When I was a little boy, the movie “The Exorcist” came out. I was way too little to see that movie at the time, but I remember being so scared just seeing the commercial for it on TV. Whenever that commercial came on, my little brother and I would go running out of the room in fear.
I got to see the movie many years later, and it truly is one of the most frightening movies of all time. The writer of that movie claims that it is based on a true story of a little girl supposedly possessed by the devil.
Now, I share this with you this morning because the gospel reading from today’s lectionary is one in which Jesus appears to perform an exorcism.
It’s an unpleasant passage for us to deal with on this first Sunday of summer, and I seriously considered talking about something more pleasant with you today.
This is certainly not a theme that most of us want to hear about on a beautiful Sunday morning in June, is it?
Many of us have seen (and maybe even some of you have experienced first-hand) those so-called “hellfire and brimstone” preachers, shouting from the pulpit and instilling fear in people, talking about the devil and hell.
That’s not what we (as Progressive Christians) usually talk about at church.
That said, I do think it’s important for us to explore this theme (and these concepts) in the way the metaphorical way they were meant to be understood.
Most of us here at The United Church of Rowayton have grown in our concept of God. Most of us no longer see God as an “old man up with a long grey beard, up in the clouds who’s keeping track of our mistakes.”
As we’ve grown spiritually, we’ve come to understand God not as a person, but as the Divine Light and Love of the Cosmos that makes Its dwelling place here with us and within us.
So, since we’ve grown in our concept of God, I think it’s also time for us to grow in our concept of the devil.
The devil is not a red guy with horns and a pitchfork who lives in a fiery place below the earth and who possesses people and causes them to do bad things.
So, what, then, is today’s gospel reading all about? What did they mean when they said the man was possessed by demons?
Well, the ancient people of Jesus’s day did not understand disease and illness as we do today.
They believed, for example, that if you had a disease, then that meant God was punishing you, because you or your ancestors had sinned. We no longer believe that.
And, they thought that people who had (what we’d call today) “mental illnesses” were possessed by the devil.
I’m sure many of you have been around people who are suffering from severe mental illness today who are much like the man in today’s story, who’s homeless, disheveled, speaking aggressively and incoherently.
Back in Jesus’s day, those people would be deemed as “possessed by the devil,” but we now, of course, understand what mental illness is.
Jesus was able to heal the man because he saw the inherit goodness in the man. He recognized the man as a beloved child of God.
Jesus didn’t judge him (like the other people did), but rather extended love and compassion towards him.
We may not be able to cure a mentally ill person who comes into our church, but we can extend God’s healing love and compassion towards them. We can love them, not judge them.
That’s what, I think, today’s gospel story is all about: how we can heal the world through the power of love and understanding.
We (like Jesus) are living at a time of great division. There’s a lot of hatred and judgement right now, and there’s a lot of evil things going on in the world.
But those things aren’t caused by a red guy with horns and a pitch fork. Those things are caused by us.
The man in today’s story was said to have an “unclean spirit,” and, sadly, many people on the planet today also have spirits which are unclean.
They are possessed by greed, by power, by judgement, anger, and resentment.
Jesus came to show us a different way – a way of compassion and forgiveness and peace. A way of unconditional love.
That power of love, my friends, can “cast out demons,” “cleanse people’s spirits” and heal the world. I really do believe that.
As our reader, Ellen, mentioned this morning, we have installed a Peace Pole across the street in Emig Park.
As she mentioned, there are over a quarter of a million Peace Poles that have been planted on every continent and in over 180 countries. Ours is the first in Rowayton.
The Peace Pole Project began over 40 years ago in Japan by a man named Masahisa Goi, who was a poet and philosopher.
Growing up, he witnessed the devastation caused by World War II and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
And, so, he decided to dedicate his life to the attainment of global peace and harmony.
And one day in meditation, he received the message, “May Peace Prevail On Earth.”
He believed that that message and those words had the capacity to bring people of various cultures, faiths, and traditions together in the spirit of universal love and oneness.
And, so, he fashioned a pole with those words printed on them in various languages, and they started popping up all over the world…and now we have one here in Rowayton.
Our Peace Pole across the street serves as symbol of our church’s commitment be an instrument of peace in the world.
And, that peace, my friends, begins with us. With each one of us.
Masahisa Goi once said, “World peace will come when individuals find peace within themselves.”
I believe that, too. That’s why I’m always encouraging you to nurture a daily prayer and meditation practice, because that’s how cleanse our spirits.
In the silence of prayer and meditation, we cleanse (we transform) our judgement to understanding; our resentment to forgiveness; our hatred to love.
That’s how we “cast out demons” and transform our darkness into light.
Just as Jesus wrestled with the devil for 40 days and nights, we, too, need to venture into the wilderness to wrestle with our demons: with the thoughts and beliefs that are ‘possessing’ us and keeping us from our peace and our Light.
And, so, my friends, as we continue to our journey through the season of Pentecost, I hope you will find time each day to “cleanse your spirit” and to connect fully with the Peace of God that is within you.
And, may we (the people of The United Church of Rowayton) recommit ourselves to being instruments of peace in the world.
As St. Francis of Assisi prayed:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me bring love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
In other words: Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with us.
May it be so. Amen.