Opening Verse of Scripture Psalm 43:3

Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. 

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you, mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace, that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.God of truth, help us to keep your law of love and to walk in ways of wisdom, that we may find true life in Jesus Christ your Son. CW

God of truth, help us to keep your law of love and to walk in ways of wisdom, that we may find true life in Jesus Christ your Son. CW

First Bible Reading 1 Kings 19 v 1 - 15 

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’

He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ Then the LORD said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.’ NRSV

Second Reading Galatians 3:23-29

Before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ; There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. NRSV 

Gospel Reading Luke 8:26 -39

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’ – 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.) Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

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. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 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 were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘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. NRSV

Post Communion Prayer

Eternal Father, we thank you for nourishing us with these heavenly gifts: may our communion strengthen us in faith, build us up in hope, and make us grow in love; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

Commentary  -

When we observe a storm at sea we understand it to be the consequence of weather conditions and we can predict these things with considerable accuracy. At the time of Jesus this was not understood, the sea was considered to be the abode of demonic forces. In Revelation 13 we read

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.

It makes sense of the passage later in Revelation 21 when we are told that when God sorts everything out in the new Jerusalem there will be no more sea. The point isn’t that in heaven we won’t be able to go to the seaside, it is speaking figuratively of the conquering of the things which frighten us and which do not understand.

Before Jesus meets the demon possessed man in our Gospel reading today he has just been with his disciples and he clamed the storm at sea. We need to look at the two stories together as a way in which the Gospel writer wants us to understand that both events speak to us of the power and authority of Jesus, power to liberate the world from oppression and chaos.

We know now that the Sea of Galilee is prone to storms, but it is not because it is inhabited by demons and evil spirits. The sea's location makes it subject to sudden and violent storms as the wind comes over the eastern mountains and Golan Heights and then drops suddenly onto the sea. Storms are especially likely when an east wind blows cool air over the warm air that covers the sea. The cold air (being heavier) drops as the warm air rises. This sudden change can produce surprisingly furious storms in a short time, as it did in Jesus' day (Matt. 8:24). 

You may find it helpful to take the same approach to the casting out of demons in this poor man. It is understandable that the disciples would be freaked out by going with Jesus to a cemetery in Gentile land at night. At the time Jews considered tombs unclean and a popular haunt for demons. Even in our modern and scientific world there are many sane people who would still find it difficult to be rational and put aside memories of films like the Exorcist and childish notions of the spirits of the dead wandering around tombs at night and perhaps wanting to do them harm. We are afraid of death because it holds so much that we do not understand and what we do not understand we fear. Jesus has no such fear and having just calmed the troubled waters, the abode of demonic forces, he will show the disciples his healing of the human condition.

All three Gospels record the episode but with different details. In Matthew we are told that there were two men, Mark agrees with Luke that there was only one. The man is naked and overcome by such violence that he cannot be restrained even with chains. He is excluded from the city and lives in the tombs and so he lives among the demons, no wonder people are frightened of him! These are all signs that ancients people would use to diagnose possession by an unclean spirit. Luke gives us another interesting detail and tells us that this man cut himself with stones. This self harming is something which we can begin to understand, it is a sign of the deep mental health problems which this poor man has experienced. Today we would no more attribute his suffering to demons than we would suggest that demons were the cause of a storm, we would probably diagnose schizophrenia. Jesus heals the man and today we see the same healing taking place, not through the casting out of demons but through the work of modern medicine.

However this is only one part of understanding the story because there is much more which the Gospel writers wish us to appreciate about evil powers and which is just a relevant today as it was in a time when people believed in a flat earth. At the time this location was famous because according to Josephus, during the late 60s AD, toward the end of the Jewish revolt, the Roman general Vespasian sent soldiers to retake Gerasa (Jewish War, IV,ix,1). The Romans brutally killed a thousand young men, imprisoned their families, burned the city, and then attacked villages throughout the region. Many of those buried in Gerasene tombs had been slaughtered by Roman legions. The demoniac is called by the Latin name "Legion." To us that just sounds like an emphasis upon lots of demons but at the time in a country occupied by a Roman army Legion where 1,00 young men had been hacked to death it only had one very literal meaning and that was the name for a unit up to 6,000 troops.

One famous legion was the Legio X Fretensis stationed in and around Judea for over 400 years. This Legion was involved in the suppression of the Jewish insurrection against Rome and the crucifixion of 2,000 rebels at Sepphoris, four miles from Nazareth, in 6 AD. It subsequently took part in the siege of Jerusalem in the Great Revolt of 66-73 AD, the looting and destruction of the Temple, Qumran and the capture of Masada. It was engaged in the enslavement, deportation and banishment of all Jews from Judea. One of the emblems of Legio X Fretensis, used not only on banners but on everyday objects such as coins and bricks — was a wild boar or pig. For the people of the area, pigs would have seemed a fitting destination for the Legion and casting them into the abyss where they drown in the sea. The association of a Roman legion with a herd of pigs was a priceless piece of irony. 

Suddenly a ‘straightforward’ casting out of demons becomes more significant in the context of Jesus addressing the Roman occupation. When the man confronts Jesus, Luke uses a verb that he employs elsewhere of armies meeting in battle (Luke 14:31). When the demon “seizes” the man? That’s a verb used elsewhere when Christians are arrested and brought to trial (Acts 6:12; 19:29). The words for the hand and foot chains, for binding and guarding, are the same ones that Luke uses in Acts when the disciples are imprisoned. In short, the language of the whole episode evokes the experience of living under a brutal occupying power. It is beyond doubt that Jesus would have know about the brutal history given that he grew up in the location where thousands of his community had been killed just before he was born. Think how long there will be bitter hatred of Russia by those left alive in Ukraine after the bitter slaughter of the current atrocities. 

Clearly Luke identifies Roman military might as a power behind violent oppression. As the pigs run towards the sea Luke is telling us that even the seemingly invincible power of Rome will ultimately be no match for the liberating power of God in Christ.     Charles Royden

Meditation

Saints have Struggles-  Mother Teresa's book Come Be My Light (2007) shocked people with its descriptions of profound spiritual darkness that haunted her for fifty years. She writes that she didn't practice what she preached, and laments the stark contrast between her exterior demeanor and her interior desolation: "The smile is a big cloak which covers a multitude of pains… my cheerfulness is a cloak by which I cover the emptiness and misery… I deceive people with this weapon." She describes the absence of God's presence in many ways — as emptiness, loneliness, pain, spiritual dryness, or lack of consolation. "There is so much contradiction in my soul, no faith, no love, no zeal… I find no words to express the depths of the darkness… My heart is so empty… so full of darkness… I don't pray any longer. The work holds no joy, no attraction, no zeal… I have no faith, I don't believe." She rebukes herself as a "shameless hypocrite" for teaching her sisters one thing while experiencing something far different.

Hymns

1. Glorious things of thee are spoken
2. Seek ye first
3. Lord of creation
4. Fight the good fight
5. For I’m building a people of power
6. Breathe on me breath of God
7. Guide me O thou great Jehovah

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

O God, the King of Righteousness, lead us we pray, in the way of justice and of peace. Inspire us to break down all oppression and wrong, to gain for everyone their reward, and from every one their due service; that each may live for all, and all may care for each, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our needs before we ask, and our ignorance in our asking; have compassion on our weakness, and give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask, for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Lord, Jesus Christ, let me seek you by desiring you, and let me desire you by seeking you. Let me find you by loving you, and love you in finding you. Amen. St Anselm

The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen

Additional Resources

Commentary

In the first chapters of Isaiah (1-39) those who are addressed are inhabitants of Jerusalem. After this they appear to be exiles in Babylon (40 – 55). Today’s reading from Isaiah comes towards the end of the third section of the book (56 – 66) and probably dates from a time when the exiles have returned to Israel, gathered from distant places. In this last part of the book there have been pleas that God would ‘…tear open heaven and come down…’, (Is 63 v 19b) to which He replies at once that He is ready, indeed even responds ‘I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am’, (he says repeatedly) to a nation that did not call on my name.’. 

