Sermons

Jun 24 - The Rev. Christopher McLaren

Sunday June 24, 2007 Proper 7C
Text Luke 8: 26- 39 Gerasene Demoniac
Theme: Gospel Freedom

If you stick with Jesus you will meet interesting people. Jesus fresh from a Galilean cruise on a luxury fishing vessel comes ashore to find himself eyeball to eyeball with a demon possessed man. We might want to avoid this passage, to leave this troubled, possibly schizophrenic wild man alone. Nobody believes in demons anymore, or do we? Are not the things that control us, the addictions that surround us, a kind of demonic reality? Do we consider ourselves immune from powerfully destructive forces? This is precisely what the gospel confronts us with in Jesus’ healing of this man.

The story makes it clear that everyone in the area had gotten comfortable with the arrangement. The townspeople were glad to locate their problems, their evil in the other and to drive him out of sight. Even the demoniac himself says to Jesus, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” He was unsure if he wanted to be made free by this Holy Man. His lack of freedom was the only world he knew. Freedom is scary business and the world we live in most of the time doesn’t have a clue about recognizing genuine freedom or even less making it possible. It is so much easier not to question how our lives are controlled or determined by forces seemingly beyond our control. True freedom would mean that we would have to assume radical responsibility for who we are and what we do. But if we can remain enslaved we have someone else to blame for our problems.

Jesus speaks to the man, asking his name. The answer is chilling, “Legion.” The response reminds us that evil has many faces, it is hard to make it simple. The man has been told many lies and much has entered him that is destructive. For this man freedom is a mighty battle for there is so much that wants to control him and keep him powerless.

It is significant that he had been bound and fettered by others as a way of trying to keep him under control. Some of the bondage he suffers comes from others, from the town and its ways. This whole scene brings to mind the troubling quest for individual freedom without addressing larger causes of bondage like institutional evil or societal structures that are themselves sinful. The story reminds us that Christianity is called not only to help free individuals but to confront and challenge structures, policies and institutions that keep people in chains.

The herd of swine feeding on the Galilean hillside functions as a symbol of the economy of the region. The people of this region, obviously not Jewish, made their living by raising pigs. Jesus allows the demonic forces to enter these pigs who then destroy themselves by rushing into the water. In Gospel terms it tells us that economies are not neutral things they can bring freedom while at the same time they can enslave and control others.

With the demons gone and the man healed, we find him with Jesus clothed and in his right mind. Naturally we would expect the next line to say something like, “And the people rejoiced,” But verse 35 tells us “they were afraid.”

The people’s response to Jesus’ healing of the man is instructive. It reminds us of how difficult it is to embrace true healing and new freedom. We may complain about things, rail against the dysfunction in our families, communities, governments, even our churches but once real change becomes possible we are often fearful and unsettled by the unknown dynamics that await. I have a friend who is fond of saying, “people don’t know what they like, they like what they know.” It is a recipe for co-dependency and continued chains and Jesus will have none of it.

Shortly after hearing the testimony about the man’s healing, “all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them for they were seized with great fear.” In essence they were saying “Get out of here; you’ve ruined everything. Our economy is shot all because of you. Our pigs are dearer to us than your healing. We love our money more than we love people.”

The man who is now whole begs to be accepted among his disciples so that he might deepen his relationship with Jesus. But, Jesus surprises us. He sends the man on his way home, back to his people, back to his family, back to his town to “declare how much God has done for you.” It is as if Jesus says, “Your family and your city needs your freedom more. Go back and unleash the wildness of God’s freedom. Open their hearts and minds and imaginations to what God can do, challenge their beloved economy and order of things with the Kingdom of God.”

The new mission of the man reminds us that biblical salvation is not a private affair. Biblical salvation is the salvation of history and humanity itself not just of private individuals. The Good News of the Kingdom is meant not just for the conversion of individuals but it is intended for the conversion of institutions, nations, and systems. If you do the first, calling people into the freedom of the gospel, you will be called a saint. But the minute you begin to do the second, challenge systems and institutions with the values of the gospel you will be called a troublemaker or worse and asked to leave. It happened to Jesus and if we follow in his ways it will in all likelihood happen to us.

This strange gospel story about the demoniac is really about freedom. We are well aware of the addictions and dependencies people are willing to talk about: alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, food. But are we willing to talk about our addictions to more troubling things like the accumulation of things and the hoarding of money, our sex-sick society? Are we willing to questions the system itself? Could there possibly be a world not built on competition? Can we really envision a world built on the Kingdom values of servanthood rather than power? What would it mean if Christians really disavowed violence as a solution to problems in the name of the Prince of Peace? How free are we, really? How much of the Gospel has penetrated our life among the tombs? What chains are loosening in our lives?

The church is about setting off on a journey towards freedom in Christ where you can experience the gospel truth in a visceral gut way, where you can know the truth in that kind of heart and head alchemy that can really transform. To be sure, one has to have his or her own experience of this path, another’s testimony simply will not substitute. But we can make this journey into freedom only if we know that we have a community around us that will love us and be honest with us. We need to be able to ask one another, “Am I crazy about this? Have I totally lost it?” and to know that our brothers and sisters are free to say, “Yes you’re nuts.” We need a concrete place where we can ask, “Do I love Jesus or is this just all about me? and our friends in Christ are free to say, “Frankly you are more in love with yourself than Jesus from what I can see, but there are signs of hope.”

What I’m saying is that one cannot think themselves into this gospel freedom. Experience converts people. Circumstances convert people! The gospel calls us to make our way into new circumstances, to smuggle ourselves into unlikely places, to step out of the boat onto shores where God can get through to us because that is where Christ has hidden himself. Jesus is found in the midst of the human condition, in the humiliation of the flesh. The transforming Jesus is found in the demoniac among the tombs. The transforming Jesus is found in the person at our food pantry. The transforming Jesus is found in the pain of our friend’s struggle with cancer. The transforming Jesus is found in the midst of those who we are most tempted to avoid. Again and again the gospels remind us that “Jesus is to be found in the least of our brothers and sisters.”

In essence there is only one thing you have to do. You must discover the freedom to recognize Christ where you did not expect him, otherwise you are not free. All we can do is try to get ourselves into circumstances where this transformation of seeing Christ in the unexpected can happen.

All spirituality is about letting go; how to let go of our security, our good reputation, our identity and our self-image? The best advice is to get ourselves out of the way as best we can, try not to take ourselves to seriously. Be open, receptive and alert; then Christ himself will come and be our teacher.

God means to make all things new and that sometimes means someone’s beloved swine go swimming in the deep end while you meet Christ in the face of a stranger.

I wish to acknowledge my debt to Fr. Richard Rohr and his provocative writing and commentary on the eighth chapter of Luke in his excellent book Simplicity. Many of the ideas in this sermon are directly derived from his writing. May my use of them serve the continued growth of the Kingdom of God.