Tempted (Mark 1: 9-13)

 

Tenth grade English class: that was the year we studied American Literature. So, no Canterbury Tales, no Shakespeare… but we did read Mark Twain. And one of the stories we read by Mark Twain was The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg.

In this story, the fictional town of Hadleyburg prided itself on being incorruptible. The citizens of Hadleyburg were honest to a fault. They did all they could to distance themselves from any and every temptation, and to remove all temptations from their children, so that no one would be, well, tempted.

But one day, a stranger came to town, and he had a bone to pick. He devised a scheme that was so ruthless, that, in the end, the 19 most upstanding, reputable men in town, and their wives, all end up giving in to temptation, and they all get caught lying and cheating as a result.

The ensuing scandal drew great attention, because everyone knew of Hadleyburg’s incorruptible reputation. How shocking it was that such a scandal could take place in Hadleyburg, of all places!

In the end, the people of Hadleyburg learned an important lesson. 

With all the prominent citizens of the town disgraced and humiliated, the town was given permission to change its name, and to change its town motto. The motto had been, “lead us not into temptation,” but the new motto now read: “lead us into temptation.”

This story left a mark on me, in part because, in the tenth grade, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. I grew up going to church, and every Sunday I prayed the Lord’s Prayer, just as we do here, which means every Sunday, I prayed: “Lead us not into temptation.” I wasn’t sure how it could be that being led into temptation could be a good thing, something you’d want as your town motto.

Several decades later, and I’m still pondering how and when it might be a good thing that we face temptation… I’m still wondering about the role temptation plays in our lives, how temptation can be our downfall, but how, sometimes, facing temptation can also make us stronger.

I wonder if Pope Francis has had similar thoughts. A few years ago, he declared that the wording of that part of the Lord’s Prayer should be changed. It wasn’t right, the Pope said, to pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” because it’s never God who leads us into temptation. Or, as Rita Mae Brown said: “Lord, lead me not into temptation, I can find the way myself.”

A better way to pray it, according to the Pope, would be to pray: “Let us not fall into temptation, or, let us not give in to temptation.”

But is the Pope right, that God never leads us to temptation?

In our scripture story today, Jesus came out of the waters of baptism, and right away, the Spirit whisked him off to the wilderness, where he faced temptation. And this temptation is one of the key events in Jesus’s life; the story appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 

And it certainly does appear that this temptation, at least, was part of God’s plan. God’s Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, to face temptation…

It never occurred to me until this week, but the story The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg reminds me of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. That’s the 1971 film version, the one with Gene Wilder, which is the one I’m most familiar with, because it came out the same year I was born, and I watched it many times as a child, even though I found it haunting and disturbing.

Now I realize: temptation is a big part of that story. Isn’t it? The five children, when they tour Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory, are all tempted to steal his secrets. In the end, Charlie is the only one to resist that temptation.

Was it good that these children faced temptation? Was it a good test of their honesty and integrity? In Mark Twain’s story, not one citizen of Hadleyburg was able to pass the test, but in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, one person did pass the test.

The stranger who corrupted the town of Hadleyburg says in the story: “The weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire.” In other words: temptation makes us stronger. If we don’t face temptation, we remain weak. If we’re not tested, we won’t become strong. If we don’t stare our temptations in the eye, and face them, then we won’t develop the strength we need to live our lives with honesty and integrity.

It certainly seems that Jesus wasn’t ready yet to begin his ministry, until after he spent time in the wilderness, facing temptation.

So, yeah: I can’t help but wonder about how it is that temptation can be a good thing, a help, something that makes us stronger; and I can’t help wonder about when it is that God might actually lead us to temptation, to the test, so that we can learn and grow from that experience…

One of the fruits of the Spirit, listed in the book of Galatians, is self-control. I know several people who are into fitness and life-improvement who tell me that ice baths are a great way to rejuvenate your body and test your self-control.

And you can go on social media and look up fitness influencers, and you’ll see lots of them willingly, voluntarily, immersing their entire bodies in tubs and barrels filled with water and ice; and as they do, they do it with controlled breathing, as calmly as they can, controlling their instinct to yell or scream or jump quickly back out of the water.

It’s all about self-control. It’s all about overcoming one’s urges and instincts—and if you can do that by immersing yourself in a tub of ice water, then think of how strong your self-control will be in other life situations.

