PROPER 7 Second Sunday
after Pentecost, Year C, June 23, 2019
When you think of “church”, who are the people you imagine that
to be? Traditionally it is an image of
clean living and good people. Safe people
who are more or less just like us. Today’s
readings challenge us to expand our thinking about who belongs in our church,
what kinds of people can be in ministry, and the readings also show us that not
everyone will accept the message of Salvation.
Acceptance and rejection are themes that run through our
readings. Think about what these mean for
us personally. How does it make us feel
when we are accepted…. and when we are rejected?
There was recently a facebook meme that read; “A man went to
Church. He forgot to switch off, and his
phone rang in the church accidentally during prayer. The Pastor scolded him. The worshippers admonished him after prayers
for interrupting the silence. His wife kept
on lecturing him on his carelessness all the way home. One could see the shame, embarrassment and
humiliation on his face. After all this,
he never stepped foot in the church again.
AND… that evening he went to a bar.
He was still nervous and trembling and he spilt his drink on the table
by accident. The waiter apologized and
gave him a napkin to clean himself. The
janitor mopped the floor. The female
manager offered him a complimentary drink.
She also gave him a huge hug and a peck while saying, “Don’t worry man. Who doesn’t make mistakes?” He has not stopped going to that bar since
then….”
The lesson is clear. At
the church he was rejected, but at the pub he was completely accepted. The meme makes it clear that our acceptance
or rejection, regardless of how subtle, speaks volumes. They are powerful forces that can impact a
person’s sense of well-being forever.
Well-being is a bit of a hot topic at the moment with many
workshops and discussions happening in businesses and schools. Both our first reading and our Gospel reading
could be commented on in the light of well-being and mental health.
Our first reading speaks of a mighty prophet. He had just done something incredible – or more
correctly, God had just done something incredible but Elijah was the messenger
and right there in the thick of it. If
it were to be a movie it would have been shown as a monumental and victorious
climax, yet it left Elijah exhausted and frightened. I so love this story of Elijah. You see, Elijah was prophet (one who gave God’s
message to the people), and he had been true to God and zealous for God’s
truth, but he people didn’t want the truth and Elijah was rejected…. and rejected …. and rejected…. and he felt completely alone. He was called by God to deliver a message
that was accompanied, and proved true, by very great wonders, but immediately
after he runs into the desert fearing for his life and worn out.
Have you experienced rejection? It is exhausting. Rejection has an effect on its victim such
that you can’t just ignore and keep doing your own thing because the effect of
rejection is debilitating. i.e.
YOU CAN’T JUST GET OVER IT ! Experiencing
prolonged rejection we may become edgy, suffer from anxiety, suffer from depression,
worry excessively, analyse excessively, become overly sensitive, withdraw and
alienate from those we love. Here we
see the great Elijah, running into the desert and crying out to God to take his
life.
I really love the way the Bible is full of very real people
with the whole range of emotions. We do
well to examine what we might have said to Elijah. Imagine that this is your friend who is in
the desert running away from society. We
would probably have said, “Hey Elijah, you are not really alone”. (Even though Elijah says he is the only one
left – there are actually others – and he knew about it because in the previous
2 chapters Elijah had met with the palace administrator, Obadiah, who was a
devout believer in the Lord. Obadiah had
taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves).
We might have said to Elijah – “How can you feel like such a
failure, saying you are no better than your ancestors? Look at the amazing
victory you have just had!” And we would have added, “I know the Queen wants
you dead, (Because she did!) but look at the wonders of God and have faith in
him”. I know that we would have said
these things because these are all the logical and rational realities and things
we do say…… things we say that DO NOT help a person who is emotionally
exhausted and depressed.
Yes, I said it – Elijah was suffering a kind of burn out and
he was depressed. Here is something else
that you need to know. The Angel came to
him and did not say any of those things to him that we would have said. Instead the Angel came after Elijah had cried out for God to take his life and had fallen
asleep. The Angel came and provided food
and urged him to eat. The Angel let him
sleep again, then the Angel provided food and woke him again, acknowledging
that the journey ahead would be too much for him if he did not eat. Elijah slept.
A Lot ! as do people who are depressed. Then, after this second Angelic
provision, Elijah continued his Journey for 40 days to the mount of Horeb where
the word of the LORD came to him. The Lord asked him why he was there. Once again note, he was not told any of those
things that we would have told him, but he is given the opportunity to express
himself without judgment.
What happens next in the Elijah story is an encounter with
God passing by. Elijah had the word of
the Lord come to him often and he had the Angel attending to him, but God’s
answer to the exhausted, depressed Elijah was to allow Elijah to express his
concern – then God told him to wait in the cleft on the mountain because God
was going to pass by.
This mountain that Elijah was on was not just some random
mountain, it was Horeb, also known as Sinai, where God had met with Moses. More interesting than that, it had taken
Elijah 40 days to get there. The
encounter is filled with symbolism that tells us this was a preparation time
and connected to the Israelites in the desert and also connected to what would
be Jesus’ 40 days in the desert.
The exhausted and depressed Elijah was to have a significant
encounter with God. There was a violent wind, but God was not in it. There was an Earthquake, but God was not in
it. Then there was a fire, but God was
not in it. Then there was the silence. The gentle voice of God speaks and asks
Elijah again what he is doing there.
Many times when someone is depressed and hurting they need to say the
same thing again and again. God makes
sacred space for this and then gives Elijah his next instructions.
There is a scripture that I really like, it is also from the
book of 1 Kings 8:12 when King Solomon was dedicating the temple, “Then Solomon
said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud;..” Other translations say, a thick
darkness. Why I particularly like this
verse is because when people are feeling sad or suffering depression it is like
a thick dark cloud is all around you. To
know that God has said he will dwell in a thick dark cloud is hope, love,
comfort and companionship in that darkness.
The image is of sacredness being in that darkness. I believe it conveys the same message as what
God was giving Elijah on that mountain in the silence.
Elijah had known God in the dramatic. Now Elijah had no energy left. He felt like a failure and felt void of God,
but God very definitely, deliberately and clearly showed him that God would be
even more present in those times of silence and darkness.
Fast forward to the time of Jesus. There was a man from Gerasenes,
which is opposite Galilee. This man was
an outcast of the city – a mad man, is probably how we would describe him
today. He lived among the tombs and was
the stuff of which horror films might be made.
He was described as being demon-possessed and is most certainly what
would today be described as a mental health victim.
This man was suffering.
The townspeople were also suffering and had tried to chain the man but
the man with supernatural strength would break the chains and then be led by
the demons out into the wilderness. The
man was an outcast, but what could the townspeople do with someone like that?
The demon in the man immediately recognises Jesus for who he
is and says, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High
God? I beg you, do not torment me".
Jesus asks the demon his name and the response is Legion because there
were actually many demons possessing this man.
There are so many unanswered questions – how did this happen
to the man? Looking at the symptoms in
today’s environment we may have diagnosed him as schizophrenic or maybe as an ICE
drug user, as they also react with violent strength. We are not told how this
man came to be this way and we will never know, but what we do know is that while
today’s society would never list demon possession as the diagnosis, and while
many times there are logical medical explanations, there was no doubt that this
man was demon possessed. Yet there was
nothing of the drama we see as portrayed in those horror films, the fear is
missing, as Jesus appears completely calm.
Once again, instead of telling the man what to do, Jesus is
asking. “He asks who are you?” But
instead of the man answering Jesus, the demon answers and says Legion because he
is many – a legion at that time was considered to be about 2000…. Certainly the
pigs which the demons entered, who then went and killed themselves were about
2000…. A huge loss to the pig farmer.
The town’s people come to find the man in his right mind,
clothed and chatting with Jesus. Here is
a picture of what we are like spiritually, when we have received Christ. Galatians describes those who have been
baptized as having been clothed in Christ. And it continues to explain that
being clothed in Christ, there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer
slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ
Jesus. And here is real freedom, because
baptized into Christ and therefore clothed in Christ we are united with him in
the victory that is his and recall that he said in John 14 to his followers; “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in
me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than
these, because I am going to the Father.”
Jesus cast out demons and he healed the sick. Jesus proclaimed the Good News about
salvation and signs and wonders followed to prove him true, much the same as
the ministry of Elijah.
The next part of the demon possessed man’s story reminds me
of a story from Malta. I researched and
found a town that has a nick-name Ta' saqajhom ċatta - “flat-footed” – the real name of the town Iż-Żejtun
- the people of Zejtun gained their strange flat-footed nickname because they supposedly
banged their feet and chased St Paul through the streets of the town because
they didn’t want to believe in the teachings of Christianity. Similarly, the town of Gerasenes asked Jesus
to leave.
The people who saw the wonders of God through Elijah, and the
people who saw the wonders of God through Jesus with this man, all banged their
feet, figuratively, and refused to accept the message of God. The message is for all, but even if it is
accompanied by great signs and wonders there are those who will still reject
the message.
After Elijah poured out his concern to the Lord twice – the Lord
then gave him his next mission. After
Jesus had cast the demon out of the man at the tomb he gave the man a
mission. He said, “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.” Both Elijah and the man were tasked with
proclaiming the message of God. Moments
of rejection are exhausting and hurtful.
We will need to take some sacred rest time with God, but then get back
to the job of proclaiming the Good News.
Don’t give up because of rejection – keep going knowing that we are
heirs of the promise and we belong, are cared for, accepted and loved by God.
In society we tend to sanitize our leaders, and reject those
who don’t seem to have it all together, but a great person once said to me, “There
is great power in being a wounded healer.”
Of all the characters in the Bible who were the Champions for God,
pretty much all were somewhat broken. It
isn’t by our own merit that we have peace with God, but by faith in Jesus. Broken people are acutely aware of their
shortcomings and these are the chosen. You
may feel broken too – but blessed are the poor in spirit – the broken…. For
theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. You
are chosen and you are called.