"God With Us Where Life Is Most Frightening June 24, 2007 Pentecost 4 (Proper 7)

(First, read the text for this sermon: Luke 8:26-39)

This morning’s story from Luke is about where life is most frightening. In the setting of the story, and in the encounter with the demon-possessed man, Jesus is far removed from what’s orderly and safe.

We read, Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, Jesus, a Jew, is stepping onto unclean soil. The Gerasenes are not of the people of God. 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. Think of that. No clothes! This man is not part of what’s civilized, of what’s under control and tidy and arranged nicely and neatly! The man is frightening! And he’s living among the tombs! These are non-Jewish burial sites! And so they are unclean!

It turns out that the man is possessed by what is unclean. When 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" – for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Indeed, here’s what we read about the unclean spirit: (For many times it had seized [the man]; 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.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. They begged [Jesus] not to order them to go back into the abyss.

There was, of course, a whole belief system about demons and unclean spirits, at the time this story in Luke was first spoken. For example, Jesus asks “What is your name?” because knowing the names of demons gave exorcists ower over them! In popular belief, the demons’ final destination is “the abyss” that is named in the story. This is the abode of the dead (Psalm 107:26 or Romans 10:7 for example), or the final prison of Satan and the demons (Revelation 20:3, for example). But it was thought that unclean spirits had time to wander the world first, living in deserted places and in demented people! In this story, they are so desperate not to be sent to “the abyss” before their time of wandering is up that they agree to be thrown into a herd of pigs! But you remember what happens in the story, don’t you?

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. 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. Evil is always self-destructive, you see. That’s the point of this peculiar occurrence in the story. Indeed, to Jewish ears, it would have been a good thing to hear that the herd of pigs had been destroyed along with the unclean spirits – because pigs were unclean animals! A Jew wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a pig!

What a story! It’s filled with bizarre and frightening elements. It’s a very difficult passage for you and me to enter into, because, for the most part, we simply do not understand reality in this way. (For the most part. For some it does make some sense! A few weeks ago I mentioned that those suffering from addiction and those suffering from depression do describe experiences of feeling possessed by those illnesses, as if they are possessed by demons! But it does not serve the missionary task of the church to pit the pre-scientific worldview of the Bible against what we know today of mental illness.)

With all of its bizarre and frightening elements, this is story. Like the rest of the Bible this is story that communicates profound truth about God!

This morning’s story is about life at its most frightening. And there is much good news in the story. Jesus reveals that God has deep love for this man who is out on the margins, frightening to himself and to others, unclean, cast away. And so, this morning’s story is about God’s willingness to enter into yours and my lives when we are out on the margins, when we are frightening to ourselves and to others, feeling unclean, perhaps; even cast away. It is about God with us – precisely where life is most frightening.

Where is life most frightening? Isn’t it when we are out of control?

For instance, those of you who have been hospitalized for a serious illness know how much fear there is in that. You are entirely out of control. Healing comes as it is given by God. It is not according to any schedule you would like to establish! How hard it is to trust God in that situation!

Another example: the young woman who is reeling from her breakup with the young man with whom she had been planning marriage. Her whole future had seemed to be set! But part of the reason why all those plans for the future have now been destroyed is because of ways that she screwed up and did hurtful things, and it’s a fearful thing to enter into repentance, praying for forgiveness, opening herself into vulnerability.

There is the older woman struggling on the journey through grief. She hasn’t done this before! She’s never encountered this frightening terrain of the journey of faith. And what’s worse is that she’s being hard on herself because others assume that she should be “all better” by now. She thinks she’s not “improving” the way she should. (Do you hear that word? “Should.”) It’s a fearful thing to know that you have no control of your feelings when you’re making your way through grief.

There is the man who finds himself to be unemployed, and struggling over his fear for the future, and the fact that he’s always built his self- identity on what he has done for a living. It is a fearful thing to leave that old certainty behind, and to trust that he has value simply because of who he is -- a deeply loved child of God.

Here’s the Good News we get from this morning’s story: God in human flesh enters into life where it is most frightening! God with us.

That is God’s name, according to the verse we read during Advent each year, Matthew 1:23:
"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,"
which means, "God is with us."

God with us, even where life is most frightening.

God with us when we are helplessly in need of healing from physical illness, or emotional illness, or spiritual emptiness; God with us for as long as that helplessness lasts; God with us for as long as it takes for that healing to occur.

God with us when we are out of control of our feelings, when we are grieving the death of a loved one; God with us for as long as it takes for that healing to occur.

God with us, present, faithful, for as long as we are on the journey of faith, through terrain utterly routine as well as absolutely terrifying.

That’s the gospel, the Good News of this morning’s bizarre story from Luke.

Thanks be to God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia