I'd want mine to be able to cast out demons!
And my cool super-power would be so awesome
that I wouldn’t even need to say or do anything. Demons would see me coming…
and “pop…!” Out they’d come!
Wouldn’t that be cool?
That’s what happened to Jesus in today’s Gospel
from Mark. Jesus is teaching in the synagogue near Capernaum. Mark says he is
not just any run of the mill traveling rabbi but a person who teaches with
authority. Jesus grabs your heart as well as your mind and he won’t let go!
So here he is in Capernaum, when suddenly a guy
in the crowd jumps up and shouts “What have you to do with us, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of
God!”
Jesus engages the unclean spirit directly,
silencing it and calling it out. And with convulsions and shouting, Jesus
drives the unclean spirit out of the man.
And that’s what I want to do!
Imagine being able to spot something we don’t
like in someone and just cast it out of them!
The problem, of course, is that we’d always be
picking out the evil in the other guy,
never in ourselves! We’d be the one who decides who is good and who is bad and
who needs cleaning up and who doesn’t, and that’s a pretty terrible temptation,
isn’t it?
I think this temptation motivates a lot of
super-religious people. You know, like the ones who stand outside military
funerals or gay pride events waving signs and shouting hateful, untrue, and
disgusting things in God’s name to and about gay and lesbian people. I think
this is also the temptation for people who join terror groups, both foreign and
domestic, and kill people in the name of God. These folks think they are
confronting evil…but in a way where they become evil themselves.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said in 1963, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
The lesson we are learning again by watching
films like Selma and recalling the
long non-violent struggle against state-sponsored racism is that minds—and
hearts—were changed when people refused to be goaded into violence by violence
but instead did exactly the things that evil cannot stand.
And the message of the film, A Case for
Love, which many of us saw last week, was that the love of
Jesus shows itself through unselfish love can overcome the political and social
divides that we face today.
When Jesus encounters the unclean spirit he not
on some spiritual search-and-destroy mission. And he is not a Gary Cooper-like
lone sheriff who’s come to clean up this town. No. Instead he taught. It was
his authority as a teacher that evil could not stand to be with. Jesus was
doing the thing that evil hates. And that is the key.
So, if you want to cast out demons, do the
thing that evil hates!
Doing the thing that evil hates is taught in
Christian community. Just look at Paul’s teaching to the Christians in Corinth.
In today’s epistle, Paul addresses a question sent to him about food sacrificed
to idols. Corinth was a Greek city and this congregation had within it both
Jews and Greeks. There were people raised in the synagogue and people raised in
the religious supermarket that was Greek and Roman religion. The popular
religions of the area were an array of different gods with a little deity for every
possible need, and each cult had its own ritual. The meat that was sacrificed
in these temples was not destroyed (as in Jewish temple practice) but turned
around and sold in the marketplace.
We read in Acts (15:29) that one of the
requirements placed on Gentiles who became Christians (without first becoming
Jews) was that they were not to buy, serve or eat meat from animals that had
been sacrificed to idols. Some
Christians in Corinth defy this rule and it was creating division. Other Corinthian
Christians were unhappy about that, so they went to the apostle Paul to help
straighten out this mess.
Now, the Christians who ate idol-meat had a
good case. They knew that the little fake
deities were nothing compared to the One God made known in Jesus Christ. These
Christians knew that because of Christ’s
death and resurrection we are freed from all these little godlets. They said
that if Jews who follow Christ are freed from their law, so are Gentiles freed from
theirs. Paul says that they are right. But being right is not the point. Caring
for one another is.
He urges people to refrain from eating if it
would be a scandal for others. But he also tells those who stay away from
idol-meat to go ahead and eat an idol-burger if they are served one by a
Christian who thinks it’s just a burger. Paul says the most important thing is
that everyone is to look out for the other person’s conscience.
C.S. Lewis wrote in his little book about
demons and their ways called The
Screwtape Letters, that if the Church of England (and we) were to follow
this rule then the Church would become a “hotbed of charity” that would be make
a demon’s work nearly impossible.
I had to learn the hard way about casting out
demons. It meant learning Jesus’ new teaching and authority as well as Paul’s
model of liberty tempered by charity. It all started when I was a brand-new
priest. From time to time I’d end up at a Roman Catholic Mass…maybe for a
friend’s wedding or a funeral or something. And I’d insist on receiving
Communion. After all, I know my
Episcopal orders were every bit as valid as Roman Catholic ordination. I knew we that believe the same
thing about baptism and Eucharist. So I’d step up to receive communion telling
myself that I was being a “prophetic witness.”
A wise spiritual director, on hearing me talk
about my “courageous witness….” reminded me that the line between being
prophetic and being a jerk is pretty fine. And I was being a jerk… because I
was putting my brother priests in a terrible spot and causing scandal to my fellow
Christians of another tradition who happened to not share my “knowledge.”
This is what Paul meant when he says knowledge
puffs up but charity builds up. Maybe I’m right, but evil just loves it when my knowledge becomes
another Christian’s scandal. The fact that we Episcopalians welcome all the
baptized to receive communion, no matter what flavor Christian they may be,
does not mean I get to dictate how other communities do things. It’s sad and painful
to be denied communion in churches where we share so much. But there are times
when I sit because charity demands it. I sit because it is not about me, it is about we.
So, do you want to cast out demons? Here’s how.
Do the thing that evil hates!
Evil hates justice and thrives on division. Seek
reconciliation.
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, starting with his encounter in
the synagogue and ending in his journey to the cross, that he had power and
authority. But he always met evil on God’s terms. By simply living and doing what
he was called to do; by teaching, healing, and being a companion to the outcast, he did all the things that evil hates…he drove evil crazy! When Jesus was
crucified, it looked as if evil won. But, in fact, the resurrection shows us that Christ defeated evil on that very cross. Forever.
We have that power and that authority right now.
Through our baptisms, the Eucharist, and the power of the Holy Spirit in this
community, everyone in this room has the power to cast out evil in wonderful, loving, and surprisingly practical ways of compassion, holiness, and calm.
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