 It is my privilege to introduce our speaker, the Reverend Dr. Palmer Becker, who was selected to receive the 2018 AMBS Alumni Ministry and Service Recognition. The award was presented to him last Sunday at the congregation where he is a member in Waterloo, Ontario by President Sarah Wenger-Shank. Palmer earned a Master of Arts in Religious Education from AMBS in 1965. He did further graduate studies at Regent College in Vancouver and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. Since graduating from AMBS, Palmer has served as a pastor in five states and provinces as Executive Secretary of the Commission on Home Ministries of the General Conference Mennonite Church, as a chaplain at Meno-Simon Center and the University of British Columbia, as Director of the Heston, Kansas College Pastoral Ministries Program, and as author of 15 books. In 2002, Palmer developed a summary of Anabaptism that was published in the booklet, What is an Anabaptist Christian? And he said, those three summary statements, Jesus is the center of our faith, community is the center of our life, and reconciliation is the center of our work. The summary of Mennonite identity and faith has been embraced widely, and the booklet has been translated into 18 languages. In 2017, he published a book expanding on these ideas called Anabaptist Essentials, 10 Signs of a Unique Christian Faith. Since 2007, Palmer has taught short courses on the subject of Anabaptist identity in more than 15 countries worldwide with Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Church Canada Witness. Palmer has been married to artist Preheim Becker for 60 years this June, and we are delighted that both of them could be with us this weekend. Palmer, may God bless you. Thank you. Graduates and faculty, friends and guests, it's a pleasure to be here on the Goshen College campus, celebrating with the Hugh graduates from AMBS. It was here at Goshen College where I really gained confidence in my call to ministry, and it was 30 minutes from here in the seminary where I got basic training to know how to fulfill that call. As was mentioned, I've been the recipient of the annual Alumni Award for Service and Ministry. In Chinese custom, when a student does well, the teacher gets the credit. And the Alumni Award that I received last Sunday should really go to the college and seminary. It's meant so much to me. Stephen R. Covey, in his best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, suggests that we should begin a project or calling with the end in mind. If we apply this to Jesus, what was the end that Jesus had in mind? What did he intend to do? What did he want to accomplish? I would suggest that his mission was larger than just to die for our sins. He came to establish the long-awaited kingdom of God. How would he do that? Our text says, every Sabbath day, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught the people. People were amazed at his teaching. He talked with real authority. He stood head and shoulders above other people or other leaders, other teachers. He knew what he was talking about, and he talked about it often. The term kingdom is mentioned something like 100 times in the Synoptic Gospels. As time went on, Jesus gave a mandate to his followers. It was a mandate to teach. Our text tells us he chose 12 disciples and sent them out to teach. Later it says they went out two by two throughout Galilee, and at the end of Jesus' ministry, he gave that great commission, go make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them everything that I have taught you. As followers of Jesus, we have received that same mandate. We are to teach. And due to our seminary training, hopefully we're pretty good at that. In my seminary days, Jake Enns taught me how to read Genesis 1 through 11. Bill Klassen taught me the inductive method of Bible study. Millard Lind taught me how to put together the ethical Christ-centered approach and Erlen Waldner taught me principles of preaching. Bless those saints. But teaching was only part of the mandate that Jesus gave to his disciples. Something more than was needed for, in the synagogue, was this man who was possessed with an evil spirit. Jesus didn't go around looking for people who were demon-possessed. He responded to people according to their need. And he had compassion on this man who was troubled. And why was he troubled? I think he was troubled by what Jesus had said, the proclamation of Jesus and the gospel. And what happened, the people, or Jesus came and healed the man, drove out this evil spirit. And the text says, amazement gripped the audience. They talked about what had happened and news of him and this event went far afield into the whole area. Mandy Whitmer in her book, Jesus the Galilean Exorcist says, exorcisms played a major role in Jesus' ministry equal to that of his teaching in the unfolding events that led to his arrest and execution. Matthew 10, Jesus gives his disciples the what I might call the other half of their mandate. He not only told them to go out two by two to teach, he made this statement, he said, go heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Before coming here, I told a close friend that I was going to speak on casting out evil spirits. Oh boy, he said, you are wading out into deep water. That may true, be true, but I'm willing to take the risk that we might learn together about this subject. Ever since the Enlightenment or the beginning of the modern age, we've been led to believe that all of life's problems and diseases can be solved through the