Escaping the Demons & Tombs

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
June 24, 2007; 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7, Year C
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Luke 8:26-39) -- Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me" -- for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

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.
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So now you know. It was Jesus. When he sent the demons into the herd of swine... It was Jesus inventing deviled ham.

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In his little book One Minute Wisdom, the late Anthony DeMello has a conversation titled "Unconsciousness":

"Where can I find God?"
"He's right in front of you."
"Then why do I fail to see him?"
"Why does the drunkard fail to see his home?"

Later the Master said, "Find out what it is that makes you drunk. To see you must be sober."

All of us are trapped in our own cemeteries of craziness like this Garasene demoniac. And Jesus offers us the power of exorcism so that we might be free, healthy and in our right mind.

We are good, respectable Episcopalians, for the most part. From outward observation, we don't look very much like this naked crazy-man chained to the tombstones. But if you scratch beneath the surface, most of us are rather trapped and shackled, often by circumstances of our own making.

Most of us live in comfortable homes with more than we need. But upkeep and mortgages, debts and desires may leave us actually possessed by our possessions. Most of us have jobs and relationships that we value. But how many of us are over-committed and too busy, leaving us anxious or desperately short of time. For many of us our lives are filled with good things; maybe more good things than we can adequately handle. We can begin to feel crazy, chained to the obligations and pressures that claim our freedom.

Our cemeteries are usually of our own making. We have expectations to meet. So many expectations. We tell ourselves, "There are things I have to do, especially if I am going to be a success." So we chain ourselves to our tombstones: "What do I have to do to be acceptable? What do I have to achieve to feel safe and secure. I need to be in control of my life. I need to control others. I need them to like me. I need to look good." These are our tombstones -- the compulsions and drives that make us crazy.

Every once in a while the voice of sanity whispers to us and says, "Quit. Give up. Relax. Just be."

The only expectation God has of us is to love. That's it. That's all. Nothing to accomplish; nothing to possess; nothing to protect or control. All of those other expectations are just distractions from our embracing the one God-given question: "How can I love?" (Robert J. Wicks, Living Simply in an Anxious World, p. 1)

Friday I found myself with some un-committed time. I had taken one of our dogs to the vet, and it took less time than I had expected. Wow! Three hours, no deadlines. My printed "to do list" was there right next to me, but before I looked at it, I thought I'd clean off a bit of my desk. Within a few minutes there was a phone call. A delightful opportunity to help someone. Then a door that needed to be unlocked. And somebody who dropped by. For a few hours, I was very relaxed, responding simply to the next best task. When the opportunity arose, I did what seemed best from the "to do list," but I remained detached from the rest of the list and its weighty pressure. Late in the day when I came up for air, I looked back. It seemed that the whole day had been given to me. Opportunities just popped up. When I needed to go back to the list, I could. When there was something more opportune, it appeared. But I wasn't forcing it, trying to control it. And I wasn't tired. It seemed like some of my demons had fled.

"Where can I find God?"
"He's right in front of you."
"Then why do I fail to see him?"
"Why does the drunkard fail to see his home?"
"Find out what it is that makes you drunk. To see you must be sober."

I know some of what makes me blind and drunk. It's my "to do list" and all of the unreasonable expectations that it represents.

What is it that makes you drunk?

"God really has only one expectation of us: to love." We replace this expectation to love and replace it with "the expectations to do, achieve, gain acceptance, control, be secure, or look good... They leave us lost until eventually we are willing in humility to embrace the only God-given question we must answer: 'How can I love?'" (Wicks, p. 1)

Most of us are so trapped in our cemetery of expectations, that we need a little help to get out. Some of you may remember Gene Moritz who was an Assistant Priest here at St. Paul's back in the early '80's. I knew Gene in Mississippi. He tells of a time when he was carrying a lot of anger. It was one of those "church things;" people hadn't treated him right. Gene shared his frustration with his spiritual director Sister Mary Abelard. She heard him out, and then she said, "Gene, I will carry your anger for you if you will let me." She explained. If he would give her his anger, just hand it over to her like a backpack, she promised she would carry it for him. She would be angry for him every day in her prayers, but he would have to give it over to her. He didn't have to be angry about this any more. She would do that for him. She promised to call him in a year to see if he was free from his anger, and to see if she could be freed from her promise to him. A year to the day, Sister Mary Abelard telephoned. "Gene, I've kept my end of the bargain. I have been angry for you every day. How about you?" Gene discovered, he was free of his anger. He laughed gratefully and freed her from her service. She had given him a profound gift -- to be free; to be himself again.

Notice that when Jesus comes to the Geresene demoniac, the only thing that he does is to give this tortured man permission to be himself rather than to be what these legion of demons have told him he is. Jesus gives the demons permission, and they leave. That is the effect of the presence of love. Love lets you be who you truly are, not what your compulsions say you must be.

Whenever I read the story about the Geresene demoniac, I don't just think about the demons that bind us nice, comfortable Episcopalians. I also think about those more frightening demons that imprison so many beyond their capacity to overcome. Many of these are the demons that are not of one's own making.

I'm particularly thinking of the demons of poverty and of mental illness; the demons that come in the wake of accident and sickness; the demons that follow the victims of violence and greed.

I think it is important to note that Jesus goes to the foreign country, the land of the Geresenes; that he enters the place of the dead and demonic. Jesus goes there to do and to be the only thing God calls us to do and to be: love. Once he is there, he attends to the singular need of the one person there. He lets God do what God does. He gives the oppressed man permission to be who he is, and the demons leave.

That is part of our calling also. We are free and therefore we can be fearless. We can go to the places of bondage and oppression, and we can fearlessly give people permission to be who they are, whole and free. But it is not our work. God is already there. God is already fully present with the oppressed. Our part is to participate in the work of liberation that God is already accomplishing. All we are asked to do is to love. Whatever results there may be, or lack of results, are not ours to account for.

That perspective makes it more possible for us to share in God's work of liberation. When we are no longer afraid of the demons -- we can approach the darkness and oppression of the world with confidence. If we weren't so afraid of the mentally ill, or terrorists, or immigrants, maybe we could find ways to love enough to participate in whatever it is that God is already doing to heal the world. Perfect love casts out fear. Because we are one with Christ we are free to go to the country of the demoniacs, free to enter the tombs. Having faced our own demons and given ourselves permission to be who we truly are, we can help God liberate other souls from their bondage and fear. We can carry another's angers and fears so that they might be freed.

Christ willingly casts out legions of bondage from our lives, and Christ invites us to share in that liberating work for others. It may be the most important gift we can give to a fearful and shackled world.

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