Sunday
06/23/19 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “All that Bacon!”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 42
New Testament
Scripture: Galatians 3:23-29
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 8:26-39
Welcome again my
brothers and sisters, my friends, on this the Second Sunday after Pentecost. Two
Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved, and the Christian Church was born on that
day of Pentecost, nearly 2,000 years ago.
With this said, I have a question for us all this morning. This
is the question: Have you ever met someone that was strange? I mean someone
that was just downright weird and even a little bit scary? This is the case for
Jesus in our Gospel of Luke reading for this morning.
Now some people have said to me, “Pastor Paul, the Bible is
boring, and has nothing exciting in it at all”. Well hold on to that thought
for just a second, as I begin to read to us all once again this morning’s
gospel reading! Once again from Luke 8:26 it says once again:
“Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is
opposite Galilee” (Lk. 8:26, NRSV).
So this gospel reading picks up with
Jesus and his disciples arriving at the country of the Garasenes, which many
scholars think was near the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Further, this story
happens just after Jesus had calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Nothing to
scary so far in the gospel reading right? Well let’s look once again at what
happens next. It says 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”
(Lk. 8:27, NRSV).
Remember
just a second ago when I asked you if you: Have you ever met
someone that was strange? I mean someone that was just downright weird and even
a little bit scary? Well, I was talking about this guy, that we have come to
know as the “Gerasene demoniac” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcism_of_the_Gerasene_demoniac).
So essentially then, Jesus has he
stepped out on the land from the Sea of Galilee, and is met by a demon possessed
man. Not just this, the man is naked and lives in the cemetery. Awesome! I don’t
suppose that he could have tried the “no shirt, no shoes, no pants” line on him
could he?
In
having been a pastor for about seven years now, I have meet all sorts of
people. I have spent time with just about every walk of life there is, but I
have never been greeted at church by a naked, demon possessed man, who lives in
cemetery. I also hope that I never will!
I
wonder what that was like for Jesus to step on the shore and immediately see
that? Further, how did he incorporate our United Methodist Church Safe
Sanctuaries policies into this situation? I would certainly help this man to. I
might offer him a bathrobe first, but I would certainly help him. Jesus went to
all people though.
Continuing
on, the gospel reading for this morning then says once again of the demon
possessed man, who forgot his clothes:
“When he
saw Jesus, he 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? 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 him, “What is your name?” (Lk. 8:28-30a, NRSV).
This story of Jesus healing and
performing an exorcism on the “Gerasene demoniac,” as he came to be called,
is also in the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and of course this morning, in the
gospel of Luke. It’s a powerful story, and a story that must have been interesting
to witness. I mean how would we react if a naked and demon possessed man who
lived in a cemetery approach us suddenly and erratically?
Further, the evil, the demons that
were in this man, acknowledged Jesus and his power, and were afraid. So
overcome with evil and grief, the “Gerasene demoniac” was sometimes even able to break
the shackles and chains that bound him in the cemetery.
Jesus,
wanting to know the name of this evil, this affliction, these demons that
possessed this man, once again asked the “Gerasene demoniac” who was possessing him. The
scripture then says once again:
“He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They
begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss” (Lk. 8:30b, NRSV).
The
demon says, his name is “Legion,” and that he is many demons. And these demons,
don’t want to return the “abyss,” as they say. The word “abyss” from the Greek
translates to the bottomless pit, or the deep. This seems to be a metaphor for
hell, the realm separate from the living. God.
Jesus
then agrees to the demon’s request, and once again the gospel then says:
“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” (Lk. 8:32-33, NRSV).
This
is where I get the title of my sermon for this morning, “All that Bacon!” From
the little bit of research that I did to prepare for this sermon, I learned
that a “herd” of swine or pigs can be a lot of pigs. Sometimes hundreds or even
more. The gospel in fact, once again says a “large herd of swine.”
Now when I read this portion of this gospel lesson, did my
mind go to holy things, to imaging the loving face of Jesus? Unfortunately no, as
the first thing that I thought about was the potentially hundreds of demon
possessed pigs that have just rushed down a steep bank, and then ran into the
lake and drowned. I lamented and said, “All that Bacon!” “All that Ham!”, and all
those “Pork Chops”, gone! That’s right I would have been the disciple that said
to Jesus, “did you have to let all of the pigs drown?” Plus once a pig drowns,
you don’t really want to eat the pig, and if it’s a demon-possessed pig, well
that not good! So I was sad over the loss of “All that bacon!”
I
was talking with our church organist Sarah Pressler about this, and I told her what
a tragedy that the loss of all of this bacon was. She then said, “But Pastor
Paul, Jews then and even now saw pigs and unclean animals, so that is probably
while Jesus allowed the demons to enter the pigs”. I then said, “But I am a
Christian and I can eat pigs!” Sarah was not convinced.
We
might remember in the story of “The Prodigal Son” that after the one of the two
sons of the rich man squandered his share of his inheritance, he could only
find work feeding pigs. Pig are unclean to Jews, and even feeding them was seen
as not good. I don’t know exactly how raising the pigs in this story worked
here, as we think this was gentile or non-Jewish territory, although, I would believe
that the pigs were likely sold off to non-Jews who ate the pigs. But “All that
Bacon!”
The
gospel reading for this morning then ends once again by saying this:
“When the
swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in
the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came
to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet
of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had
seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed.
Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked
Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got
into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that
he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to
your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away,
proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him” (Lk. 8:34-39, NRSV).
So
the pig version of sheep shepherds, the swineherds, ran to the city and the countryside
to tell all the people what had just happened. When they returned, the man who
was once erratic, naked, and demon-possessed, was now clothed and his right
mind. So maybe he did take that bathrobe after all!
All
the people at this point have fear over what Jesus just did in healing this
man. They actually asked Jesus to leave, and so Jesus got into his boat and
returned.
Then lastly, the healed and formally
demon-possessed man then begged Jesus to take him with him. Jesus said, instead
go and tell all you see and meet about me, and what I have done for you.
Instead of traveling with Jesus, Jesus tells the formally demon-possessed man
to share the good news of Jesus.
Friends, if the love of Jesus Christ
has filled you, if it is has changed you, then go forth and share that love
with the world and with each other. We never know who might cross our paths unexpectedly,
but be prepared and be ready to see if Jesus just might not do something
amazing when we least expect it. Oh, and “All that Bacon!” Amen.
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