The Church Has an Unclean Spirit

The Church Has an Unclean Spirit
Mark 1:21-45

I want to talk about a man with an unclean spirit, not because I want to pick a fight, but because the church is being poisoned by the spirit of an unclean man. You might think that I was thinking of some politician and decided to go to the Bible to see if there was a text I could use. I did the opposite; I went to the Bible and my reading of Mark 1 forced me to think of a man with an unclean spirit. Sam Wells says, “There’s a way of talking about the Bible that turns it into a self-help manual, that’s full of good advice about how to navigate all of life’s problems.” I am not interested in a book full of answers; I am interested in how we can meet the word of God and be transformed. Unless we read the Bible with the view of changing our minds, of repenting of our ways, we cannot rightly read the Bible. Now, I feel better so let’s proceed.

A Theological Issue

Jesus was a healer. The Gospels are packed with healing stories. In our Mark reading we get a man with an unclean spirit, a mother-in-law with a fever, and the word got out and soon the waiting room was packed, and Jesus healed many sick people. Then Jesus healed a leper, and this all happens in just part of one chapter of Mark. You would have to “make like” Thomas Jefferson and take the scissors to the Gospels to avoid all the healing stories.

Jesus, confronted in the synagogue, by a man with an unclean spirit, exercised authority over the unclean spirit, rebuked him, and cast him out. The church, recovering her authority, has to resist the spirit of the unclean person, and restore herself to obedience to God.

The fact is that a large segment of Christians in the USA has bought into the spirit of the “unclean person.” The seeds of political alienation, demagoguery, violence, and revenge dominate some churches. Among Christians we see a destructive spirit of anarchy and chaos, a growing mistrust, and escalating vitriol. In church, Christians talk openly about a coming civil war, the necessity of violence against fellow Americans, and a desire for revenge. There’s an unclean spirit in our midst.

Who Are We?

Walker Percy was a remarkable philosopher/physician/novelist. His books challenge every cell in one’s brain. He never allowed his characters to avoid struggle, suffering, and pain. In Lancelot, there’s a chaplain at a mental institution who is a priest/psychiatrist. He has extended sessions with a prisoner named Lancelot, a dejected lawyer who murdered his wife.

Lancelot observes of the priest/physician: “In New Orleans I have noticed that people are happiest when they are going to funerals, making money, taking care of the dead, or putting on masks at Mardi Gras so nobody knows who they are. Well, I found out who you are. Your profession, that is. A priest-physician. Which is to say, a screwed-up priest or a half-assed physician. Or both. Ah, I managed to surprise you, didn’t I?” (Percy, Walker. Lancelot: A Novel (pp. 10-11). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition).

I believe the churches are engaged in the struggle to know who we are. In particular, I think the churches are often confused about whether they are in a ministry of healing based on prayer, compassion, empathy, and mercy or a ministry of healing based on pop psychology and positive thinking. I have been watching the sermons of some of the pastors of America’s largest churches. My initial impression is that I hear a lot of TED Talks – pop psychology, feel-good messages that act more as placebos than as acts of healing.

Are we screwed-up priests or half-assed psychologists? It is a very serious question. But it is not a question that Jesus asks as he begins his ministry as a preaching, teaching healer. In Mark 1 Jesus confronts a man with an “unclean spirit.” And the “unclean spirit” is in church, not the street, the pub, or the stadium, but in the church.

Life can go sideways in church. Jesus found his churches lukewarm, dead, filled with dissension, immoral, and unfaithful. God makes plain through the prophet Amos: “Take away from me the noise of your songs; will not listen to the melody of your harps.” The church has become a place of unclean spirits. Secular politics have poisoned the church. There may not be a better expression for our time than a people of an unclean spirit. We have managed to reach the decision that the “other side” is nothing but a bunch of liars. This means that half the nation thinks that all Democrats are liars and half the nation thinks all Republicans are liars. One side is lying about its lying. And pop psychology in the pulpit will not heal us. Secular politics will not heal us. Angry opposition to abortion, gay rights, immigration – this will not save us. Jesus heals unclean spirits.

Repentance

Isaiah can lead us to healing: “I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”

Repentance cleans the spirit. It refreshes the mind. You know that to repent means to change your mind. And a lot of American minds need to be changed.

Repent of conspiracy theories.

Repent of getting even, getting revenge.

Repent of believing your fellow brothers and sisters are the enemy.

Repent of anger and threats of violence.

Repent of hatred, malice, unkindness, meanness.

Repent of lying and distorting the truth.

Repent of thinking America is falling apart at the seams.

I anticipate a revival in America where those who revere God’s name will see “sun of righteousness rise, with healing in its wings.”