Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons

Liberator(s) of LEGION

January 28, 2024 SMC preachers
Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons
Liberator(s) of LEGION
Show Notes

Tempted to avert our gaze from the mention of “evil spirit” or “demon”, instead Pastor Megan chooses to hold this story’s gaze and look for what may be true… then and now. What is true? What binds humans is indeed legion. What liberates humans is indeed Jesus. Who liberates humans is indeed us. Whew. Buckle up as we explore what makes demons tremble.

Sermon begins at minute marker 5:05
Mark 5.1-20
Resources

  • Intersectionality: In the sermon, I credit the origin of intersectionality to the women of the Combahee River Collective. In fact, Kimberlé Crenshaw should be credited with the origination of the term, in a pair of essays from 1989 and 1991. The work of the Combahee River Collective, particularly their work on ‘simultaneity’ in the 1970s, laid a foundation for Crenshaw’s development of the concept of ‘intersectionality’. But credit for coining the term and more fully developing the concept of ‘intersectionality’ belongs to Crenshaw!
  • BibleWorm podcast: Episode 521 – Making the Demons Tremble, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.
  • Frank Peretti wrote a series of fiction books depicting demons, angels, and ‘spiritual warfare’ for a largely Pentecostal and more conservative evangelical Christian audience through the 1980s and beyond. I’m still recovering from the images his terrifying books emblazoned on my young impressionable brain.
  • Ruth C. Duck hymn text published in Voices Together 642, “Healing River of the Spirit” verse 3: “Living stream that heals the nations, make us channels of your power. All the world is torn by conflict; wars are raging at this hour. Saving Spirit, move among us; guide our winding human course, till we find our way together, flower homeward to our Source.”
  • Image: Photo by Tony Rojas on Unsplash
  • Hymn: VT 285 - Cast out, O Christ. Text: Mary Louise Bringle (USA), 2002, © 2006 GIA Publications, Inc. Music: William Tans’ur (England), Harmony of Zion 1734 Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.