Asking the Right Questions

The scriptures referred to are Ezekiel 2:1-7, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10. and Mark 6:1-6.

I loved my mother-in-law. I'd always gotten along well with her but what I'm about to tell you made her just about my favorite person in the world. Shortly after I had been ordained, while my wife was talking to her mother on the phone, she interrupted herself to scold me for leaving the Sunday paper spread all over or some other breach of domestic etiquette. My mother-in-law, overhearing this, said to my wife, “I don't think you should yell at him anymore: he's holy!”

I need to see what I can do about having her canonized.

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone cut you some slack just because you were a Christian? Well, don't hold your breath. Nobody gave Ezekiel, Paul or Jesus a break just because they were doing God's business. And odds are people won't extend any tolerance to us either, especially if we are focused on certain things people don't want to hear about.

Take Ezekiel. Now he was one weird dude. Besides having the most bizarre visions this side of John's Revelation, Ezekiel's specialty was to act out God's messages to the people of Jerusalem. So at one point he stays in his house, mute and tied with a rope. He also draws a picture of the city of Jerusalem on a clay tablet and then lays siege to it. He lies on his left side for 390 days and on the right for 40 days, symbolizing the number of years God has put up with the sins of the northern kingdom of Israel and of the southern kingdom of Judah. He takes a sword and shaves his head and beard and weighs his hair, dividing it into thirds. A third he burns in his little drawing of Jerusalem, a third he strikes with the sword, and a third he throws into the wind, saving a few in his garment. This symbolized the fate of God's people when the Babylonians eventually attacked.

And the response of God's rebellious people to this message of justice? Not much. Ezekiel, perhaps because he is a priest, doesn't suffer the persecution of his contemporary, Jeremiah. Instead he is pretty much ignored. He goes into exile in Babylon with the cream of Judean society. There he receives a vision of the restoration of God's people after the punishment is over. But nobody responded to his message of judgment. Unfortunately, if you want to be heard, you have to tell people what they want to hear.

Jesus went back to his hometown and instead of welcome, appreciation and acceptance, he finds astonishment, offense and disbelief. Despite his powerful preaching and his acts of healing, his neighbors cannot believe that someone they grew up with, one of Mary's kids, has become anyone special. They reel off the names of Jesus' 4 brothers and remember his sisters still living in sleepy little Nazareth and they can't see anything extraordinary about them. So Mark tells us that Jesus couldn't do any great deed of power there except a few healings. (Mark 6:1-6) He couldn't do much because people weren't receptive. Jesus wasn't a magician who could change people against their will. God will only work on you if you are responsive, just as a potter can only work with soft malleable clay. Once it is dry and set, it can't be changed; it can only be broken.

Finally, we come to Paul, who, in 2 Corinthians, is forced to defend himself to one of the churches he planted. Corinth was the “Sin City” of its day and the church there had a lot of problems. Paul spent 18 months there at one point. Now he has gotten bad news about that church from his spiritual son and colleague Timothy whom he had sent to resolve things. On top of the other problems, he finds that rival “apostles”are questioning his credentials. So he feels forced to brag about his qualifications, though it goes against his judgment to do so. Do his rivals have visions? Paul's could top theirs. But he speaks of himself in the third person because he doesn't like to brag. In fact, despite his vision of paradise, he would rather talk of his afflictions. (2 Corinthians 12:2-10)

Paul speaks of a thorn in the flesh that keeps him humble. We do not know what his problem was: epilepsy, malaria, or some disfiguring ailment. A good guess might be a painful eye condition because Paul says that the Galatians would have given their own eyes to him if they could. (Galatians 4:13-15) Perhaps he saw auras preceding migraine headaches. The word translated “thorn” could also mean “sharp stake.” Anyone who's had a migraine knows it can feel as if a nail or spike was being driven into your head. Whatever it was, Paul wanted it gone. But God did not remove his affliction. Instead he gave Paul the grace to deal with it. It was not what Paul wanted. It was however what he, a brilliant man and church leader, needed to keep him from getting arrogant.

We often encounter some problem or difficulty that we wish were removed. We may tell God that we could do his work better if our life was problem-free. I remember seeing a T-shirt that read, “O Lord, let me show you how humble I could be, even if I won the lottery!” But God is smarter than that. And I have read articles about lottery winners who blow through all of their winnings and end up poor. Because if you can't manage a modest amount of money, you won't be able to manage millions. The fault lay not in their bank account but in themselves. More money only increased their problems.

What we want is an absence of problems. But God doesn't deal in avoidance of trouble. And telling people the truth rather than what they want to hear can make them ignore you, as in the case of Ezekiel, or persecute you, as in the case of Jesus. According to Luke, during one of his visits to Nazareth, his preaching in the synagogue so enraged his neighbors that they almost threw him off the cliff that the town was built on. (Luke 4:28-30) Nobody was neutral when it came to Jesus. They either recognized the truth that he spoke or tried to shut him up. But that didn't stop Jesus. And it shouldn't stop us.

While Hitler was rising to power, the reporters of the Munich Post warned the German people of his party's use of intimidation, blackmail, and even murder to move ahead of political rivals. Their relentless exposure of Nazi hypocrisy and criminality won them Hitler's epithet of “the poison kitchen.” The Munich Post continued to tell the unpalatable truth until Hitler at last achieved power and had the newspaper destroyed and its editors and writers imprisoned. They may not have stopped Hitler but they did the right thing. And you can't say that the German people had no idea of the caliber of the man who destroyed their democracy and seized control of their country.

Why do such people get power? A psychology experiment instructed people to lie about something to a person they were about to meet. Then those same people were put in a group and given a task for the group to accomplish. The disturbing observation that came out of this experiment was that the most convincing liars were often made the leaders. Explains a lot, doesn't it?

The problem, as C.S. Lewis pointed out, is that we classify information in the wrong categories. We ask if something is liberal or conservative, progressive or reactionary, a fad or traditional, popular or unpopular, politically correct or offensive, expensive or cheap. What we ought to be asking is whether it is true or false, right or wrong?

The man who headed the FBI's counter-terrorism unit and who had prevented a wave of bombings on the New Year's Eve of the new millennium warned our government about Osama Bin Ladin. But he was considered an alarmist. Nobody asked whether what he said was true or false, only if such news was welcome in the White House or not.

And then, when the planes hit the twin towers on 9/11, two preachers, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson, said it was divine punishment for America's tolerance of feminists, gays and the like. They faced a firestorm of criticism. The American people didn't want to hear what they said and so they backed down. Both the reaction and the retraction was about the popularity of the idea, not its merits. For the record, I think Falwell and Robinson were wrong. Jesus rejected the idea that disasters, either natural or man-made, were judgments from God. He mentioned incidents where a dictator murdered people and another where a tower fell on people. Were the victims more sinful than anyone else? Jesus asked. Of course not, he said. (Luke 13:1-5)

When we speak for God, we'd better be certain that we are right. We'd better be sure that we are not just saying what we feel or what people want to hear. But if we are certain, then we must stand by it whatever the world's reaction. Jesus gave us a grave responsibility when he told the disciples that they could declare sins forgiven or not. (John 20:23)

We live in a world that feels that it is more important to be happy than right. We live in a culture that hates the idea of making sacrifices. We live in a society where a long marriage is marveled at because it is so unusual for people to take vows and promises seriously. We live in an era where whistleblowers who alert us to wrongdoing or crimes committed by an important person are attacked as snitches or traitors if the person being accused is popular. People don't seem to care if the accusations are true or if what was done was wrong.

The problem is, whether you properly identify something as true or false, right or wrong, whether you ignore it or whether you fight against it, it doesn't change the facts. If you choose to live the lie, the truth will eventually catch up with you. If you choose to do what is wrong, you will suffer the consequences.

