Sermons

“Recognizing the Authority of Love

I Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:31-41 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – February 3, 2019

 Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words that we claim your Christ as Lord again and again, and follow the ways of love.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

I always tell myself, when I’m giving a sermon series in which I’m continually exhorting you all to grow beyond your comfort zones, that as soon as we’re finished, I’m just going to preach about love for a while. That’s not to say that our January sermon series wasn’t about love; it definitely was.  We need to reveal Jesus and live for Jesus and celebrate Jesus and connect together as the Body of Christ, because Jesus is Love.  But still, growing beyond our comfort zones to do all that is hard.  I felt like I should follow it up by giving us just a moment to back up and hear some comforting words about love.

So I was delighted when the lectionary gave us I Corinthians 13 this week.  Finally, I can just preach about love again!  So yes, today’s sermon is about love.  Except, it’s also about demons.  Love and demons.  Hopefully mostly love and just a little bit about demons.  That part isn’t even the lectionary gospel passage, to be honest, but it seemed more interesting to me this week than the same old story about Jesus getting run out of his hometown for getting uppity from the previous section that was suggested by the lectionary.  And more useful, since I’m trying to preach about love.

I’ve had occasion to look at this passage from Luke a few different times over the past month, in conversations with our Discipleship Class and others about what it means to declare that Jesus is the Christ. I have a little worksheet I’ve made with a scriptural study of various people making declarations about who Jesus is, and I always include this bit from Luke just because it fascinates me. It’s not just these two stories where it happens.  There are a few other places where the same idea is communicated:  the demons and unclean spirits knew who Jesus was, usually before most other people did.  What is that about?

Now, as soon as we ask that question, we’re going to bump into the reason why this passage isn’t included in the Revised Common Lectionary:  it talks about demons.  And I can guarantee you that there are wide variety of responses to mentioning demons in this room.  Some of you know that demons don’t exist and don’t want to think about them.  Some of you know that demons do exist and have had very clear experiences of them.  Some of you lean toward the mental illness explanation.  Some of you carefully walk the “maybe back then but not now” line. Some of you are entirely comfortable with evil being personified in the form of demons or the Devil or whatever name you like to use.  Some of you are completely not comfortable with the idea of evil being located within a distinct being and may even find that approach counter-productive.  Some of you would prefer I never talk about demons from the pulpit, including right now.  And some of you wish I would do it more and will probably be unsatisfied with what I am going to say.

But here’s something I think we can all agree on: there is evil in the world.  We have only to look around to see that this is true, no matter what vantage point you’re looking from.  So let us agree on that – that there is evil in our world, and then take one more step and say that when the gospels talk about demons, it’s one way the writers are trying to make sense of the presence of evil in our world.  If we can get that far together, we don’t really need a comprehensive treatise on the existence and nature of demons, at least not for our purposes today.

If we can simply agree that, for the purposes of this story, demons represent the forces of evil personified, the more pertinent question we need to address is:  what does it mean that the gospels agree that such a being has an immediate and perceptive understanding of who Jesus is and feels compelled to share that understanding loudly?  The point isn’t what the stories tell us about demons; the point is what they tell us about Jesus.

Which brings us back to love.  I don’t know about you, but I both love I Corinthians 13 and feel intimidated by it at the same time.  It’s such a beautiful portrayal of love, but there’s something there to convict pretty much everyone.  Listen to the description again, closely and confessionally this time:  “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on its own way; Love is not irritable or resentful; Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.”  How many reasons did Paul give you there as to why you aren’t, in fact, the personification of love?  I got at least six.  And some of those things I cling to pretty insistently because they’re part of my identity.  They’re in there, and they’ve got a hold of me, and they’re not loving, and they’re loud. I might could even be convinced that calling them “demons” wouldn’t be far off.

So I acknowledge those things, and I think about what could happen if Someone happened along who was, in fact, the perfect personification of Love, say, Jesus Christ himself, and how those ugly parts within me might react.  “Let us alone!  What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”  These stories aren’t about the demons, whose existence we may not agree upon; they’re about the perfection of Jesus’ love and how threatening it is to the forces of evil in our world, which we all know exist.

But putting this reaction to perfect love in the mouths of demons helps us see a few other things more clearly.  Those demons are clearly threatened.  They seem pretty powerful, in the violent compulsion way that power usually operates in our world.  But they recognize the power of the love that Jesus embodies, and they know that nothing they can do is a match for it.  They understand that the authority Jesus wields comes from an entirely different place than their power, and that their capacity to hurt and maim, to deform and destroy is nothing in the face of it.  They know he is the Son of God.  They know that God is love.  They know that Love is more powerful than the forces of evil and death, and more, that Love isn’t even playing the same game they are.

Are these lessons we can learn from the demons? Are these lessons we can try to help the demons within us learn?  Try to follow Jesus as we might, we’re still so often tempted to wield power the way the demons do, to insist on our own way by force, to be resentful or envious when it doesn’t work.  Can you imagine what it might feel like to have your demons cast out or tamed or transformed by the authority of the Holy One of God, Love Personified, Jesus Christ?  It seems highly likely it might feel unpleasant right at first, doesn’t it?  But the relief, the joy, the freedom that would follow!

I think the reason so many of us can have such a casual relationship with Jesus is precisely because we’re not demons.  We’re not evil personified; we’re a lot more mixed up than that.  We’re good with some bad.  We’re faithful with some weaknesses.  We’re usually trying to follow the ways of Love, but not always that effectively. And because we’re mostly good, the things within us that might cringe in the presence of Jesus aren’t nearly as loud as the demons in these stories.  But that doesn’t mean they’re not there.  It just means it’s easier for us to fool ourselves about their presence, and end up having a lukewarm relationship with the Embodiment of Perfect Love, because we won’t admit how much about us that Love is going to change.

I promised you a sermon about love, not about our sinfulness, so let’s come at it again from the other side.  Take a deep breath.  Grab hold of your faith.  Gird your loins and call forth your courage.  Now picture, if you can, some of the broken places within you, the parts you usually try not to think about, the hidden wells of shame, the unconfessed anger, the tendencies towards violence and domination.  Take another deep breath, and try to imagine those broken things as tiny, little, pathetic demons.  Yes, they’re demons, but who’s happy to be a demon?  They’re frightened, they’re desperate, they’re sad.

Now imagine that Jesus comes into your heart to deal with those demons.  Maybe they try to scurry into the corner, to hide under the table, or make themselves invisible again.  But of course it doesn’t work.  And the light of the Embodiment of Perfect Love picks them up, one by one, and hugs them. And they struggle and kick, but they can’t escape his embrace.  And somehow, eventually, while you’ve almost been holding your breath, that hug transforms that little monster.  The scales fall off and soft fur emerges, and instead of shame, Jesus has given you a furry, little empathy beasty.  And instead of violence, Jesus gives you back a soft little monster of mercy.  And instead of hurt or pain or grief, Jesus gives you back a feathery wisdom creature.  Whatever little terrifying animals you’ve got in there, Jesus’ embrace transforms them into something cuddly.  And maybe they’re not quite tame yet; maybe they’ll still nip your hand from time to time. But the menagerie of your soul has been transformed.  This is what it is to meet Jesus, the Embodiment of Perfect Love.  Jesus is patient; Jesus is kind.  Jesus is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  Jesus rejoices in the truth.  Jesus never ends.  Jesus loves you, all of you, every part of you, including and especially the demons.  Alleluia and Amen.