Be not far away, O Lord; * you are my strength; hasten to help me.
One evening an old Cherokee man told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?”
The old man simply replied, “The one you feed.”
Demons. They are not things we talk about much today. We may see them portrayed as cartoon figures in movies. We may hear them referenced as those nagging voices inside our heads that keep us from doing what is right or taking the risk of speaking up for someone or something we believe in, or that which holds us in fear preventing us from becoming who we could be.
But in the time of Jesus, demons were talked about and seen as being very real. They were the embodiment of evil. They held people imprisoned inside themselves. They caused people to lose their identity, their humanity, and face total isolation from their family and friends, and be rejected from community with other people. Jesus, the great healer, stopped at nothing to reach out to these devastated people-going to where ever they were to set them free.
In today’s story, the author of Luke’s Gospel tells us, “Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is on the other side of the lake from Galilee.” Gerasenes were different from the people of Galilee. They were Gentiles with different practices and beliefs from Jesus and his disciples who were Jews. Jesus had traveled to this land by boat, sailing with his disciples across the Sea. Their travel there had not been easy. Not long after pushing away from shore, they had found themselves in a raging storm that nearly swamped their boat and ended their lives. Jesus, waking from a nap, had calmed the storm. The disciples were filled with shock and wonder. “Who is this man who can command the winds and the water?”
Now safely on shore they are met by a man in great suffering. He is said to have demons, so many demons in fact that he has given up his own identify and names himself Legion or multitude, because the demons had completely claimed him. Tortured by too many demons to count, he has become captive to the overwhelming noise of their voices. He has become lost and cut off from those who knew and loved him. By the time this man meets Jesus, he has been trapped in this way for a long time, living in a place, where he is alive, yet surrounded by death. Jesus reaches out to him and sets him free. The demons leave him. His cries, as from Psalm 22 that we read this morning, , “O Lord do not be far away? Oh my help come quickly to my aid,” have been heard and answered.
The people from the city come to see what has happened. And when they arrive, they find the man “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.” But rather than rejoicing, the people are “seized with great fear.” How can this be? We know this man to be tortured, dangerous, beyond help. But here he is, sitting at the feet of Jesus, completely restored to himself. Whole.
The people want Jesus to leave. They do not understand what has been done, but they want no part of it. As Jesus climbs back into the boat, the newly healed man wants to follow Jesus, but Jesus tells him to stay in his own country and tell everyone what God has done for him. So we are told that “he went away, proclaiming throughout the city what Jesus had done.”
It seems that Jesus may have made the whole stormy journey all to meet and heal this one tortured man. Which when you think about it should not be a surprise. Each one of us are precious to God. No one is outside God’s healing love. Jesus teaches about the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go in search of the one that is lost. And a woman who sweeps an entire house to find one coin. No one seen as unworthy or beyond God’s great mercy. God usually shows up just for us when we feel most alone, abandoned, untethered, isolated and beyond all forms of earthly consolation.
We have just faced another week of horror and suffering. Last Sunday, hatred and violence again broke into the lives of innocent people. This time it was a place of dancing and celebrating and this time the people who suffered were young, Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered, Latino, and Immigrants. Again a man armed with hatred and guns, intruded into a place that only moments before had been filled with joy and security.
It has been a week of wolves battling against each other. We heard the name of the man who committed the unspeakable violence and were immediately called to be afraid of all Muslims—to cut them off, to see them all as violent terrorists. But our brothers and sisters who are Muslim are also in need of compassion and care. They too are afraid and heartbroken at this senseless loss of life.
We feel anger and shame and revulsion that once again military level guns have been used to cut short beautiful promising lives. It is easy to want to blame a group of people and then feel that we have controlled this horror in some way. It is easy to get caught up—to become trapped in our demons of division, generalizing about a group of people, making quick judgments to try and control our rage. Which wolf do we feed in these times of shock and despair?
But many acts of love have been offered in the face of this vicious act. Countless prayers, messages of sympathy and acts of compassion have been offered to those who grieve and suffer. More than 300 people gathered at a Vigil in Pittsfield on Tuesday night where singing, tears, and promises of support were offered to those in pain. These vigils and prayers services have been offered across the country and around the world. Our son, who is traveling in Moscow, sent pictures of a collection of cards and flowers offering sympathy to the people of Orlando. But we must do more than pray. As Stephen Colbert stated in his program on Monday night, “Love is a verb.” Love is not only what you say, but what you do.
Acting in love, I saw hundreds of people standing in line to give blood to help those who were injured. Among those asking for blood donations to help those injured in the attack was the Council on American Islamic Relations.[1]
Acting in love, a group of Orthodox Jews visited a gay and lesbian club in their community to offer support and their sympathy.[2]
Acting in love, a Senator from Connecticut stood for 15 hours to demand that our civic leaders respond to the gun violence in our country.[3]
Acting in love we can reach out to our neighbors most affected in this most recent act of hate by calling or sending cards to family and neighbors who are gay, lesbian, transgendered, immigrant, Latino, and or Muslim. Our hearts should break alongside those who suffer.
It can be easy to fall prey to our demons of fear and anger and blame. It is easy to feed the wolf of division, superiority, and arrogance. But as followers of the One who travels to the ends of the earth to heal, we are called to bow in humility asking God to remove the chains that separate us from our neighbors and our identity as God’s children. We are called to love. We are called to see every person as God’s precious child. We are called to care, to offer compassion, and to work for peace. We are called to proclaim through our words and our lives what God has done and is doing for us.
For as followers of the Great Healer, in this week of terror and great suffering, we believe that God was there holding those who were afraid. God’s tears bathed those harmed and God held those in pain. There is nowhere God does not go to reach out and offer love. So where are we willing to go? Who are we willing to reach out to and love?
The story of Jesus healing the man who suffered reminds us all to examine what holds us hostage—fear, anger, anguish, despair. We stand at a time when demons of rage and fear and blame seem to devour and divide. But we are all in this together.
To acknowledge our demons— the wolves that live in us—is not to give up, but to give in to our only hope of salvation. As Kayla McClurg said in her weekly post, “We need sacred intervention. We can only turn, again and again to the one whose name is God-with-us, whose mission is healing, whose way is love. We can only beg for courage to walk together in that way”[4] By seeing with clear eyes our need for God’s love, and turning to the One who sees us all and loves us completely—despite our fear, despite our sorrow—we can join with others in seeking the freedom that only comes from feeding the good that is within us; that is love, hope, and peace.
[1] http://www.local10.com/news/muslim-community-condemns-orlando-attack-calls-for-blood-donations
[2] Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/06/15/what-happened-when-an-orthodox-jewish-congregation-went-to-a-gay-bar-to-mourn-orlando/
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/us/politics/senate-filibuster-gun-control.html?_r=0
[4] What do you want? Inward/outward: Seeking the Depths. June 18, 201