Harry Potter becomes furious when the wizarding world doesn't believe that the evil Lord Voldemort is back and is gathering followers. The problem is that Harry doesn't trust his ally, Professor Dumbledore, and so he makes some bad choices. We also learn that Dumbledore has been holding back some of the truth from Harry. Because these two do not confide in one another and tell the unpalatable truth to one another, someone close to Harry dies. The series says explicitly that it is about the importance of doing what's right, rather than what's easy.

Sadly in this sinful world, those who stand for the truth and what is right may suffer as well as the liars and the wrongdoers. But we mustn't let that deter us. As Ezekiel and Paul learned, and as Jesus demonstrated on the cross, whether the problem is external or internal, whether it is social, physical or spiritual, the way out is often the way through, not the way around. We must rely on God's grace, his undeserved and unreserved goodness toward us. God doesn't make the problem go away; he gives us the means to deal with it. Whether we need strength or patience or kindness or self-control or rest, if we turn to him, he will provide it. It may not always be what we think we need, but it will be what we actually need.

The world needs people who constantly remind it of what it needs. It needs people who unwaveringly point to what is right and what is true. These people will not always be heeded. They will be vilified and ostracized, or maybe ignored. They may not succeed as the world counts success. But that is not their concern. They must be faithful to their duty to God and to their fellow men and women. Because they are witnesses to God's faithfulness to his lost creatures and his desire to bring them back to his love.

Are you willing to be one of them?

First preached on July 6, 2003. There has been some updating and revising.

Whose Wealth?

The scriptures referred to are Deuteronomy 15:7-11. Psalm 112, and 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15.

In 2006 the Episcopal Church switched to the Revised Common Lectionary. None of the passages this sermon was based on are now read on the Third Sunday after Pentecost and the passage from Deuteronomy is not read at all during the 3 year cycle, which is a grave mistake.

One of the scariest movies I've ever seen had no ghosts, no vampires, nothing supernatural and no villain either. It was a TV movie called No Place Like Home. It's about a working class family of 4. The local factory has closed so the mother supports the family while the father takes classes to get a better job. Then a fire in their apartment building leaves them homeless. They stay with relatives for a while but tensions and the lack of room and privacy drives them out. They find an apartment whose monthly rent they can afford but they cannot come up with the initial amount of first and last month's rent plus security deposit. The father goes to another state to look for work while the wife and children stay in a shelter. Violence in the shelter and the near molestation of one of the kids forces the mother to pull them out of the shelter. The father returns, jobless, and they end up living in an abandoned building, fighting off addicts to protect their new home. The family in the film had a string of bad breaks but what was scary was that each step in their becoming homeless was plausible. And the film wasn't made just last week or last year but in 1989!

The film was brought to my mind when I saw a front page article in the Key West Citizen about the homeless. There was a picture of a homeless couple who were planning to wed. A friend said, “What business have they got getting married if they can't afford a place to live?” Then I reminded my friend that the price of a notary public wedding is a lot less than the cost of housing here.

The average American lives paycheck to paycheck. 51% of working adults are one missed paycheck from not being able to cover their necessities, unless they have savings to dip into. An additional 15% would be in that position if they missed 2 paychecks. That's 66% or 2/3 of working Americans. Throw in a major illness and they could end up like the family in that film. Families with children are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, accounting for between 40 and 50% of the country's homeless. There are a lot of causes of homelessness, like unemployment, poverty, mental illness, substance abuse, teen pregnancy and domestic abuse. But the main cause, according to the Conference of Mayors, is the lack of affordable housing. In many homeless families both parents have jobs but their combined wages are not enough to afford an apartment. And full-time minimum wage workers can't afford to rent anywhere in the US. A full-time worker would have to make at least $20 an hour to afford a one-bedroom rental.

And it's very hard to leave a minimum wage job as the late Keys author Barbara Ehrenreich discovered when she went undercover for her book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. If you have no other resources, you won't make enough to save anything and you won't have enough time to go on multiple job interviews or take classes.

3 of our 4 lectionary readings are about wealth and poverty. The emphasis, of course, is on helping the poor. The rich always have help because they have the power to shape laws and influence government. A Princeton study showed that the probability of any legislation passing Congress is just 30%, regardless of how popular it is with the average American. The only thing that increases the likelihood of a law passing is if the rich favor it. The richest 1% of the population control more than 30% of the wealth, and the top 10% own 66.9% or 2/3 of the wealth in the US. And they are getting richer by $1.7 million a day. They also pay an average tax rate of 8.2%, compared to 13% for the average American taxpayer.

The Bible has nothing against the rich, provided they are God-fearing, honest and generous to the poor, as we read in Psalm 112. After all, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob became wealthy, mostly in sheep and livestock. But they are not comparable to today's millionaires and billionaires. And unlike today's wealthy, they never complained that they weren't rich enough or that something was inhibiting the growth of their wealth. They were simply grateful to God for their prosperity.

Our passage from Deuteronomy is about the distribution of the wealth in the then-future nation of Israel. Just before our reading begins, God says, “However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.” (Deuteronomy 15:4-5) In other words, God is saying, “I am giving you a good land and if you follow my instructions for living a just life, you should all do well.” But God is not naive. As he says in our passage, “There will always be poor people in the land.” So he makes a law to prevent his citizens from being perpetually buried in evergrowing debt. Every 7^th year all debts were cancelled. And God warns those who are better off not to get stingy as the 7^th year approaches and the time in which the debt is to be repaid shrinks. And because God commands us to help the poor and needy, not to do so is a sin! Again, as Psalm 112 reminds us, generosity towards the poor is not optional but is an integral part of righteousness.

But why? If I work hard and make a surplus of money, isn't it mine to do with as I wish? I know that God will be happy if I give to the poor but why is it a sin if I don't? Because the money isn't really mine. Nothing is ours. Everything is God's.

God created everything. We are essentially stewards of his lands and possessions. All that we have we received as gifts and grace. To say that we “own” anything is no more literally true than to say we “make” money on our jobs. If we really did, the Treasury department would arrest us as counterfeiters. What we actually do is perform certain tasks in exchange for promises on pieces of paper called checks or cash, that we can exchange for goods or services that in turn are the fruits of someone else's labor. But the talents, the muscles and the brains we use to perform these tasks are gifts from God.

The idea that God owns everything undergirds all Biblical thought. For instance, that is why we use the term “redemption” for what Christ has done for us. In both Greek and Hebrew the words for redeeming have the sense of someone, usually a kinsman, paying a ransom to buy back someone else from slavery. So to help us understand our redemption the Bible uses the metaphor that Jesus finds us in slavery to sin and buys us back at the cost of his blood. (John 8:34-36; Mark 10:45) We are then returned to our rightful owner, God.

So we are beholden to him for liberating us from our slavery to our worst habits, urges and fears. But since God the Son has bought us with his life, we are now God's servants. We are given the run of his lands and the use of his goods but we must never act presumptuously. We are not to destroy, abuse or neglect our Lord's things. And that includes our fellow servants. The lives of others are not mine to take or misuse according to my pleasure. All is God's and what I think are mine are actually on loan to me for a short while. I must one day give an account of the responsibilities given to me.

So the command to be generous to the poor is not really telling me how to use my money and possessions but God's. I am to be generous with his stuff, which he has entrusted to me for the time being. And it is interesting that the poor often understand this better than the rich, For instance small, less wealthy churches give proportionately more per member than larger churches with richer parishioners. Why is that? I think that the less well-off you are, the more aware you are of God's hand in giving you the good things in your life.

Rich people tend to forget how much of their wealth is based on things outside their control. Like being born into wealth. Or born with talents that are marketable. Or having a teacher or mentor who helps you learn and develop skills that will help you succeed in the world. Or knowing someone who can recommend you for a well-paying career. And it helps if you are attractive and able bodied. Those are all things that are outside your control. The world calls this luck. The Bible calls them gifts.

