Fear or Sanctuary?

There are times when sharing the Word of God comes easily, others not so much. I’ll never forget the first time I was asked to preach about death. It wasn’t at a funeral. It was at a service of remembrance around Christmas time. Since the holidays are especially difficult for those who have lost a loved one we offered a service for them to come together to mourn, and hear some good news about God’s love in the midst of loneliness and grief. I was nervous and unsure if what I had to say could even begin to provide comfort.

Honestly, to this day I don’t remember what I preached but I do remember what happened afterwards. I finished preaching. Sat down and took a deep breath and prayed that God’s comfort was revealed. In this time of silence the organist began to play a song and I noticed a woman running to him. This woman must have just walked in because she wasn’t there for my sermon and she was frantically in need of help as she was carrying what looked like a paper towel.

As she disrupted the organist the pastor walked over to calm the situation and led this person into the narthex. After the service was over I asked the pastor what happened. She said, “It was urgent because she believed there was a demon in the paper towel.”

I responded, “How did she catch a demon in a paper towel?”

“I don’t know how and that was not the important question. It was important that she believed she had one.”

“So, what did you say?”

“I said we need to do with this demon as we need to with all of them, and that is, throw them in the trash.”

I don’t know whatever happened to this woman nor if she has been able to deal with the demons in her life. The truth is, our theology about demons may differ but the reality is when she was dealing with something that was a true threat and frightening she ran to the church. She ran to a place that was safe. She ran to place of comfort. She ran to place that represents a God who protects, comforts, and cures!

While I was busy worrying about a sermon on grief and death. God was busy opening the church doors to new life not lived in fear of demons, but in sanctuary with God.