Sermon preached by Penny at Coolamon 20th June 2010

LUKE 8.26F – GERASENE DOMONIAC

Well you certainly found your visiting preacher a rip-roaring story to have a go at! This one really has a bit of everything, doesn’t it?

The whole scene that Luke describes is bizarre – somewhere between a hammer horror movie and a political cartoon. You’ve got this naked crazy guy, coming out from the tombs in the middle of the night; chatty demons; pigs hurling themselves off cliffs; and a small riot of freaked–out locals.

And what is Jesus doing there? – after all this is the territory of the Decapolis, the ten towns; Roman, Gentile Territory. Not somewhere a self-respecting Jew would be seen in – not even a Jew from Galilee of the Gentiles. There’s a bit of local politics in the sub-text of this story – and no doubt the Galileans who first told this story would have been delighted by it. As James Liggett has written,
“Everybody knew instantly both that it was no accident that the demons called themselves ‘Legion’ after the famous and feared Roman legions; and that pigs were a staple both of the Roman army and the Roman economy. (Both of course anathema to Jews). Caesar’s legions and Caesar’s rations were mere child’s play for Jesus – a quick flush and they’re gone. What fun! – from a Jewish point of view.”

But what is Jesus doing there? To answer that we have to remember that Jesus has just brought the boat to shore after stilling the storm. He and his disciples have just had a rough night to say the least. In those circumstances, as the saying goes, ‘any port in the storm’. But perhaps they could have wished for an easier welcome.

We’re told, “as he stepped out on land” in other words, he’s virtually got one foot on the boat - when the next trial meets him, in the shape of this crazy guy.

It’s still dark, or perhaps just getting light; this man is naked, rattling his broken chains, emerging out of the tombs - frankly if I’d been Jesus or the disciples I’d have got back on the boat sharpish!

But Jesus stands His ground. He knows what perhaps some of you already know from experience, that in the spiritual life, it seems always that just when you’ve got through some particularly difficult time; you’re perhaps a bit tired, inclined to sit back and say “whew, glad that’s over”, that the next challenge comes – and usually from some unexpected quarter. And it can be a very edgy time.

This is definitely an edgy matter – it takes place on the beach; the edge of land and water; probably at dawn; the edge of night and day; somewhere on the edge between life and death, bondage and freedom – for this man has lost everything – he’s a total social outcast, living a half-life in the tombs. Whenever others have tried to bring him in, by shackling him, he’s broken the chains – but it’s been a freedom for death not life.

In less extreme ways, we may recognise our own experiences in his. Think of the “edge” times in your life – the times perhaps of sickness, of grief, of depression – the times of “half-living”, when you felt vulnerable and helpless. We can certainly recognise them in our world. The Roman legions were not the first or the last bullies on earth. We see the violence that human beings visit on each other, and the inhumanity that can result from the action (or lack of action) of governments and powers. These are the true demons of our day, as they were of Jesus day.

So what was Jesus doing there? Well He was sending the demons packing. He was showing what God can do in the world, when we recognise it. And that’s what He sends the man home to do – to “declare how much God has done for you.”

And of course that’s what He sends us to do, as well. And so I’d like to spend a little bit of time thinking about that. Because that’s the thing we can all do.

We probably don’t have a dramatic story, like the Gerasene demoniac. Anyone who’d known how he was before, and met him later, clothed and in his right mind, sitting (in the posture of a disciple) at Jesus’ feet, would have been in no doubt, that God had done something remarkable in his life.

But God has done remarkable things in your life and in my life – and that’s what we can talk about.

But when I started to think about the things that God had done in my life, I realised that perhaps to an outsider they might not sound particularly spectacular – a seemingly chance encounter here, and encouraging rainbow there; touches as light as a butterfly’s wings. But we know when we’re touched by God.

Take Elijah – he knew about God; he’d done some amazing things for God. But in today’s story he was down and out in every sense of the word. All he wanted was to die. And when he goes outside the cave to meet with God, he might have expected something spectacular. But God was not in the Spectacular things – the great wind, the earthquake, the fire – no, God gave Elijah the strength to carry on; to anoint kings, to appoint his own successor, by God’s presence in “the sound of sheer silence” - the Hebrew is hard to translate; Qu-oleth means literally “the daughter of a voice” – a sound so tiny, and so still as to be a barely, perceptible vibration,.

So what has God done in my life, in your life? – what have been some of the whispers of that still, small voice, that have enlivened our faith, and kept us going?

I can only answer for myself, but I’ll be interested to hear some of your reflections later. What God has done for me :
Is to give me, from earliest childhood, a keen sense of wonder and appreciation of natural things as a place where I simply expect to encounter God.

I’m sure we’ve all been moved by the glory of a sunset or the beauty of a flower. When we look at those things with the eyes of faith, we encounter God within them.
Something else that God has done for me, is to give me an abiding sense of God’s presence – even (and sometimes especially) in times of difficulty. One of the things that most terrifies many of us, is the thought that we are alone in an unfriendly universe! The man in today’s story was in that kind of place – he’d been cut off by his sickness from every kind of support. The reassurance that we are not in fact alone – even when it feels as though we are – is a great gift of our faith.
At times, one of the things God has done for me, has been to give me courage, not just to deal with difficult circumstances, but occasionally to stand up and be counted when it mattered, or to try something new. There are still many, many times when my own courage fails me – that’s why my family call me, ‘panic-head Penny’. But I do know that when I’ve really needed it, God has always given me the courage to do something that needed to be done. And this is the gift Jesus gives the man in today’s story, when he does not allow him to go away, despite his pleading; but encourages him to do the harder thing to go and face those whom he knew, who’d treated him badly, and he them; and say “Look what God’s done for me”.
Above all of course Jesus sets this man free – free from chains both physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Jesus is doing that for me too – much less dramatically, much more slowly. But when I look back over my life I can see – as I’m sure you can too – the places where His liberating Spirit has been at work, to release me from unhelpful ways of being and patterns of behaviour.
And that liberation does not just happen to us as individuals. One of the things God does in our lives is to give us to each other, is the community we call the church. Just as the healing of the man in today’s story would have brought change to that whole community; so my healing, my release brings healing to those around me.
Of course it’s not always comfortable. The Gerasenes were used to their naked madman roaming the tombs. They knew how to avoid him, perhaps how to blame him for their troubles.
They did not rally know how to re-integrate him into their community – and they were frightened by the change in him to the point of asking Jesus to leave.
I wonder have you ever asked Jesus to leave? –
To leave you alone; to leave something He wants to heal in you untouched; because you were afraid?
I know I have – and Jesus will always wait – wait until we’re ready, to let Him do, those things that bring life, and healing and hope.
What is Jesus doing there? – He’s doing what He does everywhere; He’s bringing life.
May He continue to bring life to us, and to all creation. Amen.