We Are One

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a    Luke 8:26-39

Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.  At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Elijah is on top of Mount Horeb, which is another name for Sinai.  This is the very mountain that Moses would ascend to communicate with God during the wilderness sojourn.  The mountaintop would be shrouded in smoke and fire.

Elijah, who is hiding for fear of his life his life from Ahab and Jezebel, is told by God to stand on the top of this mountain.  A strong wind rips the mountain into pieces, but God, we are told, is not in the wind.  Then there is an earthquake, but we are told God is not in the earthquake.  Then fire, but God, we are told, is not in the fire.  Finally, there is a still small voice.  Elijah wraps his face in his mantle, knowing that God, the Almighty God of the Exodus, plagues, and creation, is in the still, small voice.This is meant to be startling news.  And, if we are willing to admit it, we are still startled that God can be found to be so small and still and quiet.  .

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him.

Today’s colourful Gospel story doesn’t get a lot of attention in preaching these days, and there’s a reason for that.  The issue that seems to get in the way of engaging it in these last few centuries is those doomed demons. We don’t like to talk about demons.  But, the New Testament world had a different way of seeing reality than we do, or than did the 10th century did, or than the 17th century.

These days, we don’t do demons, at least not much.  We don’t have a category for that. But, let’s see what’s going on here anyway; and let’s see where the Gospel is on the subject.

On one really important level, the story is somewhere between a political cartoon and a graphic novel. The whole scene is bizarre. You have a naked crazy guy, chatty demons, charging pigs doing swan dives, tombs, chains, shackles, freaked-out locals, and a small riot all in gentile territory where, as far Luke was concerned, Jesus had no business being in the first place.

The Jews who first heard this story must have loved it.  In addition to the great action and dialogue, there was ancient regional rivalry.  They certainly heard in it many issues that we modern listeners miss.

What could be more fun for the good Jews of Galilee to hear than a story about how un-kosher, unlucky, and generally weird the gentiles on the other side of the lake really were; and about how all those unclean pigs came to a well-deserved and hilarious end.

Then there’s the political subtext.  Everybody knew instantly both that it was no accident that the demons called themselves “Legion” after the famous and feared Roman legions, or that pigs were a staple of both the Roman army and the Roman economy. Caesar’s legions, and Caesar’s rations, were mere child’s play for Jesus- a quick word or two and they’re gone.  What fun!  And most Romans who heard the story probably wouldn’t even get it.

But as delightful as all this is, it is something deeper. It is really Good News, and it’s Good News about power - all sorts of power.

The Gerasene demoniac appears just after the more familiar account of Jesus calming the storm on the lake.  In fact, the storm was on the very same trip that took Jesus and the disciples to Gerasene.  Both of these accounts are part of Luke’s run-up to the big question Jesus asks His disciples in the next chapter:  Who do you say that I am?  In fact, all of these stories are hints about what the right answer is; so they all are not so much stories about what Jesus did, but about who He is.

And who Jesus is has to do with power. It has to do with which, of all the powers in the universe, regardless of what categories we use to talk about them, are the strongest, which powers will have the last word.

You see, there are a lot of powers out there, powers that can, and do, hurt and isolate and torment and destroy in all sorts of ways. The categories we use to describe them don’t really matter that much.  Whether we live in a world full of demons or schizophrenics, of storm-gods or indifferent natural laws, of illness or of possession - regardless of the categories we use, we live in a dangerous world, a frightening world, a world that seems at both first and second glance to be pretty much against us.  We live in a world that does not seem to care about us or our pain.  We know this all too well.

And the story of the Gerasene demoniac, like the story of the calming of the sea, like so many of the other stories about what Jesus did, and about who Jesus is, these are ways of saying that all of those powers out there, regardless of how we name them or organize them, regardless of how real they are, and regardless of how awful they are -“ none of them is ultimately powerful, none of them has or will have the last word, none of them will prevail, ultimately.  

In the end, when all is said and done, we are safe.  And the power that Jesus brings, the power of love, the power we see most clearly on the cross, that power will prevail.  And this victory is ours by gift.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what is lined up against us. Look, the Gerasene demoniac had more to worry about than his demons.  He was also a pariah, cut off from family, friends, community, relationships - from all those connections that together weave the fabric of our humanity.  That isolation, that apart-ness, was also the victory of powers, perhaps powers we humans create, powers that can destroy as effectively, and as completely, as madness or storms.

Still, by the time Jesus got through with him, our demoniac was on the other side of those as well.  He was not only in his right mind, but he was, as they say, dressed appropriately; and Jesus told him to go to his home, a home he didn’t have when our story began.  He was given the fullness of his life back.  Remember, there are all sorts of powers out there; and all sorts of victories.

This is part of what Paul is talking about when he insists that, in Christ, There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female.  Paul is saying that these distinctions, and others, these powers of the social, economic, ecclesiastical, and political structures - as ancient, hallowed, destructive, and potent as they were, and as they are - these are powers that will fall, and that have fallen, before Jesus. Their voices are not the strongest voices, and they will not have the last word.  

It is our vocation to oppose them, and by God’s grace they should not, and ultimately they cannot, separate, isolate, define, or destroy us.  Our calling is to listen to and obey that One Voice, the strong One, the powerful One, that speaks in the silence of our hearts.

The Holy Spirit whose arrival we celebrated last Sunday, who filled us at our baptism, is more powerful than the world.  We are called to be the quiet power-filled ones, who listen, and who, when we speak or act, are the bearers of the power of Jesus’ love to and for the whole earth and all who dwell therein. The love that Jesus is, and the love that Jesus brings, is stronger than anything, even the worst, the very worst, that the world can throw at us. That is who Jesus is.

And that is Good News!

And may the Church please say AMEN!