Silencing the Demons
This is the text of the sermon preached on February 8, 2009 at Church of the Good Shepherd, United Methodist.
“Silencing the Demons”
Isaiah 40:21-31; Mark 1:29-39
Fifth Sunday of Epiphany, “B”
February 8, 2009
“And Jesus cast out many demons, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew him.” (Mark 1:34)
Oh, dear – what shall we do with this? Demons? Really? We got them last week, too, remember? Jesus cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue who interrupted him. What is this about? We just don’t think in those terms now. Does that mean we set aside each passage that mentions demons? If not, then what do we do? Does anyone else get stuck with images from The Exorcist in their head when they hear passages like that? Anybody else witness a tantrum from a youngster in a public place and think to themselves, “Well, I’m glad MY child isn’t like little Damien there?” Yet here we are with demons showing up in Marks gospel over and over, and yet the concept is almost a joke to us now. What to do? I’d like to walk through a possible interpretational lens for us to use which I hope will give a way forward that’s helpful.
How one deals with the subject depends greatly on how one understands the role of the Bible in one’s life of faith. There are some who take a more literal approach and say that since the Bible talks about demons as evil beings or evil supernatural forces that take possession of people, then that is how we need to see them too. And so those things that happen in life that are clearly outside God’s intentions for the created order, and those people who do things that are clearly in opposition to God’s intention, are being controlled by demons.
The way to deal with them is to confront them directly, perhaps even perform an exorcism. There are many people of faith who take that approach. There are members of the clergy who perform exorcisms. I know of at least one United Methodist pastor, now retired, who claimed to have exorcised any number of demons. And there are people of faith who say they have been cleansed of demons and have a changed life to show for it. That’s one view.
Another view is to understand the Bible as containing an ultimate truth for our lives, a foundational story about who God is and what it means to know God, filled with literature and metaphor that helps us understand God and our relationship with the Divine. Folks who adhere to this view would see the biblical talk of demons to be truth coming through metaphor than through literal reality. They would see such stories as pointing to the reality of evil in the world and would understand our role as people of faith to be one of facing down that evil, confronting it in our own lives and in society and in the world. You should not be surprised to hear that’s the view I take.[1]
In this view, demons are not actual beings or supernatural forces that inhabit others, but they represent real forces at work in the world. One might define “demon,” then, as a representation of that force which can move us away from God’s intention for humanity. In this definition, there is much meaning for our lives, for we all must face down this sort of demon in life.
Today’s gospel lesson gives us a glance at how this works in the ministry of Jesus. The writer of mark tells us simply that Jesus healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. In the time of Jesus, almost anything that might push a person out of the mainstream, perhaps a disease, perhaps odd behavior, perhaps crazy ideas, could be referred to as a demon. And though we have more sophisticated, and usually more helpful, ways of looking at such things now, in a certain sense one could see that evil could be at work in such situations.
Diseases that were misunderstood and untreatable caused the person who was afflicted to be cast out from society. They were “unclean,” or “impure.” Separated from community, it was hard to live a complete and full life. And sometimes that separation meant great suffering indeed. So Jesus would heal – and the recipient of that miracle would not only be better, but would be restored into the community. In the presence of Jesus, that which has been set aside or cast out is brought close to God again. In today’s gospel lesson, it’s Simon’s mother in law who is restored to her place of honor in the home. And Mark says many others were healed and many “demons” were cast out. And those who had been set apart, set aside, cast out, disenfranchised, removed from society, were reconnected.
As Jesus goes through his ministry, we see this again and again. A man is ostracized for odd behavior and sent to live on the fringes of a village. Jesus casts out the “demon” and he is returned to fullness of life in community.
Others surround Jesus, questioning his authority and debating with him, forming their own secret, evil plans for doing away with him. Suddenly someone brings a child who the gospel writer describes as being afflicted with a “demon.” Jesus heals him, and the gathering political storm around him is calmed.
A man is brought to him on a stretcher by friends and Jesus both heals and forgives the man – restoring him to a right relationship with God. Jesus suggests that it is the power of God in their midst which does this, not he himself.
