Last week,
when I was walking through downtown at about 5 pm, a woman and I attempted to
cross a street simultaneously, but from opposite directions. Heading directly
toward one another, she angled slightly to her left and I concurrently angled
to my right; then we did the reverse, she moving right and I left. We repeated
our dance several times as we each politely sought to avoid colliding. When we
were only a couple of feet from each other, she looked up; I chuckled bemusedly,
realizing that our politeness had unintentionally created an impasse; she,
after a moment, changed her expression from wary concern to a smile, and we
passed pleasantly.
The incident
was memorable because she obviously expected some type of negative confrontation.
The incident, in a small way, symbolizes the widespread polarizations of
contemporary life. When somebody is different than we are, we too frequently stigmatize
the person and treat them as an outcast. This happens, from both perspectives, between
Democrats and Republicans, Trump supporters and opponents, self-identified pro-choice
and pro-life people in the debate over abortion, those for or against the
Hawaiian sovereignty movement, and so forth.
This
morning’s gospel reading describes a demoniac ostracized by his local community
because he has harmed property but also, implicitly, the psychic well-being of
others.[1]
The Gerasenes – Gentiles – had
banished the man from their midst, chained him, and forced him to live as an
animal. Jesus found the man living naked in a cemetery, having broken free of
his shackles.
Biblical scholars
offer two different diagnoses of the demoniac’s condition. First, the man may
have suffered from mental illness such as schizophrenia or manic-depression. Before the late nineteenth century, people lacked
the scientific knowledge and vocabulary to diagnose mental illness or even
neuroses. Today, we
remain far from completely understanding mental illness; regrettably, we and
our society continue too often stigmatize and even ostracize the mentally ill.
Second,
biblical scholars suggest that the demon possession in today’s reading may
point to an obsession that has become a metaphorical demon. Evil is real. We may personify evil as a
horned devil or fallen angel with a legion of followers dubbed demons, but, in
fact, evil is a spiritual force in individuals and groups. Remember a time when
a wicked thought took root in your mind, luring you with a fascination to think
and do what you knew was wrong, enticing you one-step at a time, until you
discovered you had acted or spoken in ways that you regretted even as you did
it. Remember a time when a group of children, teens, or adults emboldened by
the misdeeds of one, lost control, and committed acts that none would have
dreamt possible. The actions of ordinary Germans in the Holocaust are the most
horrendous, frightening, and extreme example of this dynamic. More commonly,
I've seen nice children and teens suddenly form a little mob, turning against
one of their number who is overweight, unpopular, or wearing an out of style
piece of clothing. We adults are no better. I've seen work groups and small
religious groups turn vicious, smiling as they verbally cut and stab one
another. Evil is real and the metaphor of demon possession points to that
reality.
Jesus, a practicing
Jew, crossed boundaries and reached out to the Gentile Gerasene demoniac. He
saw a human, not an animal. Jesus, most appropriately from a Jewish
perspective, sends the demons, who beg him not to condemn them to the abyss
(connoting the place of death), into a herd of ritually unclean swine; the
swine then rush into the watery deeps,
an English phrase translating another Greek word for abyss. Demons clearly belong in the abyss. Then Jesus welcomes the
man to his team, instructing him to tell everyone about being healed. Jesus
lived a welcoming, inclusive, genuine hospitality.
This morning’s
epistle reading reminds us that in Holy Baptism we are “clothed with Christ.”[2] Being
clothed with Christ is another way of saying that our character, that is our
values and habitual patterns of behavior, should imitate those of Jesus. Set within
the context of today’s gospel reading, being clothed with Christ has two
meanings.
First, we are to
have compassion and strive to heal the mentally ill. Illustratively, Holy Nativity
reenacted Jesus’ healing the demoniac through both its generous Easter gift to
the Samaritan Counseling Center of Hawai’i – truly a gift to help raise the
metaphorically dead to new life – and through its ongoing concern for housing
the homeless, many of whom suffer from some form of mental illness, including
addiction.
Second, we are to
bridge divides that polarize and separate. The preeminent sixteenth century Anglican
theologian Richard Hooker commented that our affirmation the Bible
contains all things necessary for salvation does not mean that all things the
Bible contains are necessary for salvation.[3]
These latter topics he labelled adiaphora, the non-essentials.
Sadly, this
congregation, like our larger society, has a history of bitter disputes. Like each
of you, I see through a glass darkly and have no claim to infallibility. God's people
here, and everywhere, inevitably disagree over issues that seem important yet
are not essential for salvation. When those disagreements occur, remember the
story of the Gerasene demoniac. Jesus recognized him as a human, saw in him the
light of God's image, no matter how tarnished, restored him to the community, embracing
him as a disciple.
Disagree. But then metaphorically,
cross the aisle. Smile at one another. Embrace one another as brothers and
sisters, clothed in Christ.
May our symbols of
God's grace – water, light, bread, wine, word, and touch – exorcise your demons
and fill you with new life. And when the service is ended, go, and tell others
what wondrous things God is doing in this place. Amen.
Sermon preached the Second
Sunday after Pentecost, June 23, 2019
Church of the Holy
Nativity, Honolulu, HI
[1] Luke 8:26-39.
[2]
Galatians 3:23-29.
[3] John Barton,
“Richard
Hooker and Puritans: Of sundry things, in the light of reason,” Church
Times, 14 June 2019.
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