Even if...

I admit that I don’t much like today’s gospel reading. For some reason Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee into what is today the Golan Heights region of Syria. We can be sure that the people there were not Jews because they kept pigs and pigs are among the Jewish unclean foods. The story of Jesus’ meeting with the crazy man in the tombs, his subsequent healing and the fear of the local people could almost be a cartoon or a graphic novel. It may even be that there’s a joke in there which would make first-century people giggle or even guffaw. But from the perspective of the 21st century reader the death of the innocent pigs is rather horrible, not to mention the loss of livelihood for the agricultural workers. Whatever happened to compassion and care for Creation?

For a while I thought that this morning I would be talking about the way our thoughts affect the way we behave which directly or indirectly affects the rest of Creation. For example, our desire for convenience leads to using much more plastic than we need which in turn gets into the stomachs of sea creatures and can kill them.

But then I asked myself why Luke tells us this story and in such detail, and looking at the context I realized that he is showing us the power of Jesus the Christ. On the way to the land of the Gerazenes, Jesus calms a storm on the lake, once there he casts out a passel of evil spirits and when he gets home he brings Jairus’ daughter back to life and heals the woman who has been hemorrhaging for 12 years. In just one chapter, Luke shows us that Jesus has power over the weather, over evil spirits, over death and over chronic illness.

All these stories 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?” All of these stories are hints about what the right answer to that question is—they are not so much accounts about what Jesus did, as they are about who Jesus is.

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

There really are a lot of powers out there; powers that can and do hurt and isolate and torment and destroy, in all sorts of ways. Whether we use first century or twenty-first century language to describe them doesn’t matter that much. Whether we live in a world full of demons or mental illness, of storm-gods or indifferent natural laws, of possession or of illness—regardless of the categories we use, we live in a frightening world.

I found myself fearful yesterday when I heard that the US has bombed Iran. I wondered what evil has been unleashed by that use of deadly power.

But today’s gospel, like the story of the calming of the sea, like so many of the other stories about what Jesus did—about who Jesus is—these stories are ways of saying that, of all of those powers out there, regardless of how we name them or organize them, in spite of how terribly real they are and how awful they are—none of them is ultimately powerful. None of them has or will have the last word, none of them will ultimately prevail. In the end, when all is said and done, we are cared for and cared about. In the end, the power that Jesus brings, the power of obedient, self-sacrificing love, the power we see most clearly on the cross, that power will prevail. And his victory is ours by gift.

Pastor Karen shared a meme with me that says, Fear says what if? Faith says Even if.  Fear says what if? Faith says Even if. 

Even if the worst thing we can imagine happens, even then God is with us.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what is lined up against us. Notice how the man in the gospel had much more to worry about than his demons. He was also a pariah, cut off from family, friends, community, relationships—from all of those connections that together weave the fabric of our very humanity. That isolation, that apart-ness, was also the victory of powers, powers we humans create, powers that can destroy as effectively and as completely as madness or a storm.
Yet by the time Jesus got through with him, he was properly dressed, in his right mind and able to rejoin society.

Fear says what if? Faith says Even if. 

In our first reading we heard about Elijah and his fear as he ran away from Queen Jezebel into the wilderness, alone. He was running for his life. He was saying what if? And in his fear God came to him. There was a big show of physical force. We heard that there was “a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire” but God was not in that either. God was not in the display of power but in the quiet that came afterwards.

And just like the man with the demons, after he had met God, Elijah was able to rejoin his community.

The power that we see in Jesus, the power of our God is not in big shows of force. It is not in dropping bombs on other people. God’s love is shown in Jesus’ death on the cross. From the human perspective it was a devastating loss of power. But in the topsy-turvy reign of God, that devastating loss of human power was the very thing that made it into a glorious victory of God’s power over evil.
 
So, I mentioned a 1st century joke in the gospel reading. Here it is. Jesus asked the man "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; and Luke tells us that was because many demons had entered him. But it’s a pun, a double-entendre; Legion also referred to the occupying Roman army.  And what happened to Legion? Jesus sent them into the pigs. Jesus sent a legion of evil spirits just like detested Romans into the pigs and to their deaths.

I think you probably had to be there – because when you explain a joke it’s not funny anymore.
But the power of God is a joke in human terms. We think power is in tornados, in earthquakes, in fires, in presidents, in bombs. But God’s power is in the quiet word of God speaking in our hearts and restoring us to our rightful place in the community of God’s daughters and sons. God’s power is in our baptism that enables us to participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus and draws us together across all man-made barriers and prejudices. God’s power is on our participation in the Body of Christ. God’s power restores us to be the people we were made to be – made in the image of Godself.

And it is in God’s power that we trust.
Alleluia.
 
 the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall