Evil spirits, demon possession, spiritual warfare, exorcism—whew!  This is tough stuff!  We don’t talk much about those kinds of things in our day and age.  At least not in the Methodist Church!  But there is no getting around the fact that on several occasions Jesus healed people with “demon possession”, and it was a common theme in the early church as well.  Whether we think of demon possession as literally being controlled by an evil spirit, or a form of mental illness, or a neurological ailment—or just the ancient world’s stock explanation to any mysterious physical ailment–we can see why words like evil spirits, demon possession and exorcism are mentioned often in scripture.

In the ancient world, just like today, people would pay good money looking for a cure for their suffering—but unlike in our day and age, there were no FDA approved medications or board certified physicians.  A little cottage industry grew, people who earned a living as healers and exorcists.  They had a special ability to tap into some supernatural power and give people relief.  That’s one way of looking at it.  Another way of looking at them is to assume they were very skilled con artists, and they could make someone believe they were better, and in making them believe it, healing came.  The ways of these “healers” were shrouded in mystery and secret traditions and rituals.  But there were always “magic words”.  And I don’t mean please and thank you!  They had books and books of magic words, words to make a living by, words to restore someone’s life by.

Some people discovered that the name of Jesus was one of these magic words.  They didn’t really believe in Jesus.  They weren’t using Jesus’ name to pay homage to him as the Son of God.  They just discovered that there was power in that name.  Seven sons of a Jewish priest named Sceva made this discovery, and apparently they were using the name of Jesus with great success.  But all this success did not transform them into becoming believers in Jesus.  The name of Jesus enhanced their lives.  But it did not transform them.

Isn’t that an interesting state of affairs?  The name of Jesus enhanced their lives.  But it did not transform them.  And I think that is the point of the story for us today.  Is the name “Jesus” a word that truly brings us new life?  Are we being changed into the likeness of Christ?  Or do we claim the name Jesus without really knowing him and letting him rule our hearts?

This is an important question.  No doubt, Jesus has enhanced your life.  Whether you worship online or in person, Lima Church is a terrific place to learn useful things, try out your gifts, and make a lasting contribution to the world.  But we are not just gathered to hear or proclaim the name of Jesus!  God wants us to, together, become Jesus.  And for that, we individually and collectively will need to be transformed.

But that is not what happened to those seven sons of Sceva!  They thought these other folks needed to be changed and healed and transformed.  But not them.  They used the name of Jesus to make a living, but the name of Jesus did not bring them to life.  One day they tried out their gig on the wrong spirit.  This one called them to account.  Paul I know.  Jesus I know.  But who are you?  You are not followers of Jesus!  You have no claim to this name!  And one evil spirit jumped on the seven men, and pummeled them all.

These seven sons of Sceva, they were not transformed in a negative way.   But many other people were transformed in the best way!  Luke says, from then on, the people who got word of it held the name of Jesus in high honor!  They were transformed from people who were willing to exploit the name of Jesus for personal gain to people who were willing to repent and change their ways.  They were so impressed with the power of Jesus that they took their books of magic words, worth about 50,000 days of wages—that would be about $50 million in today’s dollars (according to Adam Hamilton)—and burned them.  They put their money where their mouth is!  They did this because they had found new words to live by.

Last week we talked about how one of the Holy Spirit’s favorite things to do is surprise people.  Talk about surprise!  You may have heard my all-time favorite joke:  What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet?  Supplies!  I can picture the evil spirit saying to the seven sons of Sceva, “Surprise!  Jesus I know, Paul I know, but you?”  Then, for a second surprise, the evil spirit kicked some butt!  And for a third surprise, Luke writes that the residents of Ephesus, both Jew and Greek were awestruck and the name of Jesus was praised.  Ephesus was known for its pagan practices and loose living—and it became a place where Jesus reigned.  Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Oh, how I would love to see a surprise like that.  To have something extraordinary happen, and miraculously, see a huge revival, a huge change in our world.  To see people give up their old ways, at great cost to them, so they could embrace a holier and more just way of life.  Wouldn’t that be awesome???  We know that nothing is impossible for God!  But we know from experience that the usual course of growth and change is slow.  The last few weeks, I’ve gotten a little frustrated with the stories in Acts because everything seems to happen IMMEDIATELY!  I’ve been a Christian for around 50 years, and I have only personally witnessed one time when someone was healed or transformed immediately.  In the book of Acts, it seems like this happens all the time.

