Year C

Luke 8:26-39

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Unexpected help From God

Over and over in story after story, the biblical writers remind us that the way of the world is not the way of God. The way of God often brings with it powerful threats to the way in which the world generally does its business.  We see this play out in the readings today as God is presented as all powerful and the one who is able to do even more than we could ask or imagine. Yet, God’s power comes in the form we don’t always expect upending our tidy lives. Making this awesome power of God sometimes difficult to comprehend, yet that power, while beyond our human understanding, really does make all things new, it transforms lives and equips us for ministry. Take for example the OT reading from 1 Kings, where Elijah in the chapter just before today’s reading, has just had perhaps the most victorious moment of his life.

While he is surrounded by the prophets of Baal who want to kill him and the people of Israel who have abandoned God, God make’s God’s self-known as the only true God through a spectacular display of power. “Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and licked up the water in the trench.” After this display of God’s power, Elijah commands the prophets be killed. But once Jezebel hears of the death of her four-hundred prophets, she vows to kill Elijah, and so he must flee for his life. In today’s reading, we find Elijah hiding from Ahab in the wilderness. He asks God to end his life but God does not grant his request and secure his safety in a dramatic display of power, God comes to him by sending an angel with freshly baked bread and a jar of water, offering Elijah just what he needs at that moment but not what he expected.

God then asks Elijah, “What are you doing here?” and tells him to go stand on the mountain before the Lord, “for the Lord is about to pass by.” Surely this will be a dramatic display of God’s power but we read: “There was a great wind but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.” The God who is able to do anything is found in the silence or in the still small voice. In this passage, despite what seems to be God’s frustration at this prophet’s behavior, God still comes to him but in ways that defy his expectations and ours.

God’s power does not always come in the form we expect challenging us to hear and think about an all powerful God who comes bearing bread and water and is in the power of the silence upending our expectations; leading us to believe that our understanding of God’s truth for our lives may be more authentic when we don’t always expect God in the seemingly obvious places and look for God in the unobvious. As we discover in the gospel reading for today, where we find Jesus in the country of the Gerasenes, not an obvious place to find Jesus and his followers as this was Gentile country.

When Jesus steps out of the boat “opposite Galilee,” a Gerasene man runs to meet him. He is in everyway “unclean.” He lives a tortured life among the dead, tormented day and night by a legion of demons. He is a Gentile and he is oppressed by evil. But he does not cry out for help instead yells at Jesus questioning what he wants with him. We see Jesus confront what would be considered “opposite” of what was expected; demonstrating that no one is beyond the reach of Christ’s redeeming, healing love. Once again, there are no fireworks, just a man, a legion of demons, and a herd of pigs and as with Elijah, God comes to the man and gives him exactly what he needs.

Luke’s gospel from its opening lines, announced that Jesus reverses the fortunes of those of low estate. The good news Jesus announces becomes a reality when the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the poor have the good news and the enslaved are free. The people of Jesus’ day regarded all illness as the result of the power of evil. Therefore, this encounter with the demoniac is just one of the numerous examples of the battle with evil powers that Jesus encounters as he proclaims the kingdom of God. We see that God has power over the demons and evil of our world and in this battle over evil powers Jesus foreshadows his ultimate triumph over evil. Those same evil powers of the world cause the cry of the psalmist in Psalm 43, who is suffering because of evil. This is the cry of one who is downcast, feeling oppressed by his circumstances.

Yet, the psalmist’s cry is also a cry of faith in the all-powerful God, the only one who is truly able to change the circumstances and we are reminded that the ultimate hope of the persecuted, depressed, and downtrodden is God. “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God:” a God who sometimes uses power in a spectacular way, igniting a soaking-wet altar to demonstrate that he is the one true God. Yet, sometimes God’s power comes more quietly providing food to one who is downtrodden or bringing peace to a man tormented by demons. In each case, God displays God’s power in ways that defy our imagination. With the most stunning display of God’s power seen on a Roman cross on a hill outside Jerusalem and then three days later an empty tomb that definitely defies all our understanding of God. Power that is foolishness to the world, but to us that follow Christ it is the power of God for our salvation.

Through this power God makes us into new creations. Having accepted Christ by faith, God clothes his people with Christ, giving them a way to live not as slaves to sin but as God’s own children. Perhaps Paul writes with such passion to the Galatians because he knows God’s power can remake a wretched sinner into a new creation. Our mission as baptized followers of Christ is not to live as slaves to sin but to commit to going to the opposite side with Jesus. We are to take the love of God to the broken and desolate regions. In our liturgy every Sunday we hear the commission to go to the opposite side with the good news of salvation.

We are reminded today that the power of God is with us and for us in expected and unexpected ways. This is good news because in story after story we come to understand that God through Christ can step into the hurts and evil of our lives and our world and make us and our world, new. The one who had been excluded because of his uncleanness is now welcomed and cleansed. Yet, it seems God’s power frightened them but we need not be afraid because the power of God’s Spirit is very different from the power of the world. Therefore, Jesus says “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” The one who experienced the power of the kingdom of God had an important story to tell.  We all have an important story to tell of hope, love and salvation in a God who defies all our expectations.

Yet, despite the fact that we are new creations, that Christ came to make all things new.the old still has some life to it. In the gospel text today, we may be shocked that the people of the Gerasenes failed to celebrate the miracle that had taken place. It seems God’s power frightened them, but aren’t we sometimes afraid of God’s kingdom, also? We need not be afraid because the power of God’s Spirit is very different from the power of the world.

In this passage, we see Elijah as a political dissenter, we see God’s support of Elijah in the wilderness, and we see God’s continuing call to Elijah. The fact that God still calls him, despite what seems to be God’s frustration at this prophets behavior, defies our expectations but can provide us an affirming and challenging message.