Demons

 Most of us don't talk about demons these days. The gospels, though, talk about them all the time. Maybe we should take them a little bit more seriously. This sermon examines a story in which Jesus threw a demon out of a possessed man; and the ways that we are all possessed by demons.

It’s a jarring scene, isn’t it? (Mark 1:21-28) One moment, worship is humming along smoothly, everything going as planned; while the next moment, somebody is standing up screaming things at the preacher! That’s not the way that things are supposed to go at all. But that’s what happened in the very first Sabbath service that Jesus attended after he called his disciples. At least, that’s the way that the Gospel of Mark tells the story. Nothing was out of the ordinary when Jesus and his disciples visited the little synagogue at Capernaum. They went in; they sat down; and Jesus, as a visiting rabbi, was invited to preach that day’s sermon. Everything was going very well. Jesus impressed the congregation not only with his familiarity with the scriptures, but with the confidence of his teaching. “Wow!” the people said to one another, “This guy knows what he’s talking about! He’s giving us new insight into the scriptures that we thought we knew! Maybe they aren’t just old and dusty texts, after all. Maybe they have something to say to us today! It sounds like there are some things that we really need to think about!”

That’s when things got messy. Right in the middle of the sermon, somebody stood up and started yelling. Mark tells us that it was a man with “an unclean spirit” – a junior-grade demon. Unclean spirits aren’t the kind of demons that make people cut themselves, rip their clothing off, and run off to live in a graveyard. No, unclean spirits are vague shadows that crawl inside you and curl up in your mind. They grab you by the hair and refuse to let go. People with unclean spirits look just like everybody else, but they are held in the grip of something that makes them see Jesus as the enemy instead of as the Savior. When they encounter Jesus and hear what he has to say to us, instead of feeling a sense of peace and love, they are angry and afraid. This man saw Jesus not as a blessing, but as a threat. That’s why he yelled at Jesus, “What do you want with us? Have you come to destroy us?” That was the demon talking; and that demon was very unhappy! He knew that Jesus had the power to throw him out and send him on his way – which is exactly what happened!

These days, we don’t talk much about demons. We are much more likely to blame poor choices or bad habits for the things that we do. But maybe we shouldn’t pooh-pooh demons quite so quickly. I’m pretty sure that they are still around, causing all kinds of trouble for us. Who are these unclean spirits, anyway? They’re more familiar than we might think they are. All of us deal with at some of them at one time or another; recognizing them is a very good thing to do. After all, when one of them decides to take up residence in our head, we’d like to be able to send him on his way as soon as possible! This morning, I want to introduce you to three demons that make our lives miserable. They’re easy to remember, because their names all begin with “D,” just like the word “Demon.”

The first demon is “Denial.” His nickname is “Not me!” Denial blinds us to problems that are perfectly obvious to everyone else, but that we refuse to admit we have. Denial wants us to ignore the facts, and cling to our long-cherished opinions. Addicts are the poster children for Denial. One of my dear friends is a recovering alcoholic, many years sober, but she tells me that she had to hit bottom before she would admit that she had a problem. She said the things that every other alcoholic says: “I’m not an alcoholic. I just drink every now and then to relax. I can quit whenever I want to; I just don’t want to quit right now.” She ignored the fact that she drank every single day until she passed out; and that she was incapable of quitting without help. The demon Denial had a tight hold on her, until one day, she realized that she was going nowhere fast. When she attended an AA meeting where everyone else knew Denial very well, she was finally able to send him packing.

The second demon is Denial’s brother. His name is “Diversion,” and his nickname is “Yes, but.” Diversion is just as bad as Denial. Diversion allows us to recognize that we have a problem, but he quickly shifts the focus to something else so that we never deal with that problem. Do you have a problem with your temper? Diversion allows you to admit it, but then says to you, “Yes, but my temper isn’t as bad as my neighbor’s is.” Diversion is really just a sneaky way of telling yourself that you are better than somebody else. If you pull the mask off Diversion, you will find that underneath all of Diversion’s deception, he is Arrogance in disguise. If you have a problem, don’t give that problem on to somebody else! It’s YOUR problem, no matter what other people may be struggling with! Don’t worry about what anybody else is doing!

The third demon might be the worst one of all, though. His name is Despair, and his nickname is “It’s useless.” Despair snatches away the hope that things might ever change. The alcoholic moans, “I’ll never be able to quit drinking,” and the bad-tempered person cries, “I’ll never learn to control my temper.” The demon of Despair whispers that we’ll never, ever be able to change, so we might as well give up; and he keeps whispering that same thing over and over and over again. And pretty soon, guess what? We give up and resign ourselves to trouble for the rest of our lives, because… well, it’s useless. But Despair is a liar! With God’s help, things CAN change, and often do.

These three demons cause more trouble in the world than we realize. In fact, they cause more trouble in our own lives than we realize! When we are blind to our own faults – and we all are – we are under the spell of the Denial demon; and when we look at other people and say, “At least I’m not THAT bad!” we are under the spell of the Diversion demon. And we have all fought with the Despair demon over the past year as COVID has ravaged the world and political divisions have torn us apart! These three demons work together to make our lives difficult. Here’s how they do it. Let me focus on a situation that isn’t that uncommon. Let’s say that the doctor tells you that you need to lose weight for the sake of your health. Uh, oh. How do you react? My first reaction would be, “No, I don’t!” Denial is the very first demon to take a crack at me. After the doctor shows me the facts, I move rapidly to, “Well, at least I’m not as heavy as some people are!” That’s Diversion’s voice. If my doctor is wise, he’ll keep my mind on my own weight, not on someone else’s. And even before I leave the office, Despair will be trying to convince me that I’ll never be able to lose that weight, so why should I even try? One Demon hands the lies off to the next as deftly as a runner in a relay race hands off the baton! Believe me, friends, those demons are good at this!

Now, my point is not to accuse any of you of being obese. I simply want to open your eyes to the demons that keep us where we are and prevent us from becoming the people that Jesus wants us to be. Denial, Diversion, and Despair don’t want us to live the free, fulfilled lives that God intends for us to live, because if we did, they would be out of a job! They don’t even want us to know that they exist, so they hide under statements like, “Things have always been this way,” or “It’s the way that I was brought up,” or even, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Statements like those keep us from believing in the possibilities that God offers us.

“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” the demon in Capernaum shouted. “Have you come to destroy us?” Yes, absolutely! Jesus has come to throw out all the demons that make our lives miserable, so that our lives can be joyful, peaceful, and free. And now that you know these three demons – Denial, Diversion, and Despair – I invite you to ask Jesus to throw them out of your life, even if you don’t think that they are there. He will be only too happy to send them packing. Thanks be to God!

Called to Serve

Jesus is calling us, you know. He didn't just call the fishermen back in Galilee so many years ago; he's calling us now to follow him. Why in the world is he doing that? And what does it mean for us? This sermon by the Rev. Alecia Schroedel-Deuble examines those questions.

CARPE DIEM! Anyone remember those words from the Dead Poets Society movie? “Carpe Diem!” shouts Robin Williams—Seize the day! Strike while the iron is hot! Go for the gusto! In other words—don’t wait! Grab the opportunity when it appears. I think Carpe Diem would be a perfect slogan for Mark the Gospel writer. Mark is an action writer, and his favorite word is “Immediately!” Mark is the shortest of the 4 gospels. He doesn’t mess around with flowery speech. It’s as if he was writing in a hurry to urgently spread the word about Jesus. The word “Immediately” appears 42 times in this short gospel. That means it pops up on the average of every 16 verses! By repeating the word “Immediately, Mark creates an urgency not found in the other gospels. “Immediately” is like Mark’s alarm clock that jars us awake and compels us into action. In Mark it’s an Epiphany word that describes an event that suddenly changes your life. And so, with all that in mind, let’s look at a few folks whose lives were suddenly changed.

Our gospel starts with Jesus walking along the shoreline. He sees two brothers, Simon and Andrew, who are fishing. He says to them, “Come follow me and I’ll make you fishers of people.” And IMMEDIATELY they left their nets and followed. Can you believe it? They didn’t ask any questions! There’s no conversation here. That seems so odd. Jesus shows up by the Sea of Galilee, calls out to Simon Peter and Andrew, tells them to, “Follow me. Then without a word or a second thought they do it! Boom! Their lives were changed! Then in the very next sentence, Jesus does it again. He gives the same call to James and John with the same results. IMMEDIATELY! In a heartbeat, they are out of the boat and following Jesus, changing their lives and leaving their bewildered father behind. 

In our reading from John’s Gospel Jesus does the same thing in Galilee. He found Phillip, says “Follow me.” And boom! Phillip’s life is changed. Phillip is so excited that he turns into a recruiter for Team Jesus. Phillip might be one of the first evangelists calling his friends to Jesus. He goes and calls his friend Nathaniel to come and see this marvelous man named Jesus of Nazareth. Nathaniel gives a sarcastic answer saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” “Come and see,” says Phillip. Come and see for yourself.

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” That’s a funny question. Obviously, Nathanael doesn’t know who this Jesus is. But it sure seems like Jesus knows who Nathanael is. He has seen Nathanael sitting under a fig tree pondering, praying, and meditating. Jesus claims that Nathanael is a man who has no guile. That means Nathanael is not cunning, or treacherous, sly or devious. He’s got a true and open heart. And he’s direct, He says what he means. You know where you stand with a guy like that. It makes me wonder, what did Jesus see in any of the fishermen that he called? What made them good candidates for Team Jesus? You would think Jesus would be looking for followers in the temple, or among the priestly classes of people, or the religious leaders. So isn’t it strange that he called these rugged and ragtag ordinary fishermen? What did he see in them? I think he saw an open spirit in them. Maybe open-mindedness. Maybe he could see they were seeking something more in life. Maybe Jesus could see their potential that even they couldn’t see in themselves. Maybe he could see what they could become. And I’m sure Jesus could see the gifts that each would bring in the service of ministry in the Kingdom of God. 

One of the questions I had when I felt a call to ministry was, “God, what do you want with an audio engineer?!” That was my first career. I was in broadcasting. I guess Jesus saw potential in me that I didn’t see in myself. So I left my tangle of audio tape and followed. We are all called by Jesus by virtue of our baptism. And like Phillip, we are all called in the Great Commission to go into the world and call others. It might not be as daunting as you think. I believe we are to call out the gifts others have in the serve of God’s Kingdom. The first UCC church I attended in Akron, Ohio was pastored by Dr. Gabe Campbell. He was a very outgoing man. He often said that one of his greatest joys was meeting new people because he said each person came with a gift that was waiting to be unwrapped. His joy was helping them discover their gifts. This is a gift my husband John has also. It’s one of the things that attracted me to him. He has a knack for seeing much more in a person than anyone else sees; even more than the person sees in themselves. John calls their gifts forward, shows them how valuable they are, and encourages them to use their gifts for the good of others and in the service of Christ. He even sees more in me than I see in myself.

It's a joy to recognize the gifts in others and to call them forward and watch them bloom into full flower. As one of our hymns reminds us, “In the bulb there is a flower… unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.” We saw some marvelous examples of blooming gifts in the beautiful Inauguration celebration for President Joe Biden. There was a segment at the beginning where four diverse people were chosen to read quotes from previous inauguration speeches of former Presidents. I marveled at how well-spoken and poised they each were. And I was pleased to see that a young teen had been chosen to read some of the words from the speech John F. Kennedy gave. I later found out that this young man is Brayden Harrington from New Hampshire. He met Joe Biden on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. Brayden found out that he and Mr. Biden had something in common. They both have had a problem with stuttering. (So did Moses by the way.) As candidate Biden talked with the young man, coached him, and gave him words of wisdom, they formed a bond. And so President Biden called forth Brayden’s gifts of speech and courage. There he was on national television, flawlessly speaking the words of JFK… “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” These are words that call all of us to use our gifts for the good of our nation. 

Another gift was called forth by Dr. Jill Biden. She invited and introduced us to a young African American poet named Amanda Gorman. She has such a tremendous gift for words and speech. She has quickly become ab internet sensation! She gave us her gift of vision for our nation in her poem called, “The Hill We Climb” Oh, my, such inspiring words from someone so young! She called to us all especially in her final words, “There is always light if only we are brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.” Ms. Gorman calls us all to be the light that Jesus said we are. I think that’s what Jesus saw in those fishermen. He saw a light in each one that needed to be fanned into flame. He saw a light in each one that needed to shine in the world. Jesus calls to us too because he sees a light in each of us. And we in turn call out the light we see in others.

I like to listen to instrumental music while I write my sermons. A few years ago as I was writing a sermon, I heard some beautiful and compelling piano music my radio service. The music was beautiful, quick and urgent. It seemed to demand my attention. I had to stop what I was doing and pay attention. It was riveting! So I looked at my playlist to see what the title was. The album cover said Carpe Lumen—Seize the Light. That, I realized is what the new disciples did—they seized the Light of Jesus Christ. They got up and followed and life was never the same again. We are also called to follow Jesus. And calls, especially of the divine nature, demand an immediate response. So also, our best response is to CARPE LUMEN—seize the light of Jesus Christ, and boom! Get ready for your life to be forever changed

"Torn Apart"

On this day when we celebrate Jesus' baptism, I chose to emphasize God's actions when the newly-baptized Jesus arose from the water. Oh, God identified Jesus as his beloved Son; but God did something else, too. If you don't know what it was, then this sermon might remind you.

