Lectionary Readings
In the name of God ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
I remember back in seminary in theology class before starting a lecture on Evil, our professor told us about a friend of hers who works at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in the research department. Her friend told her of the dangers of spending too much time researching the atrocities and the evils of the Holocaust – you can only do it for an hour or two at a time, any longer than that and something comes over you. Well, our professor passed along that warning when it comes to studying Evil in theology. It’s a topic we certainly do need to consider, but Evil is something like a black hole – if we get too close to it, we’ll be pulled right in. I’ll pass this same warning along to you all before getting any further into this sermon on Evil – beware.
Now,
perhaps, some of you are already wondering about the necessity of such a
warning. It has been noted that when it comes to Evil and its manifestation as
the demonic, some of us dismiss such talk as mere superstition that comes from
a pre-Enlightenment era. We know better, we think. Well, that’s exactly what
makes Evil so insidious, we deny that it is a real problem and it is left to
run amok. Now, when I speak of Evil, it’s got a capital “E.” It is one of the “Powers
and Principalities” that St. Paul speaks of and along with Sin and Death, is
one of the things that Jesus overcomes by his Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Yes, we all believe in evil actions, things like the Holocaust or child abuse.
But we are not considering actions that are evil; no, the topic before us is
Evil itself.
To
be clear, this is not dualism. The claim is not that Good and Evil are equal
and opposite forces. No, that’s the mythic world of Star Wars, not the
Gospel. But, embedded in the Gospel, is the claim that Evil is real. We know
there are physical forces like inertia and gravity. Well, Evil is something
like a spiritual force. It has no shape or substance, but it still exerts its
control over us. And this is particularly evident in the Gospel according to
Mark. We begin today’s reading in only the 21st verse of the book
and Evil enters as a character with which the Messiah will contend. Jesus
enters the scene, is Baptized, tempted in the wilderness for forty days, and,
as we heard last Sunday, calls his first disciples. The very next thing that
happens is that Jesus enters the synagogue in Capernaum, the center of sociopolitical
and religious life, and is confronted by an unclean or evil spirit.
When
Jesus is baptized, Mark says that the heavens are “torn” apart. Other Gospel
narratives use the word “open.” But Mark’s depiction is more urgent and
violent. It’s been said that Jesus coming onto the scene in Mark is something
like the D-Day Invasion of World War II. It is when the forces of Evil meet
their doom. So, right from the start and throughout Mark, Jesus is contending against
Evil and its manifestation in this world known as demons.
And,
again, we tend to dismiss these sorts of images as being primitive. But some others
make the opposite mistake, which is just as dangerous. For some Christians,
there is an unhealthy and unbiblical focus on Evil and the demonic. Some live
in fear of Evil and think they are Job, with Satan constantly trying to ruin
their lives. This is an unhealthy view of Evil though because it puts Evil in
competition with God. Evil may well be a force, but it is not a deity. Our
faith proclaims that God alone is sovereign. Any beliefs that take that
authority away from God stray from Christianity into something else.
Evil is certainly
real, but its power is nothing compared to the light of Christ and some forget
that. And the problem with over-emphasizing the demonic is that it becomes a
scapegoat as people reject accountability and responsibility. This is why the
first step in AA is “We admit that we are powerless over alcohol and our that
lives have become unmanageable.” Notice that it’s not “We suffer from
alcoholism” or “The demon of alcohol has captured me.” There is both a healthy
sense of owning our failings and the assessment that these failings are not something
we have power over. This is how we can best understand Evil. Evil is never an excuse
any more than gravity is an excuse for falling down. Yes, it’s a part of the equation,
but it does not negate our agency in tripping over something. Both over and
under emphasizing Evil is problematic.
For most of us, we
fall into the trap of under-emphasizing the reality of Evil. And demons? We
simply have no place for them in our worldview. The reality though is that we
are the exception. In most of the world and throughout most of history,
Christians understand that the demonic is real. No, we’re not talking about
little monsters with pitchforks or anything like that. The demonic is simply a
way of saying that Evil can be physically manifest.
When I was at
Sewanee most of my coursework focused on preaching and Scripture, as that was
the focus of my doctoral work. But there was room in the schedule for an occasional
elective, so I took one on the Desert Mothers and Fathers. These are Christians
who lived in the 300s-500s in and around Egypt. Read St. Anthony and you’ll
find many encounters with demons. Now, perhaps because of his worldview those
demons were interpreted in a way that is foreign to us, but the power of what
he felt is no less real than with what we contend. And in the program at
Sewanee were several priests from Kenya and Uganda – they spoke of regularly
being called upon to do exorcisms. As odd as some of us American students
thought that was, they thought it was just as odd that we would have people in
our congregations suffering under the weight of Evil and not offer to them the
liberating prayers of exorcism.
