Epiphany 4 (B) January 28, 2018
Holy “Ghost- Busters!” An unclean spirit in church!
“Just then, there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.”
Have you ever noticed how many times in the Gospels that we find the so-called “unclean spirits,” or the agents of the devil, being the first to recognize Jesus for who He really is, and the power he has over them?
At first, when I noticed this pattern, it seemed a bit strange to me, but when I really thought about it, it made total sense. In a very strange and oblique way, it falls under that category of “it takes one to know one.” What I mean by that is that Satan, the devil, Beelzebub, whatever, is said to be a fallen angel who was once a part of the heavenly court, before being cast out by God. I think this helps to explain for us why, in today’s Gospel, and in parts of the New Testament, this former divine being and his minions are quick to recognize Jesus and the threat he represents to their existence. Actually, when I read this passage and others like it, what it reminded me of was a scene from one of my favorite movies – a vampire movie, actually.
But let me be clear. These weren’t vampires in the image of characters in the hit books, and later movies, known as the “Twilight” series – which, by the way, I enjoyed immensely. Those vampires could walk around in sunlight, they were “vegetarians” in that they drank only the blood of animals, and they all looked like fashion models. The scene that today’s Gospel brought to mind came from a 1931 movie based on the best-selling novel by Bram Stoker and starring the great Bela Lugosi as the frightening Count Dracula, who was a big fan of human blood and looked nothing like a fashion model. And, just as many fans of Ian Fleming’s books will tell you that Sean Connery is the only true “James Bond,” so too, at least to me, Bela Lugosi is the only “Count Dracula.”
There was one particular scene from the 1931 movie that came to mind when I read today’s Gospel about the confrontation between Jesus and the demon-possessed man in the synagogue. It takes place at night, of course, and the two principal characters are Dracula and his nemesis, Professor Van Helsing, a world-famous vampire expert and hunter. Just like the scene in our Gospel, where the possessed man was able to recognize Jesus for who He really was, so too Van Helsing and Count Dracula, at a very crowded party, looked across the room, each recognizing immediately the danger represented by the other. Later, someone introduces Dracula to Van Helsing, and the dark Count looks him in the eye and, in a voice that still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it, says, “Ah, Professor Van Helsing. A name we know and admire, even in the far-off wilds of… Transylvania.” And, in that exchange echoes the demon-possessed man’s words from Mark’s Gospel: “What have you do to with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”
Of course, comparisons can go only so far. Jesus drives the unclean spirit out of the man and saves him, while Van Helsing finds Dracula’s hidden coffin and drives a wooden stake through his heart. But the common thread which I alluded to which runs both through the vampire legend and Satan as revealed in scripture, and, is a danger to us today, comes later in the film. It’s a scene when Van Helsing warns a group of citizens that, “The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him.”
Substitute “Satan” for “the vampire” and you have the dangerous problem that has existed throughout the history of Christianity. Many Christians simply do not believe in the reality of Satan, or in “the devil,” which prevents them from unmasking the “unclean spirits” which he places in our lives today in order to weaken our faith, or to deter us from a path God would have us take.
Another example, again drawn from literature as to how Satan works in our life, comes to us from Oxford Don and Anglican theologian C.S. Lewis, better known to some for his children’s works, “The Chronicles of Narnia.” He wrote another book in order to show readers exactly how Satan and his minions of “unclean spirits” seek to infiltrate every aspect of our lives today. The device he uses is, ironically, a novel written in the same epistolary format as Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” It is called “The Screwtape Letters,” and in these letters “Screwtape,” a demon in hell, advises his disciple on earth, “Wormwood,” on how best to win over the “Patient” to the dark side. The Patient is actually a character in the book who is on the verge of making a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, but C.S. Lewis presents him as one who represents all of humanity, and how we are constantly being preyed upon and seduced by Satan and his legion of unclean spirits here on earth. And so it is that the closer the Patient draws to Christ, the more desperate becomes the demon Screwtape in hell. And so, he offers in these letters, advice to Wormwood on how to turn the Patient away from Christ. One piece of advice strikes rather close to home, when Screwtape has Wormwood guide the Patient to a church with a liturgy that can be very confusing and hard for a newcomer to follow – remember that C.S. Lewis was an Anglican. He also seeks to guide the Patient to a congregation that doesn’t really practice their faith, but is only going through the motions.
