Pentecost IV

By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C, Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7
24 June 2007
8:00 only

Text: Luke 8: 26-39
Other Readings: I Kings 19: 1-4 [5-7] 8-15a; Ps. 42-43; Galatians 3: 23-29

       Jesus upsets the status quo wherever he goes in the gospels, doesn't
he?  In a culture where the Jews think God is only for the Jews, Jesus
encounters Gentiles like this man who is possessed by demons which are
of course unclean, who lives among the tombs—also unclean—because he
has been banished from society, & when Jesus exorcizes the demons,
they rush into a herd of swine—abhorrent to Jews—in what my husband
Bill always called the first recorded instance of deviled ham!
       Curious that it is the demons who recognize Jesus & are willing to
deal with him directly, isn't it?  The man's name is "Legion" which
may simply refer to the huge amount of evil he has possessing him or
may actually have political implications.  He is possessed by 6,000
evil spirits, a Legion in the Roman army, just as the Jewish people
are inhabited with legions of Roman troops.  But even that many is not
too much for Jesus to confront.
       The primary emotion in this story is fear.  The man full of demons
frightens the people so much they have banished him to live among the
tombs, & he's kept in shackles.  When Jesus heals him & he is in his
right mind, the people are frightened.  And as word spreads of what
Jesus has done, the people in the neighborhood are so frightened they
don't thank Jesus for healing one of their own but rather ask him to
leave.  How much in fear do we live for those things or people we
don't understand?  How apt are we to learn & accept them when our
dominant emotion is fear?
       The now-healed man wants to follow Jesus, to become his disciple &
travel with him.  Can't say that I blame him.  Would you like to stay
in that neighborhood full of fear?  But that's exactly what Jesus
tells him to do.  He says, in effect, bloom where you are planted;
witness right here in your own back yard to the healing & wholeness I
brought to you.  Although we might be called to go out into the world
to share the Gospel with others, we may be called to look around us in
our neighborhood where many do not know the joy of the good news of
Christ.
       Yet this story reminds us also that we're to go beyond our own little
group, not to be frightened of the Gentiles among us who are us,
actually.  None of us are of Jewish birth, I don't imagine.  Though
this congregation has accepted that there is no longer a distinction
between African-American & Anglo in God's eyes, we still have a long
way to go in reaching out to others who are different in other ways to
make our church truly multicultural or to care for those around us
whether they ever darken the doors of Hope or not.  St. Paul tells us
there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for we
are one in Christ Jesus.  In our world today, who are we called to see
is belonging equally to Christ, Abraham's offspring, heirs according
to the promise.  We're ever called to stretch our concept of who needs
us & who we need to be in community with.
       Finally, when we find ourselves feeling sorry for ourselves because
of some lack which we have, like air conditioning this morning, let's
heed how God did not respond to Elijah's pity party when he ran away
from Jezebel.  Elijah did not find God in earthquake, wind, or fire
but only in the sound of sheer silence.  God comes to us in strange &
often wonderful ways, but we must often be silent & listen for God's
voice & God's desire for us.  Listen!