Demons and Isolation

 

Most people like short, to the point, and everything wrapped up in a nice bow sermon or talk. I think that this is the reason Ted Talks are so popular and some of them don’t go past (gasp) 9 minutes. We would have to ignore just about everything in this story to have something quick and easy. 

First, how to talk about the demons in our day and age when we really don’t talk about, much less believe in demons.

Second, do we talk about the pigs? Jews don’t eat pigs in the first place but to send “demons” (there’s that concept again) in the pigs and then the pigs 2,000 of them run and drown, just like Moses did with Pharaoh’s army, presumably killing the demons and the pigs, what about the farmers who kept them? What about the Gospel writer naming the multitude, the horde of demons Legion? Legion which is a military unit in the Roman Empire. Is this story really about Jesus and his band of rebels stirring up revolution and killing, or at least defeating, a Legion of Roman Soldiers, usually four to six thousand? Then we would have to talk about the political situation of Israel being under Roman Empire and the Decapolis being 10 cities/settlements that are built by the Roman Empire to make the country a Roman one even though it is already occupied by people, villages, and culture, sound familiar to us and what is happening again over there?

Which point are we at now? Does it Matter? Let’s talk about the man himself, if he was truly possessed by demons, or maybe he had a mental illness or sounds like an overdose of steroids: breaking out of chains and constantly howling and screaming. He wanted help, he runs and recognizes in Jesus there is help, a way out of this. He was shunned by his community and no one could help him so they confined him or he confined himself to the graveyard so he wouldn’t bother anyone, but he then lived in isolation with no help. Once he is helped, you can see him at the boat with Jesus and he disciples with one foot on the deck waiting for an invitation, planning on getting the h-e-double-toothpicks out of there, and Jesus pushes him off the lifeboat and tells him to stay with this community that ignored him. He becomes Jesus' first apostle, first one to proclaim what Jesus can do.

And the community itself, made up of non-Jews, maybe Romans and Greeks, maybe Transjordan. They possibly dropped off food for him and a blanket or two on the cold nights, maybe they left him fend for themselves. But when they found him clothed and in his right mind, they begged Jesus to get out of there, NOW! If you heard of family systems theory (which can also apply to communities), fixing one person doesn’t automatically mean that the family or community is healthier, because there are patterns and behaviors and roles and when one person or part is disrupted, everyone’s roles and identities are disrupted. Though they didn’t like they way their community functioned, it was familiar and probably comfortable for them, so now they have to deal with CHANGE!!! This is Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, without the universe leaping.

There really is no way to unpack all of it, even if we were here all day or I preached on this a whole season of Sundays. And the Gospel writer is not interested in revealing all the secrets, they immediately goes on to the next story. So let's strip this story down to its basics, there is a man who is suffering. He is not suffering because of who he is or because he is just a bad person. He is suffering because he has no control over his own emotions and actions and is a danger to himself and presumably to others. Because of this affliction, he cannot be around people, he cannot be in community, and he doesn't have friends and any family he has, keep their distance. He is very much alone in his suffering. Here comes a healer, some say a prophet, who is able to separate, or cast out, what is afflicting him. He probably is ashamed of who he was and his actions and believes that going to someplace new will give him a new start. However, the one who heals him tells him to share the good news of what God can do. And though it is uncomfortable and awkward and all the feels, eventually a new normal is created in that community and he becomes a part of it. 

Life is messy and complicated and it is so very hard to deal with one thing or one person because it is all connected, we are all connected, God is connected to all. Sometimes helping one person, healing one person, loving one person can change a community and plant seeds that will bear fruit. It would be great to be able to solve the world's problems, even just one. Into the whirlwind we can jump, first, we need to find our foundation, our footing of loving God, loving neighbor and enemy, and loving ourselves. Then, it is through love that we strive to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. There is good news out there, there is good news here, we are created and called to be healthy and in community. We are told we are loved beyond imagination and that we can love others as ourselves, who God created us to be. Inhale, breathe deep. Let us fill ourselves with love. Breathe deep, let us fill ourselves with God's spirit. Breathe deep, let us breathe the breath of God. Amen.