Set Free

June 19, 2022
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Luke 8:26-39[1]

Jesus took a trip to the other side. The country of the Gerasenes, in the region east of the Sea of Galilee, was not a Jewish community. The occupation, first by the Greeks, then by the Romans, had resulted in a culture quite different from that of Israel. An outpost of the Roman empire, there were shrines to many gods, and there were pigs.

The man they encounter has lost his identity, consumed by the demons that haunt him. Who he was, and who he becomes, remain largely unknown. Because of his condition, he is outcast from the community, living in the tombs outside the town. This was not the first time that Jesus engaged with someone that the rest of the world rejected. This was not the last time that Jesus would connect with an unknown person, redeem them, and make them an instrument of revealing his glory and his identity.

When Jesus permits the legion of demons to enter the herd of pigs, which promptly rush to their destruction, the man is restored to health and, at least potentially, to the community. That community, though, responds with fear so intense that Jesus has no choice but to leave. The people were afraid when they recognized that Jesus had the ability to change their circumstances. Even if things would be better, they couldn’t handle the idea that things could be different.

The man, restored to humanity, now tries to remain with Jesus, yet Jesus sends him back to his own house. He will be the one who tells the Gerasenes, and by extension the Gentiles, the story of God’s saving work.

In addition to the story of healing, and the rejection of Jesus, there is a political undercurrent. Shortly before Mark wrote his gospel, there had been an attack by Roman soldiers on a town named Gerasa. More than a thousand people were killed. Mark apparently took this story of exorcism from the oral tradition of Jesus purposefully set it in Gerasa. If this was the case, he wanted his readers to think of that Roman attack. He was linking the Jesus story and the recent massacre.

The Latin word “legion” meant only one thing — a Roman legion, a large division of imperial soldiers. The term “herd” used for the swine was commonly used to refer to military recruits., and the pigs “charge” like soldiers down the steep bank into the lake.

Pork was a staple in the diet of imperial troops. Jesus sent the legion of demons into the unclean food they ate and they destroyed themselves. They drown like Pharaoh’s army, chasing Moses and the Israelites across the Red Sea. The man who had been occupied and tormented by the empire was liberated. The enemy was vanquished, he was restored to his right mind, and now can live as God intends. Tell everyone, Jesus told the man. “Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.” Marks readers might interpret this as Jesus saying: “Tell your neighbors that God is going to throw Caesar’s army into the sea.”

Why would the people in the story, the Gerasenes, be afraid? Why do we fear change? I think it may have to do with the comfort of keeping things the way they are and the fear of losing who we believe ourselves to be if we change. It’s often easier to claim helplessness or adopt a fatalistic attitude than to do the thing we don’t want to do, even if change would be better. That’s why we may find it so challenging to hear the truth. There is a comfort in being controlled by the “legion.” We can claim that identity that absolves us from responsibility for what is happening around us. We can stay on the periphery, not necessarily safe, but comfortable in our complacency.

A UCC minister, the Rev. Cheryl Lindsay, had a conversation after the mass shooting in Uvalde with someone who said, “I just don’t know what we can do.” She immediately thought of at least half a dozen things that can be done to reduce gun violence and mass shootings. They have been documented and reported for years. They’re supported by large majorities of Americans. But they would require change.

I think of the similar situation we find ourselves in with climate change. We know that it is happening, and that it will have devastating effects on millions of people. There are many things that could be done to slow or mitigate the effects, but they would require changing how we live as a whole society. As individuals, we’re trapped into thinking, “I just don’t know what we can do.”

Would it take a miracle? Do we need the legions that hold us captive to be cast out? Like the man freed from his demons, it would be good to find ourselves sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in our right mind. That is the hope of salvation and the promise of re-creation. Even if we have to return to the community that cast us out, which still lives in fear of change, we are sent declare how much God has done for us. It is becoming who we are and who we’re meant to be. Liberation is possible, in fact it is at hand. It would be a miracle. And that’s the miracle we need right now.

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[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Wisdom Calls

June 12, 2022
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8[1]

A woman once went into the marketplace, and looking around, saw a sign that read, “God’s Fruit Stand.” “Thank goodness! It’s about time!” the woman said to herself. She went inside and she said, “I would like a perfect banana, a perfect cantaloupe, a perfect strawberry, and a perfect peach.” God, who was behind the counter, shrugged and said, “I’m sorry. I only sell seeds.”

Who am I that God, the Creator of heaven and earth, would be interested in me? I’m not royalty. I hold no elected office. I’m not a movie star. I’m certainly no saint, spending all my days in the poor places of the world, healing the sick or comforting the afflicted. Well, who are any of us, really, in the grand scheme of things? We’re small beings on a small blue ball orbiting a relatively small star on the edge of one galaxy out of billions.

