Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw
Take a look at this bacon!
Ever bought any of this stuff?
It’s been sliced up, laid out, skillet-simmered, and vacuum-packed - so that it does perfectly fine sitting out on the counter for days, even weeks!
Take a look at this cute little piggy!
Plump and pink little porker, isn't he?
Never has there been a more adorable representation of such a cuddly looking, mud-loving, animal!
And take a look at this demon, from my 12-year-old's room -
All decked out in Satan's favorite shade of red!
He’s as creepy and scary as they come - all set to torment and terrorize
This morning I would like to suggest these modern-day representations of these age-old entities certainly have their place in our culture -
However, they are doing us no favors as we consider our well-known Bible passage from St. Luke’s Gospel -
These three items remind us that we have pre-conceived, 21st century notions - that can give us an un-helpful filter for unpacking a 1st century story -
So, I’m going to invite you to put on new eyes to look at, what I consider to be, one of the most liberating and life-giving stories in the Bible.
And the reason this is important - is because many of us came to church this morning in need of liberation:
Liberation from nasty self-talk that is burdening us - and the people around us.
Liberation from worries over money, relationships, work, and the course of our country and the world;
Liberation from bad habits and ways of thinking - that make us so much less than who we suspect we can be.
This morning we see Jesus on a mission to liberate more than just a crazy, naked man running through a cemetery - but for you and me:
You are not here this morning by accident.
I think that God has called us together this morning to grow in love for the Lord and for our fellow brothers and sisters.
And by your obedience to a Divine Calling, this empowers us to leave behind the things that bind us; to throw off the shackles that anchor us; and to accept the healing, freedom, and liberation that Jesus has for us.
If we could get just a glimpse of that Technicolor panorama of provision, of care, of love that God has for us, and put our own worries and concerns alongside it, to compare - what we would find is an ant hill next to the Town Center building - a cupcake next to a bakery - a car next to the Lake Orion Assembly plant - in other words - we would be absolutely blown away by the grandeur of God’s forgiving, providing, and liberating, loving kindness to us.
And this liberation is here for the asking, as we immerse ourselves in word and sacraments, into the spirit of Jesus.
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And so we begin this morning on a boat, with Jesus, with the disciples.
They have sailed across from Galilee, which is on the west side of the lake, and they've gone across the big lake, think of something the size of Lake St Clair, to the east side of the lake.
And they have gone from the Jewish part of the region, and sailed across that lake to the Gentile area - the land of the Gerasenes.
This is to a land of people who do not practice the Jewish rituals, follow the Jewish laws, or bow down to the Jewish God.
In other words, these are people to whom the Jews have been called and sent, to be a light to the nations, to bring healing to the masses, to tell the lost, they have been found. Bringing the liberating news of God’s love to others, has been a charge to the Jews since the days of Abraham.
And Jesus and the disciples now find themselves in a land that does not treat pigs the same way the Jews do. Here, these animals are not only eaten and enjoyed - but bred, and bred plentifully, which is something that the Jews did not do.
The Jews did not do so because of the biblical commandment, found in Deuteronomy 14:8 - "the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.”
This is a warning to Jews not to eat - much less breed - pigs. And while there is no reason given in the scripture you and I could assume that one reason is because of the lack of refrigeration in a first century desert - and the ways pork can easily become home to all sorts of bacteria - causing all sorts of problems, one of them being a disease called trichinosis.
In fact, today's rabbis, examining commandments like Deuteronomy 14:8, often point to hygienic reasons behind blanket commands dealing with ancient Hebrew dietary issues.
So why not eat pigs?
Because they might kill you!
Meanwhile, Jesus and the disciples leave the boat, step into a culture that takes these chances with pork - not only eating it, but breeding it - and they find a deranged man.
Of course, in the first century, there was no knowledge of mental health.
We don't hear about people suffering from anxiety, or depression, or bipolar disorder in the New Testament.
And since these are the most common forms of illness today, mental or otherwise, they were probably pretty prevalent back then as well!
But the writers of these words did not have the knowledge we have, they did not have the vocabulary we have, and so we hear, in detail, using the best language available at the time, about demons, their names, their words, and their actions.
And we wonder what caused this possessed man to go off the rails?
Why is he demon possessed? Why is he deranged?
And what we know is that afflictions like this are caused by a wide variety of things, and I might suggest that it could also have been caused by a disease called trichinosis.
While usually affecting the stomach and the intestines, even to the point of death, trichinosis can cause somebody to go crazy.
And so you and I witness what Jesus does from here.
He finds a way to cure this afflicted man - and he does so by commanding the cause of this affliction, this illness, these demons, to go into a nearby herd of pigs.
Now I know that when I say ‘herd of pigs’ many of us envision this cute little toy - or the movie ‘Babe’ - but to Jesus, an observant Jew, he may have been looking at this herd of swine more like a swarm of mosquitoes all carrying a deadly strain of malaria - thus this banishment of what ailed the possessed man to this herd of swine may be, in fact, one of the most charitable, compassionate, and liberating things Jesus could have done for these Gerasenes.
Of course, the pig owners did not see things this way.
