words "unclean spirit" are a useful translation
for they allow us to consider the demons that clamor within us obscuring the voice of truth.

Remember the last Baptism we witnessed?
Remember the three renunciations?

The celebrant asked: "Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God." Then we were asked if we would renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God. Finally we were asked if we would renounce all sinful desires that draw us from the love of God.

There be demons. Their name is legion. They are not called Bezelbub. They have names like: lust, covetousness, a thirst for power, an endless need to acquire things, a desire for revenge, the temptation to work overly long hours to the exclusion of experiencing a fuller life. The list is endless, and we need not call them demons to admit their unholy power over us.

We invite these demons to dwell within us and we are loath to give them up.
We allow some of these to be treasured possessions.

We cannot cast them out on our own authority.
We like to think that we are the rulers of ourselves,
but honesty sheds a different light on that notion.

Like the Ruler of the synagogue we need to invite another to speak truth within us.

Jesus has been in the teeth of temptation.
He knows the fire we feel: both that which warms the worst parts in us
and the burning pain we feel when we acknowledge the harm
that we do to ourselves and to others.

There is an antidote.
We spoke of it too at the last baptism.

We were asked if we would turn to Jesus and accept him as our Lord and Savior, putting our whole trust in his love and grace. Then we promised to follow and obey him as our lord.

We will be ruled by something.
Call it demons, or appetites, or what you will.
I call it insufficient.

Why should we live by instinct, or simply the transmitted wisdom of others?
Jesus is available to those who invite him and God's word into themselves.