Exorcise Hate and Embrace Love

 

What can I say: the lectionary diviners dished up a story of an exorcism, and that just reawakened my fascination with evil...and the things that infect our hearts and turn us inward and not in healthy ways. 

And as I've been leading a class that is building toward a staged reading of The Gospel of Mark, I've been pouring thorugh all my books and commentaries and notes, and I'm just having the best time reconnecting with the Jesus of Mark who is the most human of the portrayls and the vision of a rebel Jesus who conquers with words and love and not swords and brute force.

I touch on that in this sermon. See what you think.

Text: Mark 1: 21-28

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Confession time: I love scary movies.

Not slasher films with lots of blood and guts and gore. Those aren’t very imaginative and just feel like they want to shock us and repulse us.

When I say “scary movie,” I mean the ones that put us on the edge of our seats. That have us holding our breath. That make us uneasy.

And the best ones are the ones that unfold the scary slowly and methodically as they draw us into whatever the world the screenwriter, director, and actors have created.

One of my absolute most favorite scary movies is William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist.”

I’m talking about the original film, the one released 50 years ago at Christmas, that frightened and disturbed thousands of movie goers and won two Oscar awards.

The gradual possession of Regan McNeil…and her mother’s desperation…her frustration with the medical profession…and until she finally turns to a Catholic priest who’s having a crisis of faith…is one of those movies that…for me anyway…checks all the boxes.

It's suspenseful…it draws me in…and above all…it’s scary.

Not only am I fan of the movie…I am a bigger fan of the book by William Peter Blatty.

Blatty had been educated by Jesuit priests,

In his writing and details…he put his extensive knowledge of Roman Catholicism to good use…both in his descriptions of the exorcism rite and weaving in the narrative of our Christian story of Jesus.

After all…the doubting priest ends up losing his life to save the possessed girl.

Maybe you can see why when an exorcism story shows up…I’m all in!

At our rehearsals for our staged reading of the Gospel of Mark (which is Saturday February 10^th at 3pm)…we’ve been discussing the way Mark pieces together his telling of the Jesus story.

Nothing is wasted in Mark’s Gospel.

And the scenes he presents not only have a surface meaning…but there is a deeper context and commentary running underneath.

The original hearers of this Gospel would have understood some of Mark’s social commentary…that we likely miss.

Jesus and his disciples who he has picked up along the way enter Capernaum and go to the local synagogue.

Jesus enters into this place…a temple that isn’t in his hometown.

He begins teaching in a way that puts the resident scribes to shame.

Can you imagine what that must have been like?

Think about it.

Consider a skill or something that you are particularly good at…something you’ve been trained to do.

You’ve spent years and years learning and practicing becoming proficient.

Suddenly…some stranger comes in and starts doing what you do…only better.

People start paying attention to this stranger.

This interloper gets all the accolades.

You might get angry…annoyed…jealous.

Especially as you listen and realize that this person really does have a better grasp of things than you do.

They’ve displaced you.

They’ve made you look pedestrian.

They’re success is getting on your last nerve.

Anger, jealousy, that sense of feeling like we’re not as good as another.

All of those are such natural human emotions…rooted deeply in our egos.

Nobody likes to feel like they’re a fool. 

And our ego can get fired up when we’re embarrassed.

When we let those feelings dominate our thoughts…it can lead us into those shadowy corners where we harbor hurts.

Build up enough hurt feelings…it isn’t long before we start to hate.

And as the theologian Howard Thurman notes: “hatred dries up the creative thoughts in the life of the hater” to the point where they only focus on the negative in their environment.

Meanwhile…Jesus rejects hatred because he sees how hate leads to death of mind and spirit. And it drives a wedge between the self and God.

In other words…hate leads to sin.

I have to wonder if the scribes….witnessing Jesus’ superior teaching and the interest of the congregation in what he’s saying….might have had that green-eyed monster of jealousy infecting their hearts?

And while the scribes themselves don’t say anything….Mark tells us “a man with an unclean spirit” begins to cry 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!”

We don’t know who this man is.

Perhaps he’s tapping into an “unclean” feeling rising in the hearts of the scribes.

This unknown man with an unclean spirit demands to know “Have you come to destroy us?”

“Have you, Jesus, come into our space…brought in your new teaching…one with authority and power…have you come to up end our status quo?”

In word: “Yes.”

Understand this though: Jesus has not come to throw out the teachings of Judaism. After all, Jesus is all about keeping the commandments.

In fact…he’ll cite parts of the ten commandments several times throughout Mark’s Gospel.

But like his predecessor…John the Baptizer…what Jesus is calling out is the way Roman imperialism had infected the practices of Judaism.

There were those who claimed to be caring for the poor…and the widowed…and taking care of their elderly parents…but a closer look at their wallets…we find they’d been playing a type of shell game to hide their money as a gift to the Temple…thus not doing the minimal things they were supposed to be doing as good and faithful Jews.

In some ways…the cry of the man with an unclean spirit could be seen as voicing the inner thoughts of those who feared Jesus’ attempts to bring about a new order that would no longer benefit those who have enjoyed power under the Roman rule.

It’s also interesting that it’s a man with an “unclean spirit” who becomes the first to identify Jesus with the title: “the Holy One of God.”

Evil knows who Jesus is. And in those times…it was thought that if an evil spirit knew a person’s name…it was a way for that spirit to assert the upper hand.

But Jesus shows that good is stronger than bad.

Hatred is powerless in the face of Love.

Fear dissipates when faith takes the lead.

This is a moment of foreshadowing what will happen at the time of the crucifixion…and resurrection…where the kingdom of God meets the kingdom of Rome.

The forces for goodness and life go to the cross in a battle with sin and death.

And ultimately God prevails.

I started this sermon talking about movies and I’m going to end by mentioning the film many of you went to see the other night, “A Case for Love.”

That film posed the daunting question “has love lost the battle?”

In our society with so much violence around us…has love gone down for the count?

A woman who had been sex trafficked as a child and badly abused finds her way to Thistle Farms ministry in Nashville…and is able to reconcile with her past…to live in love.

A couple in which one of them professes he had been a racist…ends up adopting and caring for Korean orphans…because they want to live in love.

A gay man rejected from his church meets a co-worker who helps him see that he is a beloved child of God. He chose to live in Love.

And that’s what it comes down to for us: we must make the choice to do the work it takes to love.

We must guard against those human tendencies to become angry or jealous and give into pettiness.

We must do this with God’s help.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.