Even with the disciples – when Peter claims later to know who Jesus is Jesus suggests that Peter is not seeing with God’s eyes but with human eyes. And Jesus says, at that moment, “Get behind me Satan.”
Over and over and over again. It is clear to me that when our gospel writers talk about “demons,” about the force of evil in the world; they are talking about much more than simply “evil supernatural beings that take over humans.” It is the gathering opposition to Jesus. It is the injustice of banishment or exile for those with illnesses that can’t be understood by first century knowledge. It is the almost deadly separation from the community endured by those who didn’t fit neat religious definitions of “holy.” It is the failure to see and know and act upon the presence of God in their midst.
For Jesus, casting out those demons means simply being who he is in the face of the opposition. It is setting right an injustice. It is restoring to community and to faith those who’ve been excluded. It is proclaiming the presence of God in our midst. It means not fearing to speak the name of the evil that is apparent – naming it and working against it.
Well and good – but what might it look like in real life?
**
I remember working closely with a doctoral student while I was doing campus ministry. Tessa had made the difficult decision to leave her PhD program and then became just one more person in the multitude of folks labeled “ABD” (All But Dissertation). If you have done graduate work or know people who have, then you know that even getting to that point represents a tremendous amount of work. But for my friend Tessa, working in the lab where her research was based, and most importantly, working for the person that was her primary doctoral advisor, finishing her doctoral work became one of those demons we must face down in life from time to time.
The lab was eating up more and more of her energy, her mind, and her emotional state. The demands placed on her were unusually severe (even in the already severe atmosphere of an advanced molecular biology lab), forcing her further and further away from her family, her new husband, and her church. The only positive feedback she received was when she, out of necessity, temporarily adopted the fairly ruthless outlook on life and work embodied by her supervisor.
Enough was enough. Tessa said to me, “In order to complete this work I will have to become a person I don’t like and I will not do that.” So she put in her notice and left the program. Some days later, we communicated by e-mail and I again expressed my concern over the grief and turmoil she was enduring. She replied, simply, “Please don’t be sorry for me. I smiled at the lab today for the first time in months.”
She had named the demon – a ruthless, competitive outlook on career advancement that was taking her away from what God had made her to be – faced it down and rendered it silent in her life.
**
I have had the privilege of walking with a number of folks through the part of their life journey which included facing down the demon called “addiction.” If you have ever faced this one yourself, or you are close to someone who has, you know how it can change a person; how it can take them far away from what God has created them to be; how it can turn even the gentlest soul into a violent and, well, evil human being. I have always been intrigued by the way Alcoholics Anonymous deals with this. Talk about facing down your demon and sending it away. Here are the “12 Steps:”
1. Admit you are powerless over alcohol – life had become unmanageable.
2. Come to believe that a power greater than yourself could restore you to sanity.
3. Make a decision to turn your will and your life over to God as you understand God.
4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself.
5. Admit to God, to yourself, and to another human being the exact nature of your wrongs.
6. Become entirely ready to have God entirely remove these defects of character.
7. Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.
8. Make a list of all the persons you have harmed, and become willing to make amends.
9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continue to take personal inventory and when you are wrong promptly admit it.
11. Seek through prayer and meditation to increase your conscious contact with God, as you understand God, seeking only to know God’s will for your life.
12. Carry this message to other alcoholics and practice these principles in all your affairs.
Such power for transformation and healing! Notice that facing down the demon named “addiction” here involves personal healing, a renewed connection with God, repairing relationship, and seeking to share that healing and connection with God to others. That sounds an awful lot like what Jesus was up to most of the time.
**
In the last 2 ½ years, you have heard me talk a lot about the need for all of us – not just at Good Shepherd – but everyone all over the world – to seek to heal and restore the unjust and broken relationships across the racial divide. In fact, racism may be one of the most pernicious demons for us to deal with because it can so easily make us think it’s gone just by everyone using good manners. Politeness is only the first step in cross-racial healing.
