Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

Sunday, June 20, 2010
4^th Sunday after Pentecost
 

GOSPEL: Luke 8:26-39
26Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.  27As 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" -  29for 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.)  30Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him.  31They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
     32Now 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.  33Then 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.
     34When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country.  35Then 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.  36Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed.  37Then 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.  38The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying,  39Return 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.


+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

Our Storyteller this whole Church Year is the anonymous Luke.  Writing in the last part of the 1st Century CE, not quite 2,000 years ago, he sets out to put into words the story of the life of Jesus.  What he writes is not the first time a "gospel" has been written, nor will it be the last.  We know that he takes the stories of the earliest Gospel we have, the one written by the anonymous Mark, and that he takes another source that we know as the Sayings of Jesus  and rearranging the order of things somewhat and adding to what he finds in the earliest account of Mark, and - best of all - putting his own style on things, fashions a story about Jesus that is from beginning to end a story of Healing … a story of Salvation.

And, as all the Gospel writers of the 1st Century did, he wrote the story in Greek, in a common Greek , in a dialect of the Greek language which was at the time universal and easy to read and easy to understand.

And you know the remarkable thing about the Greek word for healing and the Greek word for salvation that Luke uses in his Gospel?  The remarkable thing about the word Luke uses (especially here in our Gospel portion this morning) is that it is the same word  ( ἐσώθη).  It can be translated as either healing or salvation.

This story, which is often called "The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac" is a story of healing, yes, and at the same time a story of salvation (of being saved) from the isolation, from the exclusion, from the pain, that mental illness brings.

And there's something else … it has to do with the setting of the story.  Among the followers of Jesus in the 1st Century, with a strong Jewish background, the story contained symbols which could not be overlooked, symbols which helped carry the meaning of the story itself.

First of all, the healing of the Demoniac, the Madman takes place across the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum where Jesus began his ministry … that is, in non-Jewish (Gentile) territory called the Decapolis (where there were indeed ten Greek cities).   So this is not "holy land" where Jesus goes at all … rather, he pursues healing outside of his tradition, outside of Judaism.
There is more … pigs are unclean animals to Jews.  And the term legion (which term the demons inside the man cry out when confronted by Jesus) … this word is sometimes translated as "many"; but everyone hearing this story in the 1st Century would be reminded that "legion" was not a term meaning "many", but a designation for one of the occupying Roman armies.  The one that was stationed in Palestine had a boar, a male pig on its standard.

And there is yet more … cemeteries are dwelling places of spirits, and thus would be avoided, especially in the dark. 

And through all this, wrapped up inside this story, with all of its symbolism, is the meeting of the holy and the unholy, the meeting of the forces of evil with the Son of God, and the overshadowing presence of evil (occupation by a foreign power) that is more than individual struggle.

It is a story of healing/salvation which brings liberation.  The Gospel of Jesus is first, last, and always about freedom … freedom from sickness, freedom from the shackles of evil, freedom from the chains of human sorrow and sadness and grief.

It is a story about fear and what fear can do.  One commentator of this text opined that fear is displayed by the demons, and by the community itself who lost their pigs and regained one of their people … and the healing, the saving, the restoration, the liberation was (and often is) something that makes people afraid and often drives people to acts of anger.

A very close pastoral friend of mine, who is now retired from a ministry of professional counseling, often says "Be it ever so miserable, there's no place like the familiar!" 

But it is a story at the end of the very purpose of healing … healing that is not only individual salvation from disease, the cancers, HIVs, cardiac arrests of individual people, the discomfort, the depression, the plague of sadness and brokenness, the misery of lives gone wrong, and all of that ever lengthening list … healing is not only healing from that, it also a healing of the community.

I do not have to tell you much about disease and cancer and depression and sadness and brokenness  … we understand that, here in our community, in our church family.

But what I do need to remind you is the point of this 2,000 year old story about a madman on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee … that when he was healed, he was sent back to his community, back to his village, back to his family.  That is what healing means … being restored to the community.

When I was the victim of a farm accident in my youth, when I was 6 years old and fell off a hay wagon and went under the demonic front wheel of that wagon and was nearly crushed to death … when I was sent to the emergency room and x-rayed and placed in a dark and scary hospital room overnight, a "cemetery" of fear and loneliness and wondering if I would live through the darkness … and when the next day I was brought home by my parents to our house … I shall never forget the huge sign my father placed across the front door … 'WELCOME HOME BENJIE!" 

I know my Father cried, and my Mother cried, and my sister cried, and I cried … and even the dog cried … because you see we knew that being healed meant coming home, coming back into the family.

Healing is always restoration to the community, to the family, to the brothers and sisters and their compassion and love and warmth and understanding.

That is what it means to be the church … we are the people of God who work to bring healing in this place, to any who come to this place, so that you will never ever … ever be alone and apart in the darkness.  The Gospel is a Gospel of healing.

Let us pray.
By your power, great God, our Lord Jesus healed the sick and gave new hope to the hopeless.  Though we cannot command or possess your power, we pray for those who want to be healed.  Mend their wounds, soothe fevered brow, and make broken people whole again.  Help us to welcome every healing as a sign that, though death is against us, you are for us, and have promised renewed and risen life in Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen.