Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Where are all the Exorcists?

Wanted to post a fabulous sermon (download free, or if you don't have iTunes, you can listen online here) by Brian Blount, president of Union Presbyterian Seminary.  He preached it last spring at Duke's Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture Series.  In it, Blount takes on the brief story of Mark 9:38-39, where the disciples proudly come to Jesus with something to say: "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."

Is the most important thing to be "one of US?"  The in-group, Christians, holy huddlers, disciples.  Or is the important thing to cast out demons?  To call on the power of Jesus' name, to be FOR the good things that God is doing.  And what would it mean to be both a Christian AND an exorcist?  I can't do Blount's argument justice, so you should really listen yourself.  But for a peek at the sermon's climax:
"To be a Christian exorcist you've gotta be a sojourner of truth wherever you encounter a lie.  To be a Christian exorcist, you've gotta be able to declare 'I have a dream' and be ready to live out that dream in this nightmarish world.  To be a Christian exorcist, you must be willing to change the world in Jesus' name even when the people who run this world and claim allegiance to Jesus do everything in their power to shut you down.  We need exorcists who will raise their voices in unconventional ways."

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