Did any of you see the story this week on Good Morning America that dealt with this? Representative John Lewis, of Georgia, was a freedom rider with Martin Luther King, Jr. He took part in non-violent protests all over the segregated south as the civil rights movement gathered strength. In many places, he was attacked and beaten. In particular, in Rock Hill South Carolina in 1961, he took part in a protest at a lunch counter – where he and a number of others sought to be served at the white counter, though they were black. They were shoved out by a mob, which gathered in strength. At the bus station, the 21 year old Lewis was severely beaten by a young white man close to the same age.
That young white man, Elwin Wilson, who later joined the KKK, tells the story of tying up a black baby doll in his house and hanging it up as though it were a lynching, and even says that as late as the 1980s, when his parents had died and were buried in a cemetery where black persons had also been buried, he tried to get his parents’ bodies moved because he didn’t want them in the same space with black persons. Elwin Wilson could be any number of persons not only in the south, but throughout the country.
Two things happened to Elwin Wilson. He was asked one day at the lunch counter by a friend, “If you died today, where would you go?” He says he didn’t like the honest answer he had to give to that question. The other thing that happened to him was watching the inauguration of an African-American man as the 44th president. Those two things moved him to do something – he began apologizing all over Rock Hill, South Carolina, for all that he had done and said in the name of racism. And he wrote to Representative John Lewis and asked to meet with him.
This past week, on live television, Mr. Wilson apologized to Rep. Lewis for what he had done, told him he’d seen the error of his ways, and told him he now believes that everybody’s the same – no matter their color. Representative Lewis took Mr. Wilson’s hand, pulled him close for a hug, and said, 48 years after being severely beaten by the first that that white man’s hand had made, “I forgive you.” I’m pretty sure I didn’t see anything happen there that looked like an exorcism. But I’m also pretty sure that Elwin Wilson faced down his demon and banished it from his life. {A link to the video from GMA is at the end of this post}
**
Do you get the picture? Each time we are face to face with a force in the world that seeks to push us away from becoming or being the person God desires for us to be; each time we are face to face with a force that seeks to exclude or dominate a group of people in society; each time we are face to face with a force that opposes goodness, truth and beauty – we are called to silence those demons, not with force, but with love, with a commitment to live our true calling as Children of God, with a proclamation – in word or in deed – that God is present in that moment.
I do not suggest that it’s easy. I do mean to suggest that good comes from naming those fears, those evils, and standing firm in the knowledge of the goodness and mercy of God.
Isaiah proclaimed to the Israelites – facing down the demons of discouragement, despair and doubt while in exile – ‘Don’t you remember what you’ve been told and taught from the beginning? Don’t you remember who this God is that we worship? The One who spread the heavens like a curtain? The One who brought out the host of stars and named each one? The Creator of the ends of the earth? That God? Remember?’
Isaiah implores the people of God to face down discouragement, despair and doubt: ‘That God of ours hasn’t gone anywhere. God isn’t tired or confused. No, this God of ours, star-naming and heavens-creating, will be present with you … will renew your strength as when you were young … wait upon God … expect God … and you will run and run and run the race of life … and you won’t fall down, and you won’t tire out! You might even take wing and soar like and eagle as you experience a life shot-through with Divine, creative power!’
We each have our own demons to face. They may be at work or school; they might have something to do with our self-image, or prejudice or societal injustice, or chronic illness, or depression … you name it for yourself!
But name them you must!
Name them and enter the battle to become the person God is calling you to be, to help our neighborhood, our community, our society, to become what God intends them to be.
Name them!
Invoke the real presence, love, mercy, and justice of God in the mist of them.
And know that when you come to the end of the light you’ve been given in life, and the demon voices in your life are trying to push you away from continuing in your journey of faith, and the twin demons of fear and uncertainty have you afraid to take a step because you don’t know if, when stepping out into the dark, you might fall into an abyss … know that one of two things will happen: Either your feet will find solid ground or you will be taught to fly.[2]
[1] Background understanding of demons owes much to Paul S. Minear’s entry, “Demons,” in the Oxford Companion to the Bible. © 1996, Oxford University Press.
[2] Adapted from a benediction used by Dr. Heather Murray Elkins.
