Where Evil Dwells

Sermon preached on February 1, 2015

Based on Mark 1:21-28; I Corinthians 8:1-13

Let me tell you a little something about the gospel of Mark–he talks a lot about evil and demon possession.  And I am very uncomfortable preaching about that.  Because we live in a rational world.  We can explain things with science.  We understand what’s happening in the world based on our knowledge of the world God created.

This knowledge of God’s world can create a bit of arrogance on my part.  Because when I read this text in Mark, where Jesus exorcised a demon from someone in the synagogue, my first instinct is to roll my eyes and dismiss the story.  I want to explain away demon possession and evil spirits because they make no sense, and they don’t exist, obviously.

But, I get squeemish when we start deciding what we can and can’t take seriously in the scripture.  When we get hung up by our own modern sensibilities, and we start to decide what we will ignore and disregard in the scripture, we miss some important aspects of Jesus ministry.

So if you are one of those folks that–like me–struggles with this concept of evil and possession that we read about in the scripture, I want to invite you to suspend your feelings about possession for just a few moments, while we look at this story a little differently.

Jesus went into the temple to preach, and the scribes–the teachers of the Torah–were amazed.  He preached with authority, and that was astounding to them–we can only assume that their teaching and preaching lacked authority, and the spirit that Jesus brought with him was overwhelming.

From within the crowd of scribes and teachers of Torah came the voice of an evil spirit, which said, “What do you want with us, Jesus?  Have you come to destroy us?”

So the first exorcism Jesus did was in a religious institution, and the exorcism came from within the leaders of the institution.

Just let that sink in will you?  Jesus’ first act of healing and driving out happened inside the religious institution.  Because Jesus’ authority and teachings were so overwhelming, that the leaders inside the church were worried that this meant the end of their careers.

Jesus doesn’t waste any time infuriating the powerful, does he?

Perhaps it’s shocking to you that Jesus exorcised evil from within the institution, but it is not shocking to any of us that evil exists in institutional religion.  Many of us are part of this congregation because we have experienced the evil firsthand.  We’ve seen it, touched it, and been beaten up by the evil of the church.

How does this evil end up in our religious institutions then?

M. Scott Peck said, “People recoil from evil when they see it directly; that is why evil likes to disguise itself.”  Pure evil cannot bear to be seen fully, so just as we see in this morning’s text, it hides itself–in this case in the religious institution.

Peck continues to describe evil as being characterized by the following:

• Self-deception in order to avoid guilt and maintain an image of perfection

• And that self-deception leads to the deception of others.

• Evil finds ways to project evil onto some, while acting normal towards others.

• Evil hates under the pretense of love.

• It abuses power

• It maintains respectability and lies to do so.

• And evil cannot tolerate criticism.

I spent a little time this week reading the reports that came out last month about Mennonite theologian, John Howard Yoder, and the chronic sexual abuses tolerated in Mennonite institutions over several decades.  As I read about the abuse, in conjunction with reading this definition of evil, I kept thinking that the situation with Yoder was the very definition of evil– the abuse itself, and the systematic isolation of the women that experienced the abuse, and the refusal or inability of the institution to change.

John Howard Yoder created a theology around intimacy and sexuality that gave him permission to abuse his power over his female students.  Women at the seminaries where he taught were warned by other students not to be alone with him because the way he acted behind closed doors was much different than how he treated others in public.  Yoder’s actions were hateful, but under the pretense of love and intimacy.  And through all these decades of work in Mennonite institutions, he was revered and given the highest respect.

This was an evil that should have been exorcised decades ago, but disciplining the force that was John Howard Yoder felt too difficult and overwhelming for those in power.  So, evil continued in Mennonite institutions.   Only twenty years after Yoder’s death have the demons of institutional violence been uncovered.  And hopefully, the institution is finding ways to exorcise them.

Now, perhaps it feels a little too easy to be critical of the denomination, especially since we aren’t aprt of it.  But, let me remind you–while we are not part of the denominational institution, we create our own structure and institutions here.  We create ways to keep order, to maintain bounderies, and to process decisions.  As we deal with not being part of the larger institution, we create our own systems.

So, how do we keep all that evil out of our institution and systems?  How do we keep ourselves from being decieved by the evil that has potential to lurk in the dark corners of our congregational life?

Paul gives us some wisdom on this.  In I Corinthians, he addresses the issue of food sacrificed to idols, which as you know is a big issue today in our church.

Actually it’s not an issue at all in our church today, which is why–like the demon possession texts–it’s easy for us to ignore.  But Paul is suggesting that even though it’s not a big deal to eat the food sold in the marketplace–since Paul was preaching that Christians are not bound by law but by God’s grace–there are some in the faith that have trouble with it.  So be gentle and gracious with each other.

This is not a suggestion that we become more politically correct or get loosey goosey with each other.  This is Paul’s request that we really hear each other.  Even though some in the church were comfortable with eating food sacrificed to idols, others were not.  So, the community had to put individual perspectives aside out of love and care for the group.  Ego’s had to be laid aside, individuals had to become open to criticism, and self-deception had to be suspended.

As communities process and make decisions, it can be easy for groups to divide over petty things. It can be easy for individuals to be scapegoated, or for deception to take hold.  It is easy for egos to grow, leaving little room for criticism.

But, if we are going to be the people God has called us to be, we must be vigilant.  We must watch for the evil that can grow among us, disguised in the institutional church as certainty and tradition.  Evil cannot bear to be seen directly, so it must hide.  Let us not allow this place to be where it dwells.  AMEN.