With the close of the Easter season,
the day of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday behind us, we are now
officially in the long, green season of Ordinary Time, the Season
after Pentecost. Whereas the liturgical seasons have a specific
focus – penance and forgiveness in Lent, resurrection in Easter,
etc. – Ordinary Time moves from focusing on the major events of
Jesus' life to focusing on the life of Christ. This is the time and
season when we spend our time walking with Christ on a daily basis as
we develop into faithful disciples.
And today we get the perfect text to
begin that journey.
Jesus and his disciples are on the
road. They cross over the water to the country of the Gerasenes,
Gentile country, where they encounter a demoniac. This particular
demoniac lives in the tombs. He knows who Jesus is. He is possessed
by demons. And he is kept under guard by the town so that they can
control and monitor his activities.
How do we see this story of the
demoniac, the wary townsfolk, the demons, the healing, and the
sending? Today I want us to look at this maybe a little differently
than we've looked at it before.
Today I want us to see the demoniac as
the Church.
Like it or not, or as uncomfortable as
you may get, we are engaged in spiritual warfare. We, the Church,
are battling a legion of demons. Everything from greed and
hypocrisy, pride and envy, hatred and malice, lack of love and
charity, murmurings and lies, racism and classism, hatreds of all
kinds and an unwillingness to respect the dignity of others or to see
the face of Christ in them, are just some of the sins and demons we
deal with on an everyday basis. These are the sins of humanity. And
because the Church is made up of humans, these are also the sins of
the Church.
We the Church are living in the tombs.
That is, the Church has been relegated to a place outside the
boundaries of everyday life. The Church has been moved to a place
not lived daily by most people. And like the tombs, people will come
on special occasions to pay their respects or to remember how things
were; but for the most part, the Church is outside the boundaries of
daily life.
I would wager that even for us, the
Church is outside the boundaries of daily life. How many of us keep
the cares and concerns of the Church first and foremost in our lives?
How many of us make daily prayers a priority, or do they get pushed
back to whenever we have a few extra minutes to squeeze them in? How
many of us make it a priority to read and study scripture? Even for
us, the Church has been pushed to the tombs and outside the
boundaries of daily life.
And speaking of being outside the
boundaries of daily life . . . this is where the world wants the
Church. The world wants the Church pushed out into the tombs. The
world wants a Church it can control. The world wants a Church that
can be ignored. The world wants a Church that doesn't threaten it.
The world wants a Church it can declare as out of its mind.
If the Church listens to Jesus,
however, things will be much different. The first thing we need to
do is allow Christ to heal us. Like the demoniac knew Jesus but
didn't follow Jesus, there are many in the Church who know Jesus but
don't follow him. Those who know to love their neighbors but work to
persecute them instead. Those who know to welcome the stranger, but
work to keep them away. Those who know to feed the hungry, but work
to close down support programs. Knowing Christ doesn't equate to
being a disciple.
We must allow Jesus to exorcise the
demons of fear, exclusion, lust, hate, pride, greed, and more.
Because if we don't, then we will continue to live in the tombs.
Notice what happens when the demoniac
is healed – the people of the town become afraid.
The people of the town were quite
content to deal with a madman living in the tombs. They were quite
content to ignore or explain away his ravings. They were quite
content to have him living on the margins. The world is content to
ignore or explain away the teaching of the Church. The world is
quite content to keep the Church on the margins, out in the tombs,
where they pay scant attention.
But imagine a time when the Church,
like the man, is healed of its demons. Imagine a time when the
Church has its demons of pride, arrogance, lust, hatred, exclusion,
greed, fear, etc. driven out. We would no longer be an institution
to be ignored. We would be completely dedicated to following Christ
in all we do. Instead of random rants and ravings, we would present
a clear picture of why discipleship and life in the Church is so
vitally important. And all the world would be seized with great
fear.
Once upon a time, Pogo said, “We have
met the enemy, and he is us.” Today we have met the demoniac and
he is us.
This story challenges us to revisit who
we are. It challenges us to confront our own demons. It challenges
us to see that we are living in the tombs. And it challenges us to
discover what we could accomplish when we are in our right minds.
Discipleship should move us from living
on the edges out in the tombs where we can keep a controlling eye on
our faith, not letting it get too close to our daily lives, to living
a faith-based life that is the center of our being. On this first
Sunday of our journey with Jesus, let us remember that we are not
called to live out in the tombs but that we are called to live
faithfully out in the open of everyday life.
Faith isn't something to keep a
watchful eye on, something to be chained up and controlled, something
to visit occasionally. Our faith is to be lived into daily. Our
faith calls us to daily discipleship. Our faith should be released
from its chains and allowed to escape from the tombs so that we live
daily into the freedom faith brings in the midst of our everyday
lives.
It is in that freedom where we proclaim
to the world how much Jesus has done for us. And it is also in that
freedom and daily discipleship that will frighten the world.
For that to happen, though, we must be
willing to first purge ourselves and the Church of the demons that
control us; and second we must be willing to follow Christ daily.
Today is the first day of the long, green Season after Pentecost
where daily discipleship is the overall focus. What better way to
begin this journey than to let Christ purge us of our demons.
Amen.
0 comments:
Post a Comment