I admire their discipline. I, meanwhile, have already asked if there’s a heater in our baptistry, because when I baptize people, the temptation to scream or to jump right back out if the water is too cold is not a temptation I think I could resist.

But I do understand how, for some people, an ice bath can help them build their self-control, and I understand how that can help them in other situations. 

Last Wednesday at the noon small group I lead, the topic of cell phones came up, and how some people are so addicted to their cell phones. Some of us really have no control over how often we are on our phones. The temptation to constantly be on our phones is one we cannot resist.

And some people I know choose to take a break from their cell phones, or from certain social media sites, either for Lent or for some other period, because they realize they have lost all self-control when it comes to such things, and they need to regain some of that control.

It makes me wonder what tests of self-control might be helpful to us. Maybe, for someone, testing their self-control in an ice bath helps them know that they can exercise self-control in other areas of their life. Maybe it even helps them control the temptation to be on their phone too much…

So why did Jesus teach us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation?”

Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, who wrote a whole book on the Lord’s Prayer, has looked at the context of that prayer and the situation of Jesus’s first-century life, and he believes that this line in the Lord’s Prayer is specifically referring to the temptation to use violence. 

One of the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness was the temptation to use armies to carry out his will, to establish the kingdom of God on earth. That was, after all, how every other kingdom on earth was established. They were established by force.

As a society, that is one temptation that we find so hard to resist. Right now, as we speak, violence is being committed all over the world. Violence is being committed on a massive scale in places like Gaza, but also in homes and neighborhoods much closer.

Our society is so addicted to violence that even events that are meant to be joyful and celebratory, like the Kansas City NFL team’s victory parade, are marred by violence.

How can we as a society stop giving in to that temptation, the temptation to commit violence? Is there some kind of test that can help us achieve the self-control we need to resist? 

Is it better to face our temptations, than to ignore them? Is that why Jesus spent that time in the wilderness?

I’m afraid I’m not going to offer you an easy answer or resolution to this. Rather, my hope is that you will ponder seriously the temptations in your own life; what it is that lures you away from a life of honesty and integrity.

If you were tempted like one of those citizens of Hadleyburg, do you think you would resist that temptation? It’s easy to say yes, but we know that, in the moment, temptation is often so hard.

What can we do to build up our self-control, so that we can maintain our honesty and our integrity?

No one said this journey would be easy.

When Jesus spent his 40 days in the wilderness, the struggle was real.

When the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness, on their way to the promised land, the struggle was real.

As we journey through these 40 days of Lent, we may find that our struggle is also real—more real than we’d like it to be.

But as our daily Lenten devotional reminds us: at the end there is resurrection joy. Our struggles will come to an end, and we will experience peace and joy. We may have a long journey ahead of us, but we will get there.

That is what Lent is: a long journey. A journey from winter into spring. A journey from darkness to days filled with sunlight. A journey from death to life.

Whatever struggle you’re facing, whatever temptations come your way, know that things will get better.

It doesn’t happen without struggle. But in the end, victory and joy await.

Power to Heal (Mark 1:29-39)

 Last week’s sermon was about Jesus casting out demons. This week, not only does he cast out demons, he also heals people, starting with Peter’s mother-in-law.

One could say that casting out demons involves the wellbeing of one’s soul, while healing people from various diseases involves the wellbeing of one’s body. That’s a simplification, but I think it’s helpful. Casting out demons involves the spirit, and healing people from sickness involves the body.

And since last week’s sermon focused on demons, this week, I’ll focus on healing.

Jesus healed people. Crowds came to him, because he was able to heal. They brought to him those who were sick, and those who were blind, and those who were crippled and unable to walk. 

And he healed them.

Jesus also taught his disciples to heal. And eventually, they did heal, performing many of the same healing acts that Jesus himself did. 

We today seek to follow the same path as Jesus, the same path as the disciples, the same way of living. Jesus and the disciples are a model for us. Which means healing is an important part of our ministry and our lives of faith today.

But the topic of healing today is a little complicated, isn't it?

There are a lot of empty promises when it comes to healing. Fake cures abound. 

And there are too many examples of fake healers, those who will stage healings under a spotlight, in an attempt to draw people to themselves, to convince people to follow them or join their church, and to convince people to contribute large sums of money. 

