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Sermon - February 1st, 2009
Facing Our Demons
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Mark 1:21-28
The Gospel according to Mark wastes no time in getting down to business—a single-sentence introduction and no digressions from beginning to end. An event took place that radically shook the way Mark experienced the world and he couldn’t wait to tell the story. Mark can’t wait to tell us his message—that God is here, God is present, God is for us, God is not against us. Mark says, put aside all that guesswork and gossip, superstition and anxiety, and get real! Don’t waste even one minute of your life ignorant of the reality that God is passionate about us. We can tell the demons that tell us otherwise, to get out. That’s what Jesus did; that’s what we can do.
We are still in the first chapter of Mark. Today’s story happened on the Sabbath. It happened in a synagogue. In this holy place and on the holy Sabbath, there was a disturbing interruption. A man started yelling, “What business do you have here with us, Jesus? You, Nazarene! I know what you are up to. You are the Holy One of God and have come to destroy us.”
Jesus responded, “Quiet! Get out of him!” And a demon, an afflicting spirit protested, then got out of the man. The people gathered there were amazed. They had already been awed by the teachings of Jesus. Now they were saying, “What’s going on here? A new teaching? He shuts up defiling, demonic spirits and sends them packing!” The rest of chapter one is about Jesus teaching and throwing out demons. It’s important to notice, that the teaching goes along with the throwing out of demons.
We live in a world where bad things happen. Since the beginning of time, human beings have searched to explain why we human beings are capable of doing good and bad things. If we scratch the surface of any congregation, including us, I think we would find, not hypocrites, but ordinary people struggling with our demons. Kathleen Norris wrote, “I know one pastor of a small (100 member) church in a rural area who has several men turn over their paychecks to him to deliver to their wives; otherwise, they know they would gamble them away…Addictions and their aftermath take people to the depths of evil, where they come to know full well the truth of the etymology of the name of ‘satan,” which in Hebrew means accuser, or adversary” (Amazing Grace, p. 46).
The practice of exorcism by rituals and prayers was common in the ancient world, among pagans, Jews, and Christians alike. Today, we have the scientific knowledge to treat medically many of the physical and mental afflictions that our ancestors labeled as “being possessed.” Perhaps there is still a place for spiritual exorcism— not the Hollywood version of exocism, but a way to tell our own personal demons to “get out” or “go to hell!” For who of us has not felt the sudden lifting of what had felt like an unbearable burden. Who has not felt the removal of what for too long had been an unsurmountable obstacle? Who does not have something deep within that we would not wish to extract, so that it no longer casts a shadow on our capacity to receive and give love?
When I asked people this week, do you have demons? A few responses came back as clear as “we all have demons.” Other responses were: I have those negative voices from my past. And, my demons are the anger I have for the bad that has happened in my past. And another friend said, “We all have them. Only some are brave enough to name them.”
Here is what your demons do to you. They squelch the real, vibrant, alive you. They want you to feel bad. They convinces you to waste time reliving the past over and over again. They cause you to worry excessively about the future. They over-analyzes your significant relationships. They make you feel lousy about yourself unnecessarily. And they perpetuate the myths that you are unlovable, that the other shoe will always drop, slowing down is bad, showing sadness is childish, unreliable, or overly dependent, asking for what you need is selfish, saying you are angry is sinful, unprofessional, and out of control, and that worry, anxiety, and guilt have value in your life. These myths and voices inside us keep us from truly living our lives.
Scott Peck wrote books about love and community, and he wrote one profound book about evil, titled, The People of the Lie. He titled it “people of the lie” because evil always involves lying, not telling the truth. His definition of evil is “That force, residing either inside or outside of human beings, that seeks to kill life or liveliness.” Mark wrote his gospel about Jesus and immediately had Jesus expelling demons because that’s what Jesus needed to do first. He needed to expel the demons, get them out of the way, so the people could have life and have it abundantly. Sometimes we overlook the fact that Jesus loved life. He relished weddings and wine, fine oils and good company. Jesus was not so concerned about the length of one’s life as with the vitality of one’s life. He was not interested in controlling people’s lives; he was interested in the spirit of life, in the liveliness of life. He spent his whole life removing the obstacles that got in the way—the obstacles that killed life, squelched life, ruin life. And some of those obstacles he removed were sacred cows to the leadership and got him in trouble. But one can not say that he did not live right up to the day he died.
So, do you have to courage to name and claim and tame your demons? Are you bold enough to face your demons? With God’s help, we are. With the help of a supportive community we are. With the knowledge that we are not alone, we are…perhaps. It is not easy. It takes practice and persistence. It takes discipline. It takes living consciously. We have to wake up and notice. That’s the first step… simply noticing. Not thinking about it. But noticing what you are thinking. Noticing what the voice, the narrator in your head is telling you. Ask God to help you be centered and grounded right where you are—not where you have been or where you will be tomorrow, but where you are now. Your demons would rather not be noticed. They want to be invisible, they want you to be in denial about them. If you don’t notice them, they will continue to live in you. Jesus was able to notice them. He confronted them and sent them packing. You can ask God to do the same.
Which brings you to the second process, after awareness, then choose what you are going to do about it. Don’t make it too difficult, though. Play with the options, after all, your demons have probably been part of you for a long, long time. Play, experiment, laugh, don’t take yourself so seriously. You don’t have to change. You have a choice. And you certainly don’t need another voice telling you what you should and should not do. Don’t create another demon to replace the one you already have. Play, live your life, live your life abundantly. Ask God to help you.
The third process is to remember that you are in process. There is no finish line. Life is a journey. Your life is forever unfolding before your eyes. Your future is always unknown. Seeing yourself as always in process will help you enjoy life. Everyone is in process. Even people who seem stuck are in process—probably the process of waking up, or thinking about waking up. The Gospel of Mark is telling us through the life of Jesus, that we are not alone. Jesus had demons, too. Jesus lived the journey called life, too. Mark’s message through in his gospel is that God is with us every single step of the way.
In conclusion, give yourself GRACE, a lot of grace. Life and faith and God is about grace and love and relationships. Grace is free. All we need to do is receive it. It is here for us now—there is nothing, not one thing we can do to earn it, it’s free. So take it, give yourself grace, accept the grace of Jesus Christ who came to exorcise all the demons in our lives so that we may have life and have it abundantly. Amen.