8 Feb 2015 Mark 1:29-39 Casting Out Demons

8  Feb  2015  Mark 1:29-39        Casting Out Demons

“And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons”

I wonder what demons Jesus would cast out in this country.  I turned to the Book of Revelation for some guidance and found demons named: abandoning one’s focus on God’s love, pretending to be someone one is not, acting in conflict with one’s best interest, tolerating false prophets, failing to act, and being neither hot nor cold but merely lukewarm.

Martin Luther King, Jr. in his “Letters from the Birmingham Jail” addressed the demons of failing to act and being lukewarm in the cause of justice. He said, 

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.  We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

“I have wept over the laxity of the church. There was a time when the church was very powerful.  In those days the church was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch defender of the status quo. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.“

When good people are silent and the church is lax, it becomes easy to lose focus on whose we are and who we are called to be.  It becomes easy to hide in fear and to tolerate false prophets of exclusion and hate rather than remembering that the Good News of God’s Love is for all people.  Fear transforms the holy work of building God’s community into the “holy” work of policing the world - perceiving others as threats rather than neighbors.  Fear of Muslims, atheists, Gays, undocumented immigrants, “inner city criminals,” Black people, non-English speakers, “big government” gives demons permission to multiply.  Fear becomes a lens through which we view the world outside the church building as an immoral war zone.  Fear enables false prophets to become legitimate.  Fear encourages the fearful to vote and act against their own best interest.  Fear silences us.  Fear is the enemy of Love.

How can we choose to remember the mighty acts of God in history and remember to trust completely in the God who spoke the world into being, calmed the seas, healed the blind, and raised the dead, and choose to cast out these demons fearlessly?