January 31, 2021
/The Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13; Mark 1: 21-28
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Jesus healing a man with an unclean spirit. What a strange story, one that in 2021 seems…dated, old-fashioned, am I right? On December 26, 1973, a movie called The Exorcist opened in movie theaters across the country and as one critic wrote “all hell broke loose.” The film’s story of young girl possessed by a demonic presence generated such interest amongst the American public that people stood in line outside movie theaters to watch it – even while braving 6 degree temperatures, rain, and sleet. I didn’t see The Exorcist until twenty years after its release, in the 90s. Years later when attending seminary in Alexandria, VA, I was walking through nearby Georgetown, where that movie was filmed, and I found myself carefully walking down those famous steps from the film’s ending.
The church in recent times has struggled with the concept of evil, in dealing with stories like that from the Gospel of Mark today. Often the very concept of exorcism seems more an anachronistic embarrassment than valid ministry. The Episcopal Church itself does not have a liturgy for exorcism. The closest the church gets are a few words on exorcism in The Book Of Occasional Services which basically amounts to “if you have questions, call the Bishop,” which I interpret as “no one really takes this seriously.”
Whenever afforded the opportunity to preach on the story about the possessed man in the synagogue whom Jesus encounters, I have opted out. My decision to be silent on these and other Gospel stories dealing with possession was two-fold. On one hand, I didn’t understand them. Second, I wasn’t sure what to say about evil personified in spiritual terms as demonic or unclean. I found it safer to domesticate these stories in some way – to strip them of their spiritual nature and seek medical explanations for the behavior people purportedly possessed with unclean spiritus exhibited.
Rather than saying the man in the synagogue was possessed by the devil, I found myself more comfortable saying “the man in the synagogue was mentally ill, perhaps schizophrenic, or bipolar, and Jesus healed him.” That is a miracle to be sure – but it downplays any kind of outside spiritual forces. I don’t believe that way anymore, and I want to be careful how I say this – but I do believe in possession.
Now, before you write me off as a lunatic – allow me to explain. The power of possession is that it is subtle, and it is most powerful when we are not even aware of it. Consider someone who is a narcissist. A narcissist holds themselves in such high esteem that they literally believe they can do no wrong. They are possessed with an untrue image of themselves – an inflated image which convinces them that they are better than everyone else. This image isolates them, and the demon of their narcissism creates nothing but loneliness, pain, and sadness. Because it is subtle, the demon of narcissism closes your eyes to that, while others see it clearly.
If that example of possession is not persuasive consider this one: an alcoholic, by definition, is possessed with a lie, one which states that they can control their consumption of alcohol. Medical, psychological, and behavior evidence points to the contrary, and the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says that left untreated, there are three outcomes for the untreated alcoholic: jails, institutions, or death. Still not convinced possession is real?
I offer one final example. In the twentieth century, a first-world country that identified as Christian (one half Lutheran and one-half Catholic) orchestrated the systemic murder of over six million people – including the developmentally disabled, lesbian and gay, along with countless members of the Jewish faith. What force could possess Christians to commit such horror?
Holocaust Remembrance Day was last week, and it brings its solemn message to us yet again: Lest We Forget. Lest We Forget that we are not immune to outside forces which have the power to possess us. All of us are possessed in some way. The political divisiveness in our country boils down to an unavoidable truth which is that many of us are possessed with the idea that our political party is right and good, and the other is sinister. How does this possession serve us? How does it make us better people?
I conclude with an answer to the problem of possession and evil, and it comes straight out of the Bible. It is not enough for us to merely stand against it. We don’t just get to separate ourselves from it. Instead, we look to Jesus on the cross, crucified. Like Jesus we do not capitulate to the evil around us, but rather we absorb it. We become it so that we can transform it. That probably makes very little sense to you. I don’t say that to be condescending. Absorbing evil so that we can transform it doesn’t make sense to me either, but it is what Jesus did, and it is what I am trying to allow Jesus to continue to do through me.
I hope you take an honest look at what might be possessing you – your cell phone, your social media, your job, even your religious beliefs. Invite Jesus in and let Jesus draw what is unclean out of you. Invite him to exorcise your heart. A warning: it is never comfortable when we invite Jesus in and ask him to transform our heart. But it is the only to live a life worth living, one that is free of possessions. AMEN.