Feb 4, 2024
I speak to you in the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
If you’re anything like me, you’re struggling to make sense of this morning’s Gospel reading. According to Mark, Jesus’ healing ministry includes casting out demons. I’m tempted to think “demons – how quaint. These poor first century folks ran across things like mental illness and epilepsy and decided that a ‘demon’ was at the root of the problem. But, of course, we know better.”
I wonder if we get so focused on demons and wanting to use our 21st century knowledge to explain them that we overthink this passage. We lose the forest for the trees. Because fundamentally, this is a story about good versus evil. And it’s also a story about experiencing first-hand the Kingdom of God. Or as Deacon Vicki put it so well recently, the Community of God.
Evil is a concept that many of us struggle with. Part of it is because evil is unpleasant. We’d rather not think about it. And in part, it’s because we live in a world where the concept of evil is often dismissed as bogus. Society values rationalism over the emotional, the dogmatic, and the mystical – and so our theological imaginations have been eroded. Evil has been relegated to horror films or cartoonish caricatures. We have trouble believing that spiritual forces are at work in the world.
What we often want to believe – what we’re often told to believe – is that instead of being a real thing, evil is just the absence of good. But maybe – like me you’ve encounter the reality that evil is an active force in the world, and it hit you like a slap across the face. Maybe it was a person or system who corrupts everything and everyone they touch. Or maybe it was a situation where health and well-being were forsaken in favor of destruction and death. No matter what, it’s frightening to realize you’re in the presence of what our baptismal vows call “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.”
The community that Mark wrote this Gospel for had an active theological imagination. When they saw evil devastating lives in their community, they labeled it the work of “demons”. And so today’s Gospel isn’t just a story about Jesus curing physical and mental illnesses. It’s about a confrontation between good and evil. And one of the main themes throughout Mark’s Gospel – one of its core truths – is that Jesus has the power to overcome the world’s evil.
The question this all leads to is: why is this important? It’s important because this is how Jesus proclaims that the Kingdom of God has come near.
“Kingdom of God” or “Community of God” is one of those nebulous concepts that pastors and theologians like to throw around. It’s sort of like “good music” or “fairness”. We talk about it a lot, but we never define it. Instead, people like me use “Kingdom of God” as a vague descriptor, and then we expect you all to figure out what it means all on your own. And not only is that unfair, but it’s actually very harmful – because one of the most important parts of our ministry together as a community is to identify where and when we see the Kingdom of God manifest in the world around us. And that’s work that we simply can’t do alone.
Throughout Mark’s Gospel, Jesus never gives a detailed explanation of the Kingdom. Because words are not enough. They always fall short. Instead, Jesus reveals what the Kingdom is through his actions. Through his deeds of power today, Jesus shows us the Kingdom comes when the spiritual forces of evil are overcome and those it possesses are liberated – bringing joy and peace and fullness of life. And the proof of that, my friends, is love manifesting itself as grace. Where we find God’s grace, we find God’s Kingdom.
The kinds of demons we face today are just as destructive as the kind the people of Jesus’ time believed in and fell victim to. You and I know some of them. They try to turn us away from other people – away from joy and peace and fullness of life. They’re in those intrusive thoughts that come to us and tell us things like: “you can take that shortcut, just this one time. You can take advantage of this situation – everyone does it. You can tell that little lie – you don’t want to hurt anyone. And no one ever has to know”. And they lead us down that dark path one step at a time.
The Good News of the Gospel today is that Jesus is even now casting out the demons of today just as he did 2,000 years ago. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are confronting and overcoming evil now and always. And in our baptismal promises, God calls us to join God in that work. When asked to persevere in resisting evil, we respond “I will, with God’s help.” When asked to seek and serve Christ in all people, we respond “I will, with God’s help.”. When asked to strive for justice and peace among all people, we respond “I will, with God’s help.”. Because – as I said before – we don’t do this alone.
So the question I want to leave us with today – a question I want us to wrestle with is: where? Where do we see the Spirit inspiring ourselves and others to live out these promises? Where do we see the hand of God confronting and overcoming evil? Where do we see love manifested as grace? These are things we’re going to talk about as time goes on. So put on your watchful eyes and your listening ears.
Because its in those grace-filled moments that we have the epiphany. It’s in those love-inspired, grace-filled moments that we see what the Kingdom of God is. As it’s revealed among us, in all its glory. Amen.