The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1b-13
Mark 1:21-28
Now and again, someone will call and ask me to do an exorcism. They believe something or someone has taken possession of them. It's a frightening and foreign thought for them and for me.
Most of us today don't believe in demons and possession. Talk of casting out "unclean spirits" is rare. Outside the movies, most of us have nothing to do with exorcisms.
But it happens regularly in the Bible. Jesus and his followers go around casting out demons. And we listen politely to the stories, and then echo the words of the unclean spirt in today's gospel reading, saying "What does this have to do with us?"
The implied answer is "Nothing -- We today have nothing in common with that man with the unclean spirit."
Yet the way Mark has presented this man in telling the story suggests otherwise. The man is nameless. We are not told where he comes from or where he goes afterward. He is "Everyman" – most likely, we are meant to put ourselves in his place. This is our story too.
Does this mean Mark wrote this gospel thinking everyone had a demon? Maybe. If we accept that the Holy Spirit guided the writing of this gospel, might this mean us too? Maybe. Do we have demons today? (Really, now, Jesus, what does this reading have to do with us?)
Are YOU possessed? Has there been a time in your life when it felt like something else controlled your life. Like everything was out of control? For many of us, the answer is "yes."
Few of us would name that experience "having an unclean spirit." but we might "name the demon" as alcoholism or some other addiction, or as a time when we were obsessed with a particular issue, or overwhelmed with despair or financial anxiety, or immobilized by grief or anger or fear.
A demon is something that takes control of our lives, and leaves us feeling powerless. It seems to come from outside ourselves. It is as if we are no longer ourselves. Sometimes the demon can be so strong that we literally "forget ourselves" – we no longer know who we are and our friends and family hardly recognize us.
And those demons have voices. They babble excuses and blame others and talk crazy until someone with authority comes along and, like Jesus, tells the demons to "be silent and come out." (Actually, the original words in the Gospel are much stronger than that. A better translation might be, "Shut up and get out!")
Jesus stops the crazy babble that the demon hides behind, and the unclean spirit is revealed. Now if you've wrestled with any of our "modern demons," like addiction or immobilizing grief, you know that confronting them, "naming the demons," can be just like what the man with the unclean spirit experienced: it can feel like convulsions and screaming. But the demons need to be named before they can be driven out.
NOW the story begins to sound familiar, at least to anyone who has walked the Twelve Steps. The naming comes along about steps 4 and 5: "Made a searching a fearless inventory of ourselves" and "Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs" Naming demons, modern or ancient, before God is a community thing. We need another human being to walk this step with us.
The demons are named and then the exorcism begins in steps 6 and 7: "Were entirely ready to have God remove all those defects of character" "Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings"
We can't do it ourselves. Our part is to name the demons and invite God in. The driving out of demons -- our healing and our salvation -- is God's work.
Mark is writing in this part of the Gospel about authority. We are told that Jesus "Taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."
Now the scribes have the authority that is given to them from outside. Their study is recognized and affirmed by the world outside them. They have a clearly defined place of authority in their culture.
But Jesus has something different. He has no office or role that gives him authority. His authority comes from within. It is authentic. It is true authority. The word in Greek is "exousia" the roots mean "from the essence." Jesus' authority comes from the essential nature of his being, that is, from God.
True authority is experienced as coming from within. Possession is experienced as coming from outside.
It is the godly authority within that allows Jesus to say to the unclean spirit, "Shut up and get out." And, to the crowd's amazement, this authority is immediately obeyed.
The unclean spirit had asked Jesus, "What have you to do with us?" Again, the implied answer is nothing -- that we have nothing in common with God.
That's where the unclean spirit was mistaken. Underneath all those hurtful places where the demons may slip into our lives, behind the babbling voices of our fears, obsessions, and addictions, is a human being made in the image of God.
We DO have something in common with God -- Christ lives in us, and we share in that authority. Our essence, too, is godly. We, too, can speak with authority, from the Christ within us. We, too, can drive out demons.
Exorcisms don't happen alone, either in the Bible or today. The fifth step reminds us that we need God and other people if the demons are to leave us. This is OUR story. We, like the possessed man, can turn to Jesus and name our demons. But there's more: We, like Christ, can walk with another person in their healing.
The authority is the Christ within us. When the Christ within is named and celebrated, the demons MUST leave.
Exorcism is not about emptying people of demons, but about filling people with Christ. It's a work of prayer and love that we all can share.
Let the demons of this world beware, for the Holy One of God lives in you.