Elijah the Tishabite and the Gerasene Demoniac both find themselves in the depths of things…
Elijah is fleeing for his life; the royal family wants him dead. He despairs of his generation
—they’ve all gone after Ahab, and Elijah believes that he may be the last good man.
He collapses
—ready to die,
done with it all.
The Demoniac, literally a man possessed,
dispossessed of all of his belongings
—unhoused and naked.
He is both captured and driven away,
shackled and pushed out of polite society,
and off to the graves.
These two men, suicidal and stigmatized…
They’re good company for us on this longest night.
Prayer
We might be short on obvious angels
or demons discernable and front and center…
but there is a sense of all that, here with us tonight.
Now, it is easy to dismiss the demonic as simply a silly pre-modern thing that we wise post-modern people don’t have to give a moment’s thought to…
but both sociologists and theologians who study the phenomena suggest otherwise.
Folk like Walter Wink and most post-colonial thinkers suggest that
there is a real spiritual heft,
a burden
to things that are too big for more than a small community to handle.
For example, Gerasa or Gergassa,
was a place occupied by Syrian Roman Legions,
whose sigil was a swine…
a pig…
-Violent military occupation
-driving a person to bouts of violence,
-calling himself legion,
-living among the dead
-and associating his ailment with swine…
there can be a spiritual heaviness to such things…
This kind of anguish disturbs all those who would rather look away…
so they don’t become like him…
We too can feel that
world events,
illness,
losses of all sorts…
are just too much,
it’s too big for me!
Too much for us to handle
—we can’t get ahold of it,
and it has a hold on us.
Like Elijah, it can feel as if the world has gone mad,
like we’re heading in a bad direction
and there is no way to turn us from tragedy.
We’ve given every ounce of our strength,
and it is just not enough…
we are not enough!
Our woes can leave us so depleted
we would like to die.
Yes, surely there is room among us for these two men on this longest night.
Those two men…
Elijah,
who rests,
who is fed,
who is given water to drink.
Who naps a second time, who is:
again fed,
again hydrates
—and this providence transforms him!
No longer hangry,
no longer dehydrated,
no longer bone tired
—he can keep on being faithful.
Cared for and accompanied,
Elijah can continue on!
On,
through wind,
earthquake,
and fire
—come face to face with God in the silence.
Called by God to a new task
—to meet with his fellow faithful
—he is not alone!
Called to bring a new message, to keep being faithful to God’s people,
come what may!
Yes! There is room for those two men…
The Demoniac,
freed from an occupied soul.
Clothed.
Healed.
In his right mind!
Seated at the feet of Jesus
—in the position of a student,
a Disciple…
It is a scary thing for all those who looked away,
all the Gerasenes who couldn’t stand the sight of what the occupation was doing to the most sensitive among them,
and turned away their eyes.
Jesus, strangely, does not invite the Demoniac to join him
—instead of “Come, follow me”
—And to be clear, that’s Jesus’ go to phrase!
he says “Go home and tell ‘em what God has done for you.”
Reconnect with community,
name what it is like to be free of your ailments…
I think of the struggles folk who’ve gotten clean have when they return home…
How do you stay sober
with your old friends?
How do you keep on the straight and narrow
when your family system dictates that you’re the bad daughter?
Yet Jesus wants this man to show them another way,
a way unscarred by the crippling chaos of Legion,
of lingering at the tombs,
of the abyss into which he’s stared.
A better way
—the way that has freed him!
A hard task for both men…
a hard task for all of us
—keeping on faithfully, navigating new realities
realities we’d just as soon leave behind…
We, like the Demoniac,
find ways to keep connected
and name our healing,
look at what God is doing!
We do like Elijah:
eat,
hydrate,
take a nap,
and keep on anyhow
—through the fires and wind and all the chaotic tumult,
trusting that God will be there with us.
All of us together,
simply separated by time, and letters on a scroll…
We’re good company for each other,
journeying through this long night together,
yearning,
anticipating,
hoping for the longer days that are to come.
Amen.
