Get the Devil Out of Here

Partial Transcription…

Last evening, many of us heard our President give his State of the Union Address. Jesus, in this Gospel, gives a State of the World Address. Now let me immediately say, I don't mean to be comparing our President with Jesus Christ. I just mean to suggest that Jesus is also giving a very important message for the welfare of the world and specifically addresses the evil spirit that threatens the well being of the world. It can be clearly seen in this Gospel, particularly how Jesus has overcome evil and shares and shows us the power by which he addresses all evil for all time.

In that light I'm very happy to look with you at what this Gospel means in terms of today and why this is a Gospel we might look at to understand, what I believe is the only strategy that will work in conquering any evil for any time in anyone or any situation.

To begin with, Jesus begins his public ministry in the synagogue in Capernaum which is where scholars suggest Jesus probably lived and spent most of his public ministry. We're told that the people were spellbound by his teaching because he taught with authority and not like the scribes. They were spellbound because Jesus' authority came from an inner authority. He did not have teleprompters. He did not have advisors. He did not say what was politically correct. He did not pay attention to the polls. They did not have any surveys afterwards or interactive television reports or commentators. He just spoke from deep down in his heart, what he knew was the truth; what he knew was morally right.

This held people spellbound because they were not accustomed to this powerful, persuasive art of preaching. Most people like the scribes would have spoken from an external authority whereby they would have quoted or cited other people, other sources and their opinions. Jesus spoke from what he knew deep down inside himself. Not only that, what Mark connects is not only Jesus' teaching but even more so, what he does; in effect a show and tell. He exemplifies what he already had explained. He performs an exorcism. We see the intimate connection between what Jesus did and what he said. So that he was powerful in word and in deed which makes him a man of such integrity.

Let me say a word about exorcisms because I'd like to dispel that image of The Exorcist that becomes much too theatrical and probably too dramatic. I’d like to also, in effect, redirect our attention away from the image of a devil with red horns and a tail and a pitchfork and bring it closer to our experience of how we experience evil in our lives. Exorcisms were the practice of expelling evil spirits from persons or places. They are found more in Mark's Gospel than any of the other three Gospels. Exorcisms were continually performed by Jesus as a sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God and the overcoming of the kingdom of Satan.

Mark begins his Gospel mentioning how Jesus went into the Desert led by the Spirit to confront the evil spirit because the evil spirit tempted him. We know already, what is that evil spirit? How do we identify it? It's whatever is drawing us away from God's way. That spirit is so clever, deceitful, and subtle that usually we don't recognize it. It always tries to disguise itself in the form of good because who would choose bad? It is this spirit that Jesus confronts and exposes as he begins his public ministry in the synagogue. He exposes that evil spirit that throws this man into convulsions. I would use another word, compulsions, or addictions or those things that work on that poor man and work against the welfare of his own life.

Now it's interesting as we look at this dramatic scene happening that the unclean spirit in the man is immediately disturbed by the presence of Jesus. No evil spirit wants to come against Jesus and so the unclean spirit shrieks, "What do you want of us Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" Exactly. He's naming exactly Jesus' very mission which is to confront and to conquer the power of evil in the world. It is interesting and a point of irony, that it is the demon that voices the first recognition of Jesus' identity and mission in the Gospel and says, "I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God." He recognizes that Jesus is the principal agent of God overcoming Satan. By naming him, Satan was trying to overcome him. But Jesus rebuked him sharply. You can almost understand how we need to address evil, straightforwardly and strongly; emphatically. And he says, "Be quiet. Come out of the man." At that, the unclean spirit convulsed the man violently and with loud shriek.

Isn't it interesting he went into convulsions when the spirit went out of him? If any of you are familiar with people who have grown up in a home that's dysfunctional and you try to address that disfunction, and then people get angry and they go into conniptions, we'd say, because you're changing things, even though it's so disordered and disoriented, yet that's what their accustomed to. Does this make sense? It can really throw people off and they almost fight you? That's the force of evil coming out. Jesus shows himself in this Gospel story to be more powerful than the evil one. More than that, he shows himself to win the ultimate victory over Satan and establishing God's Kingdom.

Now the people are just amazed, you can just imagine, how amazed they were to see someone overcome this evil spirit because they knew—and sometimes we forget this but we need to remind ourselves of this. What they knew, was that no human being is powerful enough to overcome the evil angels. It is only a divine power that can overpower evil. They began to ask themselves, what does this mean? Mark is raising that question in our mind. Obviously, what Mark is suggesting is that Jesus is God and he comes with a mission from God to overcome evil and to establish God's Kingdom. Keep in mind that in this same Gospel, we will hear in an even more remarkable way, that Jesus shares that divine power with his disciples and he confers on them his spirit, his holy spirit, to go and expel evil spirits in his name. Not by their power and not in their name, but only by the name and the power of Jesus Christ.

Well what I'd like to do now is to look at this miracle of exorcism, the expelling of the evil from the man, in terms of our life and in the context of our country, in the face of our family, in the situation of our nation this day. We might ask our selves here today: What are the demons that face us, in our life and in our family? In our church? Isn't it interesting that Jesus had to expel the demon in the synagogue? Don't miss that that these devils lurk even in our own churches and communities. Keep in mind as we ask the question: What are these demons? The demons are those evil spirits, those evil forces that oppose the Holy Spirit. So as you ask yourself, where do I see the demons in me and about me? Also ask, where do I see anything that contradicts, or works against peace, or joy, or love, or kindness, or truth, or wisdom, or harmony, or forgiveness, etc?

I would encourage us to consider too that our demons could be a list of addictions or compulsions that hold us bound. For instance alcoholism, drug addiction, inordinate gambling, eating disorders, sexual addictions, etc, etc. You can continue the list in your own mind. Could it not also be that demons are on the list of those "isms" that in effect diminish the Holy Spirit in other people, such as: racism, sexism, classism, even workaholism—[sheepishly] Guilty!— provincialism; those things that make us look so narrow minded that we forget the larger picture. Therefore, even nationalism could be, could be, a demon at times. Certainly atheism, communism, materialism, consumerism, ageism...I could go on and on. You finish the list.

Moving to another category, I just kind of cite these things to provoke your own reflection about identifying the demon. Could it be that these demons would be among a list of those things that take away from the quality of human life that was made to be an image of God and goodness? Therefore could not poverty be a demon as well as illiteracy or apathy or envy or jealousy? Certainly hatred and violence and crime...again you finish the list. Where do you see the demons even in your neighborhoods, in your communities, or even churches? That is the first thing we need to do—as Jesus did—is identify the demon and then ask: How in the world do we address or expel such demonic forces? Remember, these forces of evil are greater than our own human strength. Especially considering that addictions often afflict that area of our weakness.

What do we do to re-enact this wonderful Gospel scene where Jesus takes hold of the evil spirit in that man? I suggest that we try to do what the man in the Gospel did, that is to say first somehow, something, led him to the synagogue. I'd like to suggest that the synagogue is that place of the presence of God and that we too would be well to come before the presence of God, as we always do in prayer, or even in this Gospel study, and allow the demons to emerge in God's presence, with his life shining upon us, the shadow will appear and the darkness will have to be

revealed. And the more you walk into the light, the more the dark spots will show up. And in fact that's part of the problem that I see in our world today that wants to make everything so gray that you can no longer distinguish good from evil. You know? You can no longer tell what's right or wrong. They lose that sensitivity and sensibility of what's helpful and holy and what's evil and harmful. Our society, I think is losing it as we become more and more amoral and lose that moral sensibility.

Secondly, once we come before the Lord with these situations, with these demons, once they emerge and we try to name them, then we have to believe that the Lord has the power to overcome them. Now, if you're like me, I can believe that for everyone else's demons but not my own. I know what the country needs to do, I just have a hard time dealing with what I need to do. That's where it becomes difficult. And people will tell you, there's a wonderful article in the Cincinnati Enquirer magazine about the woman who was fighting the eating disorder. She's a very intelligent woman, I think she works for one of the local television stations, she knew exactly what was going on but just did not have the power to overcome this demon in her life. She was suffering from anorexia and bulimia. Finally she had to come to terms with how much she needed help. We need to believe that help can only come from God.

That leads to the final point; the most important point. We must come before the Lord Jesus Christ who is our only Savior to ask him to expel this demon, first from ourselves and then those in our family, among our friends and the ripple effect out toward our community and wider country and world. It strikes me that these suggestions that I just offered are very similar to the first three steps of the 12-step program. First, to admit that you are powerless over your problem, whatever it is that is unmanageable in your life. Secondly, to believe that a higher power can restore you to your sanity, or sanctity, or well being. And thirdly, the third step is to turn over your life and your will to the care of God. Let me share the powerful witness of the man for whom we owe this legacy of the 12-step tradition that has come to be such a source of recovery for so many millions of people throughout the world. I am speaking of Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Bill Wilson had a history of alcoholism that nearly killed him. It bankrupted him and nearly broke his marriage. And despite every effort on his part, trying to do this or do that, nothing seemed to help him. Fortunately he was able to meet a doctor in his life who was able to acknowledge for the first time that alcoholism was a disease and not just a lack of willpower or not just a moral defect. Despite this doctor’s help, Bill Wilson was still not able to overcome his weakness to his addiction. This doctor told him you only have about 6 months to live before you will either be dead or insane; consumed by this, if you will, this demon of alcoholism.

Bill Wilson entered himself into a hospital; a hospital he had already entered three times to become detoxified. Sitting on his hospital bed he cried out from his depths: "If there is a God let Him show Himself. I am ready to do anything. Anything." He later wrote, what happened next was electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribable white light. I was seized with an ecstasy beyond description. Every joy I had ever know was pale by comparison. The light, the ecstasy…I was conscious of nothing else for a time.

Then seeing in my mind's eye, there was a mountain and I stood upon it's summit where a great wind blew. A wind not of air, but of spirit. In a great clean strength it blew right through me, then

came the blazing sensation, "You are a free man." From that moment until Bill Wilson's death, Bill Wilson never drank alcohol again. His story reminds me so much of the experience of the man in the Gospel. And if we could only have that man's own witness and words maybe it would sound something like what Bill Wilson wrote. This power of God, Jesus comes to share with the world today. We need that power as evil confronts us at every time and every season, in every situation. More than ever before, the world needs, I think, the exorcism of evil. Not again seen in the dramatic sense but in the most spiritual and powerful way, calling on Jesus to rid of whatever hurts and afflicts us, individually and communally.

So we must undergo these same steps and I would ask us now to reflect on these questions. What are these demons that we face in our life and in our family and in our work and in our world and in our church and in our community? What are these demons? Can you name them? Can you identify them? Next, how can we address these demons? How can we call upon the power of Jesus to expel them? This is the good news that has been given to us today. Amen.