C, Post-Pentecost 2 Proper 7 - Luke 8:38-39 "Legions of God's Love"

Luke 8:38–39 (ESV) 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.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

The power of God’s word causes belief or unbelief.  It does not cause one to be half hearted or apathetic.  This is because God’s word has power over the desires of the flesh.

When Jesus sailed across Lake Galilee, he calmed the storm causing fear amongst the disciples.  They were learning what kind of master Jesus was, as they saw and heard him rebuke the wind and the waves.  And they saw the immediate response of the wind and waves become calm, just like a child who’s shushed by its parent.  The word of God is such, even the wind and the waves believe in the power of God’s word.

They arrive at the Gerasenes, a place on the eastern side of Lake Galilee.  This is a place of Gentiles, also known as the Decapolis, or the ten cities.  Having arrived, Jesus walks into another storm.  However, this storm was a wild and woolly man tormented by demons.  Not only was he a Gentile, but controlled by the demons, he was the most unclean and depraved of Gentiles.

But we hear something most remarkable as Jesus approaches this naked, vile man, a man who lives as though he was dead amongst the tombs.

We hear, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.’” (Luke 8:28 ESV)

How is it that the most unclean knows the Most High God?  Out on the lake the disciples didn’t know, and Jesus said to them, “‘Where is your faith?’ And they were afraid, and they marvelled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” (Luke 8:25 ESV)

Jesus does not torment the demons but allows them to leave the man and enter pigs.  Mark’s gospel records some two thousand swine.  But tormented by the demons these unclean animals race down the hill and are stilled by a drowning death in the sea, Jesus had just commanded and calmed.

Remarkably the man, Legion, in whom many demons had controlled and tormented, who could not be contained by chains and shackles.  But broke free and roamed in deserted places.  Where it was thought evil lived and God was not present, amongst the uncleanness of death and decay of graves.  The word of God controls him, and the convulsing demons beg Jesus not to torment them.

Demons recognise Jesus immediately, but the disciples don’t, such is the reality of humanity who have been blinded by the knowledge of what they perceive to be good and evil, whereas the demons know there is only one source of Good and that is God, their All-Mighty enemy.

But the All-Mighty enemy does not torment them, such is the God of love.  He grants them their wish and they leave the man.  The legion of demons enters the pigs, unclean animals, where God surely would not be present to further torment them.  But the unclean pigs would rather die than to have this evil wallow within and they rush into Lake Galilee and die.

On the bank of the lake, the demon possessed man is healed, he sits calmly with Jesus.  He wants to be a disciple of Jesus; he wants to come with him.  Just as the demons begged to go into uncleanness, the man free of demons, begs to remain in the restoration of his rescuer.

It might appear that Jesus rejects his request, that he sends him away and does not allow him to come with Jesus.  But quite the opposite occurs!  He is sent in the same way as the disciples are later sent, as Apostles, as a sent one!  He is sent as one set apart and freed to confess how God had set him free, to no longer be a slave of death, binding himself no longer to the flesh, and the demons that control the flesh, but to the powerful word of God, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, who gave permission for the demons to enter pigs, and Legion to take Goodnews to the Gentiles.

Who do you associate with in this narrative?  The disciples, Legion, the pigs or perhaps the people who ask Jesus to leave?  What is your fear?  Are you afraid of getting to know Jesus as the Most High God, who exposes the depraved piggishness of your most low desires and deeds? What does Jesus wish for you to take away from his word here today?

Paul’s letter to the Galatians helps open up what is happening here in Jesus’ interaction with Legion as he does with us all who daily drown the piggish demons of our sinful selves in the waters of baptism.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.  So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,  for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.   (Galatians 3:23–29 ESV)

Like Legion, we have been made one with Jesus Christ.  Legion’s oneness, however, was not made complete here in this narrative as Jesus sends him off to proclaim what God had done for him.  Rather, Legion, along with all whom Jesus healed in his ministry, and all who today are healed by the work of the Holy Spirit, are healed by the death of Jesus on the cross.

This is the completion of Legion!  This is the completion of you and me!  This is the completion of creation which waits on God for the restoration as did the wind and the waves who heard the word and were stilled, and the pigs who could not carry the sin and torment of even one man, but rather chose the stillness of death in the sea.

We no longer are captives of sin or death.  We are captivated by faith!  You are Abraham’s offspring.  What does that mean?

We wait for Jesus.  We are Sons of God.  Male or female, slave or free, Jew, or Gentile or Greek.  When God sees you, he sees Abraham’s offspring.  He sees Jesus.

When you see Jesus, what do you see?  When Jesus the Most High God reveals himself to you, what do you see?  Do you see the swine within and send them to their death in the waters of Baptism?  Do you let the Holy Spirit deliver death to the demons of the Old Adam or Eve within?  Or are you resisting the Holy Spirit and feeding his pearls to the pigs?  Are you wasting the wealth of God, the word of God, and feeding on the desires and deeds that lead to death?  Do you fear God, or do you fear family, friends, what others think, fortunes, lack of fortunes, more?

Let the Holy Spirit return you to Jesus!  If Jesus can control the wind and the waves, if he can deliver the man from a legion of demons, he can deliver you from the legion of temptations you face every day.  Like the complete number of pigs, one herd of pigs, let us rush as one in Christ, to the stilled waters of baptism, time and time again, so we might have the demons of sin drowned within.

Let us be sent out like Legion, as a legion of Christ’s love, as reflections of forgiveness, confessing to others what God has forgiven in us.  Fear God, not humanity!

Let us have the power of humility to boldly proclaim how Jesus has found us debased and rebased us as Sons of God, taking our depraved and piggish deeds and desires on himself, and replacing them with the Holy Spirit.  So, we have faith through this life, hope in death, and love for our neighbour so we might serve them with Jesus’ gifts of confession and forgiveness.

Sons of God, be encouraged by the voice of the Almighty Son of God in Psalm 66, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.  I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.  If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.  But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” (Psalm 66:16–20 ESV)

Because God has not rejected Jesus’ prayer or removed his steadfast love from him, believe he does not reject your prayer or remove his steadfast love from you, who remain in him!  Amen.

C, Trinity Sunday - Psalm 8:1-2 "Mouths of Babies"

Recently on television, Ruby Wax, an American comedian, known for her obnoxious portrayal of an American in Great Britain, speaking about the mental state of people said, “We’ve evolved technically, but emotionally we’re all idiots, we’re still in the slime!”  She was saying “all of us struggle”; and it’s true we all do!  We think the next person has it more together than we do, while we grovel around for meaning and purpose in our own lives.

Wisdom seems to be fleeting, yet we all like to give the impression we’ve got it together.  But really we go from one dilemma to another.  We struggle with our sexuality in our teens and twenties, then somewhere in our thirties and into our forties we become fixated on amassing wealth and possessions.  And when, and if, that temptation dies down honour and glory become more important to us in our fifties and sixties. 

And you’d think in old age wisdom might begin to rear its head but even here it’s hard to find.  As the memory starts to fade, it seems the older one gets the better I was!  There’s the temptation to piously point the finger at others projecting my forgotten failures onto someone younger; apparently not as mature and wise as me!  Hmmm!

So for all the advancements humanity makes in this world, it seems we make next to no improvements in understanding who we are, how our hearts and heads are connected, or should be connected, and what our purpose is in this technically berserk environment we’ve created for ourselves.

There are two little words we humans get hopelessly mixed up.  If we could only sort them out or have them sorted out, perhaps humanity would be lifted out of the hopelessness and depression that our busyness and technical advancement only seems to exacerbate!

The first of these little words is, DO — to do, doing, what we can do, what one has done!  It seems these days it’s more about doing the opposite sex, doing what’s required to outdo the rest, appearing to do what’s right, doing the job so we might do more stuff in our free time.  Ironically we then wonder why all our free time disappears, but we’re only busy because we have so much to do!  And in the end we find we no longer enjoy doing anything because we no longer do what we want to do out of love or joy but rather we do it because we have to do it. 

Have you ever seriously sat in the quiet and wondered why you “do” anything?

But the word on which every person needs to focus is, BE — to be, who I am, what we are!  To be with people!  How to be with others; socially, sexually, and in community; the common unity of humans being, human beings!  After all this is what we are, primarily “human beings” who do things to serve the being rather than “human doings” doing stuff to gain an identity.

Also it makes no difference inside and outside the church.  Christians and non-Christians alike make the same mistake, seeking to be something or someone by what we do, or what we pretend to do, rather than be who I honestly am… who you honestly are!  It’s because of this mistake; Christianity fails to be Christian and returns to the practices of every other ideology and religion doing itself undone today!

 This is why, we can learn from the youngest and weakest amongst us.  They are what the rest of us seek to hide with our sexuality, with our wealth and property, and with our vain glory.  Their being is one of weakness and helplessness.  Paradoxically, these who are least have the most, because they cannot do anything but be who they were created to be.  They are what we are too… and that is blessedly helpless!

And now the text from Psalm 8 starts to make sense in our confusion between “Doing and Being”.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.  Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. (Psalm 8:1–2 ESV)

How contrary to our thinking is this text?  The one who is least has the strength. They haven’t earned it, they’ve done nothing to possess it, yet the mouth of a suckling has the strength to still the enemy and the avenger who might literally (in the Hebrew) cramp one’s existence.

How true it is having evolved in technical knowhow we’ve done it to the detriment of ever really knowing ourselves.  Or as Ruby Wax points out, “We’re all idiots; we’re still in the emotional Neanderthal slime!”  Whereas the writer of Proverbs 8 says more subtly…

Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man. O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense.”

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.”

 “And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds[1] me finds life and obtains favour from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.” (Proverbs 8:1-5, 12, 32-36 ESV)

Here wisdom is personified.  “Who is this wisdom?  Or, what must I do to get this wisdom?” we might ask!  And in doing so we once again return to the fault of doing rather than the maturity of being!  But rather we need to return and receive wisdom in what’s like a marriage to wisdom which leads one to true eternal maturity.

In Baptism this “marriage” occurs!  The full being of God the Father, Jesus Christ, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit meets us in a matrimony made in heaven, and hung of the hellish hill, on the cross.

You see Jesus Christ is true wisdom, personified, in flesh, on the cross, in the resurrection, and now present for all who call on him!  In baptism God does the work of making you, one with him; forgiving sin, helping the blessedly helpless, hanging your true nature on the cross, so that you “the weak one” can confess who you really are, killing the avenger, the enemy, the old foe of our sinful being within. 

No longer do you have to keep the secret and pretend to be what you’re not!  How much of a relief is that?  Humanity can now take a break!  We can all take a collective sigh!   Ahhhhhh!   I can be who I am.  One who struggles, one who is weak, I confess that I am not right, that I really have no clue, that I am far from even coming near to being perfect in any way! 

But not only can I confess that I am a helpless sinner, but I am a forgive sinner, free to be blessedly helpless, but blessedly helped and given wisdom, and faith, and hope in he who knows just who I am.

So we find the most mature Christians amongst us are those who can’t hide their sin but are just happy to be both sinners and saints.  And from the mouth of these babies and infants the Lord, our Lord, establishes and continues to establish his strength.

Jesus was that little baby, innocent and blessedly helpless, yet unlike us he did not unlearn this maturity of trust in God the Father, and remained innocent and blessedly helpless right to the cross and resurrection.  He was the only one who remained what he was created to be.  He was born helpless and innocent and was purposely baptised into our humanity and hung on the cross for it.  Now you who are born helpless in your human nature are encouraged to hang onto the humility of Christ and receiving his new humanity which can and does make you fit for heaven.

As this world is technologically evolving from the sublime to the ridiculous, be recreated each day in the promise that God works in baptism, in his word, when we stop and rest in the forgiveness of sin which Jesus Christ has won for you at the cross. 

Your purpose, the only place where you get hope and true meaning in your life, is when you lay your life in the life of Christ. Place your being in the doing of Jesus; what he has done and continues to do for you. Amen.

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[1] Here “find” (3 times) in Hebrew literally means “is present with, to exist, or, to take hold of.” Therefore, one who exist in God, exists in life, and those who do not exist in death and hatred of God even while they live, in the everyday sense.

C, Pentecost - Romans 8:14-17, John 14:12-18 "The Holy Adoption of Orphans"

Romans 8:14–17 (ESV) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

John 14:12–18 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” 

What is the function of the Holy Spirit? 

Or put another way, why do we need the Holy Spirit to be Christian; one who is a confessor of sins, a believer of our Heavenly Father’s forgiveness, a confessor of our Father’s forgiveness, and a forgiver of those who sin against us?

In the Nicene Creed we say we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. 

The Holy Spirit gives us life as God’s children.  What is that?  Jesus says without the Holy Spirit we would be orphans, we would not receive him when he comes to us in his Word, nor would we receive him at his second coming. 

Without the Holy Spirit we would have no faith in God, without the Holy Spirit we would only have faith in ourselves, our fallen human spirit.  You and I wouldn’t know God the Father or God the Son, nor would you want honest truthful fellowship with them or anyone else.

