March 15, 2024
Exorcising in Lent
Exorcism is the stuff of Halloween movies. The words “exorcism” and “exorcist” conjure images of priests going toe to toe with a demon—or demons—armed only with a crucifix, consecrated oils, and a prayer book. In Mark’s gospel, casting out demons is a core element in Jesus’ ministry of proclaiming the good news and offering evidence that Jesus is bringing the reign of God to earth. But that seldom comes to mind when hearing the word “exorcism.”
On the other hand, the early Christians made the casting out of evil much less spectacular. Before baptism, a candidate would be asked to renounce evil, saying "I renounce you Satan, all who serve you, and all your works." After that they would spit, to get the words “Satan” off of their lips (a practice I presume was ended quickly by those who cleaned the church!) And then would be anointed, sealing Satan and evil out of the person’s life. This first anointing was called an exorcism. After baptism, the baptized would have hands laid on them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and then would be anointed with oil to seal the Spirit within the newly baptized. A fossil of this is found in the Covenant’s baptismal rite, where the baptismal candidate is asked if they “renounce all the powers of evil and declare your opposition to a way of life in contradiction to the gospel.”
One of the themes of Lent is a careful examination on how well we are able to fend off those things that tempt us, that seek to have a place of privilege in our life in ways that remove our relationship to God from the center of our lives. We are called not only confess our yielding to those temptations, but to renounce them; spitting them out of our lives. Last Sunday, our Invocation was an early Christian prayer of renunciation, actually a prayer offered to Satan, declaring that evil had no power over us and we dismissed all the presences of evil from our midst. We are forgiven and redeemed by God, and we invited instead the Holy Spirit to come and seal evil out and be present in our lives. This Sunday we will pray Psalm 51 as our response to the first lesson. In this famous psalm it is declared that sin is an issue in our lives from the moment we are born, so this applies to everyone.
The point of all this is simple: if we don’t believe that evil has any leverage in our lives, we are fooling ourselves and evil is winning. We participate in evil, directly and indirectly, in our everyday lives. We are called to confess, address, and renounce the evil forces that resist Christ’s lordship over our lives.
So with confidence in the redeeming love of God in Christ, honestly consider those things that seek to de-center God in your life, and invite the help of God through the Spirit—in us and in the community that supports us—to continue to help us become the people and the church God has called us to become. To this end, exorcism becomes and important spiritual exercise.
With confidence in Christ,
~ Pastor Todd