And yet, according to Lewis, the most insidious and dangerous of Satan’s weapons, as revealed in one of Screwtape’s letters to Wormwood, is the same one cited by Professor Van Helsing as one of the vampire’s greatest weapons. Lewis put it this way: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. The devil is equally pleased by both errors.” We hear today and example of both human errors in the scene that Mark describes for us in the temple in Capernaum.
Notice how the entire congregation seemed to be blissfully unaware of the malignant presence of this unclean spirit, no doubt feeling safe from Satan’s minions in the sacred space of the temple. On the other hand, the possessed man was, no doubt, a pious first century Jew who had somehow fallen prey to a “Wormwood” kind of character in his life, and had developed an excessive and unhealthy interest in whatever temptations had been put before him. Though already possessed, he was probably unaware, feeling he was somehow immune just because he prayed and visited the temple on occasion.
But today’s Gospel, and similar stories elsewhere in scripture, as well as in real life today, all give the lie to the simplistic notion that there is something inherently “holy” or “sacred” about a church or temple that somehow protects those who are inside it from the devil and his unclean spirits. Simply being in a holy place does not make one holy, does not make one a devout Christian or a Jew. Or, as someone sagely observed, “Just being in a church doesn’t make one a Christian, any more than being in a garage makes one a car.”
When it comes to our churches or temples of choice, no matter how frequently we might visit them, they will forever remain just bricks and mortar. Until, that is, we start seeing them as more than just buildings and begin to start investing that most precious commodity, time, into what goes on there. Until one starts to become a member of his or her church family, beyond just having their names on the parish register, they will always be at risk, always be potential victims to the “Wormwoods” that still roam the earth today, “looking for a soul to steal.” [Lyric from, “The Devil Went Down To Georgia]
The lessons from today’s Gospel cannot, must not, be confined to the first century. Because the ongoing battle for our very souls described by C.S. Lewis in his “Screwtape Letters” is not to be won by a single, decisive victory by the devil and his legion of unclean spirits. That slippery slope to hell may or may not be paved with those “good intentions” my grandmother used to warn me about, but one thing is crystal clear, at least to me, based on my nearly 30 years as a priest: And that is, that as we walk this earth seeking to stay on the path laid out for us by God Almighty even as we were being knit together in our mother’s womb it’s rarely, if ever, a single thing that sends us off God’s path and straight to that netherworld of Satan. More often, it’s the result of a series of small, and what at that time probably seemed insignificant, compromises and rationalizations, a pattern no doubt familiar to the possessed man in the Gospel: skipping an increasing number of services; forgetting his tithe to the temple; arriving late, as he did in today’s story, or not coming at all for the teaching of the rabbis; slowly withdrawing from being an active member of his faith community until, one day, he awakens to find that all of those small compromises and rationalizations have left an opening in his soul for an unwelcome guest to enter. Someone once referred to this opening as “the devil’s window.” And, when we consider people’s refusal to believe in his existence, and throw in what C.S. Lewis referred to in another book, some people’s “Mere Christianity” – meaning a watered-down faith – what we’re left with is a wide-open “devil’s window” with a sign beckoning, “Please enter.”
We are approaching the season of Lent, a perfect time to take stock of just where we are on the path laid out for us by God. It is also a time to not only seek to recognize but also to also name those potentially unclean spirits looking for a devil’s window, to enter and to make themselves at home. How do we go about identifying such unclean spirits seeking to gain entry into our souls? I would say to look for any commitment, any activity, for lack of a better word, any, “thing” in your lives which, on a regular basis, requires you to make a clear choice between it and what you know in your heart God would have you do.
On Wednesday, February 21, I will be offering a five-week Lent program entitled “Embracing the Uncertainty” – specifically the many uncertainties presented to us in our lives in these uncertain times, wherever they confront us. It’s not quite on the level of Jesus teaching in the synagogue, but I promise it will be informative, participatory, and fun! It also might help in spotting and turning away those unclean spirits. This program, and other “things” in our daily lives, call upon us to make choices concerning that most precious of all commodities – TIME!
If you think your schedule won’t allow for this particular commitment or other church calls on your time as the year unfolds, I would leave you this morning with these two nuggets of wisdom about time – the time we are each allotted and our use of it. They come from the late Methodist pastor and author Ralph Sockman and from poet Carl Sandburg
Pastor Sockman tells us that
“Time is the deposit each one of us has in the Bank of God, and none but God knows the balance.”
And from Carl Sandburg:
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful, lest you let others spend it for you.”
To that, I would simply add, “Spend wisely.” Amen.