Volume 3 Number 2 (1999:2 )

3 March 1999

Every year the demons come out during Lent. First, the devil himself attacks Jesus in the wilderness (Lent I), then his demons attack faith (Lent II, the Canaanite woman), and next Jesus will attack them back (casting them out, Lent III). Such an archaic thing is all the talk of demons, in the minds of so many of our day. So out of date. Medieval at best. Modern scholars would rather speak of Jesus' casting out of demons as perhaps nothing other than a calming of the nerves, and of the demons-possession of the daughter of the Canaanite woman as probably schizophrenia, and then maybe as Jesus' encounter with Satan in the desert as a vivid way of describing his own internal wrestlings with his mission as the Son of God.

Maybe the three year lectionary is deemed better by some of them because it's not so thick with demons. Maybe, in fact, pastors who like to think of themselves as "conservative" but who really don't want to be seen as medieval, would rather just not have to deal with the topic, so they, too, find the Historic Lectionary too difficult to handle.

Talk too much about demons, and you might find yourself losing credibility among your friends. Those Canaanite women, they could talk about demons with credulity because, well, everyone was doing it back then. But today it's different, don't you know.

Different, too, in regards to which psalms you might prefer. All those psalms dealing with enemies, they just don't seem to relate. Who has all that many enemies these days, except maybe a pastor here and there who can't get along with his congregation? Of course, to those of us who are well aware of the demons, there's never a problem in praying such psalms, and even praying them imprecatorily: in thy mercy cut off all mine enemies, and destroy them that hate me.

Odd, isn't it, that so few buy into demons these days, and yet so many have at the same time become ensnared in their doctrines? Maybe the demons are smarter these days, having learned from experience that they're better off if they attack by stealth. Open persecution might scare people off given the right context, but a life of ease can be far more effective in many ways. It can make lull the best-reputed of pastors into thinking of life only in terms of natural phenomena, over which God hovers somewhere in the ether. It can make them even become unwilling to pray. Or if they do pray, to pray with no more than some schmaltzy sentimentality about a God who cares and feels your pain. This makes people feel good about themselves, and that in turn makes a pastor popular. So they won't pray too seriously, especially when praying the liturgy. And the certainly wouldn't be caught fasting and praying. Because it's just too uncomfortable, and people want to be comfortable, and then all will be well.

Except for the demons...wolves who roam at will and wreak havoc on the sheep right under the noses of these shepherds.

Pastoral theology and seelsorge must begin with an awareness of the demons. Beg off the Historic Lectionary if you must, but don't ignore the demons. They are a stronger breed these days, a more resistant strain, who lock the minds of so many into a bland kind of religion which abides well in the modern world because it really doesn't disturb the idols to which the demons give rise.

And these demons, many of them, will not come out, Jesus says, except by prayer and fasting. Let not the care of souls be full of the wisdom of brilliant pyschological counseling. Let it be full, rather, of prayer and fasting. Let the pastors live by faith, and not by works. Then the people will do the same. And then we shall have defense against the demons. For faith trusts that Jesus in the wilderness resisted for us and for our salvation; faith believes that Jesus rewarded the Canaanite woman's faith by expelling her daughter's demon; faith believes that what Jesus was really doing when he was casting out demons was, well, casting out demons. It really happens where Jesus is. And Jesus really is where He reveals Himself in Word and Holy Sacrament.

So do not deny the demons and their existence; rather, stand with Luther in the baptismal font and wave merrily at those prowling lions.

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The Shire 1999:2

Copyright 1999 Gandalf the White.