(Photo by j.r. christopherson)

For reflection from Pastor John Christopherson:
Gospel Lesson: Mark 1:21-28

"Aristotle believed that mental illness often adds to the creative functioning of a personality. Similarly, in the New Testament some of the demoniacs recognize Jesus as the Christ better than do 'normal' people!" (Paul Tillich; The Meaning of Health, p. 35)

"It may will be that the disease of many churched, denominations and congregation is that they try to escape disease by cutting off what can produce disease, and [paradoxically] can also produce creativity and greatness of life. A church that has ceased to risk sickness and even demonic [or destructive] influences has little power to heal and to cart out 'demons.' (Paul Tillich; The Eternal Now, p. 62)

"The claim of something finite to infinity or to divine greatness is the characteristics of the demonic. And when this claim of authority is denied, a split occurs between Creator and creature, where the latter simply becomes 'possessed' with its protest of holiness against God and thereby loses or destroys its center." (j.r. christopherson; cf. Paul Tillach's Systematic Theology III, p. 102-103)

“The great dramatic artists and poets not only depict demonic possession, they live from a faith that demonic power can be broken. … The resource to which we must turn for the exorcism we crave is the literature - those chronicled witnesses throughout world history - who move across deadly spaces but are not trapped by it.  The Bible viewed thus is the supreme instance of such word and witness that brings the demonic forces to the surface. [It does so by naming them, with God having the last word as in Genesis 1:1-5 – bringing being out of nonbeing, creation out of chaos.]  The great literature of the world, from the Greek tragedians and Shakespeare to the character of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, does its final work in the renewal of our capacity to see through the tragedy into some ultimate greatness.  Sheer distillation of horror lacks final authority. …  Herein lies our hope, that in the very experience of demonic possession we discover a superior power working against it – often silently, hidden, and at times apparently impotent, yet now and again breaking through to restore us to our rightful minds.  This is true in psychological therapy, in political and economic struggle, in religious frenzy and faith, and at those final boundaries of life and death when ‘perfect love casts out all fear’ (I John 4:18).”  (Daniel Day Williams; The Demonic and the Divine, p.28-30)

 “Genetic information does not dictate everything about us.”  (William Gilbert in The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project, ed. Daniel J. Kevles and Leroy Hood, p.92)

“And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility.”  (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Devil’s Thoughts”)

“The need for everyday, ordinary exorcism is not much acknowledged.  ‘Exocism’ is a word from the realm of overheated, schlocky horror films. …When I think of the demons I need to exorcise, I have to look elsewhere; inward, to my heart and soul.  Anger is my best demon, useful whenever I have to go into a Woman Warrior mode, harmful when I use it to gratify myself, either in self-justification, or to deny my fears. … Each one of us acts as a [demon] whenever we hear the gospel and do not do it.” (Kathleen Norris; Amazing Grace, p.46, 47, 15)

“Certainly the scribes had authority, they carefully studied and could quote the Scriptures and tradition by memory.  But there was something “new” (v.27) about Jesus’ teaching.  Unlike the scribes who always began by saying “There is a teaching that …”  or “I quote Rabbi Joseph …”  Jesus was the quote.  “You have heard it said of old … but I say to you …”  or “The Father and I are one” … One with authority.  For Jesus was God incarnate – the power of God’s living word – with personal authority. Even the demonic cries from the depths of human pain and brokenness were silenced and healed by him – by his very presence (v.23-26).  (j.r. christopherson;  U of Chicago’s Bond Chapel, January ’88)

“St. Ignatius called the Lord’s Supper the remedy against our having to die, the antidoton to me apothanein.” (Paul Tillich; A History of Christian Thought, p.23)

“Demonry breaks down only before divinity, the possessed state before the state of grace …” (Paul Tillich; “The Demonic” in The Interpretation of History, p.122).