Consider lay theologian
and lawyer of the 20th century William Stringfellow. He was invited
to lecture at Harvard Divinity School and chose to give a lecture about the
Powers and Principalities, focusing on Evil. Most of the Divinity students and
faculty dismissed such talk as antiquated and misinformed. Since he was on
campus, he was also invited to speak at the Harvard Business School. He said
that he’d be happy to be with them, but didn’t have time to prepare a different
lecture, so he gave the same one. The Business School students and faculty reacted
very differently, noting that they had experienced and observed such demonic
forces in our economic systems.
Yes, the demonic
is real. Sometimes it shows up in individuals as a force that enslaves us and
from which we cannot escape on our own. I’ve spoken with people who suffer from
deep depression and suicidal thoughts and they often describe their emotions as
something that comes over them. This is Evil. Addiction is another manifestation
of the demonic. A whole host of what we might call physiological disorders
might fall into the category of the demonic. Now, to be very clear, I am not
suggesting that a prayer of exorcism will always cure someone of schizophrenia.
Therapy and medicine are a part of the healing arts as well. But what I am
suggesting is that the spiritual and the psychological can exist in the same sphere.
If we understand the demonic as something that is opposed to God’s love and
holds people captive, well, certainly many things that we might call “disorders”
would fit into that definition, as they are things that inhibit people from
living into the fullness of abundant life that God intends for us.
Other times
though, Evil shows up not within us, but among us. Consider how a crowd of usually
peaceful people can be stirred into a frenzy, or how economic systems intended
to do promote wealth for all turn into systems of oppression for those in
poverty, or how racism seems to creep into even the most sensitive of board rooms,
or how millions of small actions lead to the climate crisis that we are in. Evil
is what can convince a group of people that those other people are the enemy
and should be attacked and killed. Evil is what makes us assign blame to those
in poverty instead of giving them a hand. Evil is what makes us think that freedom
is about us doing whatever we want regardless of how it impacts others.
Consider what St.
Paul wrote about in the passage from 1 Corinthians. The issue is that some
people made sacrifices to idols, or false gods, and then would eat the meat
from those ritualistic sacrifices. Some Christians were eating this meat and
they were saying “Hey, my conscience is clean because I don’t really believe in
that false god, I just like beef.” But this was causing problems for other
believers who grew up around idols to be confused or think that they should
still worship idols in addition to Jesus. So St. Paul says, “No! While you have
this knowledge, they don’t. While you might have the freedom to eat that meat,
it isn’t the loving thing to do and if it isn’t the loving thing to do, it isn’t
the godly thing to do.” And people that ignore this and think that their individual
rights trump the good of the whole, well, that’s where Evil shows up.
And so what does Jesus
do when he encounters Evil in that synagogue? We say that he exorcises it,
which means that he banishes it and sets the person free who was possessed. Now
even if you aren’t ready to accept the demonic as a reality in this world, I
can assure you that we are all possessed. Some of us are possessed by our ego,
some by the fear of death, some by our addiction, some by our sins, some by
greed, some by our need to be right, some by mental health conditions, some by
an obsession with freedom, some by ideologies that lead us away from God. The
point is: we are all possessed by something.
The Good News is
that Jesus comes and frees us from whatever holds us captive so that we might
be possessed by him. That’s what happens in Baptism, we die to ourselves and we
rise with Christ in newness of life. Sure, Evil will still try to ensnare us,
but we can faith and confidence to say “You don’t own me. I belong to Christ.”
Our identity rests secure in Jesus. While we might think our reputation, or performance,
or earnings, or style, or parenting, or intelligence are the things that define
us, we are liberated from being possessed by anything other than the love of God.
Even the demons
know who Jesus is – he is the Holy One of God who has come to destroy the works
of Evil and liberate us from all that holds us captive. And, with authority,
this is exactly what Jesus does. Now the reason why it’s important for us to
know about Evil is so that we can recognize the demonic when it is laying a
claim on us. Don’t try to point out Evil in other people’s lives, that’s not helpful
in most situations. But focus on our own lives. Where do we feel powerless?
Where do we feel like we’ve lost control? When do we find that we consistently
succumb to our fears and fall into sin? By acknowledging the reality of Evil,
we name these forces that try to claim us and then we can call on Jesus. And to
those voices that say “You’re not good enough,” “It won’t hurt for you to do
this just this one time,” “He deserves it, go ahead,” “She doesn’t need it as
much as you, just take it,” Jesus will say “Be silent! He belongs to me! Come out
of her!”
Though it’s an image
that we tend not to emphasize in our tradition, I thank God that Jesus is an
exorcist who has conquered Evil and who possesses us so that nothing else does.
When you are feeling helpless and run into Evil, even if you don’t want to use
that word for it, just call on the name of Jesus and know that you belong to him.
