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Unclean Spirits

15th Sunday : 15 July 2012 Mark 6: 7-13

There is a small yellow book in the parish office that I keep in a prominent and easy to find place, which I hope I never have to use. Entitled "Exorcism," it is the findings of a commission convened by the Bishop of Exeter in 1971. Its arrival on the floor of the Church of England’s General Synod caused a storm of controversy, with liberal minded Bishops being particularly incensed that such a throw back to what they saw as the superstitious thought world of the ancient world should be given serious consideration. They would also have been disturbed by the fact that the little yellow book includes a liturgical form for the exorcism of places, and another for the exorcism of persons, which that is why it is on my bookshelf, just in case I need to use it at short notice.

In fact the recommendations of the report were taken seriously in the end, and many dioceses both over there and here have now designated a priest to be the diocesan exorcist, and have made it clear that no exorcism should take place without the permission of the diocesan Bishop, and without careful discernment as to whether it is strictly necessary, or without careful personal preparation by the exorcising priest.

The wisest words in the report come in the foreword where Bishop Robert Mortimer writes: The general attitude in the Church of England seemed to regard exorcism as an exercise in white magic or a survival of medieval superstition. It was seen as the purely negative action of expelling an evil force or cleansing an evil environment. Its positive aspect as an extension of the frontiers of Christ’s Kingdom and a demonstration of the power of the resurrection to overcome evil and replace it with good was overlooked.

Today’s gospel reading begins thus: Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. It finishes thus: So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils. It wouldn’t be hard to many other verses like this in the gospels, or for that matter similar instances of deliverance ministry in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and Peter seem to have regarded this as a norm in what they were required to do from time to time.

But of course it is true that our world is very different to theirs. Judaism and Christianity helped to bring this about by overthrowing the false Gods of the pagan world. Once you started believing in the one true God you stopped seeing sprites and spirits behind every bush and tree. Christianity, as it were, partially denuminized the world. Dr Edric Baker was telling us last week how Hindus in Bangladesh see God everywhere in their surrounding environment - we don’t, and it is partly because of our religion.

And of course we have absorbed with our mother’s milk the firm convictions that flow on from the scientific revolution and the era of the enlightenment that the world is what it is according to laws of cause and effect that can be measured, mastered and explained. The theologian Rudolf Bultmann summed it up in one memorable sentence: You can’t use the electric light bulb and go on believing in the mythological world of the New Testament. But there is an even deeper truth at work here, and a rather sinister one too, which brings us up against why exorcism is still required now. Back to the wise words of the Bishop of Exeter: In countries which were, comparatively recently, pagan or primitive the urgency has been only too apparent, and the place of exorcism in the regular ministry of the Church has been taken for granted. In Western countries today, the widespread apostasy from the Christian Faith, accompanied by an increasing recourse to black magic and occult practices, is revealing the presence of an evil atmosphere in particular places and environments. The need, therefore, for the restoration of the practice of exorcism to its proper place is becoming steadily more urgent and evident.

In other words our western culture has just about used up its reserves of health giving residual Christian influence, and is increasingly leaving those who don’t live within the protective environment of Christian practise at the mercy of a spiritual vacuum, which at times has malign spiritual influences at work within it. I wish those who urge the Church to follow certain social libertarian agendas that are modelled to us by our secular culture could get their heads around the fact that our culture is changing fast and in very unpredictable ways that are often by no means based on an unstoppable flow of enlightened, tolerant progress agendas. In fact I believe that our culture is increasingly pursuing a repaganising agenda that conceals itself behind what looks like a laissez faire social agenda. As this repaganising agenda comes into clear relief our exorcists will have more work on their hands.

I have noticed too that those who believe that better education and more effective social engineering will make the human race happier and morally better don’t seem to take account of the existence of radical evil that malignantly delights in causing pain, suffering and confusion, and that can at times morph itself into forms of spiritual possession.

I want to make it clear that I have never seen an exorcism or a demon-possessed person, and I hope I never do. And I believe that quite often the cases that are brought before exorcists amount to instances of psychotic illness, and straight down the line human madness. But while I am grateful for the recent progress made by psychiatry, and am keenly interested in its findings, I am also aware that it is still early days yet in the history of that science, and that there is still a very great deal we don’t know yet about the human brain, and its maladies. I am also aware of the diagnostic difficulties of what is loosely referred to as borderline personality disorders, or to put it bluntly, difficult people who are manipulative and socially maladaptive who habitually make a damn nuisance of themselves.

But at the same time I firmly believe that there are instances when radical evil enters into human beings in ways that cannot be rationally explained, and that requires the special ministry of the Church, as exercised under the authority of Christ and his Church. I think of that story Fr Carl has shared with not a few of us of what he witnessed when a well known Church of England exorcist was teaching a group of ordinands at St Stephens House, Oxford, when on reciting the prayer of exorcism, one of the students fell on the floor, and began thrashing around with the characteristic growling noises and convulsive movements of the possessed who are having an evil spirit cast out of them. This was the real dinkum thing, and is a chilling example of what can happen even within the bosom of the Church to those who open themselves up to evil influences through an immoral lifestyle.

Sometimes Christians can come to a sure sense of the reality of the spiritual warfare that accompanies the Church’s mission of spiritual liberation in is pastoral concern for people, but can become overly interested in the so called spiritual glamour of the demonic realms, and of unusual supernatural activity. This way madness lies. We are not to become preoccupied with the tawdry tricks of Satan’s dreary little kingdom, but are to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the sunny uplands of the Kingdom of God, firmly convinced that Christ has authority and full knowledge of all that is required to deal to the hindering powers of darkness. He is the one who alone has power to overthrow spiritual wickedness in high places, and in the sordid little corners of the world. We are only required to sometimes be pure channels of his grace in such a ministry. We are not to become preoccupied with the realm of evil spirits.

What I take away from today’s gospel reading is the importance of what might be called the spiritually hygienic effects of good Christian practice in the disciplined search for holiness that flows on from being a deeply convinced Christian. Going to Mass regularly, saying your prayers daily, reading the Bible, going to confession, studying the Christian faith isn’t just a good idea - it is a lifesaver in a spiritually lost world.