Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
As many of you know I participate in public forums held around this city that focus on topics like social housing, poverty and mental illness. Now and then during the Question and Answer portion someone will approach the microphone with a statement, not really a question. This statement can be long and sometimes the tone can be quite angry. Anger makes crowds uncomfortable and when this type of comment is being made I can see members of the general public making their way quietly out the back doors. Given that moderators are often reluctant to ask someone who is very emotional at the microphone to end her/his remarks I have been tasked with some kind of an intervention.
What I usually do is approach the microphone like I am lining up to speak next and whisper to the person who has the room’s attention “If you need to talk we can go to a room nearby and you can tell me your whole story.” If the event is being held in a Church Hall I will use the kitchen, with open door, to sit and talk. I always sit across from the other and demonstrate that s/he has my undivided attention. I usually begin with “we have until this event ends to share this conversation” and then the other will begin to talk again. My sense is that everyone needs to share their story and everyone has a story to tell.
Many of us take for granted that there will be a time and place when someone will hear our story. But in Jesus’ time and context that was not to be assumed. There were whole segments of the population who were deemed “untouchable” or “unclean”. These included persons with illness, civil authorities wanted them isolated due to the fear of infection and religious leaders wanted then shunned because they assumed it was sin that made them sick. Large segments of the population were desperately poor, isolated and shunned. And in the four Gospels these were the people whom Jesus often spoke to, healed and lifted up as examples of faith.
Whether it was the woman at the well, the tax collector in the tree or the mother who wanted him to heal her child Jesus didn’t just touch the unclean, he wanted to know their stories. When Jesus told the man who had been searching for cures, “take up your mat and walk” he was calling “out” that which was holding the man down, possessing and shackling him to his illness. I have no idea what was going on with these persons and their illnesses, nor do I know what Jesus did or did not do to heal them. What I do know is that after Jesus spoke to them, touched them and set them “free” they were never the same again.
We have four different Gospels with four different angles to see the Jesus who comes with Good News. Matthew gives us The Sermon on the Mount, the text we are looking at in our current faith study. Matthew’s Jesus is the teacher extraordinaire. Luke’s Jesus was born in a manger, befriended the poor and the oppressed, and included all those who the society shunned. John’s Jesus is a sign of abundance who turns water into wine. And Mark’s Jesus performs exorcisms -- in the wilderness, with people living with unclean spirits.
Lutheran Biblical scholar Karoline Lewis points to the first public ministry act for Jesus in Mark “not a sermon, not a miracle, not even a healing. But stepping into the realm of opposing supremacies, the world of other spirits, the potent power of possession and saying, God is here; breaking through the barrier that holds at bay the unclean, the places and spaces where it seems God could never be, the very presence of the opposite of God.”
Ever since the first century, we Christians have struggled to define just what these “unclean spirits” are, just what these persons under possession are. Some have ventured to say that these diseases were first-century attempts to define mental illness. Others have said that some supernatural power was at work, or that we should not "define away" demonic possession. I just don’t know. But what I know is that people do become mired in spirits that are unhealthy and death-dealing. I would never say that unclean spirits can be equated with mental illness or addiction or any other form of medically diagnosed disease. But I would say that all of us become isolated at some point in our lives, all of us. And when we are isolated and have no one to tell our story we can become mired in a spirit that possesses us and holds us down. And given the chance at a public forum, or a church gathering or a family get together we can get very carried away and upset. At some point we might even turn to someone with authority in that group and ask, “What have you to do with me?”
Every welcoming and inviting church will find its members acting out in this way when they are feeling unclean and untouched. And every welcoming and inviting church will find itself meeting some new people who come possessed by this spirit. Some churches act like this never happens, pretending that none of us ever act this way. They work around us when we do. And some unhealthy churches allow folks who are in this spirit to draw others in as well, soon making every disagreement in the church into a poisonous atmosphere.
Jesus neither ignores those caught in this spirit nor becomes impatient with them. And he certainly does not allow himself to be taken captive by them. No, he speaks the truth with them. He ministers freedom to them. He knows our names, he knows how to touch us and he knows how to set us free.
I am a firm believer in community and I believe faith communities bring a spirit, a presence, and a sense of deep belonging that pierces the isolation and the hurt and brings us back to our true selves. While others wax on about the evangelical need to convert and the contemplative need to center and be at peace I feel we often miss the social Jesus who brings us back to healthy and spirit-filled community by knowing those around him, their names, their stories, and they need for release. And if we are being totally honest all of us, all of us, are possessed of these unclean spirits and need to be made whole again.
For the last ten years my teachers in this healing have been Brian and Heather Williams. Whether at the suburban church where we met at St. Luke’s in Tantallon or the inner-city church we now serve together at Brunswick Street, Brian and Heather, more than any other Christians I know exorcize these very spirits that possess us and they do it with recognition, listening to stories and releasing people from what is holding them down to the new possibilities of ministry and renewal in Jesus’ name. I have a good memory, so I usually remember names. I also love to hear people’s stories. But I confess my weakness in community is that I expect people to be considerate of others and when they are not I can be very impatient and judgmental. Brian and Heather have taught me that people who are possessed by these spirits can lose that sense of consideration and still need to be ministered to with a lite touch, a compassionate embrace and a patient release. I am still learning.
I am learning from you too. My hope is that together, in Christian community, we will recognize one another, listen to one another’s stories and release one another to possibilities and blessings that lay before us. Amen.