Readings this Sunday
I have been thinking about Jesus this week and about call, about our response to God and his demands on us. There is a lot in this story, I've already read one rough draft sermon that focuses on quite different bits then jumped out at me and this is perhaps the most powerful magic of the Gospel, it speaks to each of us differently.
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. - (Emphasis mine)
The Christ of this story is not the meek lamb who takes children on his knee. He is wild and powerful. He does battle with Legion, he meets with an insane man. He displays power. To save that one man he destroys an entire herd of pigs. We could argue about the symbolism of unclean animals being seized by demons but it's not what I care about today.
What I care about is the reaction of the people from the city, and Christ's reaction to the man he healed. We are very much like those frightened crowds. When God moves with power among us we are often afraid. We are afraid of change, of risk but those things are part of God, they are how God works. We reject that change, we reject the Grace God offers us because our lives seem so much safer if we can just be given the ordering of them. And so we ask Christ to leave us. "Go away! What you ask is too hard!", "Go away! You break our rules!", "Go away! You make us uncomfortable!"
And Christ goes. He gets back into the boat and he leaves. God does not force himself upon us. God offers himself to us, God calls out to us, but God waits for us to accept him. We must open the door, we must accept the invitation. God has the power to drive the demons from our lives, to heal, to forge new community and new life. But we must want that healing, we must want that change!
But Jesus did not abandon the Gerasenes. Instead he made a disciple. He called the man who had once surly made people as uncomfortable as Jesus did now. And he made him a disciple, sending him back into the lives of those fearful Gerasenes to proclaim the Good News they had rejected. God doesn't abandon us, not even when we turn away from him. God runs after us constantly, calling us to return to her.
For me, it is a story about discomfort and fear. And the loving God who will never impinge on our freedom, or give up his love for us.
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