Sunday - 06/23/13
RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “An exorcism
to remember!”
Scripture Lesson: 1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7), 8-15a
Gospel Lesson: Luke 8:26-39
Good morning brothers and sisters! Greetings
and blessings in the name of the risen Christ! It’s a great joy and a pleasure
for me to come together with you on this fifth Sunday after our holiday of
Pentecost. The day that tongues of fire filled the Disciples of Christ, and this
new fire in their hearts and in their bellies led them to make disciple of
Jesus Christ. The spirit led them to preach the good news of Jesus, and to
teach the world a new way of being. That we must love our neighbor, that we
must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for unfortunate, and heal the
sick. Surely this Jesus was not just some mere prophet, but rather he was
something significantly more. This Jesus was and is the Messiah, the one who came
to earth, changed our definition of life itself, offered us salvation through
his blood, and has reconciled us with almighty God. Truly the Christ is our
standard and the ultimate truth by which we live our lives.
For never in history has there been
anyone like Christ, and only when he returns, will we be able to say that he is
here again in his full bodily form. You see Jesus taught us, and continues to
teach us many things. Jesus teaches us how to treat each other, how live, and
how to re-make the world in his image.
Yet amidst this, we live in era so wrought with anti-Christian fervor and
anti-faith fervor, where people often attack our faith. They seek to pick apart
our truths, yet Christ is the source of all truth. For Christ was God on earth,
and has saved us all, if we but love him, serve him, and love others in his
name.
When looking at today’s scripture reading
from 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah has just been on Mount Carmel and has
ordered the prophets of the pagan god Baal to be destroyed. The god Baal was often
portrayed as statue, and people worship there statues of Baal. Elijah
challenged them that God was not contained only in a mere statue, but was everywhere
and all around us. The scripture than said, King “Ahab told Jezebel all that
Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets
with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the
gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like of one of them by
this time tomorrow.” Elijah then flees into the wilderness, and he is so scared
for his life that he asked God to take his life. He said, “It is enough; now, O
Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” At this point
the scripture says that Elijah lay down under the broom tree where he was at. “Then
suddenly an angel touched him and said to him “Get up and eat.” Suddenly before
him was a cake of bread and a jar of water, and Elijah then ate and drank. The
scripture then went on to discuss how Elijah then followed God after this event,
and how the Lord guided and protected him. While Elijah’s path might not have been
easy, the Lord protected him.
In the way that God protected Elijah though, I think that
we should ask ourselves on this morning, how does the Lord protect us? Where
have we seen the power of God in our own lives? How has the power and the love
of God changed us, and how has it changed others? Further, let us ask ourselves,
where is God present in our lives today?
When looking at the gospel according to Luke reading from
this morning, the story begins with Jesus and his followers arriving in the
country of Gerasenes, which is opposite of Galilee. The gospel then says
speaking of Jesus, “As 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.” So just to put this in a modern day context, imagine that an
insane demon possessed man, lives in one of our local cemeteries, and was naked
most of time. Well, I don’t know about you, but the leaders of this community
might not approve of these said living arrangements.
As Jesus approached the naked demon possessed man, the
gospel says that the man “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?” The
demon possessed man than said, “I beg you, do not torment me” – for 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.) Jesus then
asked the demon, “What is your name?” The demon in the man said, “Legion”; “for
many demons had entered him.” After this, the demons begged Jesus, “not to
order them to go back into the abyss.” The gospel goes on to say, “Now 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. Then 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.”
Soon many people saw that this man who was once demon
possessed, who was now healed and well. The man was in fact according to the gospel
of Luke was, “clothed and in his right mind.” This man then wanted to go with
Jesus and his disciples, but instead Jesus told the man “return to you home,
and declare how much God has done for you.” “So he went away, proclaiming
through the city how much Jesus had done for him.”
Well upon going through this gospel reading from this
morning, I have a few thoughts. The first thought is, what if Jesus didn’t send
those demons into the swine or pigs, and instead cast them into the abyss. I
imagine in my mind several good pigs full of yummy bacon, pork chops, sausage
and etc. drowning in that lake. This admittedly makes me a little sad. If I
were with a disciple of Jesus at this time, I might have jokingly said to the
Lord, “you know Lord we were going to eat those.”
The second thought I have here is of the power and the authority
of Jesus Christ. That the power, the purity, the love, and the authority of
Christ was and still is so strong that even the demons know him. That as soon
as John the Baptist caught his first glimpse of Christ, he said, “Behold that
is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” So if you were
tapped into God, or if you were tapped in Satan, you would likely recognize the
Son of God, the Messiah. So much so, that the demons shake with fear at the
sound of his name. That the very presence of Christ causes demons to shout out,
to cry, and with one simple command a man is healed, and his soul is restored.
That the power of God is so great that God is more powerful than any demon, or
any evil that this world will throw at you. For as the founder of the Lutheran
Church Martin Luther said, “The devil is God’s devil.” By this, Martin Luther
meant that since almighty God created the universe, this earth, and everything
in it, that he also created the devil. The devil therefore, has no power over
God. God can destroy the devil at any moment, and God merely therefore asks
that we put our trust in Him. That we love Him with our whole heart, and that
we give him our devotion. For in this the gospel reading from this morning, it was
“an exorcism to remember!” As President Abraham Lincoln said, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my
greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”
Some
people in the modern day have attacked this “exorcism to remember,” and have
said, “How could Jesus really drive demons into pigs, who then commit suicide?”
I think the better question to ask though is, “What can’t God do?” What has God done in your life to show you,
to prove to you his manifest power, authority, and truth? What has he done to
prove to you that he lives and reigns, that he is actively involved in our
lives, and that he proves to us that demons quake at his sight? For today we
learn about “An exorcism to remember!” On this day let us remember the love of
God, the power of God, and the sovereignty of God. We remember that the creator
of everything, the Lord of life, the great “I Am” loves you, and can do
anything, if you just believe. If you just say “Yes Lord, here I am send me.”
I would like
to close today with a story. This story is called Out of Harm's Way, by Dave Jass. Here is how
the story goes: “So there we were. Fifty 10 year old boys. In the Minnesota of
mid-winter cold, packed on a school bus, heading for the big downtown YMCA. We
were going swimming. In can still sense the excitement, the “can hardly wait”
anticipation. These were the days of owning the world, of being. And we arrive
at the Y. Out of the bus, running through the cold, keeping up with the speed
of each other, and into the sounds and wet warmth of the building. My God, we
can smell the pool. We hear it echo to us as we tear off our parkas, our boots,
shirts and pants flying. We were naked as the day we were born. No suits for us
today, not when we were about to plunge into the waters of the “Boys Only”
pool. I can still feel it. The event we had been waiting for since it was
announced by Mrs. Elmquist 5 weeks ago. All there was to do now was run. And
run we did. Flying into the water. I guess we never heard the commands to slow
down, to wait for the teacher in charge, or to walk around to the other end of
the pool where the depth was a reasonable 3 feet.
I couldn’t swim and was instantly
under the heaviness of water at the deep end of the pool. I knew I was
drowning. I had heard that one would surface three times. After the third gasp
above water, down I would go, never to surface again. Boy, was I scared. I
surfaced for the first time. It was bright and noisy. I thought of yelling for
help, but could not. Something inside stopped me. I sink again and resurface.
Once more I thought it wise to yell “HELP” but I could not. They also say that
on the third time under you will see your life pass before your eyes. And
indeed mine did. This short life, only 10 years, did not take long to pass. It
didn’t have much to say. I committed to yell for help on this the third rising.
Feeling a curved hooking devise
around my belly, lifted clear out of the water and being gently placed on the
side of the pool, I never had a chance to meet my resolve and finally ask for
help. And still unto these last 45 years of life, I have needed the help of
others often and asked for it seldom. As the hand of God surely curves around
and holds me strong, gently placing me on the side, out of harm’s way.
My brothers and sisters, we serve a
mighty God. A God who loves you and me so much, and desires for us to know Him.
He desires it so much in fact, that he is willing to send demons into a flock
of pigs, and let all of that great and yummy bacon drown. Oh how He loves you
and me. Amen.
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