Some people realize that they have been given their good fortune by God and pay it back. If Scholastic Books hadn't taken a chance on a much rejected manuscript by an unpublished single mother on welfare, we wouldn't have the Harry Potter books, movies and upcoming TV series. And J.K. Rowling wouldn't have gone from being a poor single mother to someone who was at one time richer than the Queen of England. But Rowling remembered her days of poverty and has been so generous with starting charities and giving to people with medical problems and helping at-risk women and children that her net worth has actually dropped way below that of the royal family. She is a Christian and a member of the Church of Scotland.

In his Corinthian letters, Paul refers to a pet charitable project of his. He is raising money for the church at Jerusalem. Helping out the mother church is not just the Christian thing to do but Paul would also like to cement the relationship of the largely Gentile churches he has planted throughout the Roman empire to the Jewish church back in Judea. Though previously enthusiastic about the idea, the church at Corinth has become apathetic. Paul tells them of the amazing generosity of the poorer church in Macedonia. He reminds them of Jesus, who, though rich in his heavenly position, became a poor mortal that we might share in God's riches. And Paul appeals to the idea of balance. Quoting from the account of how God gave manna to his children wandering in the wilderness on their way to the promised land, he says that if everybody gave out of their abundance then no one would have either too much or too little. (Exodus 16:18) And in the early days church we are told that “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions were his own, but they shared everything they had....There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 4:32, 34-35)

The US is the richest nation on earth. On average we live better than 2/3 of the people in the world. Though we only make up 5% of the world's population, we use a greater proportion of the world's resources than our numbers would indicate was fair. And yet we whine about our lot—a lot! And there is nothing less attractive than the rich whining about how bad they have it. Especially when they have it better than people in some parts of Africa, Central and South America and Asia. Many of us do not know what it is like to go without food for lack of money. A lot of us do not know what it is like to wear rags or sleep in our car or not be able to get our children health care. Many of the things we take for granted would be considered huge blessings to other people, including some living in this country.

Here's another fact: 68% of Americans say they are Christian. But some of those Christians seem to have forgotten that in Jesus' parable of the Last Judgment that those who fed the hungry, gave the thirsty something to drink, clothed those who needed it, welcomed the alien, looked after the sick and visited those in prison, were actually doing it to Jesus. (Matthew 25:46) They somehow missed the more than 800 passages in their Bible that tell us to help the disadvantaged, the disabled, the diseased and the despised. (Such as Leviticus 19:10, 14, 33-34; Proverbs 19:17; 31:8-9; Isaiah 58:6-7; Jeremiah 22:3; Ezekiel 16:49; Luke 14:12-14; 1 John 3:17-18, etc) They apparently ignore Jesus' saying that you cannot serve both God and money. (Matthew 6:24) They are way more concerned about making sure that help is not given to people they don't think deserve it than that help is given to those who need it. Yet Jesus said, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:42)

The world into which Jesus came was one in which the rich and powerful felt no duty to the poor and unfortunate. His followers changed that. They helped the poor, rescued abandoned infants, and took care of the sick, even victims of plague at the risk of their own lives. After Constantine made Christianity legal, the churches built hospitals in every bishop's city. The last pagan Roman emperor Julian, a nephew of Constantine, complained to the pagan priests that Christians “not only feed their own poor, but ours also...” He felt that pagans ought to imitate Christians in this regard in order to regain the popularity of the old gods. But the pagan gods did not love humans. Their relationships were purely transactional. The Christian God is the God who is love and his love extends to all. That changed how society acted towards the disadvantaged. That's what made western civilization Christian. Going from a nation that helps the underdogs to a dog-eat-dog one as some so-called Christians seem to want would be a regression to the way things were before Jesus came.

When we remember that all we are and all we have comes from God, it lifts the burden of ownership from our shoulders. It frees us from the desperate race to buy more and more things, which is what we are urged to do by today's omnipresent advertising. We should see ourselves instead as the servants of an immensely wealthy king, with instructions to spend the gifts he gives us of time, talent and treasure on making sure the others in his kingdom have enough of what they need. And when we die, it will not be the one who has the most toys who wins but the one who has made the most friends for God. And we know how much he values them by the high price God paid.

