Luke 8.26-39
26 Jesus and his disciples sailed to the Gerasenes’ land, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, a certain man met him. The man was from the city and was possessed by demons. For a long time, he had lived among the tombs, naked and homeless. 28 When he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down before him. Then he shouted, “ What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me! ” 29 He said this because Jesus had already commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had taken possession of him, so he would be bound with leg irons and chains and placed under guard. But he would break his restraints, and the demon would force him into the wilderness.
30 Jesus asked him, “ What is your name? ”
“ Legion, ” he replied, because many demons had entered him. 31 They pleaded with him not to order them to go back into the abyss.t32 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs. Jesus gave them permission, 33 and the demons left the man and entered the pigs. The herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and drowned.
34 When those who tended the pigs saw what happened, they ran away and told the story in the city and in the countryside. 35 People came to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully dressed and completely sane. They were filled with awe. 36 Those people who had actually seen what had happened told them how the demon-possessed man had been delivered. 37 Then everyone gathered from the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave their area because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and returned across the lake. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged to come along with Jesus as one of his disciples. Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “ Return home and tell the story of what God has done for you. ” So he went throughout the city proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
LORD , my rock and my redeemer.
At certain points in the Church’s history, the practice of anathematizing or ostracizing people has been put in place for folk who didn’t fit the mold or who caused trouble. Today, in some circles, it’s called shunning or the very polite “removing the right hand of fellowship”.
In fact, I have a colleague whose church had so much trouble out of one member that they had to gather before she could arrive and lock the door on her before she could come in.
We’re usually a little more subtle when we don’t want to welcome someone into our fellowship.
A little. Not a lot.
We stop talking to someone. We talk about them so they can hear us. Our conversation with them turns venomous.
It’s a little less obvious than locking someone out of the church, but it’s a lot more hurtful.
But sometimes we do make it clear to someone just how unwelcome they are. We close them out of our church, out of our family, out of our circle of friends. We exclude them in every possible way until it is very clear to them that the little box that remains for them to abide in is the only place they are welcome to be.
That’s what had happened to the man with the Legion within him. His behavior was so unwelcome that he was bound in chains until he could bear it no longer and fled away from that toxic environment into the wilderness.
See, if that doesn’t sound familiar, we might need to spend more time in self-reflection. Thinking about how we treat our neighbors. Because I can guarantee that each of us who has made it halfway through childhood has either experienced ostracism or practiced it on someone else.
Usually both.
And sometimes it’s because of a situation like Elijah’s, although not necessarily so extreme.
King Ahab’s wife Jezebel has threatened Elijah with his life, and he is on the run. He goes on his own into exile, a day’s journey into the desert, and there he doesn’t bemoan his situation. He bemoans his behavior.
“ It’s more than enough, LORD ! Take my life because I’m no better than my ancestors. ”
And under a solitary broom bush, exhausted by fear and flight, he sleeps.
Now, I need to pause for an aside here.
We often teach our children that God is watching us like Santa Claus.
You know that old song that’s such a terrible threat wrapped in such a pleasant little tune:
You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Exactly what kind of goblin or troll are we trying to make Santa out to be?
For that matter, what kind of goblin or troll are we trying to make God out to be?
You’d better be on your best behavior or God’s going to take your life in the middle of the night!
God will find you!
Holy cow, y’all, let’s read our Bibles for a larger picture. Because the kind of God we find in today’s readings is a lot more prevalent than the bad-goblin kind of god we talk about in language of hellfire and damnation.
Elijah is sleeping deep in the desert under a lone broom bush when somebody finds him:
Hey, Eli! <Tap Tap Tap> Wake up. Eat something.
And again.
Hey, Eli! <Tap Tap Tap> Wake up. Eat something. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you.
Now, when that happens to our patriarchs, particularly to Abraham, the author is vague in describing the messenger. Is it God? Is it a messenger of God, an angel?
The author of Elijah’s story is more specific, because after Elijah journeys on a little farther, it is specifically the Lord who says:
“Why are you here, Elijah?”
See? It’s not God’s voice saying, “Elijah, you’ve run away because your faith isn’t strong enough. I’m going to smite you now!”
“Why are you here, Elijah?”
I tend to think that’s a reflective question.
Elijah, what’s brought you here? Are you sure it’s what you were claiming and what’s making you feel so guilty?
I think it’s reflective because God doesn’t give Elijah an answer. Maybe the answer isn’t simple. It’s not tweet-length, that’s for sure.
I’ve been very passionate for the LORD God of heavenly forces because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars, and they have murdered your prophets with the sword. I’m the only one left, and now they want to take my life too!
In the CEB, that’s 262 characters. That’s two tweets long.
In today’s terms, that’s no simple answer.
So God finds Elijah, nourishes him for forty days, and sends him back out with a job to do.
Just like Jesus finds the man on the side of the lake, clears away his deep trouble, and tells him:
Return home and tell the story of what God has done for you.
God doesn’t find him to admonish him for letting himself become a house for demons. God finds him to heal his wounded, worn-out, possessed, unwelcomed spirit.
God doesn’t find Elijah to strike him down like the prophets of Baal. God finds Elijah to give him sustenance for the rest of his difficult journey.
Friends, God is longing for us to realize today that God is finding us to offer us comfort, peace, reconciliation, joy.
I should say that we all need some of that.
And some of us need to recognize that God is longing to make soul-finders of us, too: people who find the broken, the battered, the road-weary, the possessed, the unwelcomed. God wants to work through us to find them and love them back to Jesus.
If that’s a call you think you can handle today, then I welcome you to come and accept it. If you simply need the reminder of God’s welcome of you today, God is offering it. Now is the time.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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