big three, education, research, and technology as a result, the spiritual aspects of life have been neglected. Many don't know quite what to do with the Holy Spirit and certainly not know what to do with the evil spirits. Do they exist? Pentecost is barely mentioned in many of our churches. But being mama on the Holy Spirit should be of concern to us in the Anabaptist tradition. Walter Klassen in a series of lectures on the Holy Spirit at Vancouver School of Theology said, the Anabaptists were the charismatic movement of the 16th century. Anabaptists gave a much higher place to the Holy Spirit than did Martin Luther, all Rick Swingley, John Calvin or John Knox. Menno Simons himself said, it is the Holy Spirit that frees us from sin, gives us boldness and makes us cheerful, peaceful, pious, and holy. In the process of writing the book and Baptist essentials, I worked through a number of things and in the first part, defined Christianity as discipleship. In the second part, talking about community and the accountability we have in small groups. And then reconciliation, our call and need in the world. I got the feeling, where is the power to fulfill all of this? It started feeling like grindstone discipleship. And so I added chapter 10 on the Holy Spirit and has prompted me to address that subject here today. Fortunately, since the 1970s and the new age movement in secular society, the charismatic movement among Christian groups and the phenomenal growth of the church in many parts of the global South. Interest in the Holy Spirit and the spirits has been reignited for us to take another look. This past week, I had opportunity to spend time with Barbara Kayla from Zimbabwe. She is regional director for Mennonite World Conference in South Africa. And she said, when it's a child, the missionaries spoke primarily about God the Father and about God the Son. But she says it, now in the churches, we talk a lot about the Holy Spirit. And she says, the missionaries laid a good foundation for us but it's just only recently that the church has really grown. And she said the Holy Spirit has made a great difference. She said that with excitement. Many in our world, both secular and religious are realizing that not everything can be explained in natural or materialistic terms. Don Jacobs, a early missionary in the Eastern Africa, said, if we don't deal with spiritual reality, we are dealing with only a small portion of total reality. It really comes down to the question, do we or do we not believe in spiritual reality? And I'm very thankful that Anabaptist, Mennonite Biblical Seminary believes in spiritual reality. So building on the base that's already there. But what do you think? Do spirits exist? Do evil spirits exist? And if they do, do they exist in North America? Due to a number of experiences, I for one believe that they do exist. I think they're all around us. They're in the world, the world is full of them. In movies, television, books, psychic fairs, and in a variety of places. In preparation for this presentation, I visited a psychic and was interesting for her to indicate what she thought she could do for me. And I came away saying, I believe the Holy Spirit can do better. So from these experiences, I would say, don't be overly skeptical, don't be superstitious. Just be ready. You will probably meet them. You probably already have in a different form and way. Now in saying this, I must admit that there's a lot of rubbish that needs to be cleared away. I'm aware of the great distance that exists in time and culture and context between the ways in which spirits were experienced in New Testament times and how we experience them today. I don't believe in ghosts. I don't believe that spirits of the dead come back to haunt us. I don't believe in specific demons or I don't believe that we can equate mental illness, depression or epilepsy with being demon possessed. But I do believe in the Holy Spirit and I do believe in evil spirits. Perhaps we need to define what we mean by spirit. It can have a variety of meanings and I'll probably mix those in today. Alan Richardson in a theological word book of the Bible says, the word spirit almost defies analysis. Yet it is central and he goes on for 12 pages trying to define. Perhaps a starting point is to simply say that God is spirit and we are created in God's image which means that we are also essentially spiritual persons. Our bodies are temples. They're hopefully temples of the Holy Spirit but they can also be temples of evil spirits. More than anything else, we are known by the spirit that indwells us or that characterizes us. Some people are known as being joyful, courageous or positive. Others are known as being discouraging, fearful or negative in spirit. We need to ask how do we attain those spiritual qualities or characteristics? In biblical times, people just assumed the existence of spirits. Spirits were part of reality. They populated the earth and were everywhere seeking to influence human minds and behaviors. The assumption of spirits is still held in many parts of the world. Paul Hebert, an early missionary in India, tells of a friend, says when he goes into a room he looks around to see what kind of spirits are in this room. Some of these spirits in animistic societies are positive. They are seen as a benefit to the individual in society. They welcome positive spirits and want to be indwelled by them. For one, I want to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit. I want to have a Holy Spirit within me. There are benefits. According to