First preached on June 29, 2003. There has been some updating and revising.

Wrestling with Demons

The scriptures referred to are primarily Mark 5:1-20.

One of the oldest questions to trouble humanity is “Where does evil come from?” This is an especially bothersome question for Christians, Jews and Muslims. Since we believe there is only one God and that he created everything good, how did evil enter into the picture? The Bible offers a 2 part answer. First, most evil comes from within us and is expressed in our own choices. (Mark 7:20-23) When we second-guess God and try to do things our own way rather than his, we end up abusing, misusing or neglecting his gifts and his creation.

For instance, a knife is morally neutral. It can be used to carve wood, to cut up food or to wound and kill another human being. The evil is not in the knife but in the person wielding it. We could say the same about just about everything, including religion. People can use religion to encourage us to help the poor, to build hospitals and universities, to extend rights to outcasts or to persecute such people. The evil is not in religion per se but in those who distort it for their own ends. Some people think that if religion didn't exist there would be a lot less evil. Tell that to the tens of millions who suffered and died in Stalin's atheistic “worker's paradise” or Mao's atheistic communist China. The evil in people will find an expression no matter what instruments are handy. If knives didn't exist, murder would not cease. If all weapons disappeared, people would use rocks and sticks and fists. Killing people would be less efficient but not obsolete.

Which brings up the question of whether things designed to be weapons are inherently evil. We usually think that it depends upon whether they are in the hands of the attacker or the defender. But what about weapons so awful in their destructive power that we hesitate to use them even to protect ourselves? That is something we must answer if we are ever to stop the proliferation of the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons that are so efficient that they could wipe out not just our enemies but ourselves. Germs, toxins and radiation do not discriminate when they kill.

Weapons are created by humans and so can be seen as expressions of the evil within us. Whether we use weapons or not, people often do harm to others by their words and actions. And usually the people who do evil are acting for rational, if ignoble, reasons. Theft can be seen as a rational and pragmatic, albeit immoral, solution to not having something you want.

But what about irrational evil? How does one explain, for instance, the jealousy that leads to murder and suicide and destroys the very person the other wanted to have? What do we make of the thirst for vengeance that leads to endless feuds in which no one wins? What about the madness that causes a person to harm themselves and others? Those don't seem to come from mere self-interest. Often it looks like something took over the person's mind or personality. In these cases people in every ancient society all over the world, including those who wrote the Bible, thought that the second part of the answer to the question, “Where does evil come from?” is “evil spirits.”

It is not an answer we like to hear in the 21^st century. We feel we are beyond such superstitions. We look down on people in the past for thinking such things because of what C.S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery.” We think we know better because we come later in time and we know more. But do we? What anatomical feature of the brain explains a Hitler? What measurable biological cause makes one man into a Pol Pot and another into his victim? Precisely what mixture of DNA and environment produces a Jeffrey Dahmer? What are the scientifically verifiable characteristics that distinguish the participants in the Boston Tea Party from members of Al Qaeda? What were the exact proportions of brain chemicals in Benedict Arnold that made him first a Revolutionary War hero and, when he became a traitor, which of them changed and to what extent?

There are a number of scientists who say we have no free will, though they cannot answer these basic scientific questions that underlie their assertions. And we really don't know much more than our ancestors about the exact causes of evil. Yes, we know that there are such things as DNA, brain lobes, serotonin, dopamine, etc. We know what they do in general and how they influence large groups of people but we don't precisely how they all interact and how those interactions give rise to specific thoughts, actions and individual personalities.

James Fallon is a neuroscientist who has studied the DNA and scanned the brains of psychopaths. Then he discovered that his genes and his brain scan are also those of a psychopath. But while he has some of the characteristics of a psychopath (lack of empathy, fear and regret), he is a productive member of society who married his childhood sweetheart and raised a family and hasn't broken laws or murdered anyone. Though internally he has a lot of similarities to those he studies, he is more than just the sum of his genes and his brain structure. Your body does not necessarily determine your destiny.

