Texts: Psalm 43; Luke 8:26-39

The young man stood in front of the judge for sentencing. In his inimical way, the judge looked down from the bench and asked, “Well, do you have anything to say before I sentence you?” I had already made my pitch citing his youth which had led to his foolishness. I held my breath because I knew if he said nothing, he would go to jail. “I don’t know what possessed me,” he said. “It was not only stupid, but it was really wrong. It’s as if some demon had come into me. I talked to my pastor about leading a new and different life. I’m afraid to go to jail because others will try to put their demons in me.” The judge’s expression changed ever so slightly. Finding true remorse as a mitigating factor, he sentenced him only to 75 hours of community service and three years probation. Then he added: “You’d better get rid of those demons if you don’t want to be here again because if you are, you’ll have to deal with them in jail.”

Demons. Children are often told that something evil would take them away if they didn’t behave. This isn’t just some third world phenomenon of superstitious people. It’s in the very fabric of our psyche through folk tales. If we think back to our own childhood, we may have also experienced a similar warning -- some kind of evil spirit, something malevolent ready to pounce on us if we did not behave. The belief in or the use of demonic forces to control people is ancient. Much like the young man before the judge, it’s much easier to ascribe behavior we don’t want to take responsibility for to a force outside ourselves rather than part of our human nature. But those forces we call demonic sometimes can control our human nature.

These demonic forces at times overwhelm us; they seem beyond our control and become things that possess us and use us in ways that we know are wrong. But rather than being something apart from us, those demons are actually within us, sometimes overpowering us, as they had the Gerasene demoniac. How easy it would be if our internal demons could simply be transported to a herd of swine to run off a cliff, but, alas! That’s not the case. We are left to struggle with our demons.

Our language reflects the struggle. We talk about a person being “possessed,” as if that person’s illness or sickness is not really a part of him or her. We talk that way about people who are really mentally ill, separating the illness from the person. It’s our way of distancing ourselves from the deep struggles and divisions we sometimes find within ourselves, especially when we are not sure where to turn. Demons can also be forces that overtake our lives, such as money, possessions, the drive for power or control.

Such demons can destroy us because we do not recognize them for the power they can have over our lives. The demon of possessions is one that the Gospel continues to raise. The demon that tells us we must have more, more, more is reinforced by the culture of marketing. Look at the Sunday paper when the new seasonal styles come out. We’re encouraged to “collect” a range of colors of some item, probably more than we’ll ever need. In fact, we’re even told that the way out of the economic slump is to buy more stuff, mostly from China. Don’t forget that China owns most of our national debt. The demon of more is clearly symbiotic.

That demon feeds into our sense of needing more money to buy more of the stuff from China instead of investing it here where it really counts, such as in our children’s education, affordable housing, and other programs that will help to eradicate the social and economic differences in our society. However, one of our demons is clearly the need to feel better off than others. Thus, we allow the demon of our own greed to possess us.

Our individual demons are reflected in our national demon of the drive for power and control and the problems that ensue. That drive has taken on new forms, different from the traditional approach of empire, which had physical occupation of territory as its goal. Unlike Rome or the territorial occupation of the West Bank, ours is an empire of influence. Yes, we are engaged in wars abroad, ostensibly in our national defense. In a very real way, we as a people and the Obama administration as a government are paying the price of squandered opportunities of the previous eight years.

The real American empire, however, is not just composed of the alliances with other nations and military bases. The real American empire is the one of culture. You can see it from Moscow to Tokyo, from Mexico City to Jakarta. American music and culture has impacted the world in ways that were unimaginable even by the Romans in their time or the British under Victoria. But the other side to that culture can be seen through the demons within: the drive for more, the drive for power and control. And those demons that possess us will possess others.

When I had the extraordinary honor of meeting Pramoeyda Ananta Toer, the great Indonesian novelist nominated for a Nobel several times, and asked him what he saw as society’s greatest weakness, he looked at me and said: The demon of consumerism. It is insidious because it does not need guns or knives. And once it takes us over, it is almost impossible to eradicate it. It makes us selfish and small of heart so even when faced with devastating photos of children dying from malaria, refugees in Darfur, even the poverty of our own Nation, we look and then turn the page.

We are offered the possibility of redemption, however, through living faithfully, but that means we must give up something -- something material, something internal. It means making a deep cut into our soul to eradicate the demons that possess us and our culture. It means having a real commitment to the Gospel and its consequences in our lives. It’s not easy but it is essential.

Let us pray: Lord, you who can excise demons and bring us to wholeness, show us the way and be deep within our hearts so we live faithfully and work towards making your promised kingdom a reality for all. Amen.