Sermon - 4 after Epiphany "what came over me?"

Sermon – 4th after Epiphany
Mark 1:21-28
January 29, 2012
“what came over me?"

Are you possessed? Do you struggle with demons?

Demonic possession has been a popular subject matter for Hollywood. The demon takes over someone, their eyes turn back, their head twists around, their body convulses. And maybe this is not your experience. Perhaps this has made it difficult to identify how we might struggle with evil, to identify evil in the world.

But… have you ever felt overcome (or possessed) by something? Have you ever been so angry that it just completely took a hold of you and caused you to say or do things that you later regretted? Perhaps later you asked, “What came over me?" or you said, “that just wasn’t me.”
I mean…Has something just come over you, taken control of you? Have you been disturbed or tormented by something? It could be anger, doubts, fears, worries, regrets, grief, anxieties.
They are sneaky. They sneak their way into our thoughts, and they can absolutely consume us (until that worry or fear is all we think about). They play with our minds, they disturb our thoughts. They seem to know what our buttons are, and they push them. They also know what appeals to us, and how to speak our language.

One of mine for example is guilt. It really knows how to push my buttons, and that I’m going to feel guilty, and sometimes for no reason. Shame works the same way. Taking was is a little thing, and fabricating it. Or maybe it has you thinking that so and so is judging you, or feels a certain way about you, when they don’t. All it takes is one comment from someone, and we’ve worked ourselves into a frenzy.
They exploit our good natured impulses. Take our will to work, for example. Something gets in our head and persuades us to believe that it’s not enough…and soon enough, we’re a workaholic..trying to prove ourselves through our work.
Or a simple desire to succeed or achieve; and all of a sudden we want more and more, until it turns into greed – it’s never enough – and then we’re taking advantage of others to get what we want. That voice tells us: get what you want by all means necessary…you only need to worry about yourself, don’t worry about others.

These things just take us over, we become possessed by them.
Or if you have ever struggled with addiction, or had a loved one struggle with it, you know how it can take over someone’s life… “come on,” the voice says, “just one more drink,” until the number one priority in life is how am I going to get my next fix.
Or maybe it’s a low self esteem, a voice that gets stuck in your head: “you’re not good enough,” it says. And it gets in the way of really living out your dreams, your full potential. How about just negativity or cynicism… It has a way of creeping into our psyche and taking us over.

And I realize that for some of us, it may be difficult to think about evil forces or the demonic. We may or may not refer to those things that come over us as demons… But we can all identify with those things that their whole purpose, their program, is to control us, to possess us, so that they can hold us captive and hinder us from living the way God intends for us.
The Apostle Paul describes evil as principalities and powers. “12For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Evil doesn’t just afflict the person, but there are social evils as well. And all we have to do is pick up a newspaper to see that there is evil in the world. Just watch Dateline, or one of those shows that uncovers heinous things like sex trafficking rings in Cambodia exploiting girls as young as 10. If that isn’t evil, I don’t know what is.

In today’s gospel in Mark 1, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, and the people were astounded by his teaching, because he taught with authority. Just then, a man came in, and he had an unclean spirit, or demon, he was possessed.
What happens when he encounters Jesus? He knows Jesus, and he knows what Jesus is capable of: “What are you going to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Are you planning to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.”
And then what does Jesus do? He rebuked him. “Be silent, and come out of him!” And man convulses, and spirit, screaming, comes out of him.

Jesus performs an exorcism, he drives out the demon. He frees this man from this evil force that had been tormenting him, that had been holding him captive, hindering him from really living. Imagine what he was able to do now, no longer disturbed and hindered, he was free, able to live a life as God intends.

So back to the things that you struggle with, the things that possess you, that hold you captive. Whenever those voices are disturbing you, getting into your head, whether it be: “Well, what if this happens?”
“That person is judging you.”
“You’ll never be good enough.”
“You might as well give up.”
“Come on, just have one more drink.”
I think the first thing we have to do is identify them, to name them. And then comes the exorcism. Again, try for a moment not to view exorcism as just some creepy thing for the horror movies. But what if exorcism was a daily spiritual practice. I mean, we can do an exorcism right now!
It’s having the courage to stand up to our demons, and say:
I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not working… You do not own me! You do not define me! God does, and I am a child of God.

And then may we hear the voice of Jesus rebuking it: “Be silent, and come out!”
Jesus has the power to drive out all kinds of evil. Jesus makes the forces of evil tremble. He overcame the powers of sin and evil on the cross. And so whatever is possessing us, disturbing us, binding us….Jesus comes to drive it out.
So that we would be free from all evil, and would be able to live into the fullness of who God created us to be. Amen.