On Being Possessed

David Orendorff · Luke 9:37-43 · February 18, 2007

I had difficulty writing this sermon. I usually have the first draft of the sermon done on Monday and then spend the rest of the week, right up to the time of preaching, reshaping and polishing. But it was Thursday before I finally got the draft.

I started out with the idea that we are all possessed by one or more unclean spirits. In the first century Mediterranean world there were two kinds of diseases, physical and mental. The same is true for us. Physical diseases had symptoms in the body, a withered hand, a flow of blood or leprosy to name a few. Mental illnesses had no bodily symptoms but were reflected in how the afflicted person behaved, such as the Gerasene demoniac.

Both physical and mental diseases were attributed to unclean spirits or demons. While we look for the cause of a disease, both physical and mental, the first century biblical folks looked for the unclean spirit that possessed the victim. Thus physicians were exorcists. In his healing ministry Jesus was a physician.

It was easy for me to make the transition from these first century folks to our own lives. In today’s lesson a father has a son who is possessed by an unclean spirit. The father describes the possession this way, “Without warning a spirit gets hold of him, and all of a sudden he screams; it throws him into convulsions, causing him to foam at the mouth; and it leaves him only after abusing him.”

We have been possessed. I have been possessed, or at least it feels that way, by drug and alcohol addictions, and by an unclean spirit of rage. I am still possessed by some unclean spirits, some mental illness, that causes me to smoke cigars. That is not the worst of it but I don’t want to confess too deeply so publicly. This sermon is about me and about you and you have already begun to think about the unclean spirits that possess you.

So I thought since it was easy to identify with being possessed I could tell us how we could get Jesus to cast out our demons and we could be set free. It would be a wonderful way to assist you and me to new lives, lives free of unclean spirits and filled with servant love.

And then I got stuck: really stuck: stuck until Thursday and a sort of panic set in. What if I convinced you that you were possessed (the easy thing to do) and then could offer you no hope, no way to freedom?

So I decided on a plan. I would pray to Jesus that I be set free of smoking cigars. It was a little test. After all I don’t smoke heavily and when I am on long trips I can go days without a cigar. So on Wednesday I prayed hourly or more that God remove my desire, my demon, that made me smoke. Wednesday night, after diligently praying in worship, I went to Safeway and bought cigars and had one. It seems the more I fought the greater the desire. The more I fought this demon the stronger it was.

That brought me to Thursday morning and time to write the sermon. It had to be done then so Terri can have at least a couple of days to prepare something for Children’s church and Bonnie have something to publish. But I had nothing to give them except a very depressing opening which left you with your demons and me a smoker.

So I went back to scripture. I reread today’s lesson and noticed that it was not the demon possessed son who asked for healing, but the father who loved his son and like all parents despaired for the condition of his child. And I was caught by the father’s observation that the demon “leaves (his son) only after abusing him.”

This sent me looking at the other exorcisms for mental disorders in Luke. It turns out there are eight other accounts in Luke of when Jesus casts out demons. In my class later this morning in the sanctuary corner we can look at those eight if you want and see what they have to say. But in summary: of the eight two are summary passages which simply state that Jesus cast out demons from many people; in one of those it is the demons who speak first to Jesus; 1 Luke 4:40-41, 6:18 one is about another exorcists who is not a follower of Jesus but is using Jesus’ name to cast out demons (which Jesus says is OK), 2 Luke 9:49-50 in today’s passage the father asks for the exorcism, 3 Luke 9:37-42 one is the exorcism of a mute demon in which no one is mentioned requesting the exorcism, 4 Luke 11:14 one is about how a demon cast out returns with seven friends to repossess the person, 5 Luke 11:20 and the final one is the story of the Gerasene demoniac from who Jesus exorcises a legion of demons. In this one too it is the demons who speak. 6 Luke 8:26-39

So the exorcism of mental demons in Luke is all over the board. The only thing in common is that never is it the possessed person that asks for the exorcism. And in the face of the power of Jesus it is always the demons who lose the battle and are cast out.

Being possessed is something we have no control over. If we had control over it we wouldn’t be possessed. When I was an active alcoholic I tried very hard to free myself of demon wine and rum. But the harder I tried the worse it got until in desperation I went to AA where others prayed for me, encouraged me, told their stories in which I recognized my own. It was when I was desperate enough for healing and went to be in the presence of others who knew that desperation and were being healed that I began to experience my own healing.

