In the scripture today we see Jesus’ first act of ministry. In Mark so far we have seen John the Baptist prepare the way for Jesus by attempting to warn us you could say that this savior we have been waiting for is a perhaps a very different savior than we expected. He is one that comes from the wilderness, is un-predictable, breaks boundaries and doesn’t fit in any mold we have created in our minds for him to fit in. Then we see Jesus appear, and begin to call his disciples so that he can begin his ministry. The first thing that Jesus does is perform an exorcism- which is at the time not in itself that rare. What was rare is that Jesus uses his own authority to cast out this demon rather than a higher authority which is how it was typically done. This is why those in the synagogue were amazed- because the demons listened to Jesus by his own authority. Makes sense that they were amazed but that is not the only amazing thing to me about this passage. I am more amazed at what kind of God this is rather than that He is God.
I am amazed that Jesus’ first act of ministry was to tend to a man who needed help, who needed to be set free. Jesus first order of business wasn’t to preach a sermon or create the by-laws or head to the religious authorities to reveal who he was. His first order of business was to be with the people who need him. Starting in the very next passage- Jesus goes on a healing streak. The first message we receive from Jesus is that our God is here. God is with us and God will set us free.
One of the details that stood out to me in this passage was that when the unclean spirit speaks, first it speaks on behalf of itself and the man- it uses the pronoun “us” as if they are one. And then quickly changes to using the pronoun “I” when acknowledging that it knows that Jesus is the son of God. Listen to those verses again, 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “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.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
Sometimes I think we believe we are our unclean spirits- we believe we are our insecurities, our addictions, our negative feelings, our bad experiences. The unclean spirit uses the pronoun us- as if they are one. But they are not one and Jesus demands the unclean spirit to leave the man.
How often We let our demons do the talking. A very literal example of this is…
My great Aunt is about 85 and she is fairly with it except for the usual elderly loss of a filter and sensitivity when speaking. I’m waiting for the day when I’m old enough to claim this as an excuse for my behavior. She is a great person but she doesn’t always show it. For instance, she lives in an elderly community and my mom will go visit her. Often when she is there, my aunt will be pretty mean to the nursing staff there. They will be trying to help her with something and she will be rude to them but then as soon as they leave her room, she will turn to my mom and say “ I don’t know why I was so mean to her, I actually like her.”
Another example of this was Christmas dinner- I get the job of being the token prayer because well I’m the token pastor of the family. Most of my family is catholic so if they pray for a meal it’s a memorized prayer they recite. Praying with your own words makes them slightly uncomfortable. Which is why I do it. Normally I would just pray a generic prayer to satisfy their request but this night I decided to give a more heartfelt prayer because we hadn’t even eaten dinner yet and 3 people had already cried (we were in for a very long night) so I figured maybe people might appreciate this attempt of caring. So I am like 2 sentences into the prayer when the same great aunt yells Amen. Everyone including myself starts laughing and Then she turns to her neighbor and whispers although it is audible enough for us all to hear that she’s sorry but she’s ready to eat. Genuine prayers not appreciated. Noted. So I hurried up and finished. For my own sake, I’m going to assume that this is just another one of those times where she doesn’t actually intend to be rude but it just happens anyway.
We all have our demons… addictions, mental health issues, insecurities, hurt from our pasts, all which imprison us to act like someone we don’t want to act like. We all need to be exorcised of something…maybe multiple things. These things keep us from acting as we would want to, as we imagine ourselves acting. You know how you imagine how you want to come across, how you want to be perceived but then in reality you realize you come across completely different.
This idea reminds me of when the apostle Paul says in Romans 7: “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”
Are we letting our sin define us? Are we letting our demons do the talking?
The thing about this passage that can be tricky is we can so easily fall into a trap where we think it is our duty to get our demons or sin under control. We think it is our responsibility to fight our demons and then when it doesn’t work we let that sin or those demons possess even more of ourselves because we feel we are less worthy now that we could not “fix it”. This isn’t our work to do though. This is a work that God has already done and will continue to do. God does the work of casting out our demons. It is not our battle to fight. Our only job is to believe that we are not our demons. Sure there are things we can do to live into the person God created us to be but only after we believe that God created us as Good and Holy and Beautiful.
Parker Palmer in his book, “Let Your Life Speak” beautifully puts it this way:
“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.” We were all born in the image of God- these values and these truths are embedded within us, just waiting for us to enact them.
