Healing as Deliverance
- davidwperk
- Sep 27, 2024
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Friday, September 27, 2024
Proper 20, the week of the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
33In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34‘Let us alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ 35But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ When the demon had thrown him down before them, he came out of him without having done him any harm
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 985)
AM Psalm 88; PM Psalm 91, 92
Esther 8:1-8,15-17 or Judith 13:1-20; Acts 19:21-41; Luke 4:31-37
Today we celebrate the Feast of Euphrosyne/Smaragdus of Alexandria . (see below).
David’s Reflections
Jürgen Moltmann says this about God’s love. "God's creative love is not directed towards those who are like him; it is focused on the others, the weary and heavy-laden, the humiliated and insulted, the dying and the grieving. Creative love heals sick life, accepts life that is different and strange, respects life that has been belittled, and makes ugly life beautiful.” *
Consider the healing story in today’s Gospel. Luke adds a phrase to a story told by other Gospel writers, “. . . the demon . . . came out of him without doing him any harm.” Jesus healed this man by delivering him from the power of evil so totally that he was not harmed.
We pray for deliverance from evil each time we offer the Lord’s Prayer. The King James translation reads, “Deliver us from evil.” Some modern translations read, “Deliver us from the evil one,” meaning Satan. Either translation is grammatically correct, because the construction in the original language (Greek) is ambiguous. But, given the presence of Satan in Jesus’ temptations just prior to the location of the prayer, the latter translation probably is closer to Matthew’s intended meaning in Matthew 6.
One does not have to be superstitious or anti-intellectual or a religious fundamentalist to take seriously the idea that evil exists in personal form in Satan. From an interpretive point of view, one could understand Satan in symbolic terms. But, understanding Satan in personal terms also is a viable way of reading the texts. On either view, Satan and the demonic world constitute a dark shadow analog to the existence of God’s Spirit and the world of angelic beings.
When our lives get stuck in an addiction, a dark behavior, or an emotional disturbance that resists all efforts at cure or therapy, it may be time to look for healing through prayers for deliverance. Anointing for healing, or unction, is one of the sacramental rites of our church, and deliverance from evil is a form of healing.
God’s creative love focuses on us when we are most unlike God. And, that creative love simply cannot be blunted by any form of evil. If you find your life caught in a way that resists therapy, recovery, and normal spiritual means, please consider seeking healing prayer in Christian community. Bishops often have people they know who have the gift of deliverance prayer.
That creative love of God will work in your life as it did through Jesus in that synagogue that day.
* Jürgen Moltmann, Experiences in Theology: Ways and Forms of Christian Theology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), p. 58.
Collect of the Day, Proper 20, the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 233-234)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Euphrosyne/Smaragdus of Alexandria, monastic (died ca 470 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Euphrosyne/Smaragdus
Merciful God, who looks not with outward eyes but discerns the heart of each: we confess that those whom we love the most are often strangers to us. Give to all parents and children, we pray, the grace to see one another as they truly are and as you have called them to be. All this we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our only mediator and advocate. Amen.
A Collect for Fridays
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 97)
For those in the Armed Forces of our Country
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 823)
In the Evening
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen. (BCP, 833)
A Collect for Mission
Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 280)
Daily Office Gospel, Luke 4:31-37
31 He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the sabbath. 32They were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority. 33In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34‘Let us alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ 35But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ When the demon had thrown him down before them, he came out of him without having done him any harm. 36They were all amazed and kept saying to one another, ‘What kind of utterance is this? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and out they come!’ 37And a report about him began to reach every place in the region.
Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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