And thinking about this I remembered that when I had been possessed by a demon of rage it that caused me to irrationally lose my temper, to put my fist through the wall, to kick the dog and to verbally abuse my children and wife. And the harder I tried to not rage the worse it would get. Healing began on an Episcopal sponsored Cursillo, a three day spiritual retreat focused on the love of God and very much resembling our United Methodist Walk to Emmaus weekend, that I cried and prayed for a healing of my rage in the presence of men also suffering from their demon possession, and with men who had clearly taken the love and power of Jesus to heart, that the rage demon began to be cast from me. I suppose this means that if I am to be set free of the cigar demon I should start attending CSA, cigar smokers anonymous.

And in remembering I concluded that I don’t have a magic formula for our freedom from being possessed. I don’t have a magic word or prayer for an instant cure. But I know that I have been set free from some of my demons and I fully expect the love of God to continue to set me free. I know that I have been set free from possession by the demons of drugs, alcohol and rage and that God will continue, by the power of Jesus, to set me free in new ways.

I also know that it is not in my power to will my freedom, or force God by my prayers to heal me instantly. Because it is Jesus that sets me free my freedom will come in hanging around with Jesus. In order to be set free I must be a disciple of Jesus. It may be different for others, or they may think it is different them (an attitude demons love to find) but my freedom comes in being a disciple of Jesus. It is in the following, the imitating, the obeying and the loving of Jesus that freedom comes to me. It is in regular worship, study and acts of servant love that Jesus has greatly increased my freedom in life and will, in God’s time, cast out of me cigars and the other demon possessions that will not leave me until they have abused me.

As I remembered my struggles with drugs, alcohol and rage, I remember most vividly how these demons kept me from being a loving servant to others, particularly my family. And I am forever grateful for the exorcism that has made me a better husband, father and pastor. And as I pray about my current demon possessions, I am set free from their power to imprison my love. Though I still smoke cigars God continues to heal my loving. And someday, I believe, God will take this demon fully from me.

I know because I experienced it that this is way too slow an answer. We want healing and we want it now. Not so much because we are impatient, but because whatever our demon possession, it makes us slaves and miserable. We want set free ASAP because we can see real and whole life beyond the misery of our possession. Demon possession is a genuine misery that stretches before us as an endless future and thus robs us of abundant life today. We want to be free now so we can love now and have life abundantly now.

But I also know that God has a purpose in my continued suffering. I know that much of who I am now is the source of my use to you for your salvation, your healing. In my suffering is the possibility of your salvation. So I smoke my cigars and pray for healing. And I battle my other demons on a regular basis now believing that God will heal me in the ways God believes I need healing. And I practice my discipleship in worship, study and service believing that God as my Creator, as my Christ and as the Holy Spirit with me, will cast from me the demons that prevent me from being servant love. And I do this for you, for Vickie, for my children and my granddaughter.

So I say to you, if in spite of your worship, study and prayer, you are possessed by a particular demon that maims or destroys your loving relationships then do what I did, go to AA, to Sex Addicts Anonymous, go to a therapist, go be with people who have known well your demon and by the power of God, by the name of Jesus, have been or are being exorcised. Pray with and for them.

Believe me; I know how hard it is to go public with such a group. But if, as we say in AA, you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, then you must go. And besides, everyone that loves you is praying you will go for you are hiding nothing from them, your demon is already public. It is your demon that keeps you in denial so that you are ashamed to admit what everyone already knows.

So I beg you, if you are possessed in a way that the demon will not leave you until it has abused you and those around you, come see me and I will tell you to run, not walk, to be with a people and a process in which freedom and salvation, holiness and abundant life, real love can again become you.

I wish I had an easy answer for our exorcisms. But, I am no better than the disciples were in this. Just as they could not help the son of the father, so I have no real help to offer the seriously possessed. I pray my hands would carry a power to heal bodies, and my words the power to heal minds, and my life the power to save souls. But, so far the best my hands do is to hold tenderly, the best my words do is suggest hope, and the best my life can be is occasionally comforting.

But there is a power, a living power, which offers more; a power which sometimes uses even the least of the disciples, even someone like me. A power not held by this life but within this life, that turns possession into freedom. It is a power with many names, Christ, Holy Spirit, Mother or Father God. Whatever name we offer, this power laughs for our simplicity and cries for our anguish. Go to it and go be with people who love it and it will be your salvation and your suffering will be the salvation of others.

Shalom and Amen.