READINGS: Luke 8:26-39

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

SERMON

Fear is all around us. We can become frightened by what we see on television.

We can have our own inner fears. People can be afraid of the water, Hydrophobia: a fear of “water.”
Nyctophobia: a fear of “darkness.”
Acrophobia: a fear of “high places.”
Taphophobia: fear of being “buried alive.”
Xenophobia: a fear of “strangers.”
Claustrophobia: a fear of “confined places.”

We all have our fears, mine is Ophidiophobia a fear of snakes. Our gospel lesson this morning is about fear. The fear the people had of the man with the unclean Spirit, named Legion. The spirit Legion had a fear of being cast out into the abyss. The herdsmen and the town people were afraid of Jesus after he cast out the demons as the swine went into the river.

The only person who was not afraid was the man himself who was possessed by the unclean spirit for the text says: When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.

The man with the uncleaned spirit after he was healed sat at the feet of Jesus learning what he could from this man who had healed him.

Notice an interesting fact in this text, the man with the uncleaned spirit did not ask Jesus to heal him, but Jesus did anyway: And as he stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes, and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

The spirit did not want to be tormented by Jesus, but the man himself was quiet. I suspect the man was just happy that he was willing to stand there and allow Jesus to act upon his life.

He did not ask Jesus to heal him, but allowed Jesus to have control over his life. And when Jesus did act and he was cleansed, what did he do?

He sat at the feet of Jesus to learn all he could about Jesus.

I think there are two general themes to our gospel lesson this morning. One theme is we need to remember to surrender our lives to Jesus. Our whole lives. Not a part, our whole lives.

The other theme is fear, fear of the unknown. The people were afraid of Jesus because he healed a man and they did not understand this, so they were afraid.

This fact is seen in the following story: Once there was a very wealthy young man who lived in a great, elaborate house with dozens of rooms. Each room was more comfortable and more beautiful than the one before it.

One day he decided to invite the Lord to come and stay with him. When the Lord arrived, this young man offered Him the very best room in the house. The room was upstairs and at the end of the hall. “This room is yours, Jesus, stay as long as you like and you can do whatever you want to in this room. Remember Jesus, it’s all yours.”

“Thank you,” the Lord replied, and with that the man shut the door and went about his business. That evening, after he had retired for the night, there came a loud knocking at the front door. The young man pulled on his robe and made his way downstairs. When he opened the door he found that the Devil had sent three of his demons to attack the man! He quickly tried to close the door but one of the demons kept sticking his foot in the door.

Sometime later, after a great struggle, he managed to slam the door shut and returned to his room totally exhausted. “Can you believe that?” the young man thought. “Jesus is upstairs in my very best room sleeping while I am down here battling demons. Oh well, maybe he just didn’t hear.”

The young man slept fitfully that night. The next day, things went along as normal and, being as tired as he was, the young man retired early that evening. Along about midnight, there came such a terrible ruckus at the front door that the young man was sure that whatever it was would tear the door down. He stumbled down the stairs once again and opened the door to find that there were now dozens of demons trying to get into his beautiful home.

For more than 3 hours he fought and struggled against the demons from hell and finally managed to shut the door against their attack. All his energy seemed to fail him. “I really don’t understand this at all. Why won’t the Lord come to my rescue? Why does he allow me to fight all by myself? I feel so alone.” Troubled, he found his way to the sofa and fell into a restless sleep.

The next morning he decided to inquire of the Lord about the happenings of the last two evenings. Quietly, he made his way to the elegant bedroom where he had left Jesus. Jesus, Lord, I don’t understand what is happening. For the last two nights I have had to fight the demons away from my door while you were sleeping. Don’t you care about me? Did I not give you the very best room in my house?”

He could see the tears building in Jesus’ eyes as he went on. “I just don’t understand. I really thought that once I invited you in to live with me, that you would take care of me, and I gave you the best room in my house and everything. What more can I do?”

