What I’m about to tell you is not something I’m proud of. Many of you know that I occasionally go to Granny’s house for lunch. Well, the fact is, I go to Granny’s house almost every single day for lunch.

I can’t help it, she always has two or three loaves of bread, good peanut butter and jelly, and a refrigerator full of soft drinks. So its sorta become our routine, our custom, every single day to eat a sandwich in front of the television.

Usually I get there at around 12 o’clock and we’ll watch the news and see what the weather is going to do and all that, but the past week, for some reason I didn’t get there until around 1 o’clock every day.

I used to avoid going at one, because that’s Granny’s most important hour of the day; you see that is when Days of our Lives comes on.

Now, I don’t want to watch a soap opera, so I make every effort to eat either before or after "Days" is on.

But this past week, my plan didn’t work, and every single day I sat down to the words of "like sands in the hour glass, these are the days of our lives".

I never want to be rude, and I know how much she enjoys the show, so I ate my sandwich and endured the soap opera.

I always thought soap operas were silly. I couldn’t understand why anyone would sit down to watch these things, much less tape them and watch them later.

I thought the plots were silly, I thought the dialouge was laughable, I generally thought the whole show was pointless. After all, I’m a man, and men don’t watch shows like Days of our Lives.

Well that Monday as I sat down with my sandwich, I fell in love with Chloe. She’s the mysterious, cuniving newcomer to the town of Salem. And although I never would admit to anyone, I couldn’t help but wonder who she liked more, Phillip or Shawn. And this was tearing me up, So I would come back the next day!

And then it was Sami, and then it was Nicole, and before I knew it, I was caught up in the waitress who wanted to be Dr. Marlana.

And by the third day I knew I was way behind on the history and I had to do research on the internet to see things like who Roman was or who he thought he was or who he used to be or whatever the case was.

And it wasn’t long before I was telling Granny what had happened years ago with certain characters, things that even she didn’t know!

I found out that John used to think he was Roman and a long time ago he had a romance with Dr. Marlana, who is Rex’s favorite by the way, and I think they had a child named Belle.

And as I did my research I discovered that Dr. Marlana, who is now a radio psychologist, was once possessed by a demon.

Now this is interesting I thought. It’s not every day you see a soap opera star possessed by a demon.

Now although I still think soap operas are silly, the dialogue is laughable, and the whole thing is generally pointless, the idea of someone who is controlled by an evil force has not been confined to the story lines of Days of our Lives.

The idea of someone who has lost control over their actions, their thoughts, and their words is something we’ve played with for a long time.

The story of Dr. Marlana taken over by an evil spirit in the fictional town of Salem, reminds me of another incident involving evil in a place called Salem.

We all learned in school about the women who were persecuted as witches and burned or hanged with little or no evidence during the Salem Witch Trials.

We learned about the lengths people took to protect themselves from the evil that lived and came from these so-called witches.

This preoccupation with evil and evil spirits still exists.

In the past twenty years, we have watched more movies about evil and control it takes over people’s lives.

Last week Mike Smith mentioned the movie the Exorcist, which for some strange reason, is my favorite movie.

Based on a actual case in 1949, we see the story of Regan McNeil, whose thoughts, actions, and words are taken over by an evil force.

We’ve watched houses suffer the same fate in movies like the Amityville Horror which came out in the 70’s.

Even last year we watched End of Days, Stigmata, The Blair Witch Project, The Ninth Gate, all dealing with a force taking control over someone’s life.

Why are these movies so popular? Why is the possession of Dr. Marlana one of the most memorable events on daytime television?

Never before has evil been so popular. Do we watch movies and read books and listen to stories about people who have lost control of their lives to something else because we can, in some way, relate?

Do we watch Marlana’s eyes glowing and Regan McClain’s head turning because we know what it’s like, be it in our lives or the life of someone else, to be controlled by something other than ourselves?

The scariest thing that ever happened to me was a loss of control. I remember like it was yesterday, going to Erskine one Saturday night a little after midnight.

I had been to a wedding and I was heading back to my dorm to work on a children’s sermon that I was to give the next day at Main St. United Methodist Church in Abbeville.

As I made the right turn between Hodges and Abbeville toward Due West, I lost control.

The gas pedal began to move without me, the brake pedal wouldn’t depress and I was going through the curves at 75 miles an hour!

I pressed every button and mashed every pedal and nothing would stop the car. I threw the car in neutral to slow the speed but the engine was still racing! And after a few seconds the brake worked and I was able to slow the car.

But now I smelled smoke and the engine was coming on and the car was jumping. And I was trying regain control.

I called a friend at school just in case I couldn’t make it back and they asked me what was wrong, and half joking, half not sure, I said my car is possessed!

