What
Is This?
Epiphany
4B
January
31, 2021
Grace,
Waseca, MN
Mark
1.21-28
Like
many teenagers, I did some babysitting, mostly for the “O’Brien girls” across
the street from our house. One night, to occupy the time after they were asleep
and before the parents came home, I read a book, The Exorcist. The
Exorcist is about the demonic possession of an 11-year-old girl and two
Catholic priests who try to cast out the evil spirit. Now, I don’t know what
possessed me (pardon the pun) to read such a book alone and late at night, but
I guess I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps it was a fascination
with “otherworldly” things. I would I would indulge that fascination more than
in a decade later as a young adult, reading such things as The Search for
Bridey Murphy and This Present Darkness.
In
Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ first official ministerial act after calling the
disciples is to confront the powers that stand against God by casting out an
unclean spirit. In the Gospels, these are also known as evil spirits or demons.
My guess is that this hardly seems relevant to many of you. For those of us
with Western mindsets, we tend to minimize such things as demons, equating them
with mental illness. And it’s probably true that much of what was “diagnosed”
as demonic was mental illness. Even so, it is interesting that while 80% of Americans
believe in angels, only 45% believe in demons, regardless of our fascination
for books such as The Exorcist, et al.
As
a psychology major in college, I might have said the same things, had it not
been for the dreams. They didn’t happen a lot, but when the dreams came, they
were vivid and horrifying. I tried to yell and cast out the demon in the name
of Jesus, but couldn’t. I tried to turn back the devil by reciting the Lord’s
Prayer, but I couldn’t speak. Somewhere along the way and after entering
seminary I did what I failed to do in Confirmation: I memorized parts of the Small
Catechism, including Luther’s Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. They go
something like this:
I
give thanks to you, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that
you have protected me through the night from all danger and harm. And I ask
that you would preserve and keep me this day also from all sin and evil, that
in all my thoughts, words, and deeds I would serve and please you. Into your
hands I commend my body and soul and all that is mine. Let your holy angels
have charge concerning me and the wicked on have no power over me. Amen.
I
give thanks to you, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that
you have so graciously protected me this day. I ask that you would forgive me
all my sins and all the wrong I have done and by your great mercy defend me
from all perils and dangers of the night. Into your hands I commend my body and
soul and all that is mine. Let your holy angels have charge concerning and the
wicked one no power over me. Amen.
I
also began reciting them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. At
some point I realized that since then, I have not had one single dream where
I’ve been assaulted by the powers of darkness.
Now,
I’m not superstitious (except that I play sports so I’m kind of superstitious) and
don’t think of these prayers as a magic talisman, but they calm me. They remind
me to put my trust in God, who through Jesus Christ on the cross defeated the
powers of darkness that stand against God. A story about Martin Luther helps. Legend
has it that Luther had these heroic bouts with the devil and one night threw an
inkpot at him, splattering against a wall. (You can still see it in Germany. I
think they might touch it up now and then for the tourists as it fades.) Luther
came to realize that, because of Jesus, wherever the devil was, God was even
closer. That story brings a great comfort to me as well.
We
have a lot of “unclean spirits” in this world that threaten to overwhelm us and
aren’t difficult to name: substance abuse, violence, racism, hunger,
divisiveness, unhealthy conflict, etc. They are serious and not to be taken
lightly, but neither are we without hope or recourse. We are reminded in the
baptismal liturgy that we renounce the powers of this world that stand against
God and as baptized children of God we affirm that God is working in the world
to heal it.
Today
following worship we’ll have our annual meeting, an opportunity to look back
over the past year and see where God has been working in, with and through you
in this congregation. It’s also a chance to get a peek at what God might be up
to in this coming year, one of great possibilities as you call your next senior
pastor. But it’s more than financials, budgets and reports, as important as
those are. It is also a chance to name the spirits present among us, clean and
unclean, where the Holy Spirit is calling us to go and those spirits that stand
against God’s purposes in the world. In doing so, we do what God has called us
to do: claim the presence of Christ crucified and risen, who brings life out of
death. Thanks be to God! Amen.
To view the video of this sermon, please click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment