St. John's in the Village

July 1, 2009

The Rev'd Dr. Gary Hellman

Matthew 8:28-34 (New International Version)

The Healing of Two Demon-possessed Men

28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, [ a ] two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 "What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"

30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."

32 He said to them, "Go!" So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen

Today is the first of July; we begin the second half of the year 2009. It is rather startling how fast time seems to pass through our hands. It is like water pouring from the faucet. We take it for granted, we let it flow by enjoying it as it refreshes, filtering and containing it in the fridge; we like to preserve its freshness.

I bring this up in the context of a healing Eucharist to draw attention to our need to slow down, to open our hearts for the experience of life even as it flows by. We cannot stop it; cannot make time go slower. But the gift of our lives, the stewardship of our resources does come more and more into focus particularly when economic challenges bring us up short. We recognize that such resources time as well as money asks us to look carefully at our lives. When we do this we begin to see how our spiritual resources may flow through our hands as well.

How are we using the time, talent, money and resources that God has given to us and what stops us from making it all work better?

Tonight's Gospel may offer some interesting perspectives. Jesus has arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes and there he encounters two demoniacs. People possessed of demons. They've staked out positions in the town causing problems; people are afraid of them but by in large avoid them. It seems dangerous to go near and there have been accommodations.

Jesus is not afraid but engages them. And they recognize him and react to him with a kind of hysteria.

If we think about these demoniacs as aspects of our own lives that are wild or pretty out of control, or think of our use of precious but limited resources like time or money (to name two of my demons) these demons haunting our lives become easy to recognize.

Quite often rather than facing these aspects of self that are out of control, we mostly manage them, and typically like the people of this town, we avoid them, we deny the way they are obstructing our lives. It might be an addiction, alcohol, other drugs, over spending, not taking appropriate care of our limited time commitments, offering to do things that over tax our orderly schedules.

I'm sure you know your own demons and the ways in which they afflict you.

What do we do to bring order to these familiar demons?

Following Jesus, quite simply we face them…and yes indeed they recognize our attention. Indeed our demons too become a bit hysterical when we do face them. And they begin to make bargains with us. So, send us into the pigs and we will be fine! I've never been quite satisfied with this ploy on the part of the demons. I'm not sure that this is the healing that is called for rather a very adroit ploy to pretend to heal.

But what is really strange is that our community of support can often be full of familiar denial as well. Our community can also support our bad habits; AND can be upset when we make efforts to change. The new insight that brings about healing can be threatening to our friends. They are all familiar with our unhealthy habits because reforming our own lives threatens the whole community. It in fact asks each of us become healthier and to face our own demons.

In the Gospel tonight, I suggest that Jesus is not successful in healing these demons, the whole town wants Jesus to get out…look what happened when he meddled; a herd of valuable swine were lost in the river.

It is indeed costly to face our demons, to look at them and to address the challenges that upset our routine ways of living. The community will indeed be upset if the cost of our growth impinges on others --- and there is no doubt that it will.

Our demons are not private, they live in and among our brothers and sisters, they are mostly social; they become known when we face them, they react to attention and the community of people who have gotten use to our demons is so often not willing to pay much of a price for your efforts to use its resources for healing.

So, healing is not some easy assignment. Rather it is challenging to shine that light of lights into the dark where our demons are so fierce and yet so comfortable.