In Luke 8:26-39, we see what
Jesus did for a man who was possessed by demons and it sure seems like Jesus
bundled up all that evil and sent it away… into a herd of swine that ran
headlong into the water to drown! After yet another mass shooting, this time at
a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where the gunman chose violence after
reading fear-filled screeds on-line and elsewhere filled his writing and conversation
with all kinds of hateful language and the bizarre idea that “white culture” is being “replaced” by immigrants and people of color.
I don’t know about you, but I
sure would like to send all this evil far, far away!
We Episcopalian Christians take
evil seriously! Every time we baptize someone, the candidates, or their parents
and sponsors, have to answer two questions:
“Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of
wickedness that rebel against God?”
And:
“Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt
and destroy the creatures of God?”
Yes. We Episcopalians really and
truly believe that these evil powers, these demons, are real and that they wreak
havoc in our world. Most people scoff at such an idea…or at least whistle as
they pass the graveyard… which is fine until a guy who dresses up his anger in political
non-sense takes a semi-automatic firearm into a nightclub and shoots over a
hundred people, killing forty-nine. Or until a guy who decides to call himself
“death to traitors” kills a member of parliament in the UK. Or until a guy
stalks and murders a young singer before a concert. Or, as happened last week,
an angry, fear-filled coward stakes out a supermarket in a mainly black
neighborhood, dresses himself up in body armor, and then systematically kills
ten people. Then evil becomes very real, doesn’t it?
The spiritual powers that rebel
against God and corrupt and destroy the creatures of God show themselves mainly
through fear and hatred. These are not only emotions, but a spiritual
state. It is very easy to be tempted to confront evil with more evil…to pile on
fear in response to fear, to prejudice in response to prejudice, to meet
violence with violence.
But if you really want to fight
evil and win, here’s what we do: we must do the things that evil hates!
Jesus does that in Luke's Gospel. When confronted with a madman who screams at and threatens people, who throws himself to the ground and roams among the dead in a cemetery, as if he were a first century version of someone steeped in the dark web.
But look at what
Jesus does: Instead of doing some sort of violence against the man, Jesus
confronts the evil… he meets evil, looks it in the eye, names it, and then
casts it out!
Look again at Jesus’ dialogue
with the man possessed:
Jesus says, “What is your name?”
And the man can’t even answer. The demon within him responds, “Legion.” A
legion was a Roman military unit, terrifying in its power and the number of
heavily armed soldiers who could overrun another army or a country. What
possessed this man was not a simple fear, or a hatred of a single thing—the
demon that ripped this man’s life apart and separated him from all society was
a whole constellation of fears, they manifested in hatred of life itself, and
even when the Life of the World invited him to life, he cried out, “DO NOT
TORMENT ME!”
People rightly responded in
horror and pain to the awful events last week and people had many names for the
evil that we witnessed: “terrorist,” “white supremacist,” “self-hater,” “deranged.”
The names were Legion, just like the man who dwelt in the tombs in Gerasa way back
two thousand years ago confronting Jesus, the incarnate love of God, who stood calmly
before the face of evil, looking it in the eye.
Jesus was not distracted by the
evil but sees it for what it is…He even dialogues with it. But he stays focused
on healing the man possessed instead of playing evil’s deadly game. The demons
can’t take it. They flee from the man and away from Jesus and jump into that
herd of swine.
What drove these demons out of
the man…what made life unbearable for the evil Jesus faced…was the power of
Jesus’ love. It was Jesus’ unflinching, realistic, clear-eyed love that made
these demons want to take up residence somewhere else. Jesus was doing the
things that evil hates!
Which is what Jesus is teaching
us during this terrible week: if you want to cast out demons, do the thing that
evil hates.
Evil hates justice and thrives
on division. Seek reconciliation.
Evil loves it when we are silent
about injustice and marginalize the poor. Speak up and work on behalf of the
oppressed and outcast.
Evil drives us to be selfish and
care only for ourselves. Cast out evil with compassion.
Evil wants us to be alone and
cut off. Drive evil crazy with your prayer, your trust in God, and your life in
Christian community.
Evil flourishes when we hate in
God’s name. If you really want to cast out demons, love.
Evil feeds on our resentment and
our list of wrongs. Cast out evil. Forgive.
Evil wants us to focus on
scarcity. Fight evil. Be generous.
Evil grows when we get caught up
in anxiety. Cast out a demon. Let go of needing to control every outcome.
Evil needs violence—in every
form, physical and emotional—so fight evil and live peaceably.
Jesus shows us, in his unflinching encounter with a legion of demons and on his journey to the cross, that he had God’s power and God’s authority which allowed him to confront evil on God’s terms. By simply living and doing what he was called to do; by teaching, healing, forgiving, listening, and by welcoming the stranger and being a companion to the outcast he was doing all the things that evil hates…and drove evil crazy in the process! They wanted to run away! When Jesus was crucified, it looked as if evil won. But, in fact, as we see in the resurrection, evil was defeated. Forever!
And we saw it, too.
We saw it in every candle lit, every
prayer offered, every first responder who put themselves on the line to
care for wounded, injured, and dead. We saw it in every act of love, every
grieving person hugged and cared for, every frightened person embraced. Once again,
one man chose to do unspeakable evil. And once again, when the chips were down,
thousands upon thousands chose to do the good.
I wish we could sweep up all the
evil in all the world and sent it off in a rocket-ship, far, far away. But you
know what? God beat us to it! Jesus has already defeated evil and put death to
flight on the cross and in his resurrection. And when we do as Jesus told the
man he healed to return to where we live and “declare how much God is doing for
us,” we are demonstrating that no matter how much hate, how much violence, how
much cynicism and fear is out there, we have, through our baptisms, the
Eucharist and the power of the Holy Spirit in this community, the power cast
out evil in wonderful, surprisingly practical ways of compassion, holiness and
calm.
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Check out the response by Bishop Sean Rowe, Bishop of Northwest Pennsylvania and Bishop Provisional of Western New York to the mass shooting on Saturday, May 12, 2022 in Buffalo, New York, which is within the Diocese of Western New York. (The text may be found here.)
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