Scripture/Sermon of the Day. June 19, 2022

Luke 8:26-39

Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac

26 Then they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me,” 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they became frightened. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then the whole throng of people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Reflection/Sermon:

I. For our introit today I played and sang the introduction to a song the Rolling Stones made popular in 1968, Sympathy for the Devil. It’s an odd title, isn’t it. “Sympathy” is having feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune. But should we feel pity for evil, or for someone who we think is evil?

II. In our Gospel today, Jesus approached a man who was possessed by evil spirits. Before Jesus cast out the evil spirits from the man, the spirits talked to Jesus. No — they begged him! “Please don’t order us to go back into the abyss.”
Why would Jesus even consider their request? They don’t want to be cast “back into the abyss,” but isn’t that where they belong? Jesus — they’re demons! Don’t listen to them! Don’t say yes to them! Throw them in the abyss where they can’t do any more harm! Jesus — Don’t have sympathy for the devil!

III. But he did. Even for a legion of evil spirits, Jesus listened to them and actually granted their prayer. This is strange — here we have a passage where evil spirits pray to God, and God says “Yes.” (Another strange element of this story? The man who Jesus healed also begged him “that he could be with him” — but Jesus said “No.”)

IV. How can anyone read this passage and ever think that God will deal harshly with any of us? How can we read this and ever think that God would ever throw any of us into hell? He did not throw the demons in hell. If God has sympathy for the devil, how much more sympathy and love does God have for us?

V. There are no limits to the love of God. There is no person or place where the love of God cannot bring healing. Even our nation, even us.
We need to realize this because today, June 19, we celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates that date—June 19 — in 1865 — two and a half years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (which abolished slavery and changed the legal status of 3.5 million African Americans from enslaved to free) and two months after the end of the Civil War — when hundreds of thousands of enslaved men and women and children in Texas finally learned they had been freed.
Enforcement of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation relied on the advance of Union Troops. Texas was the most remote state of the Confederacy and on the June 19, 1865, an announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in Texas, the last state of the Confederacy with institutional slavery.
Recognized as a Federal Holiday on June 17, 2021 when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law (though it has been celebrated as a holiday in African American culture since 1865).
Look how long it took for the rest of the country to come around to recognizing this day, one of the most important in our nation’s history.

VI. Recognizing Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday does not mean that we are a free country. Not yet. Because the soul of our nation, and the souls of millions of Americans, are still possessed by legions of the demons of RACISM — which is a spiritual disease that infects our minds, making us think our race is better than others.

VII. Even today — 2022 — millions of white Americans are terrified that they will be REPLACED by people of other races, whom they judge to be inferior. Yet millions of these same people worship Jesus — who was not white. Millions of “white” people carry within them the DNA of other races, the DNA of people of color — and they don’t know it. And people of color carry the DNA of the white race, and don’t know it.
But the biggest misfortune, the most terrible ignorance — is that we — every one of us — carry in our deepest being the DNA (image) of God — and we don’t know it. We come from the same spiritual genealogy — yet we think we’re different from one another.

VIII. So we pray that Jesus will free us today — as he freed the demon-possessed man in that cemetery at Geresenes. Free us, Jesus, from our demons of fear, demons of addiction, demons of racism, demons of despair, demons of ignorance — and fill us with your spirit. Free us to love everybody.