Idols and Spirits

 

            Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit at his Baptism, having called his disciples, goes to Synagogue 
and runs into a man with an unclean spirit. 
The Spirit is surprised
—there is a Clash Between Holy and Unholy, sacred and profane
—and Jesus throws the Spirit from the man… 
And darn it, Mark’s Gospel doesn’t let us see this as a one-off
—no, one of Jesus’ main acts as God’s Anointed, 
in Mark’s Gospel in particular
—is exorcism. 
Jesus is an exorcist.

            So too, the Early Church spends a lot of time wrestling with worship of Idols. And this was very practical
—most meat in the ancient world was butchered, 
as part of a sacrifice to this god or that god
—to emperors and to idols. 
From Paul’s letters, to the Acts of the Apostles, to the Book of Revelation
—Christians struggle with the existence of Idols 
and how to interact with them without losing their souls.

 

            Spirits and Idols… 
subjects that might seem far from our immediate experience of the world. Creatures from the TV show Stranger Thingsor a statue snatched by Indiana Jones…
It might even feel embarrassing that we read aloud about them in the year of our Lord 2024... and yet, 
-anyone who has been captured by something bigger than themselves, 
-anyone who seeks to be made whole by something that is unholy,
-anyone who has been in awe of something that isn’t God,
-anyone enmeshed in a system with a screwed-up spirit… 

            can tell you that the way scripture describes and deals with demons, with overflowing grace,
            and the way the Church relativizes idols, by being gentle with each other…

            It’s a word that still needs to be heard.

Prayer

 

            There is a famed study of Spirits, Demons, Powers, and Principalities by the Theologian Walter Wink. His conclusion is that scripture is describing the Spiritual Heft of an organization, nation, or system—what it does to people enmeshed in them. 

Think Corporate Ethos, 
or Zeitgeist—the Spirit of the Time.
            That those things have a weight to them that we don’t notice, 
because we’re in the midst of them… 
we’re like fish
—we don’t know water is wet, 
because we’re swimming in it.

            The main example Wink used was the Apartheid regime in South Africa
—a totalizing system bigger than any one person, or even group of people, 
that made individuals behave in ways they never would have, 
had the system not existed. 

            There is an awful spiritual significance to that kind of thing.

            Think of family systems people get caught in
—the “Bad” daughter leaves town,
so all of a sudden, 
the family treats the next-door neighbor as the “bad” daughter
—and she become that very thing
—possessed by the system’s power.

            Or think of the goal of political parties and campaigns
—getting masses of people to fit every opinion in their heads with a particular ideology 
and to identify in a deeply personal way with an individual politician, 
unable to see where their self ends and the party begins.

 

            Luther too studied scripture and re-named, re-defined, a key concept
—in his case Idols… 
He declared that Idols are those things we 
fear (awe), love, and trust that aren’t God… 
those things we treat as the Creator, but are in fact part of creation.

            The example I often to use to get at Luther’s meaning with Confirmation Students is to invite them to watch an hour of TV and focus on the Ads. 
What do the ads promise will make everything better? 
What piques your Greed or is declared to be something you need? 
-If you had clear skin everything would be perfect, 
-if you had faster broadband internet your children would respect you, 
-if you don’t keep up with this trend you are irrelevant,
if, if, if…

            As Paul writes, “there are many gods and many lords.”

What are you being told would make you whole? 
That is a thing that you need to be careful of, 
you could be tempted to worship it.

 

            Part of why the Unholy, Unclean, Spirit is surprised by its encounter with Jesus 
is that Jesus flips the script on how Holiness works
—traditionally the question is “what holy thing has become impure by being touched by an unclean thing?” 
Instead, the way Jesus practices Holiness, is that Holiness is catchy… 
How is the impure, mundane, and unclean, 
made holy, because it encounters with Jesus?

 

            Wink understood the Church’s job is to be 
a system, organization, Ethos, 
with its own spiritual heft
—a holiness that offers an alternative way of being
—an overflowing holiness that is catchy, 
that, in fact, redeems the powers and principalities.

            We’ve been going through the book of Revelation in Bible Study
—and one of the neat things about that book is how it describes the Church’s work musically
—there is the worship of the congregations John the Revelator is writing to, 
which is then sung in heaven, 
which echoes out among the angels,
 and then fills all the earth with praise for the Lamb of God.

            Or thinking of Dr. Wink’s experience, 
when congregations in South Africa worshipped together, black and white, 
they were challenging and transforming the Unclean Spirit of Apartheid… 
Holiness is catchy….

 

            Paul’s response to the idols of his age, 
was to recognize that they have no power, 
other than what people gave them… 
AND ALSO that there were folk who were still stuck, 
or at least gravely tempted, 
by eating meat sacrificed to idols. 
And that these “weak” these “least” these “little ones” 
needed to be noticed and protected.

            Idols, these things of greed and need, 
offered false and hungry promises of wholeness, 
and the church needed to offer an alternative of gentleness, 
the uplifting of the lowly. 
            In the face of stumbling blocks and stone idols, 
we are called to be a living temple.

 

            Idols and Spirits
—overcome with gentleness 
and redeemed by the catchy holiness 
of God’s community sung into the world.

Amen.