And yet, God is interested in us. The Psalmist tells us that God cares about us. It might not feel that way when things are not going our way, but it’s true. God crowns us with glory and honor (touch head). I don’t feel anything up there. Do you see anything? Maybe it’s meant to be metaphorical. We’re made a little lower than God. Wow, that’s powerful stuff. I certainly don’t feel all that powerful. Maybe my problem is that I mostly look at myself with my own eyes. I see things from the perspective of my daily needs and issues, my problems, memories, and hopes. I think if I’m going to understand what Psalm 8 is talking about, I need a new perspective.

If I step back from myself a bit, I can see more. I can create. I can take objects, combine and shape them into new things that serve a new purpose. I can create food from raw ingredients. I can make a sandbox out of pieces of wood. I participated in creating other beings, a family. I can create music with my voice, my hands, and instruments that others have made. I can communicate with other beings and with them shape the world around me.

If I move back further, I can see other human beings. We have created cities, farms, monuments, and nations, and even touched other worlds. If we move back even further, we can see the world that we inhabit together, and here my perspective really changes.

“The Overview Effect” is a phrase coined in the book of the same name by Frank White. It refers to the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space.[2] From space we see that the Earth is “a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere.  From space, the astronauts tell us, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this ‘pale blue dot’ becomes both obvious and imperative.  Even more so, many of them tell us that from the Overview perspective, all of this seems imminently achievable, if only more people could have the experience!”[3]

From space we can see some of the impact that human beings have made upon the earth. It is obvious viewing the nighttime side of the world, with all of the lights that shine. More subtle effects can be seen, such as the Mississippi River Delta, where the brown waters of the river mix with the blue of the Gulf of Mexico, and agricultural runoff and industrial pollution are changing the ecosystem. More striking were scenes in the early 1990s of burning oil wells in Kuwait, set on fire following the first Gulf War.

God made us human beings with incredible abilities and gave us dominion over the works of creation. In the words of Carl Sagan from his novel Contact, “[We’re] capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares.” And without wisdom, we tend to drift more toward the nightmare side of our nature.

The mystery of God, sometimes called “Wisdom” is the personification of God’s presence and activity in the Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament. The term used for her is feminine - hokmah in Hebrew, sophia in Greek, sapientia in Latin. She is depicted as sister, mother, beloved, chef and hostess, preacher, judge, liberator, establisher of justice, and a myriad of other roles in which she symbolizes transcendent power ordering and delighting in the universe. She is that presence which pervades the world, both nature and human beings, interacting with them in an effort to lure them along the right path.[4]

“Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?”[5] Any astronomer can tell you what an incredible coincidence of factors have made the Earth such an ideal place for life to develop and flourish. There is a delicate balance in the distance from the Sun, the size of the planet and its gravitational force, and even the moon which collects meteor impacts that might otherwise hit us. Surely wisdom was at work in the act of Creation. The first of God’s acts, according to Proverbs, even before the creation of light, was the creation of wisdom. “Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.”[6] Wisdom was there, rejoicing in the creation of the master-builder. Yet it seems that somewhere along the way, we lost her. The influence of wisdom on human beings seems as fragile as the world itself.

We need a new perspective. We need wisdom. We need the guidance of our Sovereign to keep us from going astray. Bette Midler sang perhaps the best-known version of “From a Distance,” a song about seeing the world from a different, perhaps wiser, perspective.

From a distance there is harmony;
and it echoes through the land.
It’s the voice of hope; it’s the voice of peace;
it’s the voice of everyone.

It’s the voice of the wisdom of God. Wisdom often requires distance. Wisdom can be defined as knowledge and experience tempered by time. The distance of time can alter our perspective. When we have reflected on our experiences, we gain deeper understanding. “Time heals all wounds,” the saying goes. Though that may or may not be true, time does give us a different view of things. Taking a step back from ourselves helps us to see a bigger picture. And seeking the guidance and advice of others can give us a different way of processing our world. And that is a vital task of the church, this fellowship of beings on the journey of life together, sharing the wisdom gained through generations of experience.

We need to recognize, however, that transforming knowledge and experience into wisdom is not easy. It takes openness to the idea that we might be wrong. It takes a willingness to learn, and grow, and change.

Wisdom is a seed that is planted in all of us. It is there, but it needs tending and nurturing in order to grow. Like seeds in a garden, we need to devote time to tilling the soil of our life experiences so that that wisdom can sprout and grow. It can’t be rushed.

