February 7, 2021

Reading of the Prayer List

Sermon audio from  Linda+

SERMON TEXT

“And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.”

“What is mine to do?” This is the final question in the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina, or Holy Reading. Lectio is less an act of study than it is of prayer; of listening for God to speak through successive readings of a passage of scripture. The first questions in a Lectio practice make us truly present as we focus our attention first on a word or phrase, and then on our sensory response to the passage—how it makes us feel, not what it makes us think, which is not as easy as it might seem. Then, after a third reading, we listen in silence, like Mary pondering in our hearts: “What is mine to do?” No pressure, right?

The question can be narrowed down to, “What am I called to do within the next 7-10 days?” But in the course of a regular Lectio practice over time the cumulated responses can take on vocational import. “Who am I?” “What is my role in helping to realize God’s Dream for Creation?”

Lectio—this Holy Reading and Holy Listening– is not for the faint of heart. Because to truly listen is to be willing to be changed by what you hear.

Sermon preparation can be a kind of lectio practice. I begin with asking myself what draws my attention, and then wonder how it either energizes or disturbs me (or both.) Today’s Gospel is a prime example of how this happens. For the past few weeks we have been following Jesus through his schedule-packed first day of ministry, proclaiming the Good News, calling disciples, teaching in the synagogue, and casting out an unclean spirit. In today’s story Jesus heals Simon’s mother and, as the Sabbath ends and a huge crowd gathers, he heals and casts out demons until, exhausted, he sneaks away for prayer until he his hunted down by his friends early the next morning. This passage is rich with possibilities for preaching. Three years ago—the last time we saw this in the Lectionary cycle– I was drawn to focus on the healing and transformation of Simon’s mother. But this time I have not been able to look away from the ubiquitous demons, mentioned not just last week, but four times in this week’s short passage alone—demons, demons, demons, demons.

And it makes me nervous and anxious. (Remember, naming feelings is the second part of the Lectio practice.) I don’t feel qualified to speak authoritatively about demons, unless it’s to say that, to paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of obscenity, I know them when I see them. At least I think I do.

Anyone who has had the visual and auditory images of the events of the January 6 Capitol siege, or of September 11, or any of the countless images of human cruelty, complicity and violence in the past century seared into their mind can attest to the reality of evil.

Regardless of how we personify or try to explain them in a post-Enlightenment age, the demons that we face are real and tangible. But do we know them when we see them?

Do we see demons in feelings of loneliness, isolation, inadequacy, fear and boredom? Maybe not; we’re human. We have feelings, positive and negative. Do we hear demons in our inner voices of judgment, cynicism and fear? Not always. Often those voices are validating how right we are in our views and opinions (even if we’re not.) Do we see demons hidden in the technology that is so vital to our lives? Or are we in denial that that technology—especially social media– is interwoven with blessings and curses?  So, might it be that we are blind and deaf to the demons among us until all the negative feelings, fed by the self-validating inner voices, and then amplified and further validated by social media, all of it coalesces into a fertile harvest of anger and outrage ripe for exploitation by the demons of bigotry, lies, manipulation and misuse of power?

Now we can see them. When it’s almost too late.

We’re not helpless victims. We are not excused by the old saw, “The Devil made me do it.” This just won’t hold water for people who have been created by God with the gift and responsibility of free will. But that doesn’t mean that confronting demons is easy. We may not initially see them at work in the systems and principalities and powers that deform and distort God’s Dream. We may even find ourselves demonizing others rather than seeing our own vulnerability to evil words and actions. But we must not look away—Jesus calls us to face our demons.

So. What is ours to do?

“…he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.”

Jesus refused to let the demons name or define him, no matter how hard they tried—and as we saw in last week’s Gospel, they certainly tried, calling him the Holy One of God. But he silenced them. The demons of our time seek to name their targets as the outraged, or aggrieved, or threatened. More dangerous still, they seek to name them as righteous, justified, and entitled. They have even led them to carry the cross right alongside the Confederate flag.

The vocation of the people of God as healers of the world requires that we not turn away from the evil that manifests itself in humanity’s brokenness and suffering. Seeing it, we must name it and defeat it every time, in whatever form it takes.

Looking back at the passage we see that Jesus’ work of proclaiming the Dream of God involved, not only teaching, healing, and prayer, but also confronting evil and its attempts to redefine God’s children as anything but the beloved creatures that they are. This is what it was Jesus’s to do. And the vocation of the people of God as healers of the world requires that we not turn away from the evil that manifests itself in humanity’s brokenness and suffering. And seeing it, we must name it and defeat it every time, in whatever form it takes.

In a recent meditation Bishop Steven Charleston writes, “The demons that haunt our community are very real. And they will only be cast out after deep efforts at truth telling, justice making, and spiritual restoration. We will not exorcise these demons easily, but we will see their hold on us collapse when we stand up to them with honesty, integrity and inclusivity. We will cast them out one truth at a time, one heart at a time, and one act of compassion at a time.

By God’s grace and with God’s help, it is ours to do.