Beyond Possession
Mark 1:21-28 (Epiphany 4b15), February 1, 2015
How many of you enjoy being in a knock-down, drag 'em out conflict? (Me either)
How many of you like to be literally locked in a struggle? (Me either)
Maybe that's some of the reasons so many people stay away from congregational annual meetings. Perhaps we may be frightened that a conflict will break out. Then people will be hurt. At the very least there will be a lot of dis – ease.
Today is among other things, Super Bowl Sunday. Talk about a conflict, a struggle: 80 grown men, whose sole purpose is to beat (literally and figuratively) the "other". Some 200 million people will watch the Super Bowl. Billions of dollars will be spent around this Super Bowl conflict.
Why is this? Maybe we like to watch others in conflict, in a battle or a struggle that has little or nothing to do with us. It might be like slowing down at an accident or fire scene to observe the havoc, the suffering or death, from a "distance". Maybe, it's about picking a group to "belong to" in the struggle, without much real commitment on our part.
I wonder about this for a number of reasons. Mark begins his gospel with Jesus in a conflict. Jesus is in conflict here not with a person per se or even with a group of people – but with the significant power of evil.
Evil can and does show up anywhere. This includes places where people gather to pray and hear the word of God – synagogues, churches, mosques. In that synagogue that day, there is a man who is possessed by an unclean or evil spirit.
Now before we immediately tune out thinking that the Bible has nothing to do with us since we are beyond such simplistic world views as unclean spirits and demons – stop for a moment. Does anything "possess" or control us: our minds, our way of thinking, of acting? Think: be honest with yourself, with God.
Anger is a powerful force. At times anger can be constructive. Anger at injustice may move us to become informed, to work with compassion, enthusiasm and energy to change structures that debase people, preventing them from learning or having equal access to health care, education and employment. But there is a fine line with anger. Anger is a force that can so easily possess and overwhelm us. Anger can deceive us into believing that we are somehow good while the "others", those opposed to us are bad or even evil. Anger can cause us to hurt others even as we have been hurt, to stereotype as we may have been stereotyped. Anger can occupy our hearts and minds, resulting in bitterness. Bitterness blinds and deafens us to our own identity and the identity of others as beloved children of the Almighty, holy, just and merciful God.
Anger can move us toward, even deeply into hatred. Hatred leads us to think of others, to treat others as if they were not even human beings, beloved children of God. Hatred leads us towards hardened, cold hearts. Such hearts refuse to listen to God. This is evident throughout Scripture. Remember Pharaoh? Hatred rears its face in so many ways – both individually and institutionally. Hatred's manifestations are in plain sight in racism, militarism and in a number of idolatries which seek to displace God.
There are so many powers which can possess us. Many such powers seek to employ fear to motivate or control us. Religions, including Christianity, have at times been so possessed. When we begin to think and act as if "we" are all there is, that there is no God so much greater and truly other than us, then we are overcome by fear. Then we are afraid that we won't have enough, that the "others" will somehow take or get what we need. Such fear drives us to accumulate more and more. Overcome, possessed by fear, we become completely self– centered, spending inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to "protect" ourselves, seeking the delusion of "safety and security". Fear can so paralyze us that we are unable to know or invest ourselves in others, in new possibilities. Fear wants us to believe that our survival is the most important reality in the world.
Possession then was not just a "thing" of Jesus' time. Possession is around us and within us. Some of its manifestations are obvious: addictions, violence, even against one's own family, one's self. Other manifestations are just as real but more subtle – the stuff in our closets, garages and storage spaces that we will never use; the frenetic pace of life that we live it to attempt to keep up and pay for it all.
Sometimes these possessing forces see and necessarily acknowledge reality that we often aren't conscious of. These forces know that they aren't god – even though they attempt to deceive us into acting otherwise. As these forces are encountered by God, by the One who has authority in and of himself regardless of what others think, they are overcome.
So it was with the man with the unclean spirit in the synagogue that day. Encountered by Jesus he loudly proclaims, "I know who you are the holy one of God. Have you come to destroy us?"
Jesus does act – not to destroy the man, but to free him from his possessions so that he can live with joy, love, and a freedom to see where God will take him. That which possessed the man needed to be overcome, to die. Then the man is freed for anything, for something good.
Here we are. There are conflicts without and within. Sometimes we are conscious of them. More often we attempt to deny them. In such denial we end up going with the flow, allowing them to literally possess and direct us.
But Jesus comes! The Spirit of God fuels him. He draws near. He sees us as we are. He desires to free us with a word, the very gift of Himself. He desires that we freely and fully enter into the struggle to love, to care – to be part of God's dream for others and ourselves. This isn't easy. It's anything but conflict free. There is convulsing and cries - our own and so many others. But in that struggle because of Him - there is, there will be new, lasting, abundant life for ourselves and for others, maybe even for some of the institutions we need to order our lives. Mark, in immediately showing us Jesus' conflict with evil begins to show us Jesus' power over evil.
Conflict with such possessing forces is ongoing. Be open, be aware of the One who can free us from possession and obsession – who can free us for love, concern and hope-filled action. Who knows where His freedom will lead us? Blessings on the journey through whatever "convulsions" may come. Amen.