Casting out Demons

This past week, I’ve heard of two conversations – one involving someone working at a bishops office (not here).   Anyone working in a Bishops office has access to the “behind-the-curtains” sort of stuff.   You see not only the "glamour" (that's why some of us get into this line of work) of parish life, but the reality behind it as well!    When pastors are having a hard time- sooner or later, the Bishop has to get involved.  So, this person saw the depression and burn-out that clergy can often suffer from.    They saw the life-issues that clergy struggle with.              

Then I heard of another story of a pastor who’s been in the ministry for 35+ years, at the same church for perhaps 20+ years.   This pastor started pretty idealistically, full of the fire to change the world for Christ.   Now this pastor feels like they don’t have much left to give.  

Recently a 50+ male member of the congregation came bursting into this pastors office – “Why can’t you all help me do Jesus’s work?!?!”   Well, I’m not exactly sure how the conversation went, but basically this man – “Jason” – who sounded like a free-spirit, who follows his own drummer, who for many years was suspicious of the church and all its institutional issues,  seemed to have found a real home in this congregation.    He’d found his niche –he would take food and clothes to the homeless in the big city the church was located near.    But he was also one who thought that if he had an idea of what God wanted him to do, then by-golly, everyone should have that same idea and desire!    And he couldn’t understand why others weren’t as alive with the fire of ministry as he was.  

The pastor tried to explain that it wasn’t as easy as that – other’s had their ministries, their things they did in church; some do more than others, and some don’t do anything at all.   And others help maintain the building, or pay bills, etc.  

Well, for Jason, this wasn’t really cutting the Ministry mustard!   Not enough, not right, and they are certainly not helping Jason with the “work of God”.   Actually in Matthew 25 Jesus really does say that feeding hungry people, and clothing naked people is fundamental to following Christ.   Well, this is NOT lost on Jason! 

Jason had a hard time accepting that others did not see ministry as Jason did!  Truth was, the pastor really was trying to help Jason, but he also had to balance many other interests and people and ministries as well. 

But the deeper issue thing here is that Jason had uncovered a real issue in the pastors life.   Most of the time, most of us are aware that some things in our lives are slowly moving in not-good ways.   Well, for the pastor, Jason had brought all his ministry stuff to a head.   The pastor recognized in this encounter that they were very much like Jason back in the day.  They had real vigor for ministry – a heart for the work of the Gospel.   Like all careers and vocations, there were ups and downs, but mostly there was a vision and call they followed.   But over the years, and second marriage later, they recognized that they were struggling more with institutional maintenance and organizational development than they were doing the “ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. 

They realized they did not have the spiritual and psychological resources to deal with people’s demands and requests… on top of the church-issues… any more!   This encounter with Jason made the pastor realize… they were running on “E”.   Hurricane “Jason” came in like a freight train, uncovering the issues this pastor had not been dealing with and/or running from

Sometimes our psyches and souls WILL speak out!   Sometimes the deeper voice of wisdom will assert itself for our protection!   And it may present itself as a crisis!

Sometimes it will come out in other ways…

You may remember me telling this story about one of my previous churches.  I was an “associate pastor” there, but it felt more like an internship… with very little voice or control.  In January of one of the years I was there, I got strep throat – some antibiotics later.. and I was fixed.   Then two months later- in March- I got Mono (Epstien-Barr virus).   The ONLY symptom I got was a severe sore throat!   Well, because it was a virus, I had to wait it out… a long… long… week and a half.

Last Thanksgiving Day was the day I went to the Funeral Mass for my mother in Chile.   Earlier in the day, I felt a twinge of pain on the outside of my left elbow.  Just to beginning of tendonitis – I’d felt it before so I knew what it was.   Another name for this pain is Tennis Elbow.

Then a few days later, I ended up getting a pain on the inside of my right elbow.  Never had pain like this before… and a doctor friend of ours told me it’s tendonitis as well, called Golf Elbow.

Karen here at church is taking some healing classes.  In the classes, and the tradition this comes from, they teach that the wrist represents those things we are handling.    The shoulders represent those things we are “shouldering”.   And the elbows – in the middle – represent the issues related to what we are handling and shouldering.    AND… the right side of the body represents the masculine or male, and the left side of the body represents the feminine or the female.  

So I suppose it could relate in my case – I’d lost my father a year and a half prior (right side), and I was mourning the recent death of my mother (left side).    That makes better sense to me since I play neither tennis nor golf.

Last Sunday’s Gospel reading was Jesus’ famous encounter with the possessed guy of Gerasene.   As the story goes, this man had been possessed by many demons (“My name is Legion, for we are many”) for a long time.  He would run naked around in the cemetery, scream, act crazy, and basically do other strange things.     And if things got very bad, the town people would resort to chaining him down so he wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else.   But he would break free from the chains and continue the whole drama off in the Cemetery again.   

So Jesus shows up, and somehow meets up with this man.   The story says Jesus was telling the demons to come out of the man.  And the demons respond to his questions by saying – “What do you want with us, Jesus, son of the Most High God?   Please, don’t torture us anymore!”    

Finally, the name of the demon is revealed- “Legion, for we are many.”    So, Jesus sends the demons into a herd of pigs grazing nearby  (obviously these are not animals owned by Jewish people) and they promptly run themselves off the cliffs and into the water, and drown.  

The herders see this and of course are amazed.   And the people of the town hear about this… they go find the (formerly) possessed man, see that he’s in his right mind (says the text), clothed and normal!    And they are scared!    Scared enough to tell Jesus to go away!  

The man wants to go with Jesus, but Jesus tells him to go back home to tell his family what God has done for him.   The man does, but he also seems to want to tell pretty much the whole town as well.  

The formerly possessed man is very grateful – but the villagers are not!   I found it very interesting that the villagers wanted Jesus to go away.    It struck me – better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.  

Maybe the villagers didn’t want change?  Maybe the demons represented something all of them should have been dealing with… but they just didn’t want to.     Instead, they dealt more easily with the effects of the demon – something safer – the possessed man.  

But Jesus actually names the demon(s).   He calls them out, and deals with it.    And then they (the demons) leave.   Well, I don’t suppose it was that easy of course, but basically that was the Readers Digest version.

                  

How easy is it for us to name the demons?  

Let me ask you a question:   What are some things/issues in life that REALLY push your buttons?   Some things in life that you react to?

·        

                Guns/Gun control?

·                           Politics in general?

·                          President Obama in specific?

·                          Abortion?

·                          Homosexuality?

There are so many more, but you get the idea.

I know some otherwise pretty understanding people, well balanced overall, centered… who viscerally react to some issues.   Sometimes they lash out with anger, with little respect for others...  all very uncharacteristically of them.

How about this question:  What are some issues you will not face, or look at, or name even?    Well if you don’t want to look at it, how would you know it’s there, but still you get the idea.   To steal from Secretary Rumsfeld, these are the known unknowns.  

·                       Sexuality is a big one here

·                      Family issues are also pretty big

·                      Things dealing with our health of mind/body or Spirit

Either we don’t want to deal with some things, or due to our evolution…we can’t deal with these things.

Sometimes it’s easier to deal with the drama in our lives than it is to deal with the deeper issues causing the drama.    We’d rather chain the “possessed person” down than name the demon.   We’re the villagers:  “Go away Jesus!”

Truth be told, usually we DON’T want change!   Is this a surprise?  

Imagine yourself a Jew in Germany in the early 30’s.    Your country just voted a firebrand Adolf Hitler into office as Chancellor, under constitutional powers.   His power is balanced by a legislature – you know, checks and balances, so he can’t, on his own, make sweeping changes to a constitutional republic – as the Weimar republic claimed to be.   This was Germany after all, where liberty and freedom were held in high regard.  

Hitler’s platform rested on restoring Germany’s rightful place in the world again, especially after the humiliating effects of the end of WWI.   But part of his platform is to demonize and blame some people – which can make his sound scary.    

Only a few months after Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag burns down – this would be the equivalent of our Capital building.   And he blames the Communists… and of course the Jews.   The following day, Hitler asks special powers of control from President Hindenberg, and is granted them: Certain constitutional rights are suspended to deal with this terrible assault on the nation of Germany.   He then continues gaining more powers than normal situations would have allowed.   

As the years go by, you see Hitler gaining more and more power, and abusing it more and more… you see the ethnic and religious cleansings coming!    You see it coming!    

Do you leave Germany?   Would you, as a German Jew, leave Germany?

Most people today here in the US say – “Absolutely!   Yes, I would have left!”  

The thing is, it’s not that easy when you’re living in the situation.   Most German Jews DID NOT leave Germany… and most of those paid the price with their lives.   But why didn’t they leave????     They saw it coming after all!!!!

Well, it’s not as easy as it looks!    Leaving would have meant becoming a refugee.   Leaving would have meant leaving everything you know; your job, your house, your friends, everything.    It would have meant starting over in a whole new place, with a whole new life.   And you might NOT have known that if you stayed it would mean your death.   Or at least you might not have wanted to see it that way.  

Change usually does not come easily.   The more the change means in terms of life, situations, etc., the harder it is to accept and embrace change.    

I’ve said this before… the movie “Jacobs Ladder” really speaks to this.    The movie has to do with an American soldier in Vietnam who is almost mortally wounded in a fire-fight.   He’s in the aid station – on the operating table – as the surgeons try and save his life.  Well, they end up saving him, but he’s sent back to the US a civilian, no longer in the “fight”.  

He gets back to the US, and at this point he begins to see what look to him like demons.   He begins to question his mental state.   Another significant character in the movie – his chiropractor, who plays the sage in the movie – tells him that sometimes demons are really angels who are trying to tell us something.   If we’re not ready to hear what they have to tell us, they seem like demons and devils.  But when we’re ready to hear their message, we can see them for what they are, angels trying to free us from something.  

Sometimes we say – “Jesus, heal me!”   But what we don’t say, but include in this prayer is:   “But don’t make me deal with my stuff!!”

Jesus might say: “But healing may mean uncovering things… things you may need to see”

Usually we think that miracles, grace, blessing, healing, means… “Ah, life is good!”   No effort, no struggle, no issues… just a blessed gift from God.   God has come to my rescue!   Thank you, God!   Basically we want the blessings and grace with no change on our parts.

    

             

Sometimes – however – healing means we have to name the demons first.     What we’d RATHER do is chain down the possessed person and deal with the drama!       Oh, we DON’T want change – especially if it means it has to do with OUR change!   

It’s so hard trust God, isn’t it!?

Hard to trust God????

            Does this sound right?     

Normally, would you ever let this statement come out of your mouth?      “It’s hard to trust God!”

Well, dealing with OUR changing ISN’T normal now is it!    

“Yeah, but… I have too much skin in this game!”

Hard to trust God????     We’ll only get better!

Even though the promise of New Life lies on the other side of “naming the Demon”…   it’s still very hard to trust God – that’s the truth.  

Lord, help us to trust you.. and let go