Knowing the Good Enough

The title here is a takeoff on the expression we have from Socrates, “to know the good is
to do the good.” This is a sermon on perfectionism. It may not seem like it, but that’s because it’s
not a perfect sermon. However, it is good enough. And that is the point. Perfectionism is a kind
of demon, and to exorcise that demon we need to know the words, “good enough.” There are
certain words we need in our vocabulary, and “good enough” are two of those words.
Incidentally, recall that this year we will be reading primarily from Mark, so it would be a
good idea for us all to read through the entire book at some point this year. It doesn’t take very
long, maybe a few hours of reading time. Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels.
Today on this fourth Sunday in Epiphany, we look at the first healing described in Mark’s
Gospel right away in chapter one, in which Jesus casts out an unclean spirit, or, in other words,
Jesus exorcises a demon.
To exorcise a demon does not mean to take it for a walk around the block. It means to
drive it out of your being. To get rid of it. To make it leave the neighborhood entirely. Now, here
I don’t really want to get sidetracked in a long discussion about the literal exorcism of demons.
Some people with a fascination for the spirit world believe that evil spirits can enter into people
and dwell in them. Other people do not believe in this literally but take a more figurative,
metaphorical view of demon possession. (And by the way, let’s remember, too, a demon will
only enter you if you allow it to, if you invite it to dwell in you, give it permission to live in you,
if you give it a place to live.) I’m not going to tell you what to believe about this. But the subject
comes up often in the New Testament, so we are faced with it. We have to grapple with it if we
are going to read the New Testament.
I would say basically that this text– the story of Jesus exorcising the unclean spirit– is one
of those “difficult texts” because it generates controversy, and following the lectionary, I am
willing to take on the challenge of preaching on difficult texts. I think back and remember my
first sermon here, preaching out in the parking lot when we were still in “car church” and I drew
the lucky straw of the text on divorce. That was definitely a challenging one! My first sermon
here with you!
But the fact is, we are Congregationalists, which means, among other things, that when it
comes to reading scripture, we value the freedom of interpretation and the autonomy of the local
church. So, we can take on difficult texts, and find ways to interpret them. This is, to my mind,
what makes Congregationalism unique.
Some of you grew up Congregationalist, but most of the time, I find that Congregational
churches are made up of people from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. Baptist,
Pentecostal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic…as Congregationalists, we
span the entire spectrum. And that makes my job very interesting. I need to know how to talk to
everyone. In a way, it’s like learning how to speak eight or nine different languages at the same
time. We all have different ways of understanding our spiritual lives. And this, to me at least, is
one of the fascinating things about being a minister.
So, to me, the important question is not so much, “Do you believe in demon possession
or don’t you?” Rather, the important question is, “What are you dealing with in your life? What
are you struggling with? Where are you suffering? What are the sources and causes of your
suffering? And can something be done about it?”
In this context, let’s find a way to get into this scripture. Stay with me for just a minute
here:

Let’s imagine that we are all tape recorders. Remember cassette tape recorders? So, let’s
imagine that when we were children, we recorded all the things we heard people say to us: our
mother, our father, grandparents, teachers, everyone in our life who was talking to us. We
recorded all those messages, and we saved the cassette tape.
Then, later, as we grew up and became teen-agers and then adults, those tape recordings
started playing back to us, inside our minds, in our thoughts. Here are some examples:
A girl in third grade brings home her report card. There are five A’s and one A minus on
her report card. She shows the report card to her father. He points to the A minus and says,
“What happened here?”
Or a boy in fourth grade does not enjoy talking or playing sports. He would rather do
quiet things like reading or drawing, or watching birds fly in the sky. Other children at school
make fun of him. The boy does not want to go to school. His mother yells at him every morning
to get out of bed. “What is wrong with you?” she yells at him.
These become the recorded messages the child grows up hearing. They are thoughts that
form in the child’s mind. We could consider these thought forms to be demons. They are demon
thoughts that invade the mind. A child needs to learn how to defend against these demons.
Growing up, I think, in some ways, is a process of changing the tape recording, getting rid of the
old cassette tape.
When I was a boy growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandfather. I mention him
often because he was such an important influence. In many ways, my grandfather raised me. So,
I count myself fortunate. I grew up with the guidance of a wise man, a teacher. One of the things
he would often say was “good enough.”
If we were doing some kind of work, and we completed the task, Grandpa would let us
know by saying, “Good enough.” Picking green beans, stacking firewood, painting the house,
washing the dishes, whatever the task, Grandpa would let us know when it was “good enough.”
And so, this became part of my inner dialogue, part of my tape-recorded message. I have this
phrase in my vocabulary. I know when to say, “Good enough.”
Now, there are people who do not have this phrase in their inner dialogue. For them, there
is no such thing as “good enough.” They never arrive at “good enough” because these words are
not accessible to them. They never heard them growing up. No one ever said to them, “you are
good enough.” “Your work is good. It is good enough.” These people are haunted by the demon
of perfectionism. They are possessed by the demon of insecurity.
Perfectionism is an endless pursuit of flawlessness and an insatiable addiction for
approval. People who struggle with perfectionism set impossibly high standards for themselves,
always chasing an ideal that is unattainable. They can never measure up to the impossible
expectations that they set for themselves, because no matter what they achieve, they do not have
the words “good enough” in their tape recorder.
When I think about Jesus’ healing people, I see that so much of what he did was to heal
them of self-hatred and self-loathing. This is a kind of exorcism: chasing out the demon that
says, “You are not good enough. There is something wrong with you. You are an idiot. You are
lazy. You are a horrible person. You need to be perfect. You need to do this better. You made a
mistake and this work is terrible. You didn’t go to Harvard or Yale, so you are unworthy. You
didn’t earn enough money, so you are not worthy. You are a bad person.” On and on, the beating
never stops. This is the demon of self-doubt and self-hatred. It is the demon of perfectionism,
this impossible attempt to live up to impossible expectations.

How are these demons exorcised?
It is through love. And through grace. Of course, we strive toward excellence. We want to
be good and to do the good. But along the way, we make mistakes. This is because we are not
perfect, and we will never be perfect. All have sinned, but by the grace of God, we are forgiven
in Christ Jesus. This is important to remember.
And of all the possible forms of exorcism, let us remember the greatest healing of all,
given to us in Christ’s own two greatest commandments, the greatest spiritual healing of all, that
drives out the demon of self-hatred, and it is this: to know and experience that God loves us, and
furthermore, to love God, and to love one another as we love ourselves.
It is through love and through the mystery of grace that we are healed and the demons
that haunt us are driven out forever. May it be so. Amen? Amen.