They were angry.
And you and I, then, think of all the other people in the Gospels who got angry with Jesus.
They were not the liberated blind people given theirs sight, the hungry thousands who got fed, or the lepers who got healed.
No, those who were consistently upset with Jesus were the corrupt, the dishonorable and the dishonest.
They were the religious hierarchy who saw a threat to their corrupt practices.
They were the high priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees who saw their power and positions threatened by Jesus’ teaching and growing following.
These were people who did not rejoice when the sick were healed or even the dead were raised - no, they were more interested in their selfish enterprises.
And we may well wonder if these Gerasene swineherds were cut from the same cloth…
After all, they were more concerned with losing their pigs than seeing one of their fellow-citizens healed and set free...
Were they just innocent merchants unfairly deprived of their livelihoods -
OR
Were they greedy, self-interested pushers of a product they made money on, and perhaps even suspected, could kill people?
This means you and I might look at this story less as an intriguing tale of bizarre demonic encounter - and more as a compassionate story of liberation - yet another witness to God’s desire to bring freedom and wholeness to all of our lives.
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It was a hot, humid day in Galveston, Texas back in 1865 when U.S. Army general Gordon Granger made his way to a balcony to read General Order #3 - and announce to the last corner of the U-S territory that liberation had come to the slaves.
This came two-and-a-half years later than President Abraham’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation - it’s events like this in which we wish there had been email…
This event was first marked in the South, places like this - churches - where the gatherings took on a festive, food-centered tone. Over time, the commemoration spread - north - and now nationwide - as President Biden made this day, June 19 - Juneteenth - an official Federal holiday one year ago today.
And one reason this celebration may have started in churches is because the church is historically a place that preaches and works for liberation.
We want fairness -
We want equality -
We want equal opportunity -
Why?
Because this is what Christianity preaches - seen nowhere more clearly than in our Second Lesson today when St. Paul writes:
"There is no longer Jew or Greek,
there is no longer slave or free,
there is no longer male and female;
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
What do we need freedom from today?
Our worries?
Our habits?
Our fretting over things that are out of our control?
The Jesus way can take us there.
There is liberation in higher priorities put on prayer, scripture, Godly influences, and acts of service to others.
We can bask in this liberation, we can share it too.
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I was in the grocery store earlier this week, with my 3-year-old perched on my shoulders, when an elderly woman, a complete stranger, approached me and said:
“You better take that boy down off your shoulders, that’s a long way for him to fall - and unless you hold onto both of his legs he’s going to tumble to the ground and crack his head wide open!"
My first instinct, as yours might be, was to feel a bit off-put by any stranger who tries to give a parent unsolicited child-rearing advice, especially amidst a crowd of people.
And if you would have felt like saying, ‘Bug off lady and mind your own business!’ then you would be in good company - including mine...
But I paused and hesitated -
Remembering some sage advice I was once given:
‘In the initial moments of personal offense, don’t talk, text, or type.’
Somebody here may have needed to hear that today - as we respond to flaming emails, crazy drivers, unprovoked offenses, and rude relatives: Take a breath - and don’t talk, text, or type.’
So, I took that breath, and I remembered something I had recently come across from a researcher who studies rude behavior.
Georgetown business school professor, Dr. Christine Porath writes extensively about the destructive effects of bad behavior - she’s got a great TED talk and lots of papers and books if you want to look her up - and she says, that 80% of rude behavior is not understood or meant, by its purveyor, to be rude - that most people most of the time, honestly don’t know they’re being offensive or rude.
That’s right - when we cut people off, interrupt, cut in, or give complete strangers unsolicited parenting advice - we have no idea we’re actually being offensive.
With this in mind, I said to this woman:
“Thank you so much for your concern!
“I am delighted that you have such care for humanity, especially the little ones among us!”
To which she smiled and went her merry way.
Liberation is not just about the big stuff - like miraculously healing the mentally ill -
But God wants to set us free from the little stuff - like the lingering and debilitating effects of getting in arguments with strangers at the grocery store - something proven to affect our mood, our blood pressure, our creativity, even our productivity!
Years ago, I used to roll my eyes at sermons that simply told us to ‘be nice’ - but in our increasingly contentious, polarized, and downright rude culture, being nice can be a liberating force to bring about a more moral society.
The great 20th century historians Will and Ariel Durant concluded their award-winning careers with a small book called ’The Lessons of History’ in which they distilled all of their research and offered up not just passive narrative, but summative conclusions. One of them is this:
“[In all world history’] There is no significant example of a society maintaining a moral life without religion.”
Friends, our work as moral agents is so important.
Our world, with its increasingly disrespectful, abrasive, and aggressiveness towards those of differing opinions, needs the seasoning of Christian salt, Christian leaven, Christian patience and hope.
Our work - in our communities and in our nation - of walking the path of Jesus, whose teachings are clear: be kind, generous, peaceful, thoughtful, selfless, and loving to one another - reflecting the life-changing, liberating Gospel - is more important, and more conspicuous, than ever.
Let us go forth in the power and love of God - to liberate our world one word, one deed, one conversation, at a time.
Amen.