God created us in his image and has given us lives worthy to be lived. We are all on a journey of seeking the freedom that God desires for us and part of this journey is doing the hard work of giving ourselves over to God- by letting go of our own control, our own idea of what our life should look like, our desire to be who society wants us to be rather than who God has called us to be. The more we give over this control the more we will be able to listen for who God says that we are and what our life intends to do with us.
Jesus has authority over the unclean spirits in our lives- He silences them and takes away their power. They are cast out and no longer apart of who we are.
A couple months ago my therapist interpreted a dream of mine- which I will admit at first I was skeptical but this was one of the most liberating experiences I have ever had. I’m not going to tell you my dream but Ill tell you what I learned. It helped me realize that I hold myself back from being who I long to be. Or rather it is not me but it is my insecurities, my doubts about who God has said that I am. I see other people and I’m like ooh I want to be a little like that and a little like that. It’s as if I’m picking from a smorgasbord of personality traits Instead of being who God created me to be.
By realizing that God has affirmed who I am – weirdness and all, faults and all, insecurities and all- now I can begin to let go of all the things I feel I should be but I’m not. Now those demons have less power over me- I give them less power by giving God more power. Jesus takes away their power. He takes away the power of Those voices in your head that tell you you are not good at your job, your not a good parent, or child or spouse. Those voices that tell you that you should be like that person or feel this way. The voices that convince us that these lies are who we are or that cause us to question where God is in our lives.
This isn’t a bad question to ask- in fact it needs to be asked continually. The only way you get an answer is by asking a question. So where is God? We ask this in regards to where God is in our individual lives but also where God is in the world.
I had the day off Friday so I decided I was going to watch the newest episode of Grey’s Anatomy to relax. Yes, I am on of about 10 people are still watching this show. Just a heads up I’m about to spoil the whole episode but I figured no one here probably still watches Grey’s.
The whole episode dealt with questions of theodicy and the divine and I always find it interesting when a tv show tries to tackle these questions. It’s as if Shonda Rhimes was working out her theology through these characters. I was surprisingly okay with their conclusion which was simply the question- “Where is God now”.
The episode deals with a 12 year old African American boy who is shot and killed because he was trying to enter his own house.
A man who was abusive to multiple women he had dated who was killed by a drunk driver
A woman who died hours after she gave birth
And a teenage boy who took the bible so literally he tried to cut off his right hand because the bible says if its causing you to sin, you should cut it off.
April who is the token Christian doctor struggles to make sense of all these patients throughout the course of the episode. At the end she finds herself questioning why the God she loves would allow all this suffering. The episode ends with the question- Where is God now?
(Mind you I decided to watch this episode as a way to relax- clearly it had the opposite effect and I spent the whole weekend contemplating theodicy.)
We all have our personal demons. This episode brings to light some of the worlds demons. We can easily fall into the trap that the world is defined by its demon- that the world is oppressive, unjust, cruel. I think its easier sometimes to let these demons speak for the world but that’s not the whole story. It’s not that simple. In the greys episode- the abusive man who died- his organs went to save multiple deserving people. The woman who gave birth died but first she was able to bring new life into the world. The teenage boy who was going to cut his hand off- the doctor was able to convince him that maybe reading the bible literally isn’t the most accurate way to read scripture. Can we get an Amen to that? As for the young African American boy who died- I can’t point to where the redemption is in that and maybe we wont see God in a way we can point to and say there, there’s the redemption but I don’t think that means God wasn’t there. So where is God in that? God is weeping with that family. God is angry, God is equipping people with skills and passions to make sure that there will be a day when injustices like this will no longer happen. God is in the community of people that will surround that family and point to hope and redemption. The job of the church is to point to hope for the people who are currently not in a place to see hope, to voice things that some of us can’t currently voice. The church is a community that helps remind us of God’s steadfast love even when we are living our worst nightmare.
Earlier I made a comment about how we let our demons do the talking- about who we are, about the state of the world. But that’s only part of the story. The church needs to tell the other part- the part that says our God is here. The part that believes we are Good and Holy and Beautiful and so is the world. This part of the story becomes louder when we remind ourselves that our God reigns- when we allow the voices of our demons to be silenced by giving more power over to who God has said we are.
We need to tell the whole story. Our demons do not define us- they do not define this world. God is here and just like the man in the scripture today- he came to set us free from the lies we are told that we are. And one of the most beautiful things about a community of faith is that when we are unable to tell this part of the story, our community can tell it for us until we can see it for ourselves again. Amen.
Floundering With A Purpose 