Even though it appears they have returned to Israel there are those who seem to prefer to do their own thing and worship in a way that suits them and their tastes. It’s almost like they are young children, going off into the garden and finding scary places to play at and re-enact the things they see their parents and elders doing. It’s almost like they are daring each other to find the most scariest place to worship, or eat the hottest, most spicy or forbidden food if they want to be part of the group. God is not impressed. He is calling out in welcome, but they ignore Him and do their own thing, perhaps much as we see today in our own society. They prefer to be in their own ‘gardens’ and places they can control what happens. They have deluded themselves into thinking that if they are going through the motions of worship then everything must be fine. They have mixed the sacred with the profane and can no longer tell the difference between fantasy and reality. They even see themselves as ‘holy’ and this, more than anything else, is what seems to provoke God to action. ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.’, which could also be translated as ‘I am holier than thou’, they say. 

In response, God takes action, He cannot just stand idly by, and vows to ‘repay their iniquities’. But in the end there will be redemption, with the promise of mercy and rebirth that follows. Out of their madness and seeming insanity comes order and calm and a restoration of the order of people and things to the way God intended. 

This is the model we see in today’s gospel reading where Jesus restores the order of people and things to the way God intended. But there is a twist. In Isaiah through their madness it would seem the people were incapable of recognising God. In the gospel it is the seemingly ‘mad’ man who recognises God in Jesus. And rather than ignore the man, as many must have done in the past, probably taking action to avoid him, Jesus simply asks the man his name. For many he must just have been ‘that slightly scary man who lives in the tombs’, but to Jesus he is a human being, a person with a name. He is not invisible, or someone to be avoided, but someone who needs to meet with God again. Just as He would do for the whole of humankind, Jesus restores the image of the man. We might think that the people would be amazed and grateful, if nothing else a bit more peace has come to their world. Instead of which, they are afraid, perhaps even cross because some of their livestock, and livelihood, has been destroyed. Or are these people like those to whom the latter part of the book of Isaiah was addressed, a people who were comfortable in their own version of life and didn’t want it unsettled or challenged. 

Paul would say that these people in their own way were chained up and imprisoned in a place of their own making. God too comes to them as He did to the Israelites saying repeatedly ‘I am here, I am here’. Whatever their delusions, they too can be clothed in Christ. No longer exposed to the world and its ravages without the presence of Christ in their lives. They, like us, are invited to give up their own little rituals and aspirations and illusions of being in control of their own lives and offer themselves to Christ who brings a unity and a peace that the world yearns for in its political and economic struggles and unrest. Earlier in the chapter Paul has challenged the Galatians with the words, ‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?’ Sometimes it’s very easy to start off with the best of intentions but then get side tracked when things become more challenging or an alternative route or option seems simpler and requires less effort and where we can feel like were more in control. God invites not only the Israelites in Isaiah, but all people to remember both the heritage and inheritance we have in Christ, not to get beguiled by our own apparent but futile power and control and to trust in Him that He can do all things, from bringing us home, back from exile, to freeing us from anything which bind us up and stops us being the people God wants us to be. And as we let go, allow ourselves to be found, so we can be free and undivided in unity with Him. Sam Cappleman

Commentary The Gerasene Demoniac

As a teenager I was involved with my church youth group in various bits of community service. We would go off to old folks homes and sing songs to the 60 and 70 year olds who lived in them in those days.

We would also go and do hospital visiting and cheer folks up.

One of the hospitals we visited was St Catherine’s Hospital, Birkenhead. St Catherine’s started life in 1861 as a workhouse and the site was developed to include a workhouse hospital. The part of the building where I visited was the old Victorian style hospital. It was very memorable because of the fact that you had to be let in behind locked gates and the building very much resembled Bedford Prison with nurses carrying keys. The records of the place show people designated as idiots and imbeciles. These were what some folks reminisce as ‘The Good Old Days’ but I think wisely in 2009 permission was granted for demolition of the Victorian buildings and there is now a new Health Centre on the site.   