The Holy Spirit gives us faith and with faith filled hearts, he walks with us as the Spirit of truth.  On receiving the Holy Spirit, he enlightens us to the reality of our human self.  You and I know that without the Holy Spirit we have no understanding, like the disciples did until Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on them and opened their minds to the Word of God.

It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to continually gather you and me, feed us with faith when we receive God’s gifts, and makes us holy in Jesus Christ so we don’t gravitate back to the untruths of the narrowness of ourselves.

In Romans eight Paul tells us we have received the Spirit of adoption as sons.  You and I are orphans until the Holy Spirit gives us the hearts of faith, so we call on God with holy fear rather than a fear that leads us back into slavery.

A fear that leads back into slavery is a fear that hinders us from freely confessing our sins.  A fear of slavery hinders us from believing Jesus’ word when he tells us we will do greater works than the works he did, now that he is with his Father in heaven.  Where does this fear come from?

Before we were Sons of God, we were sons and daughters of men.  This meant at our very best we may have lived morally decent lives.  But this very best, this knowledge of good, made us self-righteous, and it hinders us from trusting in God. 

Why would we need to trust in God if our good is good enough?  But it’s not good enough for God because it treats him with contempt as we desire to climb up to God through our effort of greater good, just as the builders of Babel were attempting to do.

Desire is also at the heart of our very worst as we live as sons and daughters of men.  Burning desire for pleasure can usually be found at the root of criminal activity, tribulations, and the fracturing of communities.  In fact, desire never seems all that bad until the deed is done and the guilt kicks in.  It’s been the same ever since Adam and Eve desired the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

However, the Holy Spirit was sent from the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, just ten days after he, ascended into heaven.  This fulfilled what God’s Son promised.   This is the promise of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit works to place faith in us, which welcomes all that God does for us in our day to day lives, and also allows the deposit of eternal life to be placed in us.

This is the seal of God’s adoption that makes us, God’s own, and God, our Father.  The Holy Spirit continually testifies to our human spirit that you and I are Sons of God.  Our Sonship is a gift to us from the Son of God.  Jesus Christ, came as one of us, he came as the Son of Man, giving up his privilege as the Son of God, doing what all other sons and daughters of man could not do.

The Holy Spirit continues to reveal this to you and me in God’s Word.  The Son of Man lived the life you and I could not live.  He died in your place.  He literally gave his life for your life.  Now we, who were sons and daughters of men, are Sons of God.  This is God’s holy adoption of orphans. 

Sons and daughters of men are orphaned through sin, through birth and deed.  Sons of God are adopted because of the Son of Man, through his birth to Mary, his deeds, and his death on the cross.  We now do greater works than Jesus by confessing our sin to God the Father.

We now have more to fear if we do not confess our sins to God and forgive others their sins. 

When we reject confessing our sins and forgiving others, we resist the Holy Spirit. 

When we refuse to confess and forgive, we hinder the greater works Jesus said we would do, now that he is with the Father.  We impede his crucifixion and resurrection for us. 

When we put a stop to confessing our sin and forgiving others, we orphan ourselves, and return once again to not trust God as our Heavenly Father. 

When we don’t confess and forgive, our inability to love becomes real. 

We move dangerously close to sinning against the Holy Spirit.

But, as sons of God the Father, we can love others as God has loved us, as we live and move and have our being in Jesus Christ, the love of God. 

The work of God’s love is done in us by the Holy Spirit.  Yes!  It does cause us pain and suffering. 

Confessing sin and forgiving others causes death of the old Adam in us.  The human spirit is exposed in all its weakness.  This is not an easy thing to do.

This is why we need the Holy Spirit to work these things within us, and as he does, he bears witness in us, and through us, that we are heir of salvation with Jesus Christ.

One last thing the Holy Spirit does in each of us.  He allows us to cry out “Abba Father” to our Heavenly Father. 

Practically speaking doing this testifies to our children a number of things. 

We teach our kids about our weakness.  We teach then to grow up trusting is him and not us as mothers and fathers. 

So, they do not become despondent because they cannot live up to our expectations.  Or so, they don’t become conceited and reject God because of our fallen hypocrisy.

As Sons of God, we teach our children to allow the Holy Spirit to make them Sons of God.  Sons and daughters of men can never be grandchildren of God. 

Rather, as the Holy Spirit leads us as Sons of God, confessing and forgiving, he makes an example of us to our sons and daughters, so they too allow the Holy Spirit to seal them in their adoption as Sons of God, and as our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.