ABC News: Man Asks Entire Town for Forgiveness for Racism
Posted using ShareThis
“Silencing the Demons”
Isaiah 40:21-31; Mark 1:29-39
Fifth Sunday of Epiphany, “B”
February 8, 2009
“And Jesus cast out many demons, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew him.” (Mark 1:34)
Oh, dear – what shall we do with this? Demons? Really? We got them last week, too, remember? Jesus cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue who interrupted him. What is this about? We just don’t think in those terms now. Does that mean we set aside each passage that mentions demons? If not, then what do we do? Does anyone else get stuck with images from The Exorcist in their head when they hear passages like that? Anybody else witness a tantrum from a youngster in a public place and think to themselves, “Well, I’m glad MY child isn’t like little Damien there?” Yet here we are with demons showing up in Marks gospel over and over, and yet the concept is almost a joke to us now. What to do? I’d like to walk through a possible interpretational lens for us to use which I hope will give a way forward that’s helpful.
How one deals with the subject depends greatly on how one understands the role of the Bible in one’s life of faith. There are some who take a more literal approach and say that since the Bible talks about demons as evil beings or evil supernatural forces that take possession of people, then that is how we need to see them too. And so those things that happen in life that are clearly outside God’s intentions for the created order, and those people who do things that are clearly in opposition to God’s intention, are being controlled by demons.
The way to deal with them is to confront them directly, perhaps even perform an exorcism. There are many people of faith who take that approach. There are members of the clergy who perform exorcisms. I know of at least one United Methodist pastor, now retired, who claimed to have exorcised any number of demons. And there are people of faith who say they have been cleansed of demons and have a changed life to show for it. That’s one view.
Another view is to understand the Bible as containing an ultimate truth for our lives, a foundational story about who God is and what it means to know God, filled with literature and metaphor that helps us understand God and our relationship with the Divine. Folks who adhere to this view would see the biblical talk of demons to be truth coming through metaphor than through literal reality. They would see such stories as pointing to the reality of evil in the world and would understand our role as people of faith to be one of facing down that evil, confronting it in our own lives and in society and in the world. You should not be surprised to hear that’s the view I take.[1]
In this view, demons are not actual beings or supernatural forces that inhabit others, but they represent real forces at work in the world. One might define “demon,” then, as a representation of that force which can move us away from God’s intention for humanity. In this definition, there is much meaning for our lives, for we all must face down this sort of demon in life.
Today’s gospel lesson gives us a glance at how this works in the ministry of Jesus. The writer of mark tells us simply that Jesus healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. In the time of Jesus, almost anything that might push a person out of the mainstream, perhaps a disease, perhaps odd behavior, perhaps crazy ideas, could be referred to as a demon. And though we have more sophisticated, and usually more helpful, ways of looking at such things now, in a certain sense one could see that evil could be at work in such situations.
Diseases that were misunderstood and untreatable caused the person who was afflicted to be cast out from society. They were “unclean,” or “impure.” Separated from community, it was hard to live a complete and full life. And sometimes that separation meant great suffering indeed. So Jesus would heal – and the recipient of that miracle would not only be better, but would be restored into the community. In the presence of Jesus, that which has been set aside or cast out is brought close to God again. In today’s gospel lesson, it’s Simon’s mother in law who is restored to her place of honor in the home. And Mark says many others were healed and many “demons” were cast out. And those who had been set apart, set aside, cast out, disenfranchised, removed from society, were reconnected.
As Jesus goes through his ministry, we see this again and again. A man is ostracized for odd behavior and sent to live on the fringes of a village. Jesus casts out the “demon” and he is returned to fullness of life in community.
Others surround Jesus, questioning his authority and debating with him, forming their own secret, evil plans for doing away with him. Suddenly someone brings a child who the gospel writer describes as being afflicted with a “demon.” Jesus heals him, and the gathering political storm around him is calmed.
A man is brought to him on a stretcher by friends and Jesus both heals and forgives the man – restoring him to a right relationship with God. Jesus suggests that it is the power of God in their midst which does this, not he himself.