You’ve probably seen videos of church services where people come forward to the altar—or, if they are unable to walk, they are carried forward—and the preacher/healer lays hands on them, or maybe whacks them across the head, and they fall to the floor, but then moments later they rise back up, and are healed.

If they were blind, now they see. If they were deaf, now they hear. If they were crippled, now they can walk. If they had cancer, they’re told to go to the doctor and see if the cancer is still there, although they apparently already know, in their heart, that the cancer is gone.

Is any of that real? I don’t know. Maybe some of it is. But some of it, I’m pretty sure, is not, and that makes me hesitant to engage in any sort of healing that is so theatrical.

And yet, I think most, if not all, of us, do believe that God heals, that God heals through us, that God heals through our prayers, and through our ministry. 

We pray for healing all the time. We pray for healing in worship—we’ve already done so today. We pray for healing in our small groups. We pray for healing when we are by ourselves. 

We do this, because we believe in prayer, and we believe in God’s power to heal.

And maybe you, like me, have even seen people find healing, a healing that can only be attributed to God.

Maybe you prayed, and then the tumor did go away, and the doctors are surprised, and say they’ve never seen that before.

Maybe you prayed, and your weakness went away just in time for you to attend your grandchild’s wedding.

Maybe you prayed, and some other type of healing took place, which could only be described as miraculous.

That’s why we pray, often, for God to heal.

The ways in which God heals through us and through our prayers is hard to understand. It’s a mystery, how God works through prayer.

I once heard about a Japanese water scientist who studied the ways our thoughts affect the world around us. His name was Dr. Masuru Emoto, and he specifically studied the effects thoughts have on water molecules. 

He would conduct experiments where containers of water were prepared, and different words were said over the containers. On one container, the word “hope” was written, and researchers meditated on hope while in the presence of that container.

This was done with a bunch of containers with different words. Positive words like Love. Gratitude. And also negative words like hate and fear.

Then he froze the water, and studied the molecules of water under a microscope.

The water that had positive intentions directed toward it formed beautiful crystals, but the water that had negative intentions formed misshapen, ugly crystals.

The results of his study are used to show that our thoughts and prayers can affect reality. 

But how, exactly, does that happen?

Obviously there is still so much here that we don’t know or understand. Dr. Emoto’s work continues to inspire scientists today, who continue his research. And it has me wondering: just how does God work through our prayers to bring about healing?

I may never find an answer to that, but I’m glad our God is a God who heals.

For the past few years, I’ve been thinking more about ways the church can help foster and nurture healing. If healing was an important part of Jesus’ ministry, and if healing is what drew so many people to Jesus, maybe we in the church should spend a little more time pondering how we can make our ministry a ministry of healing.

As I’ve already said, we do pray for healing. In fact, First Christian Church is particularly good at praying for healing. One of the things that drew me to this congregation were the prayers that were being said for me and my family, long before I ever accepted the call to come and be your pastor. You didn’t know it, but your search committee was lifting me up in prayer, praying for me on your behalf, and I felt those prayers, and those prayers made a difference.

So we pray, and a big part of our prayers are prayers for healing.

But how else are we called to heal? Can we do more than just pray?

While I was pondering this, a thought occurred to me: is it right to pray for a miracle, when the result we long for is something we are capable of achieving on our own?

For example: a kid in school prays, as the exams are being passed out, that they get an A on the exam, that the answers miraculously come to their brain despite the fact that they didn’t study.

I suspect all of us prayed a prayer like that at some point when we were in school.

Now imagine that, later in life, you’re no longer a student in school—in fact, it’s been a very long time since you were a student—and your physical health is declining. Maybe it’s your kidneys, or maybe it’s your heart, or maybe it’s type 2 diabetes, or maybe it’s just the inability to walk up a single flight of stairs without needing to pause halfway and catch your breath.

And you pray, O God, give me strength, give me health…

And yet, all your life, you drank too much soda, and ate too much red meat, and you spent too many days sitting on the couch or at your desk without walking any further than the distance from your living room to your car in your garage, or from your bed to your couch.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Given the typical American lifestyle, is praying for good health despite all the bad health choices we’ve made, any different than a student who didn’t study, praying for an A, or at least a passing grade, on their exam?

Prayer needs to be paired up with action. Pope Francis has said that the way we pray is that, first, you pray for the hungry; then, you feed them. The Pope said that’s how prayer works.

So is it right to pray for health, when we fail to live healthy lives?

