1st Passiontide 2018, Our True Self

First Passiontide
Luke 11: 14-35

Jesus was driving out a demon from a man who was mute. And it came to pass that as the demon left, the man

Ottheinrich Folio

who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. However, some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons.” Others sought to test him by asking for a sign from heaven as proof of his spiritual power.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself will be desolated, and house will fall against house. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? And you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub? Now if I were to drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers do it? Therefore, they shall be your judges.
        
But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, it follows that the kingdom of God has already come to you.
        
When a strong man in full armor guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, the victor takes away the armor in which the man had trusted, and divides it up as spoils.

He who does not unite with my being is against me, and he who does not gather in inner composure with me [work for inner composure with me] scatters.

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it wanders through waterless places seeking a place to rest; and if it cannot find it, it says, ‘I will return to the dwelling out of which I have come.” When it returns to this dwelling it finds it cleaned and adorned. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself and enters and dwells in that man. And his final state is worse than the first.”

As he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you.”

But he said, “Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their hearts and tend it there.”

1^st Passiontide
March 4, 2018
Luke 11: 14 – 35

Dig a hole deep enough and

eventually you will find water. On the beach near the tideline, the hole fills immediately. Further inland you have to dig deeper.  If you want to use the water, you have to keep the well clear of debris, and keep drawing the water up.

Our capacities of thought and speech are some of the hallmarks of our being human. In today’s gospel reading, the adversarial spirit is hindering the man from the expression of his full humanity. It is Christ who removes this hindrance.  One can imagine the event in the words of the poet:

At the spring
we hear the great seas traveling
underground,
giving themselves up
with tongues of water
that sing the earth open.
 …
We have stories
as old as the great seas
breaking through the chest,
flying out the mouth,
noisy tongues that once were silenced,
all the oceans we contain
coming to light.[1]

But driving out a hindering spirit leaves a hole, a space in the human constitution. And Christ makes it clear that just being rid of the spirit is only a first step. What will be drawn into the now empty space?
Christ removes the opposing spirit in order to make a space for our true self, who is Himself. Yet he does not impose Himself. He waits to be invited, to be drawn in. When we invite Him, He says, ‘Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their heart and tend it there.’ Luke 11:28 We need only keep the well free of debris and keep drawing the Living Water.

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[1] Linda Hogan, “To Light” in Seeing Through the Sun

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