Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 29 January 2012 by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 111 and Mark 1:21-28.


Prayer:
Truine God,
May your word inspire us through the Holy Spirit. May our life be transformed by your love and strengthened by your holy presence. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.


On and off, there have been brothers in Christ asking me the question, ‘do you believe in evil spirit and curse’. They shared with me that evil spirit is powerful and strong, it is a very prevalent phenomenon in their countries.

Many people, regardless of their religious backgrounds, refer to evil spirit as a destructive force that brings bad luck and harsh life to a person. Some people would say they are under attack by the evil spirit when they are facing hardship in their lives such as losing their jobs, health and marriage at the same time. All in all, many bad things happened at the same time. Some people will boil the leaves of the Chinese grape fruit with water and then use it to clean themselves. They believe that their bad luck will then be washed away.

Friends, have you ever experienced bad lucks in your life that bring you hardship? Do you believe in evil spirit and curse?

From what has been written in the scripture according to Gospel Mark 1, it is difficult to deny the existence of the evil spirit. Isn’t it?

A man in the synagogue was controlled by an evil spirit (the Good New Bible; unclean spirit for the New Revised Standard Version) Jesus demanded the spirit to come out of the man. One of Jesus’ ministries on earth was to cast out the evil/ unclean spirit, the demons.

Unclean/evil spirit is a name given by Judaism to name the demons. Unclean in the Old Testament means ‘evades the control of the divine holiness and banishes humans from God’s presence’. Any force that alienates a person from God and from others is evil.

In the New Testament, taken from Matthew 16:23, Jesus foretold his suffering, death and resurrection to Peter, Peter warned him not to do it as it was forbidden by God. Jesus replied to Peter with strong words: ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Satan or evil spirit is a power that keeps us away from the life of God, the will of God and the service to God.
It is demonic or evil if our lives have taken us away from God the Holy One. It is the work of the evil spirit if we are compelled to lose our faith in God. It is the power from the evil spirit to take away a person’s self confidence and self respect. It is demonic if people are not able to live a life with dignity according to the holy image created in us by God.

Evil spirit or unclean spirit or demonic power, whatever we call it, it is not something so mysterious and not something totally beyond our understanding. We can name it and cast it out from our life.

The evil spirit could be an unloving heart to ourselves and others. I have known some people who had been abused or maltreated by parents during their childhood, and they are now rejecting themselves. Their self image is low and they cannot affirm themselves. The evil spirit works in them to deprive them of their self respect and self assurance.

Jesus Christ, who is a liberator determined to redeem the captives, will vigorously demand the evil spirit to stop and leave the person alone.

Jesus is the holy one of God because he is God’s son. He carries the image of God. He cares for the life of people. As proclaimed by the Psalmist in 111, the Lord is gracious and merciful. His righteousness endures forever. The Lord cares for the whole well being of every person. In Jesus’ social ministry, he had cast out demons, the evil spirit, in order to set the person in chains free. To cast out the unclean spirit signified Jesus’ redemption to human kinds. Jesus’ mission was to set people free from all kinds of bondages and control.

In another context, the evil spirit is the destructive force that takes away our faith and courage. The evil spirit leads us to give up our hope to change and the courage to act. The unclean spirit may say to us: ‘give up la, whatever you do is in vain because you are not good enough’. If you are in this situation, Jesus Christ has demonstrated his power to us to silent the evil and demanded it to get out from you.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, believe in Jesus Christ that we are given the authority to cast out the evil spirit from us. Whenever you are in a state of fear or self blaming or Satan has taken away your inner peace, have the courage to confront it! As promised by the word of God, there is no fear in love (1 John 4:18)

The Hong Kong Christian Council has designated today as Social Concern Sunday. To relate to the theme of today’s sermon on evil spirit, we can articulate the evil spirit from a social aspect. And I would call it social evil.

The structural greed and corruption of the establishment and people who have power have created great damage to the poor and the weak. The extreme wealth gap in different part of the world is the social evil that Christians and the Church have to confront.

Jesus’ casting out of evil spirit reminded us of our role and responsibility to stand against social evil in our times. We have to learn from Jesus to speak against injustice and demonstrate our solidarity with the poor and the persecuted. The evil power would try all means to keep the people, the system and the world away from God’s justice and compassion. They may use force to silent those who have conscience. They may discourage God’s people and tell them to give up because the system is too powerful to resist. But Jesus Christ who has the authority over evil spirit will win.

We are given great hope in Christ as we know that Jesus has the authority, the divine power, to send the evil spirit away. But we know life is never been easy and smooth even we are Christians.

The evil spirit who knows that Jesus Christ is the holy one of God will fight and struggle all along. Look at the scene when Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and called him out of the man. The evil spirit was struggling by shaking the man and crying with a loud voice. The actions taken by the evil spirit are very symbolic. It tells one important fact: the evil spirit will not just leave the person with cooperation. The evil spirit always struggles to stay on and retain its power. Therefore we need to be prepared for the struggles with the evil spirit at all times.

Another interesting description on the casting out of the evil spirit is that the evil spirit was not destroyed, he just left temporarily. Therefore, the evil spirit may come back to attack us and the world.

As human beings we have to know well that our life may go back and forth. There are times we are doing well and staying close to God, the source of power and life. However, there are times when we are not doing so well. We may be tempted by the evil spirit to go astray. But Jesus Christ our Lord never forsakes us. He calls us to return to God and repent. The great promise from Jesus Christ is that he has the authority to cast out the evil spirit from us and bring us back to God, the source of love and life, hope and peace.

We need to keep watch. We have to be alert and use the authority given to us by Jesus to stand firm against the power of Satan. Our resistance to the evil spirit makes us strong and powerful.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, always say no to the evil spirit, stay away from it and stay close to God, God of love and compassion, holy and almighty. Do remember that Jesus Christ our Lord has cast out the demons. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has given us great hope. The power of life is stronger than the power of death. The power of light has overcome the power of destruction. In the light of Christ, there is no darkness. Jesus has sided with the righteous whom God has stood for.

It is true that though there is a constant struggle between the evil spirit and the holy spirit: the struggles between the light and the darkness. If we have courage in us, believing in the authority of Jesus Christ and use it to confront evil power like Jesus, we will win the battle. We will then no longer be bothered or enslaved by bad lucks, curse or whatever evil spirit that try to attack us. In Christ, we are a free person to live with faith, hope, love, and peace. Amen.