Now, I’m not saying that every health problem, every sickness, every disease, is the result of our health choices. People are afflicted with different health issues all the time that have nothing to do with their health choices. Even Olympic athletes get diagnosed with cancer.

And sometimes, all we can do is pray.

But other times, there are things we can do, or things we should have done…

And what are the implications here for a congregation that feels called to more actively engage in a ministry of healing? Can we do more than just pray (when it comes to healing)? Should we do more than just pray?

A few years back I was meditating on the Shema, the ancient command that Jesus quotes; the command that Jesus says is the most important command, that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I thought about each of those four ways of loving God: heart, soul, mind, and strength…

How do we love God with all our heart? How do we love God with all our soul? How do we love God with all our mind? How do we love God with all our strength?

And I realized that the best way to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, is to ensure that my heart, soul, mind, and body are as healthy as they can be. The best way I can love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, is to put in the effort to take care of my emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical health.

Now, among churches, some do a good job helping people find emotional health, most do a good job at helping people find spiritual health, and some even do a good job at helping people find mental health. But I don’t know very many churches that do a good job helping people find physical health.

What would it look like if the church more actively helped people find healing in their lives? Are there examples of churches doing that?

I looked for examples. I do know of a few churches that offer classes in yoga; but other than that, I didn’t find much. 

But I am happy that the Pension Fund of the Christian Church is sponsoring a retreat for clergy this September, and that at this event, they will launch Cornerstones – a new initiative with an emphasis on clergy health and wellness. I’m hoping to learn more about how to not only care for my own emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical health, but also how we as a congregation can grow a ministry of healing, focusing on all four of these aspects of health and wellness.

Why should we wait until someone is sick or afflicted to be concerned about healing? Why shouldn’t we work to help people make choices that will make it less likely that they’ll become sick or afflicted, at least for those illnesses and conditions which we know can be prevented?

There are many examples I could share with you about this type of health and healing. I’ve been fascinated by books and documentaries about blue zones—communities where people are healthy and active into their 90s, where many people live to 100, with sharp minds and healthy bodies, because of how their environment encourages healthy living.

But I’ll just close by lifting up to you a name you may have heard of…

Dick Van Dyke is currently 98 years old. He recently said in an interview, “I look forward to going to work every morning; I go to the gym three days a week, and do a full workout.” And he’s still singing, and dancing! Last year, he was on the TV show Masked Singer, and a few years ago, that was really him in Mary Poppins Returns, jumping up on the desk, and dancing, to the amazement of the cast and crew. 

A few years ago, in a TV interview, he said: “People are more afraid of aging than they are of death; we need to tell them, there’s a lot of good living to do!”

And, in that TV interview, he demonstrated how he does sit ups, and commented, “a lot of people my age don’t do this. And many of them can’t even get out of bed.”

When it comes to health and healing, 98 year-old Dick Van Dyke is a model and an inspiration.

The power of prayer to bring about healing is real. Let us continue to pray for healing, for ourselves, for our families and friends, for our church, and for the world.

But let us also act, and do what we can through the choices we make. Let us search for ways to foster healing through our lives, and through our ministry. Because that is also a significant way that the church can bring healing to the world today.

Demonic (Mark 1:21-28)

 Sermon: “Demonic”

So Jesus’ ministry is off to a great start. He got baptized by John and heard the voice from heaven pronounce him “beloved,” as we heard two weeks ago; he spent some time in the wilderness, successfully wrestling with his temptations; he emerged from the wilderness, announced his mission, and recruited some followers, as we heard last week; 

…and now, Jesus arrives at the synagogue in Capernaum and begins teaching, and the people are blown away by what he says and the way he says it. They recognize the truth and the authenticity with which he teaches, and they are astounded.

Really, you couldn’t ask for things to go any better.

But then: there arrives a man with an unclean spirit. A demon! A demon, which had taken over the body of a man, and which was speaking through that man.

This demon interrupts Jesus’s teaching. The demon, this unclean spirit, confronts Jesus, shouts at Jesus!, and challenges Jesus.

Imagine what that was like! If you were there, what would you see? What would you hear? What kind of a voice would that demon have? Was it that man’s own voice, or was it some deep, gravelly, non-human type of voice?

I don’t watch many horror films, but I did see, last year, The Pope’s Exorcist. 

