The gospel of Mark has no shortage of stories where Jesus encounters demons. Remarkably, the first time we Jesus encountering—and exorcising—an evil spirit is…at church!

Actually, it was a synagogue, one of the gathering spaces for Jews to gather and worship. I used the word "church" not because I want to erase the Jewishness of the space, but rather because I want to underline the commonality of experience between this episode and my own community. I risk the change from "synagogue" to "church", as problematic as that is, because I want to highlight that this demon shows up at a religious gathering. What an improbable place to find a demon in the first place!

And yet, too many people know the deep hurt of having received some of the deepest wounds in church contexts. The headlines uncovering stories abuse are sensational enough, but the truth is that for each story that reaches the papers, there are scores of other people who have suffered from reckless practices and toxic theologies, or who have known the violence of abuse or the destructive power of manipulative predators. Common gossip and slander have cut innumerable souls to pieces, and the church often struggles to display the love upon which it was founded.

Demons indeed.

It's telling that in Mark, Jesus's assault on the demonic powers begins in a religious gathering. The good people gathered their for worship may or may not have been surprised when an unclean spirit was unmasked before their eyes…but I'd be surprised if they were completely naive of the potential for evil that lurks within humans—even those who gather to listen to the word of God.

The good news of the gospel is that even here, in the most outlandish sanctuary of evil, Jesus goes to work sending the demons away. The church—as much as anybody else!—needs the Lord to counter the forces of evil that live among us.

And thanks be to God…He does!

God meets us. God speaks. God's spirit moves to show us the truth, and to turn away the deceptive illusions of evil that would have their way with us.