And then I slapped the dash and said "Leave".

And the engine light went off, the car steadied and the smell of smoke vanished.

Now I’m a skeptical person. I’m not quick to chase ghosts or claim demons were driving my car, but you can bet that car was parked for the next three days.

Something had control, and it wasn’t me.

Maybe we watch movies and listen to stories of things taking and losing control because we can relate, and we want to know how to regain and keep control in our lives.

If you don’t believe me drive down past Columbia to the lower state around Orangeburg and Charleston. Notice how many shutters and door trims are painted blue. You might even see a few houses totally covered in the same shade of royal blue.

Why? Because it is believed that particular shade of blue keeps away evil forces, forces that may take control.

Ever avoid stepping on cracks on the sidewalk? Ever turn the other way when you see a black cat? How many ladders have you walked under? How many of us have played with a Oujia board?

We know by living and through the lives of others that evil exists, and that evil can take over our thoughts, our actions, and our words. We know that it’s possible to lose control and we do everything to keep it.

Jesus dealt with people who had lost control. On several occasions Jesus came in contact with people who no longer had control over their actions, who no longer had control over their words or even their thoughts.

And on ever occasion he had compassion on the person who had lost control and freed them from bondage and restored their control over their lives.

In today’s lesson we see the story of two men who had were violent, who no longer had control of their actions and would not let anyone pass by them.

They were consumed by that which held them and when they saw Jesus he simply said "Go". And the men were freed from that which held them.

But many will dismiss this story and many stories like it in the New Testament declaring the advancements in science and medicine have eliminated our superstition of losing control to an evil force.

Many will say that with the discovery of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and the like, there is no need to go around fearing evil forces and trying to drive them out of people who have lost control.

Then why are we still fascinated by those movies, books, and stories of evil forces?

If there is no such thing as evil, if it can all be dismissed with mental illness and cured with Paxil, then why are we so captivated?

Because we’ve seen it. Because we’ve experienced it.

The evil forces may not roam around and take over bodies like they did to Dr. Marlana or Reagan McNeil with glowing eyes and spinning heads, but we have seen them take control over people’s lives.

We may not have seen a demon with wings and pointed teeth take over the thoughts, words, actions of someone we love, but we have seen alcohol do that.

We may not have seen a dragon possess a friend and make them violent and unpredictable, but we have seen drugs do that.

We may not have seen a spirit control the thoughts of someone, but we have seen pornography do that.

There are countless forces that can take control over our lives and dictate our thoughts, actions, and words, things that are evil, things that are unforgiving, things that take control.

We may not see evil forces roam around in dark clouds like we see in the movies, but we can see them roam around in legislative proposals.

In two months we will vote as a state on a lottery. A lottery that promises to better our educational system and provide middle class families the chance to put their kids through college.

It’s a lottery that promises the chance at a fortune, one ticket at a time.

It’s a lottery that promises to take control.

You see too many people who play the lottery have very little hope at a fortune, and the call of millions of dollars is too great, but the price many will pay will be even greater.

Paycheck after paycheck will be spent buying tickets. Hoping, praying, that one of those will be the right one. And paycheck after paycheck will be lost, wasted on random numbers.

But the hope will still be there. The chance of being rich will always hang, and before long, control will be lost.

The thoughts, the actions, and the words, will all be lost to the promise of fortune.

Families will fall apart. Jobs will be lost. Desperation will rise and control will be given away.

Jesus said Go.

Jesus said go to the forces that controlled the two men. He said go to the cause of their violent behavior. He said go to the loss of hope, he said go to the desperation.

And control was restored.

We have an opportunity to say Go in November. We have the chance to speak as the Body of Christ and say GO to the proposed lottery.

Our Bishop is challenging every single United Methodist Church in South Carolina to stand against the evil force that is roaming in this legislation and is challenging us to say GO, and protect the families and the hope, and the control of the lives of South Carolinians.

We’ve all seen what can happen when someone loses control. In fact we read about it, we watch it on television and on the movies and we listen to stories around the campfire. Why?

Because we hope in some way, that in some story or in some movie, we’ll understand and figure out how to keep control in our lives. We’ll find the answers to ward away those forces that threaten to take over.

We look for more than blue paint to put on our doors and shutters. We need more than to avoid ladders and black cats. We are looking for something more.

Jesus said Go.

By, in, and through Christ we can say no to those things which threaten to take control.

By, in, and through Christ, we can say go to the control of alcohol. We can say go to the control of drugs.

We can say go to the power of pornography.

We can say Go to the control of legalized gambling in the form of a lottery in South Carolina.

By the power of Christ, we can say GO to the evil forces that try to control our thoughts, words, and actions.

And the bondage will end. Freedom will reign. Control will be restored.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.