In that movie, a little boy named Henry gets possessed by a demon. This boy has an almost angelic face, but when the demon takes over, the boy’s eyes bulge out, the pupils look more catlike than human, his smile twists into the most evil, sinister grin, and his voice… it’s this loud, guttural, super-deep, monster-like growl that no human—much less a child—would be capable of.

Is that what the demon in today’s Bible story was like?

Mark’s gospel always describes things quickly, without a lot of detail.

Yet Mark does describe the demon as crying out with a loud voice, and causing the body of the person that was being possessed to go into convulsions. So, that’s enough to get our imaginations going… right? The commotion, the chaos, all happening right there in the place of worship.

I don’t know if you believe in the literal existence of demons. I’m not actually sure if I believe in the literal existence of demons, so that’s okay…

If you do believe in the existence of literal demons, do you think they are like the ones we see in movies like The Pope’s Exorcist: supernatural beings with monster voices that can take over individuals, control them, and inflict harm on them and those around them? Is that what demons are like? Or is that just the stuff of Hollywood?

I do know that belief in demons has risen and fallen at various times throughout history. In some historical periods, lots of people believed in demons, and descriptions of demons and exorcisms are plentiful; but at other times in history, there are almost no descriptions of demons and exorcisms.

So, why are there some historical periods with lots of accounts of demon activity, but in other historical periods, the demons seem to disappear?

Scholars have noted that Galilee, in the first century, seems to have been a particularly active period for demons and exorcisms.  Although scripture says that Jesus acted with an authority that was rare, he was far from the only exorcist around.  There were exorcists all over the place.

What made Jesus stand out wasn’t that he was casting out demons, but that he was doing it with authority.

Scholars have also compared Galilee in the first century with other cultures and historical periods where demons and exorcisms were prominent. These scholars were looking to see if they had something in common, besides the high number of demons and exorcisms. Maybe there was some commonality that would explain why demons appeared so often in certain times and places, and why demons didn’t appear in other times and places…

What the scholars discovered is that, in all these cultures where stories of demons appear, the people were being ruled by an outside, colonial power. In all these cultures, a foreign power had come in, and taken possession of the land and its people, and this foreign colonial power was seen by the people as an oppressive, dehumanizing, outside power controlling their lives.

Like a demon.

In the case of the first century world in which Jesus lived, the Roman Empire had taken control of the land, and taken control of the lives of the people. 

Rome had occupied Galilee, Judah, and the surrounding regions. Every person’s life was now under Rome’s control. Even the synagogues were, in a very real way, controlled by Rome. The synagogues were under Rome’s influence. One could say that the synagogues were possessed by Rome. 

The scripture says that the demon, the unclean spirit, appeared in “their” synagogue.

I still remember my seminary professor, almost 30 years ago, making a big deal of that word, “their.” It was “their” synagogue.

Who does that refer to? Whose synagogue was it?

Well, it should have been God’s. Every place of worship should belong to God.

But in the first century, Rome had control over the places of worship. Rome used its powers of persuasion to get religion to align itself with the empire, so that it would be easier to control the people and keep them in line.

Which is why Herod went to all that trouble to build, in Jerusalem, that magnificent, gleaming temple. If Herod could control and manipulate the religious institution, and if he could control the religious narrative, then he could control and manipulate the people.

Constantine did something similar a few centuries later. Before Constantine, Christians were persecuted, but then, in 312, Constantine converted to Christianity and made Christianity the official religion of the empire. 

I have no idea how sincere Constantine was in his conversion. But by making Christianity his official religion—the official religion of the Roman Empire—it allowed Constantine to control and manipulate Christians, and keep them in line. Same thing as Herod did with the Jews.

Last weekend, some of us heard William Barber speak at the MLK Awards Luncheon. William Barber mentioned how Ronald Reagan made King’s birthday a holiday—signed it into law—and then went about dismantling nearly everything King stood for. It was Reagan’s way of controlling King’s message and legacy. 

In the same way, the Roman Empire in Jesus’ time had taken over the Jewish religious institution, to tame it, control it, and use it for its own purposes.

And that, scholars say, is why there are so many stories of demons and exorcisms in the first century.

So, Mark’s story of a demon in the synagogue is Mark’s way of saying something about the Roman Empire, and how it had taken control, taken possession of the religious institutions. 

According to Mark, the demon was Rome.