Galatians 3, the Holy Spirit can help us to be loving and joyful and peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. Those are qualities that I want. And I want everyone to have. On the other hand, some spirits in animistic societies are seen as being evil. They are unclean or negative. And so the apostle Paul in Galatians 5 gives us a list of those including jealousy and anger and self-depreciation. And I'd add to that pornography and greed and sexual inappropriateness. You might rightfully object and say these are emotions that come from within us, not evil spirits that attack us from the outside. But we need to ask the question, what controls our emotions? Or what's the source of positive or negative emotions? I believe that sometimes negative experiences or actions are the door that allows a spirit to enter, either positive or negative. And it can cause us to become ill, become fearful, become angry, critical, or even violent. Cain was not able to control the emotion or spirit within him. And so he killed his brother. We might say that an evil spirit is any settled thought or attitude that is contrary to the spirit of God. Let me repeat that. We might say that an evil spirit is any settled thought or attitude that is contrary to the spirit of God. SF Pannebacher, my mission's prof when I was in seminary, maintained that there were evil forces in every culture. He put it clearly when he said, our task as missionaries is to identify the demons in any culture, including our own, and cast them out. How do we do that? Willard Swartley, Professor Emeritus of New Testament here at AMBS says, we need to do the same thing in our time that Jesus did in his time, only using different language and methodology. In our day, there seemed to be three approaches or ways of casting out these evil spirits, however we define them. The most prominent approach is therapy. In the Western world, this is our favorite mode for casting out evil spirits. We refer troubled people to therapists. These therapists treat them according to cause and effect. And I'm certainly not against science. I'm certainly not against therapy. We need good therapists. I affirm therapy and counseling. We need good quality therapists and medical doctors. And God is using therapy to cast out that which is wrong or negative in our lives. But therapists can't do the whole task. There aren't enough of them. Samuel Shupaker says that 95% of troubled people can be helped by ordinary people like you and me. So we all need to use some of the theory of therapy. At the same time, we need to know our limits. We common folk shouldn't be dabbling in therapy that belongs to professional people. We need to know those boundaries and borders. A second approach to casting out evil or spirits is exorcism. And that's way at the other end of the continuum, if you want to put it that way. This is at the other end, or it's very different than therapy. It is more immediate and direct. Jesus repeatedly used exorcism in his ministry and exorcism was part of catechism in the early church. It is still taught in Catholic catechism classes. While on a short-term ministry trip in Ethiopia, a Mennonite pastor allowed me to watch as in the casting out of an evil spirit. He also took me to a weekly meeting where 5,000 people were gathered from the villages in the surrounding area. And of the hundreds who came forward, some were healed, some were not. I can't explain all that I saw, but I had a sense that something was happening there that I couldn't fully understand what that was of God. I believe God does use exorcism in specific times and places today. A third approach to casting out evil spirits is the one that I believe God is using most often today. It emphasizes listening and the casting and the caring presence of compassionate people. In James 5, we are told that we should make confession to each other and to pray for each other so that we may be healed. People are healed in the context of community. Let me share three examples of times in my ministry when I was called on to deal with what I would call evil spirits. And let me be quick to say that I in no way would give the impression that I am an expert in this. But I do want to affirm that it is part of our mandate, part of what Jesus directed disciples to do, and I believe what he commands us to do. I think of a person that I will call Dale. Dale was a student at the University of British Columbia and was facing a very difficult exam. He was traumatized in facing that thing. He was perplexed and almost paralyzed by it. The possibility of failure frightened him at the Menno-Simon Center, which is kind of like a Mennonite sorority house. 27 people or people gathered together. He shared with several of us his angst of going to this exam. And several of us gathered around him. We heard him share his story. We empathized with him. We prayed fervently for him and send him off. He came back that evening, much relieved, and somehow he had been able to be calm and collected and was able to do the exam well. Several weeks later, the social workers called a meeting of us chaplains on the campus, and they asked, what can you do that we aren't doing? And I shared with them the story of Dale, how he had been paralyzed with fear on that exam and his whole future, and how we had prayed for him and how he went with a confident spirit and came back relieved. The social worker says, we don't do that. And we see students who are paralyzed, traumatized by fear, they drop out. So, simply say perfect love casts out fear. Or I think