Loading...I have to admit that Paul is not one of my favorite people in the Bible. Some of the things he says are hard for me to hear. But I see Paul in a different light today as we read one of my favorite passages from the Bible. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”
I imagine hearing this was upsetting for the first century Galatians. They believed that the Gentiles who were also believers in Christ were second class citizens in God's household. It was revolutionary for them to be told that God sees the Greeks as equal to the Jews. How difficult it must have been for them to hear that God sees women on the same level as men, or that the slave and the free are both beloved and equal in God’s eyes. This was radical thinking.
I don’t believe that Paul intended for his list of divisions to be exclusive to just those three divisions either. We have created many divisions that keep people apart: rich and poor, educated and uneducated, first world and third world, black and white, democrat and republican, gay and straight. There are a myriad of divisions to separate ourselves from others. Paul tells us that because of Jesus all the barriers that we use to divide us from one another are rendered dull and void.
Through Christ, the Beloved Community, the unity that we all long for is possible. In Christ, our divides can be transformed into unity. We can now believe that through our baptism are all one in Christ, all equal in Christ, and all of the ways that we differentiate ourselves from others are meaningless in Christ.
In our Gospel passage today Luke tells a story about a man who is an outcast. He has been naked, living not in a house or even in a community but lives alone in a graveyard among the tombs. At times, those in the community have chained him up to keep him away from them and to keep themselves safe.
We never hear his name, but he calls himself Legion, meaning many. He is living with so many demons that he has lost his identity. In one version of the Bible the outcast uses a name more descriptive and says his name is Mob. We sure know what mobs are these days. Imagine living with a mob inside your head. A mob of demons.
Luke’s story of people filled with demons and living in tombs may seem strange to us today. We don’t talk about demons much anymore but we have them. We just have different names for them and we don’t have to go far to find our version of demons. Some of us have gotten used to living with their demons and have made peace with them. We find it easier to live with them than to fight them .Demons of racism, alcoholism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia – the list is legion.
We also have our version of tombs today where our outcast live. People who have been marginalized and pushed to the fringes of our society. People who long to be seen and heard and given the dignity that all human beings deserve. They long to experience healing and compassion in a world that is often too busy to be concerned with them thus we have made them dwell in our tombs.
What I find interesting about the story of the demonic man is that it is when the people the town hear about Jesus’ miracle and they see the man no longer tormented by demons, dressed in normal clothing and able to return to his community, it is only then that they are afraid. They weren’t afraid before the miracle. They had learned to live with this man in their tombs. It is what they were used to. But now they are afraid. Are they afraid because they now saw the real man?
When we think we know someone, it can be difficult to accept a new reality. When we see others as different from ourselves, we only see the surface, the color of their skin, their dress, their language, their behavior. We do not truly see who they are, their person is invisible to us. Are we afraid to see the true person, afraid that we may not be able to keep the divisions, the separations we have created. Afraid we may see them as equal to us then lose our power or status as better than them.
Our demons make it hard for us to see the true identity of others , easier to keep them invisible in our tombs tied to the identities we have placed on them.
But God doesn’t what us to live like that. God wants us to know our own true identity, one of dignity, worth and purpose. And God calls us to see these same values in others.
When we have become comfortable with the way things are, when we have made peace with our demons, when we have become willing to live with these demons, that is when Jesus offers us healing, offers us hope and offers us transformation.
The story today from Luke, like the story of Jesus calming the sea, and like so many of the other stories about what Jesus did are ways of saying that, of all of demons in our world regardless of how we name them in spite how awful they are, none of them will have the last word, none of them will ultimately prevail. In the end, when all is said and done, we are loved by Jesus and the love that Jesus brings, is more powerful than all our demons.
In June we celebrate three events that help remind us of the need for transformation from our fears and demons to our God given identities as members of God’s Beloved Community.
Earlier this month we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost. Our doves still fly over our heads and we wore the flame of the Holy Spirit remembering the Holy Spirit desending on the apostles giving them the ability to communicate with everyone. Pentecost set the course for God’s vision of the Beloved Community, of a united community filled with diversity. Pentecost began our commission to share God’s message of love and inclusion.
In June also we celebrate Pride month where we honor and advocate for the dignity and rights of the LGBTQ community. It is a time to celebrate the diversity of identities and expressions of love that enrich our human tapestry. This celebration is not just about parades and colorful flags; it’s about affirming the God given worth of every individual and fostering an environment where all can live authentically and without fear.
This past Thursday we honored our newest National holiday, Juneteenth, a day commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, Juneteenth calls us to remember our history while striving for a future where true freedom and justice can be had by all. It’s a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle against systemic racism and the urgent need for equity and reconciliation within our society.
Pride month and Juneteenth give us an opportunity to ask Jesus to drive out our demons of prejudice and fear of others. This June let us commit to being agents of change, inspired by Pentecost and Paul’s words that we are all one and equal in the eye’s of God. inspired by the courageous spirit of Pride, and the reflective gravity of Juneteenth. It is a time for us to ask Jesus to transform us and to drive these demons from our lives leaving in their place empathy and action. Let us continue to educate ourselves, advocate for policies that uphold dignity for all, and support movements that strive for a more equitable world. Let us go back out into the world this morning in love and with Jesus by our side. For it is in love that we can find the path to becoming truly a Beloved Community.