“My precious child,” Jesus spoke softly, “I do love and care for you. I protect all that you have released into my care. But when you invited me to come here and stay, you brought me to this lovely room and you shut the door to the rest of the house. I am Lord of this room but I am not Master of this house. I have protected this room and no demon may enter here.”

“Oh Lord, please forgive me. Take all of my house, it is yours! I am so sorry that I never offered you all to begin with. I want you to have control of everything! With this he flung himself to the floor and knelt at Jesus’ feet. “Please forgive me. Lord, for being so selfish.”

Jesus smiled and told him that He had already forgiven him and that He would take care of things from now on.

At about midnight the banging on the door was frightening. The young man slipped out of his room in time to see Jesus going down the stairs.

He watched in awe as Jesus swung open the door. Satan stood at the door demanding to be let in. “What do you want, Satan?” the Lord asked. The devil bowed low in the presence of the Lord. “So sorry, I seem to have gotten the wrong address.” With that, he and the demons all ran away.

This man in our story finally surrendered to Jesus and the demons left.

The man in our gospel lesson surrendered to Jesus and the demons left. He did not have to ask Jesus to have the demons leave, Jesus acted on His own accord. The only request that was made was made by the demon itself, Legion asked that they not be put into the abyss, but to enter the swine and Jesus agreed. But the swine being filled with the demons rushed down the bank into the river and were drown.

The man, now free from the demons, sat at the feet of Jesus and we can just imagine that Jesus was explaining to him who he was, the Son of God.

As we live our lives, we need to surrender them to Jesus, so that he may take care of us totally. We need to trust and rely on Jesus as we walk our journey of faith. Yes, we might have turbulence or bad weather on our journey of life, but no matter what, Jesus is there for us as long as we let him. As long as we surrender our whole lives over to him.

Our second theme is fear, fear of things that we don’t understand or don’t want to understand. The town’s people were afraid of Jesus because they could not understand or did not want to understand who he could drive out the uncleaned spirit. We are like that in our lives. We often fear things that we don’t understand or want to understand.

So to end: Two themes Surrender and fear. If we truly surrender our lives to Jesus, then I think we might have even less fear. Amen

PRAYERS

God of mercy and grace, nothing is hidden from you. You know that our lives are often not as they seem on the surface and that underneath there is to be found lots of complexity and compromise where we struggle with the mess and battle with our demons of anxiety. In fact our lives are often deep in the weeds and we stumble our way through as best we can. Lord, bless this mess, and assure us that what matters is good intent and not just a happy shiny surface. And that what matters above all is your love for us and your belief in us.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

God of mercy and grace, the society we live in is messy too. We don’t know how to deal with the perennial problems of growing inequality, social care for the elderly, overcrowded prisons, an underachieving poorly funded educational system who are already under huge demands to catch up educating our children, a truly wonderful NHS running on empty but with committed staff. Recall us, Lord, to fundamental values, to a love of God and neighbour. Remind us that “in quietness and in trust in you we shall find our strength’, not in noisy empty filled promises made by others. Draw us into a deeper unity of purpose across our troubled social landscape.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

God of mercy and grace, our whole world should be declared unsafe. The threats to human flourishing multiply with the random brutality of terrorism, the warnings of climate catastrophe, the misery of refugees, the threat of cyber attacks and the growth of the nuclear ambition of rogue states. Help us Lord to hold out a clearer vision of a world living in conformity with the values of your kingdom and which offers human dignity, a political and cultural system which cares for the equal worth and care of all, both rich and poor.

Keep offering us the vision that politicians and institutions will work for the same equality.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

God of mercy and grace, we recognise that the mess and storms of our world starts in the corkscrew of the human heart, our heart, and we alone are responsible for what happens there. Give is grace to clean out the dark corners and restore a sense of order and purpose. We know that this side of death we will always live with a degree of mess, but we ask for your continuing blessing as we attempt to love both our neighbours and ourselves, despite the problems and mess. Bless us as we offer you now the week ahead.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

And so we bind our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen

Revd Kevin. Priest at St.Wilfrid and St.Thomas