The Clean Sweep: A Soul Set Free

February 2, 2003

The Rev. Dr. Anthony J. Godlefski, Pastor

Montgomery United Methodist Church

Mark 1: 21-28

Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit 

²¹They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²²The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ²⁴"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!" 

²⁵"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" ²⁶The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 

²⁷The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching--and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." ²⁸News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, good morning!

“Outdated! Pastor, that Bible story is outdated! Things like that don’t happen anymore.”

“Oh, that whole story about the man with the unclean spirit being cast out, that’s the stuff of movies and TV shows. How could that possibly apply to our lives?”

Well, those are the kinds of questions we might be asking ourselves this morning as we consider the Gospel story. But I’d like to suggest to you, my friends, that Jesus has an important story to share with all of us through this Gospel story. Let’s explore it today.

First of all, the Bible tells us that Jesus went to the synagogue, as was His custom on the Sabbath. Now, it’s important to understand that synagogue is a little different in its form of worship than what we know. It’s similar in some ways, but also different. The temple in Jerusalem was the only place where sacrifice took place. But the synagogue was sort of like a local congregation. Wherever there were ten Jewish families, you had to have a synagogue. The families would gather at the synagogue, and it was a teaching time. Someone read the scriptures, and someone explained them. There were no dedicated clergy at the time for synagogues, necessarily, and they would invite someone from the congregation to offer an explanation of what was going on in the scripture.

That’s where Jesus came in. He came up and stood and explained the scripture to people. The Gospel tells us that He talked with authority, not as the scribes. What does that mean? It means that Jesus didn’t quote anybody. When the scribes taught about the scriptures, they would say, “For this passage, Rabbi Gamalael says … and Rabbi Bernstein says this ….” But Jesus said, “This is what it means” – without the footnotes. And that’s what it means when the Bible says He taught with authority.

Now, they were amazed at that, but not only that. One of the people in the congregation that day had what they called an “unclean spirit.” He would shout out and be disruptive. Back in those days they attributed that to all kinds of evil spirits in the air. That’s where our skepticism comes in. “Pastor, we have mental health institutions, we have medications, we have doctors, we have psychiatrists and psychologists to deal with such things.” But they believed the source of these outbreaks was in evil spirits.

But Jesus took the system of the time, and He looked at that person and He said, “I see a wonderful person in you. I see a child of God in you. That negative voice – be silent, and come out of him for good!” The Bible tells us that the man went into a convulsion, and the evil voice came out of him and never returned. The people were totally amazed.

Outdated? I don’t think so, because don’t all of us, sometimes, feel captive of an inner voice that we wish weren’t there, that we wish Jesus would clean-sweep away from our hearts, so that the real person within us could shine through with joy, and live abundantly with energy? Wouldn’t that be wonderful? I’d like to talk about that today, the clean-sweep of Jesus Christ.

You know, I’ve been hearing some laughter around our church. Conversations suddenly erupt into laughter, especially among the women of our church. Now, I don’t know how many of you are in on this, and I’m not in on this, but it seems that there are conversations that our women are sharing about someone called the “Fly Lady.” Can anybody identify who the Fly Lady is? I understand she has a website; is that correct? And FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself. Her purpose is to encourage people to sweep the clutter out of their lives so we can finally love ourselves. [For more information, go to www.flylady.net.]

We need that kind of thing. We need the clutter swept out of our lives; we need the clutter swept out of our hearts. What kind of clutter, what kind of voices do we need Jesus to sweep out? May I suggest the big three? The voices, the tapes, of Guilt, Anger and Fear – GAF. Gaff means a mistake, something we don’t want to do. Guilt, anger, and fear almost seem to take on a life of their own. People can be gripped by guilt, overbursting with anger, and frozen with fear. They are no good for us. They waste the time of our lives. They waste the grace that God has put into our lives. Oh, friends, do we need Jesus to come and look us in the eye and say, “I love you, child of God”? Do we need Him to say to that negative voice, “Sweep out”?

Guilt – people regretting something, a brokenness – can burn up the present and burn daylight. Don’t let it happen. Turn it over to Jesus. Say, “Jesus, sweep it out of my life. I turn it over to you.” Let the cross and the forgiveness of Christ have some power. When you come for communion, leave the guilt at the altar.

I was talking to a pastor not long ago who told me an amazing story. I don’t know what to make of it. “I was counseling with a woman,” she said. “The woman was doubled over with pain. She could hardly walk. She could not climb stairs. She couldn’t move her neck. We talked for a while. She said, ‘I have such a burden on my heart, I can’t say it out loud.’”

And the pastor said, “Would you write it out on a piece of paper that I will not look at?”

She said, “Yes, I’ll do that.” The woman wrote, and she wept and wept and wept. Finally, she folded the paper up and handed it to the pastor. The pastor said, “I will place this on the altar, and I will pray over it, and then I will simply destroy it.”

The pastor said, “This is the weirdest thing. I can’t explain it. But when I took the paper from the woman, it felt heavy. The paper actually felt heavy.”

They went into the sanctuary and placed the paper on the altar, and they prayed as the woman cried. The pastor placed her hand on the woman's shoulder and prayed, “Lord Jesus, bless and heal this woman in the way that is best; let your love surround her. Help her in the way she needs most. Amen.”

The woman took a breath and opened her eyes, and she turned her head from side to side. She stood up and began to walk around the room. There were stairs, and she walked up the stairs. She walked down the stairs. And she said, “Pastor, I feel fine.” The minister said that it has been so to this day.

Who knows? I’m not suggesting that that is the cure for everything that bothers us. But, my Lord, it happened! Let Jesus sweep the old tapes of guilt out of your life.

Anger – people can boil over with anger. Oh, but it hurts our bodies, our souls, and our relationships. It rips them to shreds. Anger is a gerbil wheel. It keeps going and going and feeding on itself. It burns our time. Friends, let Jesus say to you, “Child of God, you are good. Voice of anger, come out of that person.” Anger is born of frustration, feeling that we’re cornered and don’t have any options. If you feel angry, I pray this prayer for you: I pray that you would know that you have options, and enlightenment is knowing your options. May you be set free from the corner, and know that there are choices you can make. Let Jesus sweep the anger away.

Fear -- the frozen thing that says, “I can’t do it. I’ll fail”. My dear friend, Jesus came to set us free from that. I know a wonderful person who says that, as a child, she would sit in class and the teacher would ask a question. She knew the answer, and she was confident time after time after time, but she wouldn’t raise her hand, because she was afraid. Yet she knew the answer. My prayer for her is that she would know that she knows the answer, and that she knows her answers are good. That’s my prayer for you, too, that you would say, “Jesus, come into my heart and sweep away those old, antiquated tapes and those old antiquated ideas that no longer serve me. Energy from the antiquated ideas, come and serve me this way.” And let it be transformed.

So, the story is as modern as today. Jesus sees you for the wonderful person that you are. Jesus sees you as the beloved child of God. Jesus would call forth those voices, those tapes, those antiquated beliefs inside of you and sweep them away like spring cleaning, that you may be free to live abundantly, to serve on God’s behalf. May it be yours. May the gift of every precious moment of abundant living be yours, swept free. May yours be the soul set free, because God loves you. I do, too. Have a blessed week. Amen.