A Sermon by Rev. Chris Jorgensen
September 17, 2017
Hanscom Park United Methodist Church
Scripture: Mark 5:1-17
image credit: http://stripgenerator.com/strip/463441/pigs-jumping-off-cliff (jesuslovesyou123)
I have a confession to make. I got to choose today’s scripture myself. I am not following the lectionary, so I could have picked ANY scripture in the bible to share with you today, and I picked that one. Now I can imagine what some of you might be thinking, “That Chris, she seemed like such a good pastor…”
Have you heard this text before? I think it’s interesting to encounter a kind of unusual text like this on a day when we are giving bibles to 3rd graders. I mean, it kind of makes me wonder – should we really be giving bibles to third graders? There’s some pretty wild stuff in there.
Like here we have the Gerasene demoniac. Honestly, one of the reasons I like this story is that it is so dramatic. It describes this possessed man and the way his life has deteriorated because of the unclean spirit that has taken over. Apparently, earlier in his possession, he had been kept in chains. But by the time we see him, he is so wildly out-of-control that not even chains can hold him. And he has become almost inhuman. The text says, “Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.” He is living among the dead, an impure place where no other people would dare to go, and he is causing harm to himself and howling. It is a horrible scene.
The man is so far gone that when Jesus tries to heal him, he thinks he is being tormented. He tries to tell Jesus to go away. He doesn’t want to be healed. So, because of an ancient idea that if you know a demon’s name, you can cast it out, Jesus asks the demon its name. And he replies, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”
When you and I hear this name Legion, we might catch some of its meaning. In English, of course, a legion is a whole lot of folks. And we might think, oh dang! That means there’s a whole bunch of demons in him! But the associations with that word in ancient Palestine (where Jesus lived) were even heavier.
One commentary on this story says that this scripture “contains a veiled reference to the devastation of people and property caused by the Roman occupation.” It goes on to say “The Tenth Legion, which used the boar as a symbol on its standard, had been stationed [in that area] since 6 CE.” (Perkins, “Mark,” New Interpreter’s Bible, v. 8, p. 584). So…there was a Legion of Roman soldiers that used a wild pig as its symbol in the area where this story is set, and the multitude of demons in the Markan story actually identify themselves as “Legion,” and die when they are cast out into pigs. And the commentators are saying this a “veiled” reference to the Roman occupation? It seems sort of obvious to me!
It seems that the man, the Gerasene demoniac, had internalized the values of the Roman Empire. The empire had taken up residence in him. This was the empire that had taken over Jesus’ homeland. This was the empire that used violence as a means to create peace. This was the empire that enlisted the help of some of the Jewish people whose land they occupied, in order to subdue and exploit the masses. This was the empire who believed that enemies are to be destroyed, killed, ousted, or at the very least disregarded or silenced. This is the empire that crucified Jesus because he was a challenge to everything it stood for: violence and domination and retribution. And when that empire took up residence in this Gerasene man, the result was isolation, self-harm, and something that looked almost inhuman.
And as I read the scripture this week, I began to wonder. I wonder what empire values threaten to take up residence in us.
Maybe our empire values are not quite the same as in 1st-century Palestine, but here are some lies that I believe our culture, our empire tells us. I believe we are told, all the time, in a million different ways, that we are inadequate. We are not good enough. We are not attractive enough. We are not wealthy enough. We are not successful enough. We are not smart enough. We have not achieved enough. We are inadequate and therefore unlovable. And we will continue to be inadequate and unlovable until we conform to some impossible ideal of what constitutes a good, beautiful, smart, worthwhile human being.
And that ideal is never quite achievable, always changing and out of our reach, and I believe that is no mistake. Marketers and advertisers count on us feeling inadequate, so that they can sell us something that will make us okay, so they keep moving the bar. Of course, there is nothing we can buy to fix our overwhelming sense of inadequacy.
So, besides trying to buy stuff to keep up with the latest fashion, or have a nice house, or project an image that our family life is just so great, we also sometimes start to compare ourselves to other people. Because that might make us feel better for a bit. I might not have the best job, but I have a better job than her. I might not be the most attractive guy, but I’m more attractive than him. But there’s always someone who seems happier and better than you (I mean, on Facebook, everybody is happy, right?) So we kind of start to resent those people who seem to be doing better than us, too. And as we judge and compete with each other, our ability to be compassionate slips away.
And when none of that works in making us feel better, then we sometimes turn in on ourselves. I will share with you a revelation I had in one of our small groups this week. I realized that there is a direct correlation between my anxiety about being able to be good enough – being able to adequately perform – in my role as a pastor, and my likelihood to lash out at my in anger at my spouse and my daughter. And the presenting reason I might give for that is “I was tired” or “I was stressed out.”
But at the very core of it is this. In those moments, it’s like the empire has taken up residence inside me and convinced me that if I don’t succeed at being a pastor, it will mean I am unworthy, inadequate, and unlovable. And when I start to believe that lie – I lose my ability to be the kind of human God created me to be – one that is made first and foremost for loving relationship with God and other people.
In our scripture today, Jesus casts the empire out. He sends those values of domination and control and violence into pigs who throw themselves into the sea. And the next thing we see is the Gerasene man sitting there, completely in his right mind, utterly human again. He is no longer living in a place of death and self-harm where no other people can go. He is well and ready to be in relationship with others.
Later in the scripture, the man asks if he can go with Jesus, and Jesus tells him no. But Jesus gives him a mission. He says, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” And so he goes and proclaims what Jesus did for him all over his homeland.
This man who had been made almost inhuman because of the values of domination and retribution inside of him becomes a witness to the power of God to cast out the evil of the empire, and make people human once again. And I can’t help but wonder, when I think about the effect of his witness – whether the most important thing was that others learned about Jesus from him – or whether the most important thing was that by retelling his story of restored life and liberation over and over, it helped to keep the empire values out.
Maybe his witness was about him continually saying out loud: that demon is not who I am. That man in chains, cut off from all human relationships, and harming himself is not who I am. I am a child of God created for loving relationship with God and others. And Jesus freed me to be that.
Me, too. That is my witness, too.
I am a child of God created for loving relationship with God and others. And Jesus freed me to be that. I am not that person who lashes out, who feels the anxiety and pressure of my job, and so hurts the very people I love the most. That is not who I am. I am a child of God, reconciled to God through Christ, and the empire is no longer inside me.
And so are you.
And we need to keep telling ourselves and others that. Every. Day. We need to keep telling ourselves when we gather for worship, when we take daily time for prayer. We need to keep telling ourselves when we meet in small groups, when we talk with a good friend, when we have a quiet moment with our spouse.
People divided from one another, competing with one another, dominating one another, hurting one another and ourselves: that is not who we are. We are not created for lives of division and desperation. We are not destined for a life among the dead.
We are created for lives of connection and hope. We are destined for the life of the living. When the empire is cast out, we are made human again, able to love and be loved by one another.
We are children of God, reconciled to God through Christ, and the empire has no dominion here!
Can I get an Amen?
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
Questions for Reflection / Small Group Discussion:
- In what situations do you find yourself believing the lies that you are inadequate, unworthy, or unlovable?
- What do you do to help yourself remember who you really are – a beloved child of God – rather than what the voices of our culture might say you are?
- Who in your life has helped you to remember that you are a beloved person of sacred worth?