Sharing the Message & Casting Out Demons
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Cathedral

“And [Jesus] went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message…and casting out demons.” Mark 1.39

It’s the year 70. Freedom fighters have taken up arms and rebelled against the Roman Empire. They’ve been fighting for 4 years and finally Rome strikes back with brutal force. The Roman legions pour over the walls of Jerusalem and lay the city to ruins, destroying the Jewish Temple as well.

For the second time in Jewish history, the holy temple has been destroyed. And the world as it has been known and experienced for generations suddenly comes to an end for the Jewish communities, which includes followers of Jesus known as The Way, later called Christians.

In response to the world as it had been known ending, an artist-activist writes narrative which he probably performed in public markets, private gatherings, amphitheatres, and festivals. That performance piece responding to the Roman annihilation of Jerusalem and its Temple was called a gospel, and hundreds of years after it was written it would be included in a canon of scripture called the holy bible, a collection of sacred texts for Christians.

That is, I believe, what the gospel of Mark really is. As Jerusalem is still smoldering in ruins, some 40 years after the execution of Jesus, Mark’s gospel is written and performed as a means of providing hope and healing to people who are overwhelmed with grief and fear.

One of the themes that Mark uses throughout his gospel, his political performance piece speaking out against the brutality of imperialism, is the confrontation of demons.

Now, the use of a symbol can have multiple meanings. What exactly is a demon? And what could the point of confronting demons really be for Mark?

In ancient mythologies and philosophies, daemons were spirits, or ghosts, which, like people, could be good or bad. Socrates claimed to have a daemon which warned him of danger.

By the time we see demons used in Christian literature, they have evolved into mean, nasty, monstrous little troublemakers intent only on causing mischief and destruction. And this is the understanding of demons used by Mark. Mark responds to overwhelming destruction, but using a symbol of destruction: demons.

Of all the symbols Mark could have used to speak about the issues of his day, why did he choose goblins, the boogey-man, demons? Seems so odd in our 21st century, but in a world that was thought to be flat, demons were not such a strange image.

People intuitively knew that we at our best should feel whole, should have purpose, and should experience, at least on occasion, true joy. If something was preventing the experience of wholeness, hope, or joy, then that something must be at odds with the purpose of life, and therefore must be evil. And so it was assumed that mental illness was demon possession. Physical maladies might be caused by evil forces as well. So, demonic activity was blamed for dis-ease and dis-comfort and dis-placement. The medical treatment, therefore, could include the confrontation of such mischievous forces. Exorcism was a fairly common healing modality. It was the penicillin of its day!

But Mark uses the language of demonology in a way more creative than simply blaming life’s ills on malevolent forces. No, Mark seems to see injustice, oppression, and cruelty as being acts of pure evil, that injustice and oppression were themselves demonic realities. And that is the case I believe Mark is making.

The Roman Empire employs the evil, dehumanizing, torturous practice known as crucifixion. We sometimes wear crosses as pretty jewelry, but the original followers of Jesus had no warm feelings toward those instruments of unimaginable cruelty. Crosses are used to humiliate, terrorize, torture, and kill the people occupied by Roman forces.

On those instruments of torture people would be tied to a cross bar which would be affixed to a stake. Hanging from that bar on a stake, people would slowly asphyxiate. The tortured bodies hanging from those cross bars would push themselves up with their feet so they could breathe until exhaustion caused them to fall, and then they would suffocate until they pushed themselves back up, and so on. It could take days before death finally, mercifully came.

Then, to add insult to injury, bodies would be left out to be torn apart by vultures and coyotes, or thrown into an open grave with other bodies. Dignity, even in death, was denied the victims of crucifixion. No, the cross is a testament not to divine goodness, but to human cruelty, and that cruelty was known to Mark and his people.

The Roman Empire employed the dehumanizing practice of slavery.

The Roman Empire conquered territories, robbed those territories of their natural resources, and had people killed by not only crucifixion, but also by beheading, by having people fight to the death for sport in public, and by having people torn to pieces by wild animals. Mark seems to think the cruelty which Rome has elevated to an art form is evil, demonic.