Today is the first Sunday in Epiphany, the church season that reveals Jesus as God’s son and the Light of the world. The assigned lectionary text for this Sunday is the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:9-11). It’s a little bit jarring to skip from seeing Jesus as a baby in a manger on Christmas Eve to his baptism as an adult in just a little over two weeks. This year, it is doubly jarring, as this text comes on the heels of the violent coup attempt in our nation’s capital just 4 days ago. Baptisms are joyous events: events that gather whole families in celebration. What we saw on Wednesday was certainly not something to celebrate! Now, I’m a believer in the wisdom of the lectionary, that group of biblical texts that are preached through a three-year cycle. Preaching those texts helps keep us preachers from dwelling on our favorites (and believe me, we have them). But on some Sundays, that presents a problem, because I am also a believer in preaching, as the theologian Karl Barth put it, with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. There is a real disconnect between the joy of a baptism and the recent violence in our society. But when I am in the midst of this dilemma of what to preach, I remember that the biblical texts were not written in isolation from their own society. What the gospel writers said about Jesus was influenced by what was happening around them; and those writers lived in times that were even uglier and more violent than the times in which we live. Jesus lived in a time when his country was occupied by the Roman empire. There was no such thing as democratic rule, and the emperor was considered to be a god. The punishment for offending him was crucifixion, that most shameful, painful, and lingering death. The darkness of the Roman empire was even deeper than the darkness in which we live today. And it was in that darkness that Jesus was baptized.

On a typical Sunday, I would probably focus on the water in which Jesus was baptized. I would remind you that water is frequently the symbol of a new creation; and I would give the examples of the chaotic waters that existed before God called creation into being, the waters of the flood that cleansed the earth, and the waters of the Red Sea through which Moses led the Israelites during the exodus. But today isn’t a typical Sunday; so I want to focus, instead, on the heavens that stretched above Jesus, and what happened when he emerged from the waters of the Jordan River. Did you catch it? The heavens were “torn apart” to allow the Holy Spirit to descend upon the newly-baptized Jesus. Mark doesn’t use that word casually. The Greek word that he uses for “tear apart” is “schizo.” (We get the English word “schizophrenia” from it.) That word is used when something is ripped apart in haste. “Schizo” is no neat shredding of financial documents, such as when we feed our bank statements into the shredder and they come out the other side in neat little ribbons. No, when we “schizo” something, we grab it and rip, not caring whether the end result is neat or messy. The point of “schizo”ing something is to get it torn apart quickly, because time is of the essence. The only other place that Mark uses that word in his gospel is at the very end of Jesus’ life. As Jesus breathes his last on the cross, the curtain in the Temple that separated the people from God was “torn apart.” When God “schizo”s something, God is coming to be with us in the quickest way possible! And isn’t that what we ask of God in one of the texts from Isaiah (64:1-4) that we read during Advent this year “Tear the heavens apart!” we plead. “Come down here and do something!” God did exactly that when Jesus was baptized.

And did you notice how God came to be with us? After God tore apart the heavens, God didn’t arrive with a flaming sword or a host of angels. God came to be with us not by violence, but by sending the Spirit in the form of a dove. A dove reminds us of the new beginning after Noah’s flood; a dove reminds us of God’s peace; a dove might even have reminded the first readers of Mark’s gospel of a sacrifice. Into this world of darkness and violence and ugliness came God’s Spirit of light, peace, and beauty, filling Jesus with it to the brim. But the Spirit doesn’t only give us peace and beauty. The Spirit also gives us courage. God knew what Jesus would have to deal with during his ministry. He would face people who laughed at him, other people who thought he was crazy; and people in authority who wanted to shut him up. He was going to need courage to speak out against evil; to challenge lies and oppressive systems; to expose people who claimed to be religious for the phonies that they were. That isn’t easy. Jesus was no sissy.

Now, we are children of that same God, filled with that same Spirit. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul reminded his congregation that “you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” (3:26) and “because you are children, God sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts.” (4:6) Those same statements apply to us, too. We are filled with the same Spirit of light, peace, beauty – and courage. The evil that Jesus faced hasn’t gone anywhere. Sometimes it goes underground and we forget about it for a while, but it’s still there, festering like a wound under the surface of the skin. We can’t ignore it any longer. There are people who think that they are better than other people because they have white skin, or because they have more money, or because of who their daddy was. If Jesus were here today, he would call them out on that; but since Jesus isn’t here, it falls to us to do it for him. In our baptismal vows, we are asked “Will you resist oppression and evil, show love and justice, and witness to the work and word of Jesus Christ as best you are able?” Our answer is, “We will, with the help of God.” It is the Spirit that gives us that help. Baptism is a reassurance of God’s blessing, to be sure; but it is also a call to action! In the darkness of this world, God’s Spirit is the One who gives us the guidance to discern evil, the courage to fight it, and the hope to believe that evil won’t win in the end.

Baptism is indeed a cause for celebration! God can’t wait to come to us, even in the darkness of our world. Actually, God tears the heavens apart to get to us because of the darkness of our world. “The Light still shines in the darkness,” says the gospel of John, “and the darkness has not overcome it.” The Spirit will be with us forever, bringing peace, beauty, and joy – and the courage that only God can offer. Thanks be to God!