Our mistake, like the woman looking for “perfect fruit” is that too often we want something that is finished - a completed project. But God is not finished with us and creation is far from being complete. The divine energy of creation did not end with Genesis. Be patient, God isn’t finished with you yet! We are called to grow, continually. There is always a call forward. None of us is there yet. We are seeds swelling toward ripeness; a ripeness never quite achieved but still in the process of becoming, growing from the seeds of God’s fruit stand. In this moment, in every moment, whether you know it or not, you are being lured into life. Give us wisdom, God, and let it grow within us all of our days.  Amen.

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[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

[2] From: http://www.overviewinstitute.org/about-us/declaration-of-vision-and-principles.

[3] Ibid.

[4] http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/c-trin-keeping.php

[5] Proverbs 8:1.

[6] Proverbs 8:23.

Many Voices - One Holy Spirit

June 5, 2022 - Pentecost
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Acts 2:1-13[1]

Jesus had left them, ascended into heaven, and was seen no more. But he had promised another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would be with them. They stayed together, supporting one another, trying to determine how to carry on this Jesus movement. And so it was that “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.”[2] On that festival day, celebrating the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Saini, they experienced the giving of God’s Holy Spirit to humanity.

Words are inadequate for what they experienced: the rush of a violent wind, tongues of fire, the presence of God in the very air they breathed. The words they spoke were in many languages. Here, in the crossroads of the ancient near-east, people from near and far understood the word of God in the voices of the spirited disciples.

Who was there? The text says they were all together, so most likely the entire community of Christians, around 120 people. The eleven, surely, but also the other men and women who were faithful followers. And there were the “devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.”[3] There may haver been pilgrims attending the festival, but most had emigrated there from other areas of the Roman Empire. All likely spoke Greek, the language of commerce in that time, but also the native languages of their homelands.

As the Christians tell of the deeds of God’s power, they do not speak in “spiritual languages” that can only be interpreted by those with a special gift. Rather, they speak in the languages of the immigrants, the languages of the people subject to the Romans. The beginning of the Church is a sign to all parts of the earth in the languages of all of the people.

God’s Word transcends all human barriers – language, understanding, race, nationality – and there are other passages which encourage us to imagine God’s Word moving through all of creation. The Psalms, poetry and symbolism that they are, often give life to the mountains and the seas, and voice to the birds of the air, the beasts of the land, and the swarms in the sea. God’s Word is spoken in every language, not just those spoken by humans. And all creation responds.

One writer, James McTyre, reflects on this imagery:

God’s voice came through a great wind. Listen. Can you hear it now? Listen to the sounds of the wind. Listen to the beating wings of birds. Listen to the rustling trees. Listen to the creaks and groans of building floors. Listen to the pops of expanding woodwork as your house breathes in the warmth of summer. Listen to mountain streams carving their way down a hillside. Listen to still lakes wrapped in morning mist. Listen to the gravel beneath your car wheels. Listen.

Too often I tune out the sounds of nature, or find them overawed by the noises of people and machines. Other times, I may pause with passive admiration to notice the smell of lilacs or the colors of the sunset. There have been times when I was able to listen, to see, and to immerse myself in the natural world. You see, it is one thing to go outside. It is quite another to attempt to be in harmony with the voices of creation. But it can be done.

To hear God’s Word being spoken in languages other than English in the New Revised Standard Version is like learning a new way to communicate. Learning to communicate is hard. Learning to communicate in another language, or another culture, is hard. Learning takes time, focus, and sometimes immersion in the world of what you’re learning. Listening, really listening, takes work. That’s why it doesn’t come easily. That’s why we don’t often really hear.

One of the gifts of Pentecost, however, is that we also get to speak of God’s deeds of power. We get to communicate what we know of God’s love, hope, and peace. And we don’t always have to use our mouths. We communicate with our actions, the way we respond to others, the way we interact with the world. The way we say hello to our neighbors, or to strangers walking by, communicates something not only about us, but also about God who speaks through us. The way we tend to the world around us, and care for the living things we encounter, speaks of our connection to the Holy.

We are translators of God’s Word that we hear, and that comes to us through all the elements of creation. Translation is an act of humility, of care and respect for the words that are said, but also for the listener. To speak a language unknown to us can take years of disciplined practice. Fluency requires nuance and mental agility. It helps that we already know many ways to communicate love, hope, and peace.

It is worth the effort to learn a new way to communicate. It took effort on the part of the disciples to convince people that they were not drunk, but truly sharing the Word. It took patience on behalf of the listeners to discern the truth in the words they spoke. But at the end of that day three-thousand persons were added. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”[4]

On this Pentecost day, we pray that our translation may be pleasing to God. And we ask God’s Holy Spirit to help us to speak, and to listen, in all the languages we can discover, in solidarity with all of our neighbors and with all of creation, the love of God we know in Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

[2] Acts 2:1.

[3] Acts 2:5.

[4] Acts 2:42.