And the Roman Empire now has destroyed what is to Mark and his community a holy city and a holy pilgrimage destination. Certainly, such sacrilege, such desecration is in Mark’s mind, demonic.

When churches were bombed during the struggle for civil rights, when synagogues have had swastikas painted on them, when mosques where faithful, peaceful people worship were desecrated after a few fanatics attacked the US on 9/11/01, when the Taliban destroyed ancient Buddhist art in Afghanistan…whenever sacred sites of worship are disrespected, we respond with horror. We agree with Mark that such senseless acts of aggression are beneath the high purpose of human dignity.

Yes, Mark isn’t simply blaming all unpleasantness on imaginary foes; nor is Mark generalizing all illness as being a manifestation of ghostly adversaries; no, Mark is calling oppression evil. Mark is calling injustice demonic. Mark is calling cruelty nefarious and wicked and an affront to all that is holy. With the dramatic use of demonic characters, Mark is showing that the demonic is not the natural state and can be cast out and replaced with hope, compassion, courage, and justice.

When we assassinate someone’s character, when we trivialize someone’s oppression, or participate in that oppression, or ignore it, when we care more about our comfort than about the genuine needs of others, when we care more about our privilege and position than about the dignity of others, when we participate in systems that dehumanize our sisters and brothers in the human family, when we perpetuate soul-killing lies, such as the lie that same-gender love is anything less than sacred, beautiful, and holy…when we commit violence against body or soul, we are fueling the fire of demonic activity. And Mark suggests that we can cast out those demonic practices and replace them with the life-giving work of justice and healing.

The demons of Mark’s creative writing aren’t the product of superstition; they are symbols of very real, very human brokenness, violence, and cruelty. These aren’t goblins from another world, these are the practices that rob life of its joy and fullness right here. Demons aren’t monsters, they are choices; and we can replace those choices with better choices. That’s the casting out of demons that Mark calls for. Don’t be like Rome, be like Jesus. That’s the exorcism that Mark believes in.

That’s what we are doing here today. That is what it means to be “the Church.” We aren’t here to protect privilege and the status quo, but to challenge it.

We aren’t here to secure a place for ourselves in an afterlife cosmic country club…exclusive and restricted, limited to people who believe what we believe and who hate who we hate.

We are here to follow Jesus. Not even to venerate him, but to follow his example. And Mark would have us believe that example is one of challenging violence, viciousness, cruelty, selfishness, and all forms of injustice.

We are casting out the demons of intolerance when we stand up and speak out for marriage equality.

We are casting out the demons of self-hatred when we affirm our sacred value.

We are casting out the demons xenophobia when we refuse to give into the hateful rhetoric used against migrants and immigrants looking to improve the quality of their lives.

We are casting out the demons of racism when we say with pride that Black History is American History and all Americans should know about the contributions that all kinds of Americans have made to our on-going national story.

We are casting out the demons of territorialism when we believe the Nigerian, the Jamaican, the Ugandan, and the Pakistani is our neighbor. When same-gender loving people in those other countries are targeted and tormented for being who they are, that isn’t a national concern for some other country, that is a human concern that breaks our hearts and calls us to Christian Social Action.

We saw a video a few minutes ago. A woman used the power of words to improve someone’s life.

That’s what Mark is doing. That’s what we are doing.

With our inclusive language, with our uplifting music, with our sacred texts, with our sacraments, with our religious education, with our publications, with our insistence that all people have innate dignity and sacred value, with our commitment to work for justice and peace, with our affirmation that divine love is unconditional and all-inclusive, with the spoken, sung, and written word we are working to change minds and hearts and conditions. We are casting out demons, in Jesus’ name. And this is the good news. Amen.

© Durrell Watkins 2012

Affirmations
I’m casting out fear today.
I’m casting out regret today.
I’m casting out hatred today.
I’m casting out gloom, despair, and degradation.
And I speak the word of healing for my life and for my world.
Amen.

Final Word
“In the end…we are all proclaiming the same thing: That life has meaning; that we are grateful for the power that created us.” Dan Brown, Angels and Demons