Our ancestors knew less about their bodies than we do, not because they were stupid, but because they didn't have scientific instruments. We only attribute infectious diseases to microbes because we can now see them, thanks to microscopes. And yet while the compound microscope was invented somewhere around 1600, the germ theory of disease wasn't widely accepted until the late 1800s. It took modern man nearly 300 years to make the connection between those things he discovered thanks to the microscope and their presence and function in diseased tissue.

Prior to observing these beings that were invisible to the naked eye, demon possession was as good an explanation as any for the invisible causes of irrational kinds of evil. Yet demons were not the only explanation people had for disease. In Matthew 4:24 it says, “And they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and severe pains, demoniacs, epileptics and paralytics and he cured them.” Notice that the demon-possessed are differentiated from other afflictions such as pain, disease, epilepsy and paralysis. Not every malady was blamed on demons.

In fact from Mark 5 and similar passages it looks as if demon possession has a lot in common with what we presently call mental illnesses. When I was a psychiatric nurse, I observed symptoms of psychoses that are reminiscent of the demoniacs in the Bible, such as rigidity, hearing voices, extraordinary strength, the ability to block out the sights and sounds of the real world, and thinking there were persons or entities inside oneself. Were my patients possessed? Many of them spontaneously said they were. Was that just their cultural conditioning? Or was it the only way that they could express what it was like to live a life that seemed to be controlled by forces other than their own will?

We still use the term “demon” to talk about the sources of deeply irrational and emotional turmoil. We say of someone dealing with his crippling traumas that he is “wrestling with his demons.” And nobody laughs at that expression because we all know what it's like to have desires and fears and intrusive thoughts that we keep trying to bury but which threaten to emerge and engulf us. In the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they used vampires and demons as metaphors for personal issues like abusive relationships, addiction, difficult parent-child relationships, loneliness, isolation, fear, torturing oneself with guilt feelings and other problems we encounter in everyday life.

I think that looking at demons in this way still has value in today's world. While we are discovering that more and more of the so-called mental illnesses are caused by physical factors, like bacterial and viral infections, inflammation, and brain structure, the best form of treating them seems to be a combination of medication and talk therapy. We are reasoning beings and we must deal with the psychological and spiritual consequences of our suffering, whatever its cause. Even when dealing with addiction, which has physical factors that make some people more susceptible, there are other issues that contribute to it. One model is that addiction is a form of self-medication. Some turn to alcohol or illegal drugs to overcome depression or post-traumatic stress, which may be caused by abuse, neglect and/or trauma. So recovery from substance abuse is often only the first step in dealing with the underlying problems that led to it.

What should a Christian do when faced with these kinds of “demons?” Should we refer all troubled people to health professionals and close up shop? No. Certainly anyone who is out of touch with reality, whose moods are so high or so low that they are interfering with everyday life, who is so dependent on a substance that they cannot stop despite mounting negative consequences, or who is a danger to himself or others should be gently but firmly directed to a mental health specialist. But even that doesn't mean that we should neglect the person's spiritual needs. They may at times feel that the universe is against them. A person who is ill or recovering from illness deserves to hear the good news that God loves them and forgives them. Why deny them the comfort of knowing that God is on their side and that through Jesus he understands suffering first-hand and that he offers them peace of mind? Studies show that being religious helps reduce suicide, alcoholism and drug use by providing community, structure, meaning, purpose, and hope.

Let's see how Jesus deals with the demoniac in Mark 5. It can help us deal with people facing less serious but no less painful mental health problems in their life.

First, Jesus does not show fear of the demoniac. Even if you don't believe in demons, mental illness can be scary. But most mentally ill people are not dangerous to others. You don't want to be confrontational but neither should you avoid such people unless they are obviously violent or paranoid. I am glad to see that Jesus uses the “firm, kind, unhurried approach” that we nurses are taught.

