Year C, Pentecost + 2, Proper 7, OT 12, Sermon for St. Mark,
Clayton, June 23, 2019
Luke 8:26-39
26Then they
arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As 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"— 29 for 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.) 30 Jesus then
asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many
demons had entered him. 31 They begged him
not to order them to go back into the abyss. 32 Now 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. 33 Then 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.
34 When the
swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in
the country. 35 Then 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. 36 Those who had
seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then 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. 38 The 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.
Get comfortable, everybody. We have entered into that wonderful, holy
time we call “ordinary.” Note the green
paraments. Haven’t seen them for a
while, right? Not since the season
following Epiphany. Since then we’ve had
purple for Lent, white for Easter, red for Pentecost, and white again last week
for Holy Trinity Sunday.
But today we are green, for “Ordinary
Time.” For the next twenty-three
Sundays we are green for Ordinary Time.
Twenty-three nice, ordinary Sundays, with nice ordinary gospel texts
from Luke. Starting with this nice
ordinary story.
“26Then Jesus and the
disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As 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…”
That happens to you every day, doesn’t
it?
Raise your hand if you haven’t had a
naked guy yell at you today. He doesn’t
have to be from Gerasa, but extra points if he was.
Okay, so maybe this isn’t the most
ordinary story in Ordinary Time. Parts
of it are quite extraordinary, as are so many of the stories of the journeys of
Jesus. Especially when he gets out into
Gentile territory.
Parts of this story are strange and
odd. And parts of it, I would still
submit to you, are rather mundane.
Setting aside, for a moment, the
conditions of this poor tormented Gerasene man, what is it that he yells at
Jesus?
“What have you to do with me, Jesus,
Son of the Most High God?!”
Now that’s a question!
Raise your hand if you’ve heard a
question like that before. If you’ve had
your coworker, your friend, your child, your parent, your neighbor say
something like, “What does all this Jesus stuff have to do with me? My life is fine without RELIGION.”
What have you to do with us, Jesus?
It’s a question I hear a lot these
days.
A lot of people want to know, What
does Jesus have to do with us? What do
we need with Jesus? We have the
internet. 5G! That’s two more than 3G! We’ve got a thousand channels and a million
websites and SO MUCH TO DO, we don’t need someplace to go on Sunday
morning. We’ve got brunch!
What do you have to do with us, Jesus?
It’s not a bad question,
actually. I’m casting some aspersions on
the people who ask it, but it’s not a bad question.
Maybe we should all get up
every morning and ask ourselves that question:
“Hey Jesus, what will you have to do with me today? Hey Jesus, what shall we do together today?”
Every morning. Just ask it ourselves…rather than letting the
demons ask it for us.
Because demons will speak for us if we
let them. They’ll ask the question to
try to push Jesus away.
You know the demons, right? We got demons. Maybe not the
tear-off-your-clothes-throw-you-in-the-tombs demons. Not the super scary and sometimes slightly silly
demons that Jesus encounters in the gospels.
But we got demons.
We have forces in our lives that act
just like the demons that call themselves “Legion” in this gospel text. Forces that pull us away from Jesus and his
Way. Forces that work to separate us
from our families and our communities.
Forces that keep us from living the life we want…and God wants for us.
Think about what those demons are in
your life. What forces are trying to
send you to tombs of despair, isolation, anger, hatred?
I can think of a few that have
affected people I love.
· Alcohol
· And
drugs
· This
little device (show cell phone). Good tool
for communication…and isolation. Still
4G, but that will do…for now.
· Busy-ness. That busy-ness will get you. We can get ourselves so busy we don’t have
time for any of the important things. Or
the important people. Believe me, I
know.
What does Jesus have to do with
us? Jesus calls us away from those
isolating behaviors. From captivity to
vices and devices. Jesus can stand up to
demons. He’s really good at it. This story is the second time in Luke that
Jesus casts out a demon—or a bunch—who have destroyed a man’s life. He just looks at them and says “Get out
already.”
Jesus heals. Watch for it in these Sundays of Ordinary
Time, as we meander through Luke’s gospel.
Watch for the stories of healing, because they are stories of
restoration, of people being returned to life, to their families and their
communities. That’s the true miracle in
those healing stories.
Jesus heals. With his body. We can still call upon him for defense
against the demons that plague us today, the conditions that keep us separated,
despairing, hurting.
The body of Christ grants healing, and
we have access to that body in multiple ways—through prayer, through the
sacrament of his body and blood, and here (indicate church). This is Christ’s body, right? Did you know you have healing
properties? We find healing in the body
of Christ which is the church, the church at worship, the church at fellowship,
the church in prayer for one another. I
know that you have been on a journey as a church, and that one part of that
journey is ending as another is set to begin.
I know that God has worked through these two faithful pastors to heal
and to build and to grant you the grace to be a healing body.
I know this for certain, because I
have been there. Quick story and then I
promise I am wrapping up. In 2000, I
arrived in Kansas City from Rhode Island, where I had been living, having moved
there from California.
My arrival in Kansas City was not an
ordinary event. I was about to be
ordained “extra-ordinarily,” meaning that I wasn’t on the roster of the ELCA,
on account of being a lesbian. So the
bishop wasn’t too happy, and the ELCA wasn’t too happy, and I had no idea how
my new colleagues would feel.
All of this uncertainty in the midst
of being a first call pastor in a place I had never been before.
Side note: First call pastors need care and nurture. Just something to know.
My first week in the office, I get a
phone call. I can’t remember which one
of you called me, but it was probably Liz.
“Come to our house for a party. We’ll have a few colleagues there and we want
to welcome you.”
So I went, to their wonderful house on
Bell St., and there was a lovely party, and I was presented with a beautiful
red stole for my ordination…and there were lots of colleagues—including one
Keith Hohly, and that night I was healed of the demon of isolation and
loneliness which I thought might plague my time in Kansas City as an apostate
pastor. And these three colleagues in
particular walked with me and supported me and I have never been able to thank
them enough, but I want to tell you this morning that through them I learned about
the power and healing that resides in the Body of Christ.
Resides right here at St. Mark
Lutheran Church. It may feel rather
ordinary to get up on a Sunday morning and go to church, but I want to tell you
this morning that it is most certainly not.
Because here in this place, this place experiencing change and
transition and hope and eagerness and gratitude for the time my extraordinary colleagues
have spent with you…here in this place you hold the power of the Body of
Christ.
It is an extra-ordinary power, even in
Ordinary Times. Use it well. Use it for healing. Use it for hope.
Amen
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