Even with the disciples – when Peter claims later to know who Jesus is Jesus suggests that Peter is not seeing with God’s eyes but with human eyes. And Jesus says, at that moment, “Get behind me Satan.”
Over and over and over again. It is clear to me that when our gospel writers talk about “demons,” about the force of evil in the world; they are talking about much more than simply “evil supernatural beings that take over humans.” It is the gathering opposition to Jesus. It is the injustice of banishment or exile for those with illnesses that can’t be understood by first century knowledge. It is the almost deadly separation from the community endured by those who didn’t fit neat religious definitions of “holy.” It is the failure to see and know and act upon the presence of God in their midst.
For Jesus, casting out those demons means simply being who he is in the face of the opposition. It is setting right an injustice. It is restoring to community and to faith those who’ve been excluded. It is proclaiming the presence of God in our midst. It means not fearing to speak the name of the evil that is apparent – naming it and working against it.
Well and good – but what might it look like in real life?
**
I remember working closely with a doctoral student while I was doing campus ministry. Tessa had made the difficult decision to leave her PhD program and then became just one more person in the multitude of folks labeled “ABD” (All But Dissertation). If you have done graduate work or know people who have, then you know that even getting to that point represents a tremendous amount of work. But for my friend Tessa, working in the lab where her research was based, and most importantly, working for the person that was her primary doctoral advisor, finishing her doctoral work became one of those demons we must face down in life from time to time.
The lab was eating up more and more of her energy, her mind, and her emotional state. The demands placed on her were unusually severe (even in the already severe atmosphere of an advanced molecular biology lab), forcing her further and further away from her family, her new husband, and her church. The only positive feedback she received was when she, out of necessity, temporarily adopted the fairly ruthless outlook on life and work embodied by her supervisor.
Enough was enough. Tessa said to me, “In order to complete this work I will have to become a person I don’t like and I will not do that.” So she put in her notice and left the program. Some days later, we communicated by e-mail and I again expressed my concern over the grief and turmoil she was enduring. She replied, simply, “Please don’t be sorry for me. I smiled at the lab today for the first time in months.”
She had named the demon – a ruthless, competitive outlook on career advancement that was taking her away from what God had made her to be – faced it down and rendered it silent in her life.
**
I have had the privilege of walking with a number of folks through the part of their life journey which included facing down the demon called “addiction.” If you have ever faced this one yourself, or you are close to someone who has, you know how it can change a person; how it can take them far away from what God has created them to be; how it can turn even the gentlest soul into a violent and, well, evil human being. I have always been intrigued by the way Alcoholics Anonymous deals with this. Talk about facing down your demon and sending it away. Here are the “12 Steps:”
1. Admit you are powerless over alcohol – life had become unmanageable.
2. Come to believe that a power greater than yourself could restore you to sanity.
3. Make a decision to turn your will and your life over to God as you understand God.
4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself.
5. Admit to God, to yourself, and to another human being the exact nature of your wrongs.
6. Become entirely ready to have God entirely remove these defects of character.
7. Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.
8. Make a list of all the persons you have harmed, and become willing to make amends.
9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continue to take personal inventory and when you are wrong promptly admit it.
11. Seek through prayer and meditation to increase your conscious contact with God, as you understand God, seeking only to know God’s will for your life.
12. Carry this message to other alcoholics and practice these principles in all your affairs.
Such power for transformation and healing! Notice that facing down the demon named “addiction” here involves personal healing, a renewed connection with God, repairing relationship, and seeking to share that healing and connection with God to others. That sounds an awful lot like what Jesus was up to most of the time.
**
In the last 2 ½ years, you have heard me talk a lot about the need for all of us – not just at Good Shepherd – but everyone all over the world – to seek to heal and restore the unjust and broken relationships across the racial divide. In fact, racism may be one of the most pernicious demons for us to deal with because it can so easily make us think it’s gone just by everyone using good manners. Politeness is only the first step in cross-racial healing.
Did any of you see the story this week on Good Morning America that dealt with this? Representative John Lewis, of Georgia, was a freedom rider with Martin Luther King, Jr. He took part in non-violent protests all over the segregated south as the civil rights movement gathered strength. In many places, he was attacked and beaten. In particular, in Rock Hill South Carolina in 1961, he took part in a protest at a lunch counter – where he and a number of others sought to be served at the white counter, though they were black. They were shoved out by a mob, which gathered in strength. At the bus station, the 21 year old Lewis was severely beaten by a young white man close to the same age.
That young white man, Elwin Wilson, who later joined the KKK, tells the story of tying up a black baby doll in his house and hanging it up as though it were a lynching, and even says that as late as the 1980s, when his parents had died and were buried in a cemetery where black persons had also been buried, he tried to get his parents’ bodies moved because he didn’t want them in the same space with black persons. Elwin Wilson could be any number of persons not only in the south, but throughout the country.
Two things happened to Elwin Wilson. He was asked one day at the lunch counter by a friend, “If you died today, where would you go?” He says he didn’t like the honest answer he had to give to that question. The other thing that happened to him was watching the inauguration of an African-American man as the 44th president. Those two things moved him to do something – he began apologizing all over Rock Hill, South Carolina, for all that he had done and said in the name of racism. And he wrote to Representative John Lewis and asked to meet with him.
This past week, on live television, Mr. Wilson apologized to Rep. Lewis for what he had done, told him he’d seen the error of his ways, and told him he now believes that everybody’s the same – no matter their color. Representative Lewis took Mr. Wilson’s hand, pulled him close for a hug, and said, 48 years after being severely beaten by the first that that white man’s hand had made, “I forgive you.” I’m pretty sure I didn’t see anything happen there that looked like an exorcism. But I’m also pretty sure that Elwin Wilson faced down his demon and banished it from his life. {A link to the video from GMA is at the end of this post}
**
Do you get the picture? Each time we are face to face with a force in the world that seeks to push us away from becoming or being the person God desires for us to be; each time we are face to face with a force that seeks to exclude or dominate a group of people in society; each time we are face to face with a force that opposes goodness, truth and beauty – we are called to silence those demons, not with force, but with love, with a commitment to live our true calling as Children of God, with a proclamation – in word or in deed – that God is present in that moment.
I do not suggest that it’s easy. I do mean to suggest that good comes from naming those fears, those evils, and standing firm in the knowledge of the goodness and mercy of God.
Isaiah proclaimed to the Israelites – facing down the demons of discouragement, despair and doubt while in exile – ‘Don’t you remember what you’ve been told and taught from the beginning? Don’t you remember who this God is that we worship? The One who spread the heavens like a curtain? The One who brought out the host of stars and named each one? The Creator of the ends of the earth? That God? Remember?’
Isaiah implores the people of God to face down discouragement, despair and doubt: ‘That God of ours hasn’t gone anywhere. God isn’t tired or confused. No, this God of ours, star-naming and heavens-creating, will be present with you … will renew your strength as when you were young … wait upon God … expect God … and you will run and run and run the race of life … and you won’t fall down, and you won’t tire out! You might even take wing and soar like and eagle as you experience a life shot-through with Divine, creative power!’
We each have our own demons to face. They may be at work or school; they might have something to do with our self-image, or prejudice or societal injustice, or chronic illness, or depression … you name it for yourself!
But name them you must!
Name them and enter the battle to become the person God is calling you to be, to help our neighborhood, our community, our society, to become what God intends them to be.
Name them!
Invoke the real presence, love, mercy, and justice of God in the mist of them.
And know that when you come to the end of the light you’ve been given in life, and the demon voices in your life are trying to push you away from continuing in your journey of faith, and the twin demons of fear and uncertainty have you afraid to take a step because you don’t know if, when stepping out into the dark, you might fall into an abyss … know that one of two things will happen: Either your feet will find solid ground or you will be taught to fly.[2]
[1] Background understanding of demons owes much to Paul S. Minear’s entry, “Demons,” in the Oxford Companion to the Bible. © 1996, Oxford University Press.
[2] Adapted from a benediction used by Dr. Heather Murray Elkins.
ABC News: Man Asks Entire Town for Forgiveness for Racism
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