There’s another story in Mark’s gospel, about a demon. In chapter 5, Jesus meets a man with an unclean spirit, who lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him. The people even tried chaining this poor man up, but because of the demon, he was able to break the chains. He was uncontrollable.

And the scripture says he was always howling; just roaming around, howling.

Jesus asks the demon its name, and the demon says, “My name is Legion.” In the first century, Legion was the name given to a group of Roman soldiers, up to 6,000 strong. A Roman Legion was a symbol of Rome’s oppressive power.

The demon’s name is Legion.

So, again, Mark links demonic power with the Roman Empire.

Then there is the book of Enoch. The book of Enoch was written, maybe, two centuries or so before Mark. Enoch isn’t a part of our Bible, but Enoch’s descriptions of demons may have influenced Mark…The book of Jude (which is in our Bible) actually quotes the book of Enoch, which shows that New Testament writers knew about Enoch and were influenced by it.

When Enoch talks about demons…

Well, Enoch talks about the nephilim, which are half-god, half human giants; and, according to Enoch, these nephilim literally breathe out demons into the world.

But Enoch doesn’t mean this literally.  Enoch identifies these giants and their evil spirits with the oppressive, dehumanizing institutions of his time:  the kingship, the temple, and the priesthood, all of which were, in Enoch’s time, abusing their power.

Of these institutions, these Nephilim, these giants, Enoch says that “they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst and cause offenses.  They consume all the acquisitions of human beings; and when human beings can no longer sustain them, they turn against them and devour humankind.”

In Jesus’ time, the Roman Empire so dominated society that it deprived people of their livelihood. It made people into something less than human. And the highest-ranking religious leaders collaborated with Rome in all this.

New Testament professor Herman Waetjen wrote this about these institutions:  “Metaphorically viewed as giants, they were too powerful to be conquered or overthrown.  They breathed evil breath, unclean spirits, into society;” unclean spirits that took away people’s autonomy, glory, honor, freedom, and dignity.

Let’s go back to Enoch.  Enoch says:  “evil spirits have proceeded from the giants’ bodies… The spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth and cause trouble.”

So, according to Enoch:  evil spirits come from the giants.  The giants are really the institutions that took away people’s rights, oppressed them, and denied them their humanity.

And Mark, it seems, was drawing on this imagery when he wrote about demons.

Jesus’ encounter takes place in the synagogue; in “their” synagogue; the synagogue that had become one of the giants, one of these nephilim; the synagogue that had become, according to Professor Waetjen, “a subversive reality which fosters necessity, bondage, destruction of individual sovereignty, and living death.”

As someone who cast out demons, Jesus wasn’t just casting them out of individuals; he was casting the demons out of the synagogue. He was cleansing the synagogue. He was cleansing the religious institution, getting rid of the powers that dominated and controlled the religious institution; he was working to return the religious institution to God.

In casting out demons, Jesus was demonstrating that the kingdom of Rome was no longer in control.  The kingdom of God was now at hand.

In the kingdom of God, we are set free from whatever force or power binds us or controls us. In the kingdom of God, the church is set free from whatever force or power binds us; the church is set free from whatever prevents us from living out the gospel. 

Because the gospel always sets people free and makes people whole. The gospel is a liberating force in our world, not a force that binds or controls. The gospel restores people to wholeness. The gospel defends people’s rights.

So when the church tries to take away people’s rights, that’s a sign that it is possessed by an unholy spirit. When the church is bent on controlling people’s lives, rather than helping them to live freely the lives God has given them, that’s a sign that the church is possessed by an unholy spirit. When the church refuses to address the powers of oppression and injustice, which all try to control people’s lives, that’s a sign that the church itself is possessed by an unholy spirit.

• But a church that works to help free people from the powers that bind them, that’s a church that is alive with the spirit of God. 

• A church that works to free people from poverty is a church that is alive with the spirit of God. 

• A church that works to free people from the powers of racism and homophobia and transphobia is a church that is alive with the spirit of God. 

• A church that works to free people from the stigmas associated with mental health care is a church that is alive with the spirit of God. 

• A church that works to free our society from its addiction to violence is a church that is alive with the spirit of God. 

• A church that works to free our world from the power of greed and the destruction that power has on creation is a church that is alive with the spirit of God.

May God free us from all that binds us and controls us and possesses us, so that we can be a church that frees others from all that binds and controls and possesses them, and so that, together, we may all dwell, in God’s kingdom, of shalom.