Secondly, Jesus doesn't give up on the person. His initial attempt to heal the man is not successful but Jesus continues to try. He changes tack but he stays engaged. It is easy to give up on people who do not get better on our time table. God doesn't give up. That's another piece of good news people need to hear. And then we need to follow that up by not giving up on the person either.

Third, Jesus gets to know the person. He asks questions and listens. As a nurse I found it pays to listen to the patient. Many doctors do not. They often make up their mind before hearing everything the patient has to say. It is important to take into account every complaint the patient has because a seemingly insignificant detail might be crucial. Even as non-professionals, we should show our respect for and our interest in people in distress by listening. The Red Cross found that the survivor of a disaster has to tell the story of what happened to them an average of 17 times before they can put it to rest.

In this case, Jesus asks the name of the demon. The answer is chilling. “My name is Legion for we are many.” A Roman legion was made up of 6000 men. This man is beset by countless demons. Yet Jesus does not shy away or give up. Jesus is more than equal to our problems no matter how many or how large they are.

Eventually the man himself suggests a solution: let the demons go into a nearby herd of pigs. With the severely mentally ill, a doctor should suggest the course of treatment. But if the person you are helping is working with mental health problems other than psychosis, and you let them talk long enough, they will often suggest a possible solution. They may say, “I know I ought to do...” or “Do you think I should...?” In some cases, they may know what they ought to do but they cannot do it alone. They usually need someone to give them permission to try it and give them support as they do it.

Fourth, Jesus does not lose interest in the man after curing him. When the townspeople come, they find the man clothed and in his right mind. Jesus and the disciples must have dressed him and cleaned him up. They respected his dignity and treated him accordingly. Undoubtedly Jesus the healer saw to the man's self-inflicted wounds. Jesus was never content to, as some ER doctors say, “treat 'em and street 'em.”

At nursing school we were cautioned to never forget that the patient is more than a disease and so we must treat the person as well as treat the disease. The psychological and social after-effects of being sick have to be addressed. Recovery and rehabilitation are part of the healing process.

Next Jesus cuts the umbilical cord. The man wants to stay with Jesus but Jesus sends him back to his home and his friends. Jesus saw that it was important for this man to get back to his life. He had missed so much for so many years that he deserved a normal life, not the nomadic one Jesus had chosen. So he sends him back to his loved ones.

But he also gives the man a prescription. He does this in the form of a mission: to share his story with others. Remember what the Red Cross said about how important retelling their story is to survivors. We see ourselves as the heroes of our stories and heroes always triumph. It can be hard to accept that we have suffered resounding defeats or were ever helpless or powerless and that those too are part of our story. Putting your pain into words helps exorcize it. It can also help others. When people share stories of how they survived some traumatic event or illness, it gives hope to others suffering from the same or similar problems.

Jesus also gives the man a perspective on his ordeal: gratitude. Jesus did not attempt to tell the man why he suffered but had him focus instead on how he was delivered from his suffering. “Tell them how much the Lord has done for you and what mercy he has shown you.” Some people fuel their will to survive with anger or hatred. They live beyond the disaster but it is not a life of joy. They survive but they don't actually get better; they just get bitter. Medical studies show that gratitude is healthy both psychologically and physically. In the studies, even people with chronic illnesses saw some benefits, like better sleep, when they counted their blessings.

What are your demons? What are the undead issues and traumas that won't stay buried, that rise again and again to haunt and hurt you? Don't let them defeat and dominate you. Don't give into your fears of them. Remember this: Jesus is what demons have nightmares about. Though your troubles may be legion, they are no match for the love and forgiveness of God. Face them, name them and turn them over to Jesus. Do not give up on him because he will not give up on you. Let him heal you, either through the agency of the gifts of a doctor or psychologist, or maybe through a sympathetic and wise brother or sister in Christ. Let your story be heard and give hope to the world. And count your blessings. Let your attitude be gratitude.

May God's mercy be ever on your lips and may the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

First preached on June 22, 2003. There has been some updating and revising.