of Bun Tan, the husband and father of a Laotian family that we had sponsored from Vietnam or from Laos and Vietnam. He came to me one day and he says, Homer, there's darkness in my house. Can you come and drive it out? How could I best encourage or meet the situation I asked myself? But with several pictures of Jesus in my hand, I went to the home and I asked Bun Tan, where is the darkness? It's everywhere, he said. And so we went into the girl's room and we prayed fervently that Jesus would drive out the darkness. And we put a picture of Jesus up on the wall. And we said, we want Jesus to be the Lord, to be Lord of this room. Then we went to the next room and did the same thing. And then to the next one. And we asked God to fill the room in the house with light and brightness. Two weeks later I asked Bun Tan, how is it in your house? Oh, it's good, he said. Says the darkness is gone. A few weeks later he opened his life to the spirit of God and became a member of the church. I would say the greatest evidence of a Holy Spirit's work is not speaking in tongues or doing some marvelous kind of deliverance or whatever. It's when we see a life that's been transformed, that's been dedicated to Jesus in a new way and has opened their life to the spirit of God. Well, I think of John. John was suffering from an inferiority complex in school. He was a high school student. He had rebelled against his parents at home and we had failed to establish a meaningful relationship with him in church. In his emptiness, John found friendship with a heavy metal group which was dabbling in the occult and we still tried to invite him and he went with the youth group to a retreat where he was specifically invited to accept Jesus Christ as his savior and Lord. In rebellion and reaction, he did exactly the opposite. He deliberately asked Satan to come into his life. His life changed. He came home and he put black net over in his room and put up four or five black candles and his parents were petrified. They were afraid to go into the room. One morning at two o'clock in the morning, I got a call. This is John, said a low raspy voice. I need your help. The youth pastor and I went over to the house and what should we do, we asked ourselves. The words of First John encouraged us. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. We met John and spent some time in the living room where John told us how he had asked Satan to come into his life and how he had felt controlled by some strange force. He says, my voice and my actions are different than they used to be and that I want them to be. We entered his dark, net draped, otherworldly room. It sat on the floor. John, I said, is there a focus to this strange force you are feeling? John gave me a lead Zeppelin record and pointed to an image of the cover of that record that he had painted on the wall. John said, give me that record. And he says, I'm gonna pray fervently for you that you will be delivered from this force, whatever it is that's troubling you in your life. And it's a symbol of breaking that spirit. I'm gonna break this record as I pray. And so we did. We prayed and I broke that record and it made a mighty, loud crack. And immediately there was a change in John's face and spirit. He looked around and he says, let's clean this place up. And he got a big trash can and tore down the net and threw it in, put the candles in there. And in the days that followed, we discipled John and surrounded him with a new set of relationships. John became a different person. He married one of our MCC soldiers and is now the father of a very healthy family, active in the church and employed in a respected company. Folks, Jesus has given us a mandate. As followers of Jesus, as disciples, it's a mandate to teach, to go two by two or whatever. And many of you are two by two in your churches. Commend you for that and encourage that. He has also given us a mandate to cast out broken and evil spirits. We might define those differently in different ways, but the mandate stands. We might have different methods, but I believe one of our challenges is to respond to that which is not right in a person's life and in society. We have kind of an infrastructure in the Anabaptist tradition. We put them in those three core values that many people have talked about. Jesus is the center of our faith. We invite Jesus into our presence. And when the presence of Jesus there, things happen. In our text, the evil spirit says, "'I know who you are.' And when people know who Jesus is, it makes a difference in their life." Community is the center of our life. Broken people need community. We need to bring people into community where they will feel the support and care and love that they have missed in life in various ways. Reconciliation is the center of our work. Tremendous conflict in our world elsewhere, maybe in our own souls. And the principalities and the powers are out there that need to be resisted and maybe voted out so that we can have more freedom to proclaim the kingdom of God, which Jesus came to do. So let me leave you with the words of Paul in Ephesians, where he says, a final word, be strong with the Lord's mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil so that after the battle, you will still be standing firm. God, I thank you for these graduates who have prepared themselves to teach and to bring healing, comfort and strength. I know that you will be present when you call, and you will be there to drive out that which is evil, and welcome that which is of you through Christ, I pray.