26Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs.
28When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— 29for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.)
30Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
32Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 34When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country.35Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
36Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.
38The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
___________
If you would like to hear a recording of this sermon (which infusions from the Spirit), you can find the recording by clicking this link.
God of freedom, we ask that you break open our shackles of fear of the other so that we might go forth to declare how much God has done for us, risking the work of freeing all people, because they are your children and they are worthy of grace, and mercy, and justice. Amen.
There is a lot happening in the gospel text this morning. And I could preach on about six different things here, so it’s a shame we only hear this story once every three years. It is rich with the very meaning of God’s incarnation in Christ Jesus. I spent my internship year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and there, people were more accustomed to two or three hour worship services. So on a Sunday like today, I might say, "sit back, get comfortable, because this is going to be a long one."
But I don't think you will let me preach for an hour or so, so I had to pick something, just one thing to preach about.
So this morning, I want to focus on something different, something sort of on the outside of this text. I want to focus on the community around the man we call the Gerasene demoniac, the man with a legion of demons, the man with no clothes who lives not in a house but in the tombs. I want to focus on the community around that man.
We don’t know much about the community, but I think we can safely extrapolate some things from the reading. Even though it never says that the man possessed by demons harmed anyone or even himself, he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles. I can only imagine that the community did this out of fear. Perhaps they were afraid that he might be too difficult to care for, a strain on the community, or a nuisance to the right order of things. Perhaps they were afraid that they, too, may become possessed by demons as if it were some communicable disease. As if they didn’t have demons of their own to deal with. But we do know they were a fearful people, because when they came back and saw that the man was in his right mind, when the demons had left him— they were afraid— seized with great fear. They remind me of the verses from Isaiah where God says, “I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you’” (Isaiah 65:2,5). God has some words for people like that.
Somehow, by some luck or coincidence, the community surrounding this man is full of people who are not possessed by demons. They believed they were free. Yet instead of intervening on behalf of this man, instead of trying to work toward his wholeness and healing, they have cast him out to live among the dead. They have decided, as a community, that he is unworthy of being cared for because of circumstances that he cannot control.
And I don’t want to assume too much about this community, because you know what they say about people who assume. So maybe they did attempt other paths before resorting to chaining him up and guarding him. Perhaps this is the only way they knew how to deal with this man. We don’t know the whole story, but it seemed like this man’s bondage worked for the community. They were okay with him being chained up, they were comfortable with it even. But it does not work for Jesus, God is not comfortable with God’s child being shackled and chained.
At this point in his journey, Jesus has made a habit out of seeking out the people who have been discarded by their community and left for dead. And that’s exactly what he does in this story. He crosses the sea into an unclean land that is Gerasene, to an unclean place that is the tombs, to an unclean man who is possessed by demons. There is something about God incarnate in Christ that is like a magnet to the people who are outcast and discarded. Because this man, like us, like every person on this earth, is God’s child and is worthy of grace, and mercy, and justice not because of who he is or what he has done, but because of whose he is as God’s child.
And grace upon grace that God is, Jesus not only casts out the demons, but grants their plea and does not send them into the abyss. And most importantly the man is healed. He is restored and clothed and freed.
So, too, are we restored and clothed and freed in our baptism. So, too, are we restored and clothed and freed and fed in this holy meal.
After the man was freed from his shackles and chains, he begged to go with Jesus, to be safe by his side, away from any more demons that may be lurking. But Jesus sets him on a different path— a more difficult path. He is to return home, declaring how much God had done for him. He was to go and spread the gospel. He was to go and help his own community break the chains of fear that they held so close to themselves even now, even after they witnessed Jesus’ incredible power to heal and restore.
This, too, is our call. We have been freed from our shackles of sin and we are called to proclaim what Christ has done for us. We are called to proclaim our freedom. We get to be a part of God’s work of freeing others. We have been freed like this man to go and tell others what God has done by actively working to break down the boundaries and walls and fences that we have build up against one another. And that is holy work for the sake of God’s reign in this world.
But it is not easy work. There will be people who are afraid of God’s power. There will be people who resist the gospel. Afraid that the gospel says, in no unclear words that in God’s kingdom: there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, there is no longer black and white, there is no longer conservative or liberal, there is no longer migrant or citizen, there is no longer undocumented or documented.
There will be people who are afraid to accept that we are all made in Christ’s image, we are all one in Christ, belonging to Christ, and freed in Christ. All of us. Every single one of us. And every single one of them. You know you I am talking about. The people who we consider them— maybe they are those who are in prison, those who are across any border, those who are openly wrestling with demons. All of them in detention centers and mental hospital wings and on the street or facing their court date. Every single one of them is made in the image of God, is a child of God.
We may even be those frightened people, the ones who don’t want to accept that truth, every once in a while. Or maybe even most of the time. Because it is also risky work. Doing the work of the kingdom is why Jesus was arrested, tried, and murdered by the state. So what are we to do?
We do as Jesus says, we declare how much God has done for us. And we hope. Unrelentingly, we hope.
Because we have been welcomed into a new community. And the opposite of a community surrounded by fear is a community fully entrenched in hope. Hope for a new day, hope for a new creation, hope for God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Hope for all people all people to be unshackled and safe and clothed at Christ’s feet.
Amen.
____________
I preached this sermon at Redeemer Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida on June 23, 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment