Dealing with Demons

Lectionary reflections for Pentecost 3 (C)

By Donald Whipple Fox

Readings for Pentecost 3, Year C, June 20, 2004

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a or Isaiah 65:1-9
Psalm 42 and 43 or 22:18-27
Galatians 3:23-39
Luke 8:26-39

As an Anglican, I have never known quite what to do with stories such as Luke's account of Jesus and the man named Legion. Overall, I rationalize the account's message to “Jesus will always overcome evil.” However, even with such a wonderful proclamation, I am still uncomfortable with some of the issues surrounding this story.

Do I actually believe in demons and legions of hell's tormenters? I have many ideas swimming about in my head concerning what such things actually might look like should they ever physically manifest themselves. . . young people in our society most probably form their ideas of evil before they can articulate the concept.

Surely one issue that I am uncomfortable with is the issue of possession by demons. Do I actually believe in demons and legions of hell's tormenters? I have many ideas swimming about in my head concerning what such things actually might look like should they ever physically manifest themselves. Those ideas come from authors like Dante, Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman, as well as television and movies. In fact, on almost any night, Americans can invite vampires, demons, witches, and other scary and spooky manifestations of evil into their living rooms on award-winning T.V. shows. I just saw the third installment of the Harry Potter movies, featuring flying life-sucking creatures. From the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz to the legions of idiotic and lethargic demons in Labyrinth , young people in our society most probably form their ideas of evil before they can articulate the concept.

Recently a friend of mine passed away. He was a well-loved priest at a Native American Episcopal Mission. Although he was a non-Native man, he had come to learn the stories, know the culture, know his relationship with the people, and be at peace with being on the inside with those on the outside. We sang Dakota hymns within the Episcopal rite of the Burial of the Dead. It was a service that spoke to the community honoring both Christian and Dakota sensibilities.

I sat just behind the immediate family: a loving wife, a daughter with her beautiful child, and a teenage son. As the son came to sit in the family's pew, I saw his t-shirt with grinning skulls and a pentagram on a chain around his neck. After my initial surprise, I wondered if the boy knew of the spiritual significance of a pentagram, the ancient numerology associated with it before it was branded as “pagan” and associated with “devil worship.” I wondered what may have gone through other's minds as this young, handsome man made his way down the aisle in a “house of God” with symbols that many assume are evil and associated with “the powers of Satan and his legions.” I wondered if this young child of God was using such powerful symbols to rebel against his father and the community.

Among my people, the Dakota – who are sometimes called “Santee Sioux” by Euro-Americans – there is a distinct belief in sprits and their physical manifestations.

As a boy from urban Minneapolis, I grew up hearing of my grandfather's run-in with a “ canontidan ” (pronounced chon-o'-tee-don). My grandfather, Christian B. Whipple, was an Episcopal priest on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. As he was driving between churches that he served, he came upon “a little man” at a crossroad. He stopped the car and asked the canontidan if he wanted a ride. The little man simply grinned and shook its head. My grandfather rode on and thought about how strange it was to see such a small man on the side of the road. Suddenly, the little man's face appeared upside-down in front of my grandfather. He was on top of the car looking in. My grandfather then realized that this was a creature from the spirit world. Grandfather started singing those beautiful Dakota hymns that were sung every Sunday in all the Dakota and Lakota missions in South Dakota.

The story goes that the little canontidan , a spirit associated with the forests and woods, continued to grin at my grandfather until he stopped the car and sang some of the traditional Dakota songs, beating a rhythm on the steering wheel with his hand. The spirit is then said to have vanished. In telling that story, the elders of my family have said that Canontidan is a tempter. Canontidan only comes to virtuous people, to tempt them away from the right path that they are on. In simpler terms, my grandfather, a good and virtuous man, was able to ward off a manifestation of evil by performing the correct ritual, which was more authentic than his Dakota Christian hymns.

As an Anglican, I believe that the scriptures are the inspired revelation of God to the world. As a Dakota man, I believe that God's revelation is ongoing and will continue to be told in new ways as it has come to us through our oral histories for many millennia.

So, I am a bit torn by the story in Luke's gospel. Where is the evil? Are there actual demons that are cast out or is this an analogy? Would we tell the story in the same way today with our understandings of the human mind, chemical imbalances and pathology? As an Anglican, I believe that the scriptures are the inspired revelation of God to the world. As a Dakota man, I believe that God's revelation is ongoing and will continue to be told in new ways as it has come to us through our oral histories for many millennia. We are not called to proclaim that everything that is can be understood or articulated. That would be arrogant of us.

In the Dakota language, we talk about wakan . In essence, it is as close to the word “God” (as it is understood among Christians) as we will get. Wakan is thought of in the same terms: infinite, ubiquitous, omniscient, omnipotent, etc. However, the primal unity of wakan is paramount in the Dakota understanding of creation. Wakan is the mysterious unity that contains paradox. Good and evil are not so easily separated in Dakota cosmology. One is part of the other. Our choices are made within wakan as they relate to all of creation, which includes inanimate objects, living beings, thoughts, nothingness, non-comprehension, simplicity, complexity, birth, death, etc.

There it is: evil is the imbalance of relationship within wakan . When an individual or community takes action that does not fully take into account the relationship with other parts of creation (other human beings, other communities, the environment, the spiritual world), there appear manifestations of evil in the form of injustice, war, hate, apathy, greed, etc. In the church, such manifestation is called sin. The manifestation affects those taking action and those acted upon.

The evil that Jesus vanquishes in Luke's story is the injustice inflicted upon an individual by a fearful society. He has freed the man from his physical and spiritual chains. He has turned to the society and shown it the example of righteousness and justice and the universality of God's grace. It is sobering to see that the people are afraid to understand this.

I am not sure that I will ever be able to say that I believe in demons, but I do believe that there is a spirit world that is not always visible to us. Many of our holy men and women (often the prophets of our peoples) have had glimpses of those realities. In my Dakota culture, the spiritual creatures of God that exist come to us for specific reasons: to tempt, to test, to protect, to comfort, and ultimately to herald someone as a good and perhaps virtuous individual within the community. The evil that Jesus vanquishes in Luke's story is the injustice inflicted upon an individual by a fearful society. He has freed the man from his physical and spiritual chains. He has turned to the society and shown it the example of righteousness and justice and the universality of God's grace. It is sobering to see that the people are afraid to understand this. They have not yet arrived at the place of setting aside the idols of their society to accept the true freeing gospel of Jesus as God. Jesus has demanded that the demon name himself. Jesus then demands the people to name themselves. He has asked us to name the sin and name our failures to be good relatives to each other and all of creation. In that process, there is a way of making things new, reconnecting our lives with life, and becoming again and again part of the one.

In the many indigenous communities that claim to be in relationship with the Anglican Communion, we pray daily to God: “In Jesus, you place the Gospel in the Center of this Sacred Circle through which all of creation is related. You show us the way to live a generous and compassionate life.” May all of us always feel and continue to grow in the mystery of wakan . Amen.

Donald Whipple Fox (Santee Sioux/ Dakota), a lifelong Episcopalian, is executive director of the Indigenous Theological Training Institute (ITTI) in Minneapolis, Minn. He travels around the church to support theological education efforts in local communities. Donald also serves as senior warden of All Saints' Episcopal Indian Mission in Minneapolis, and he may be reached by email at ittifox@aol.com .