A sermon preached by the Revd Dr Trevor Jamison at
Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, North Shields, 22 June, 2025
Watch the whole service on YouTube
Last week I was part of a group having a conversation about deliverance ministry. Deliverance ministry is not about Royal Mail or Amazon Prime bringing a package to your doorstep, or church members putting invitations to their church events through local letterboxes. “Deliverance ministry” is the term that gets used today for what used to be called “exorcism.”
One of our number had been in a meeting where they had received a presentation about present-day deliverance ministry. They were surprised to discover that deliverance ministry is still around, and were alarmed to find out that every Church of England diocese, including the Diocese of Newcastle, has a “Deliverance Ministry Team” in place, which can be called upon when needed.
Properly, the work of such teams is hedged around with several safeguards:
- ‘The ministry of exorcism and deliverance should only be undertaken by an experienced priest authorized by the Diocesan Bishop
- It should be done in the context of prayer and sacrament
- A multi-disciplinary approach is to be desired, consulting and collaborating as necessary with doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists
- It should be followed up by continued pastoral care
- The privacy and dignity of individuals and families should be respected.’[i]
As our conversation continued, we began to acknowledge that there might be a need for such ministry. All of us were pretty sure that mental distress that many people feel is best addressed through medical means. At the same time, the character and actions of some individuals pushed even the more sceptical us to talk in terms of some people as being “pure evil.” Does it help hinder us to understand them as being possessed?
Well, that’s not the sort of conversation I usually have over lunchtime sandwiches! Also, I was intrigued because I knew what was coming this Sunday. Not only would we be (as usual) asking God to “deliver us from evil” in the Lord’s prayer, but also the Gospel passage would feature a case of possession, and being delivered from it.
Fresh from calming a storm at sea, Jesus and his closest followers step ashore in ‘the region of the Gerasenes.’ (8:26) He’s hardly got a toe on land, however, when, we are told, ‘a man from the city who had demons met him.’ (8:27) This man must have been a sight for he had abandoned both living at home and wearing any clothes. Instead, he resided with the dead, living among the tombs; something criticised in the time of the prophet Isaiah.
The man (or whatever possessed him) knew all about Jesus: ‘what have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?’ (8:28) Near the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel told Mary she was going to have child who would be holy and ‘he will be called Son of God.’ (1:35) I doubt, though, that today’s incident is what comes to mind when we hear that angelic message read out at a Christmas Eve Carol Service.
Jesus demands to know the name of the man or of that which torments him. The reply is ‘Legion.’ (8:30) This might have made some people nervous because it could be understood as suggesting that the name a Roman army unit – a legion – is a suitable way to describe an evil presence. Luke describes this legion of demons begging Jesus not to send them ‘into the abyss’ (8:31), and requesting to be sent into a nearby herd of pigs instead. Did you notice that in Isaiah eating the flesh of pigs and spending time among the tombs were linked together and were the subject of divine criticism?
Anyway, into the pigs they go, but there is no escape from the abyss, for they plunge down the slope and straight into the water. They suffer the fate that the disciples had so feared in the storm they had experienced just before they made it ashore. The swineherds, deprived of their pigs, ran off to tell the tale in the city and surrounding countryside. (8:34) This brought out the crowds who wanted to see what had happened, only to discover the man, ‘clothed and in his right mind’ and ‘sitting at the feet of Jesus’ – as any good disciple would be. (8:36)
The crowd’s reaction is an interesting one: ‘the whole throng of the people … asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear.’ (8:37) There’s gratitude for you! Perhaps, though, in a farming economy, they worried that if Jesus healed others in this way then such would be the loss of livestock that they might be pitched into poverty in the process. How many of us, like the rich ruler who appears in Luke chapter eighteen (8:18-30), have declined to get too close to Jesus because it would hurt us financially?
So having only just got out of the boat, Jesus has to get back into it and sail away. Previously, he had been rejected at his home town synagogue in Nazareth for telling them he was there for the sake of the gentiles (4:16-30), but now, when he entered gentile land on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they were equally ready to reject him. And all of that brings us back to today, to possession and to deliverance ministry.
If on one my walks around Preston cemetery here in North Shields I came across a dishevelled, naked man, running about, shouting and screaming, my first thought would be to ring for an ambulance and the police, not for an exorcist or the diocesan deliverance team. Here in the twenty first century we have insights into the psychological realm, and knowledge about how our physical bodies work and can be treated that were not available to those who lived in the time of Jesus.
I’m very wary of folk who are ever-eager to identify “evil spirits” as the source of human suffering. That said, my lunchtime conversation, this reading from Luke’s Gospel, and other recent events combine to make me pause for thought. It is almost twenty months since Hamas (a group supported by the Iranian government) launched an attack upon Israel, killing almost twelve hundred people. Israel has responded with an ongoing campaign in Gaza, killing around sixty thousand people, and rendering millions homeless. Now, in addition to another military campaign in Lebanon, Israel has attacked Iran, and Iran is responding with missiles fired at Israel. The USA has now got directly involved and I imagine that they will want this country to join in along with them.
What is it, I wonder, that possesses people – and note my use of that word “possesses” – to do such things. I can understand the anger and frustration of those who have their land taken, or find themselves corralled into land at the convenience of others. I can understand the desire to hit back when one is attacked, or to strike first when you believe an attack is coming your way. But what is it within us human beings that drives us to such extremes? Could it be that there is something “unclean” or “evil” at work which goes beyond mere psychological explanations? I don’t know the answer to that question.
Just as we make use of medicine to alleviate the distress of individuals who are in mental turmoil, so we will make use of the political and diplomatic arts and sciences in pursuit of peace. I believe though that there is also a spiritual dimension to such situations. One that recognises deep human flaws and failings which lead to suffering, and which must be addressed spiritually. That’s why we Christians should forever be pointing people towards the teachings of Jesus, including what he says about war and conflict. It’s why we spend significant time praying about such matters, both because doing so sensitises us to what’s important, and in the hope that God will act to bring peace and justice, by whatever means that involves.
In the face of continued human violence and the scale of suffering that results this might seem inadequate. Still, Jesus did bring peace to that man, though perhaps at a cost to others. And also, Jesus is still around, years after those Roman legions have disappeared, just as God will still be around, long after today’s legions have departed. So yes, in faith, we will go on praying that God’s kingdom will come on earth, and that we will be delivered from evil as a result. Amen.
[i] https://www.newcastle.anglican.org/support-for-your-role/clergy/deliverance-ministry/