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Exorcising Evil Spirits?
The Rt Rev’d Richard Randerson, Dean
29th Jan 2006
Cathedral staff have been asked several times recently about exorcism, or the casting out of evil spirits from someone who feels demon-possessed. It is a question that raises in turn several more questions.
One of those is whether there are such things as demons or evil spirits. I tend not to believe in evil spirits, but I do believe each of us can be caught up in a spirit of evil which can manifest itself in various ways. Often those seeking exorcism are suffering from some deep psychological disturbance, the causes of which may be manifold. Often the causes may be circumstantial, arising from traumatic events or relationships in their life.
Often such people become marginalised and live lonely lives around the edges of society. As we read the Gospels, such as today’s Gospel in Mark 1. 21-28, we encounter many who come to Jesus seeking deliverance from evil spirits, or from physical illness. One often has a sense that these are needy and desperate people who are ignored or rejected by their community.
The Gospels record many occasions when Jesus instantly healed people, and there are modern-day preachers who seem to have powers to do precisely that. Where genuine, long-term healing arises from such ministries, I would support them, but I see dangers as well.
In some church communities demon possession becomes an easy explanation for any kind of illness or damaging tendency, with exorcism a ready remedy on offer. As we have noted, what is often described as an evil spirit may in reality be a deep disturbance with complex causes which requires extensive treatment such as in-depth counselling. Exorcism may be a quick fix which deals with the symptom while leaving the basic problem unidentified, and unaddressed.
Prayers for healing and deliverance may also be accompanied by a dangerous theology which suggests that illness is God’s punishment for sin. It is true that Jesus often pronounced forgiveness on sin before healing someone, but such forgiveness is to be seen as the renewing of a right relationship with God, such as we all seek in sickness and in health, not as an indication that we are sick because God is punishing us for sinning. Sometimes ill health may be the result of poor life choices, or the result of circumstances over which we have no control, but let me say categorically that I do not believe in a God of punishment. Our God is a God of love
Another very dangerous teaching is the suggestion that if one has enough faith in God one will be healed. One is always healed in the sense of being brought into a renewed relationship with God. But physical healing does not always follow, and in such circumstances to be left with a burden of guilt, or for one’s family and friends to be left feeling guilty by association, is an additional suffering one should not have to bear.
While the Gospels might portray Jesus as some kind of instant miracle-worker (of whom there are many in most generations), something deeper was going on. First, Jesus accepted people wholly, fully. For people who were starved of good relationships, and used to being shunted to the outskirts of community, here was one who stopped to take notice of them, understand them, and treat them as a child of God.
Second, their encounter with Jesus was no less than a direct encounter with the love of God. There can be nothing more powerful than to know God loves each one of us completely and fully, without qualification, not because of but in spite of who we are. The essential spiritual dimension of healing, alongside of whatever medical or psychological assistance we might seek, is the knowledge of the love of God as an ever-present reality. In prayer, whether alone, or through the laying on of hands, we open ourselves to that loving care and know that whatever happens to us, in the words of Julian of Norwich, “all will be well, all will be well, and all manner if things will be well”.
Jesus’ whole ministry was to set people free from the bondage not merely of physical and psychological illness, but from other bondages such as poverty, or religious and political oppression. “I am come”, said Jesus, “that you might have life, and have it more abundantly”. His ministry challenged the vested self-interests of Roman rulers, the religious leaders, the propertied classes and others who used power to their own ends at the expense of the poor. Jesus offers us healing, but he also challenges us at the point where we might cause bondage to others, or be a block to their healing.
On holiday last week I was reading the novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Set in a little town in Iowa the book is in the form of a letter the Rev’d John Ames, now in his seventies, is writing about his life and ministry to his young son from a second marriage. The minister is third in a line of small town preachers dating back to the US Civil War, and many of the familiar certainties and traditions of “old time religion” are to be found.
One of the most evocative parts of the book is his account of a series of conversations he has with the son of a fellow pastor in town. This boy has been named by his own pastor father after John Ames and, now in his twenties, has returned to Gilead after several years of city living in St Louis. He is clearly troubled about something and comes to talk to Pastor Ames about religion, God and judgment. The early conversations are marked by exchanges of theological concepts which go nowhere, and one aches to know whether there will ever be deep communication between the old man and the young man, or whether the pastor is so locked into long-standing theological certainties that he has become unable to be pastor to a troubled soul.
In terms of today’s theme, can he be Jesus to one who is possessed of a troubled spirit, and be a channel of God’s love to his young namesake? Can he be an agent of understanding, compassion and blessing? The book ends in the most moving of ways and is a powerful portrayal of the themes of healing and hope in the lives of ordinary people like you and me.
Here at Holy Trinity Cathedral we offer ministries of counselling, prayer for healing, holy communion and anointing with oil. From Ash Wednesday this year (1 March) it is proposed that we introduce a weekly healing service in the Cathedral.
Suffering, illness and pain can come to us in many ways. Constant through it all is the love of a God who always cares, and who is always with us in life and in death as one who loves, and heals, giving to us the ultimate wholeness of unity with God and those whom we love.
Questions on exorcism and healing may be addressed to the Dean, Richard Randerson on e-mail randers@ihug.co.nz – or to other Cathedral staff, Tel (09) 303 9500.
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