It reminds me of a story about Henry Heimlich, the investor of the Heimlich maneuver.  In 2016, when Dr. Henry Heimlich was 96 years old, he saved someone from choking.  He was living in an older-adult facility in Cincinnati, and the woman sitting next to him swallowed a piece of meat and was struggling to breathe.  Dr. Heimlich got up and performed the Heimlich maneuver, which he had invented, on his fellow resident.  He successfully dislodged the meat from her airway.  When they interviewed that resident, 87 year old Patty Ris, she was deeply grateful, as we can imagine.  She said she felt like God had put her in the seat next to Henry Heimlich that night.

But it was Dr. Heimlich’s take on things that really impressed me.  He said, “It was very gratifying.  That moment was important to me.  I knew about all the lives my maneuver had saved over the years and I have demonstrated it so many times but here, for the first time, was someone sitting right next to me who was about to die.”  Isn’t that remarkable?  The man who invented the Heimlich maneuver never actually got to use it personally to save someone’s life until he himself was 96 years old!  It just goes to show, these moments of people being immediately, spontaneously healed and changed–they are rare!  Even for people who spend their lives in the healing and changing business.  To see it first hand, or be part of it personally, it’s very unusual.

But just because we do not get to witness it very often does not mean it is not happening.  We might on occasion have an episode in our faith that is as dramatic as the Heimlich maneuver.  But most of us, we are going to dispel the old in our lives that is choking us, we are going to get rid of that gradually.  Odds are slim that we will, in one fell swoop, pile up our books of magic words, the old words we lived by, and be able to dislodge them from our souls with one violent heave.  Most growth happens slowly, and it’s only over time that we can see how we are changing.

And, as much as we are dependent on the Holy Spirit for change, we acknowledge that our efforts are needed, too.  Recently at Annual Conference, Bishop Schol and the cabinet gave a presentation about the five markers of church vitality.  “Church vitality” and its markers are a kind of magic words these days, and like talking about demon possession and exorcism, the words associated with church vitality feel a little strange to us.  But these will be our new “words to live by”, and over the next few months, we will be talking about these five church vitality markers quite a bit.

The first vitality marker is worship attendance.  Vibrant churches have vibrant worship, and the way the vibrancy of the worship services is measured will be through attendance.  We will be wrestling with the question, what can we do to have, on average, just one more worshipper each week this year than last?  We all have a share in this responsibility.  What can you do to help us grow our worship attendance in person and online?

The second is to make new disciples—to increase the number of baptisms and people joining the church by profession of faith.  We’re not likely to see a miracle and hundreds of people become Christians in a short time like in our scripture lesson today.  But what is the Spirit calling us to do to help spread the good news, little by little?

The third vitality marker is participation in small groups.  Coming to worship is wonderful.  But it’s hard to get to know people, and for people to get to know you, unless you participate in something else at church, too.  We have small group Bible studies, a group learning meditation, music groups, knitting and crocheting group.  The research shows that, the more people who participate in a small group in addition to attending worship, the stronger your church’s ministries will be.  How is the Spirit leading us to grow our small group offerings?

The fourth vitality marker is connecting worship attenders with hands-on mission opportunities.  Again, we are already doing a lot.  Help Build Hope, dinners at the 63rd Street Life Center, running our rummage sales and oyster supper, offering our community concerts—a large percentage of our members are engaged in community ministry!  But there is room for growth, particularly in reaching out to children.  How is the Spirit leading us?

And the fifth vitality marker is financial generosity toward missions.  The conference wants to see an amount equal or greater than 18% of our general fund expenses go to missions.  We are well on our way to meeting this goal, with our Mission of the Month program.  Lima Church is extremely mission-minded, something we are all proud of.  Over the next few months we will be praying about how the Spirit is leading us to expand on what we are already doing well, so we can be an even stronger and more vital church for the future.

These five church vitality markers will be our words to live by as our church council engages in strategic planning, our SPRC evaluates staff, and our leaders make programming decisions.  It may seem formulaic to you.  That’s how it seemed to me at first.  But as I was reading the story of the seven sons of Sceva this week, it dawned on me that these church vitality markers are a way to try to be sure that we are focusing on being transformed by the name of Jesus.  We don’t want to be people whose lives are merely enhanced by Jesus.  We want to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so we can dream, plan, act, and harvest as the Spirit is leading.

Whatever God wants us to become, that’s not likely to happen immediately.  Again, nothing is impossible with God.  But most likely, we will be called to trust in the slow work of God.  May we be open to the work of the Holy Spirit, transforming us for the glory of God and the coming of God’s kingdom.  Amen.