February 1, 2009

Jesus Casts Out Unclean Spirits

Mark 1:21-28

Epiphany 4 – February 1, 2009

It was just your typical sabbath day in Capernaum. This week, as in every week, the town's faithful gathered – to worship, to pray, to hear God's word spoken and explained to them. They came, some of them wishing for a little more sleep perhaps, some dragging reluctant kids or spouses in tow. They came because it was tradition. They came because it was part of the routine. They came because they were expected to be there. But I bet none of them came expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen.

But on that sabbath day someone new was there. Jesus & his disciples came from out of town, came to the synagogue because it was part of their tradition too. But then, Jesus began to teach – and not just any old teaching, the way the scribes had always taught. Jesus taught in a new way, speaking with his own authority, making the scriptures come alive, waking people up and drawing them in to the living word of God, who was standing in front of them.

But not everyone was happy with this turn events, for just then, a man stands up and starts making a commotion, disrupting everyone and everything, crying out: “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!”
This was a man, Mark tells us, with an “unclean” spirit. We don't know if this was the 1st time he had darkened the door of the synagogue, or if he was there every week with everyone. Mark doesn't tell us whether or not people knew something was “off” with this man, or if he had been able to hide his condition from curious eyes. All we know is that when he came face to face with Jesus, the spirit within him cried out. Coming into the presence of God's Holy One, the unclean spirit was revealed.

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, & come out of him!” Jesus commands the unclean spirit to leave. There is no place for an unclean spirit among the people of God. And the spirit does leave – but what I hadn't really noticed, what was pointed out to me by one of my colleagues this week, is that the spirit doesn't give up without a fight. No, the unclean spirit is stubborn. It resists Jesus' authority; it comes out alright, but it does so reluctantly, crying out with a loud voice, convulsing the man. It was dramatic and physical, this casting-out.

I have to admit, I don't spend much time thinking about unclean spirits. & I imagine that most of you don't either. We generally don't put much stock in the idea of a spirit world or possession. Yet as I thought about it this week, I realized how many unclean spirits fill our world. True, we don't call them by that name, but our world is filled with systems of injustice and violence, oppression and greed, -isms and intolerances, attitudes and actions that possess us and our society. They are the unclean spirits of racism and sexism and homophobia and discrimination in its hundreds of forms. They are the insidious powers of evil that would take us over, that keep us from being or becoming who God created us to be, that create unnecessary divisions among us and turn us from God. Whether we recognize these things among us or not, they exist. Sometimes they are obvious & sometimes they remain hidden, beneath the surface. But when they come face to face with the Holy One of God, they are revealed for what they are. And when they are confronted with the authority of Christ, they resist coming out, just like the spirit in this story. We don't have to look far back in our American history. Just think about the struggles for justice and equality for all of God's people we have seen in the past 100 years, & it become obvious. It was a struggle because there were unclean spirits at work among us, and unclean spirits always resist Christ's call to be silent & come out. In fear, people & groups have cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”

Well, the simple answer to that is “yes”. When it comes to the unclean spirits of this world, the systemic injustices, the institutionalized or individual patterns of discrimination, Jesus does come to destroy them. He comes to cast them out. And Jesus has the power and authority to cast them out because at the heart of it all, he has come to renew and restore, to heal and to save, & unclean spirits get in the way of that. The man with the unclean spirit needed to have that spirit banished, because as long as it was with him, he would have been unclean himself, cut off from his family, cut off from his community. But casting out the spirit, Jesus cleansed the man and set him free. In casting out the spirit, Jesus gave the man new life. Hope was reborn.

And it wasn't just that one man who was touched by Jesus' act that day. The whole community was impacted. Mark tells us they were all amazed. They were just plain blown away, because here in Jesus, they saw that something new was going on. Brand new possibilities were suddenly available, because there in the synagogue that day, they witnessed a man who has the authority to change lives, to make people whole again! And if that was possible for the man with the unclean spirit, that must mean it was possible for them too! If Jesus could given even that man new life, he must be able to do it for them too!

They are so astounded by what had happened that they cannot keep it to themselves – and so Jesus' fame grows. Word spreads throughout all Galilee, drawing more and more lives into the presence of the Holy One of God, lives touched with hope and the promise that Jesus can heal and renew and restore.

And so it is with us and with our world. When Jesus comes among us, he confronts those unclean spirits that linger in our hearts and in our culture. He confronts them and he casts them out, because they are not from God. And we do not have to be resistant or fearful, because when Jesus casts out unclean spirits, it is always so that we might be made whole. It is always so we might be healed. It is always so we might be drawn every closer to God and grow into God's vision of how the world is to be, a place where human divisions based on race or gender or class cease to be, a place where all are valued and loved because they are children of God.

And when this happens among us, in the community of faith, when we see the authority of Christ working to change lives, when people are healed and restored, we know that it is possible not just for a chosen few, but even for us, and for all people! Jesus' power and authority to transform lives is amazing! And all of us need that healing touch – so let's not keep this good news to ourselves. May Jesus' fame spread among us and to all we know, so that all may know the healing and new life that he brings.
Amen.