IN "ORDINARY TIME"

 Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock

[Isaiah 6756:1-9; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39]

I am struck by where we are in terms of today’ worship, and I wonder what its context might say to us about our striving to be faithful followers and representatives of Jesus.  What I notice about today’s setting is that as disciples of Jesus we are definitely on the move.  The question is: from what to what?  Here's a quick overview of where we’ve been and what I think is next.

Two, short weeks ago, at the celebration of the Day of Pentecost, we crossed over the midpoint of the Christian worshipping year.  On that “Fiftieth Day”, we signaled that we were leaving the Season of Easter.  On the following Sunday (last week), we found ourselves passing by the theological touchstone of “Trinity Sunday”.  And now, today, we find ourselves entering what is referred to as “Ordinary Time”.  In this movement we have gone from the liturgical year’s first six months, in which we focused on the life, ministry, and mission of Jesus.  Now, from focusing on Jesus, we move into the second half of the spiritual year, which is the time we (the followers of Jesus) demonstrate with our lives what we have learned from Jesus.

“Ordinary Time” (the second half of the Christian year – the long, green season) marks the time for folks like us to be the Church for the sake of the world.  “Ordinary Time” is our time to be witnesses to life on God’s terms and to be living members of the Body of Christ.  In these past three weeks, we have gone from being students of Jesus to being experienced graduates who are now called to represent the Lord of life.

Yet, at the sound of the phrase, “Ordinary Time”, I have to chuckle with a bit of cynicism.  With all the threatening chaos that is occurring both in our country and in the world, a big part of me would heartily welcome some ordinary time – time and experience without all the drama and more of a manageable routine.

“Ordinary Time!”  The sound of the phrase reminds me of the so-called “Chinese curse”: “May you live in interesting times”.  These “ordinary times” surely and ironically are “interesting”.  These times of ours are also unnerving, threatening, and in reality very dangerous.  So, here’s a question: How might we spend this “Ordinary Time”, not trembling in confusion and fear, but in building upon the stability of our faith and our experience of the new life we have seen in Christ?

The issue of our experience of “Ordinary Time” comes into plain view by way of Jesus’ encounter with the Gadarene Demoniac, that possessed and ravaged man of this morning’s gospel lesson.  I wonder in what ways does this story speak to our own faithful experience both as people whose lives have been touched by Christ and as individuals who are called to share with the world what we have received?

In terms of the gospel’s setting, Luke conveys two back-to-back accounts of Jesus facing the chaos of life’s storms.  One account occurs at sea, the other on shore.  The first storm occurs as Jesus and his disciples sail from the familiar shores of the Sea of Galilee to “the other side”.  Taking advantage of the sailing, Jesus caught a nap in the stern of the boat, when a surprise sea storm arose, striking terror in the disciples.  With Jesus’ rebuke of the storm, the chaos and terror were quieted, and he and the Twelve continued their journey away from the familiar Jewish confines of the Galilee to “the other side”, which we quickly discover was dominated by gentiles, including the Roman occupiers.

Upon landing in the “country of the Gerasenes”(which Luke is quick to remind us is the land “opposite Galilee”1 – that is, alien territory), Jesus stepped ashore only to be confronted by a “madman”.  The stark and foreboding figure wore no clothes and had the behavior of one who was possessed and not in his right mind.  He lived, not in human society, but in stark isolation among the cemetery tombs, often being so frightening to the surrounding population that they would bind him in chain-restraints, which in his possessed rage he would break.  Seeing Jesus coming ashore, the Gerasene demoniac fell to the ground before Jesus and shrieked, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beseech you, do not torment me.”2

As with the chaotic scene at sea in the boat, Jesus addressed this land-based chaos in a similar manner, “commanding the unclean spirit out of the man”.  As with his rebuke of the storm at sea, the storm that possessed the man of the tombs left him, and he was publicly seen to be clothed and in his right mind – healed of the demons that had taken over his life.

The transformation of this man’s life was so startling that the crowd that had gathered from their spectating places came to Jesus and asked him to leave the area.  Luke tells us that they were “afraid” – clearly afraid of the prospect of new life demonstrated and given in their midst.  Jesus, not of a want to make a fuss at this time and in this place, did as the town leaders asked and got back into the boat to head home.  Yet before the disciples could lock their oars to the sailboat’s gunwales, the man from whom the demons had been cast out begged Jesus to take him in the boat and allow him to follow as a disciple.  But (as Luke describes the scene) Jesus “sent him away” with this poignant direction: “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”  Luke concludes this storied account by saying that the man did exactly what Jesus directed him to do:  speaking publicly about “…how much Jesus had done for him.”3

Among the many significant elements contained in this story about the “Gerasene demoniac”, two hit home for me in this particular “Ordinary Time” in our lives.

The first has to do with Christ’s call to us as healers, as followers who are willing and able to be restorers of life in God’s image.  The language about “demons” might be hard for sophisticated, 21st century Americans to take seriously, but is there any doubt among us that the relentless fear of not being in control of our lives can and does “possess” us, to the extent that we lose our humanity, lose our perspective and our ability to choose that which actually brings life?

In the place of being “possessed by demons”, I suggest substituting the term “addicted”: that is, the urge to escape from life’s pain and chaos, to ameliorate the life that refuses to bend to our will and control.  I suggest this because the fact is that we are all “addicted” to some degree or another: some more visible than others.  Addiction (“possession”) occurs as we attempt to provide our own salvation: that is, to provide ourselves with a life that is unbreakable, when in fact the true salvation we each require is from ourselves.4  As the old comic strip character, Pogo, famously and wisely said: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Shortcuts to avoid facing the fact that we are not God, substituting anything for God as the guiding star of our lives results in a profound distortion of a person’s life.  Some of us become like the demoniac in the gospel, having lost touch with who we are and (more to the point) Whose we are.  We are not in our right minds, and we rage against whatever “chains” that bind us and keep us from God and our truest selves.

There is more to be said about the demoniac and what he reveals to us of ourselves; but the one aspect of his life that leaps out at me is the response by others to his healing.  Rather than accept the new life that delivers ourselves from ourselves, the Town Council of the Gerasenes asked the One who provided the new life to get out of town.  In addition to the Swine Herders Association who were in the process of posting a class action suit against Jesus for causing the loss of their pig-raising livelihood to jump the cliff, the townsfolk knew that, as good and as wonderful as the new and healed God-life was, it demanded too much change.  It demanded relinquishing of their sense of control and what was familiar – even though it was the familiar that was holding them hostage.  So, they chased Jesus and his gift of new life away; and he went back home in peace.

How does the saying go: The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting salutary change?  It is an indication of how deeply we are “possessed” that the new life we need is the very thing we reject.

The other focal point I see in the life of the demoniac is what he does once he has been healed and as Jesus is set to go home.  He begs Jesus to allow him to follow as one of the disciples, but Jesus does not let him do this.  Rather, Jesus directs the right-minded man to go home and share with his acquaintances what God has done for him.  In this, I believe that we at St. Philip’s have an important model for our life of ministry.

The point is that following Jesus is not simply a matter of hanging out with him in the boat, although such a scenario often appeals to us in terms of being reinforced and supported.  There is no boat ride for the former demoniac.  Instead, Jesus sends him back to his “home” with the charge to tell everyone he meets how he got his life back from the edge.  Now this scene doesn’t get any description beyond Jesus’ directive, but it is not hard to imagine the realities of what is not said about the man’s return.

For one, where is the man’s home?  I think we have to assume that he is from the area of Gerasene.  Aside from the fact that he is homeless and has no family or friends to speak of – or any that would be willing to claim him, Jesus sends him back to do ministry among the people who shunned him and locked him up in chains.  What was it like for him to go home?  Clearly not a boat ride.  What was required of him in order to preach “Good News” to his townsmen and women?  What did it take for this restored and rescued man to share his life’s story of mercy, transformation, redemption, and hope?  What do you think his witness was and what did it cost him to share it?

What I am saying is that this, our “Ordinary Time” is much the same as the Gadarene man and his witness to his people.  Yes, it would have been much easier to join Jesus and the disciples in the boat.  But that is not where he or you or I are sent.  We are sent to where we come from and sent to the people we live with and who know us.  We are called to be present among them so that when they see the new life in us and muster the courage to ask us: “Tell me.  What do you know that makes this difference in your life?”  We have “Good News” to share.

That’s discipleship.  That’s when the transforming ministry emerges.  That’s when, with an “attitude of gratitude”, we can gently and steadily be the instruments of God’s healing, redemption, and hope.  And all of this is “Good News” for us and for those to whom we offer ourselves!  It’s how we can make a difference in our “Ordinary Time”.  Amen.

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1.  Luke 8:26

2.  Luke 8:28b

3.  Luke 8:39

4.  Richard Rohr.  Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, p. xxv