As a 15 year old I remember the whole experience as being quite alarming. People were walking around shouting and screaming. They were considered too dangerous to be let out and so they lived out their lives in captivity with other troubled souls. Family records in Birkenhead often show the place of death of relatives as 54 Church Road, Birkenhead. This masks the fact that these poor folks lived and died in this place, never being let out. Their family died in what was an asylum for lunatics, they may just have had learning disabilities.

The point of this is that not very long ago we struggled to even begin to understand mental health. More than 20,000 lobotomies were performed in the UK between the early 1940s and the late '70s. They were typically carried out on patients with schizophrenia, severe depression or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - but also, in some cases, on people with learning difficulties. We did not understand the human brain and we had no medicine, so surgery and electric shocks were the order of the day.

Now go back 2,000 years to the time when the Gospel reading today was written when people had no scientific knowledge. Mental illness was considered the work of demonic forces. These demons caused trouble and torment in the human brain just as much as they caused the storms which raged in the sea of Galilee.

Mark tells us that it was evening when they set out in a boat across Galilee and the storm came. Jesus stilled the demonic storm and they eventually came to the other side, to country of the Gerasenes. So we know that it would have been night time when they were greeted by a man (or as Matthew says two men), who lived in the graveyard.

Think how the disciples would have felt when confronted by a naked man with super powerful strength capable of breaking his chains, who wandered around saying he heard voices in his head and self harming. Little wonder that their minds attributed it all to the work of demonic forces. 

I dare say that even today many sane rational people would be afraid of walking through graveyards at night. Not for fear of being mugged, which is perhaps very rational and a possibility, but because of it being a spooky place where bodies were buried. Even today many churches jump very quickly to attribute human behaviours to demonic activity. We looked at this a few weeks ago in our Wednesday service and reflected upon the exorcisms of poor Victoria Clumbie. It was this irrational behaviour which helped bring about the death of Victoria Clumbie as she was subjected to exorcisms by her minister to cast out demons of bad behaviour instead of being recognised as seriously in need to safeguarding from her family.

So this naked, deranged chain breaking, adrenalin filled madman accosts Jesus and his disciples running and shrieking out of the tombs. He is clearly unbalanced, and he‘s convinced that he is being held captive by a whole legion of demons, everybody had told him he was possessed.

Jesus is unafraid and healed him, bringing peace to his troubled soul.

I have written quite a lot about the name Legion in Parish News this week and the implications of that. It is also a particularly significant word because Legion is a military word, and this man was at war. He was at war with himself, he was at war with other people and he was at war with God. His name was Legion, and he was fighting everyone.

Mark tells us that he was self harming himself with stones. We know a lot more about self harming now than we ever have. It is not a sign of demon possession but it is a very clear sign of mental trauma. People who self harm are vulnerable, they are often trying to cope with abuse or depression.

Luke tells us that the first thing which Jesus does is to ask the man his name. In that simple act of wanting to know the name of the man Jesus shows a level of care and compassion which he had probably not known for some time. Jesus shows that whilst the man felt that everything was against him, Jesus was on his side.

To a man with severe mental illness Jesus offers a loving and kindly reminder that he has a name, he is special to God and valuable. We do not know what caused his trauma,

· Was he born with mental illness

· Was it the result of a troubling event in a his life, from childhood, or from a harrowing experience as he was growing up.

· His country was invaded by a military force and he would have seen people he knew brutally crucified.

We can only imagine the mental trauma which will be as a consequence of what people have suffered in Ukraine. They will have unimaginable post traumatic stress, not demons in the sense of being possessed but undoubtedly suffering brought on as a consequence of evil power.

The only way that this poor man could cope with his distress was by hurting himself, punishing his own body as a cry for help. When confronted by Jesus he found somebody who was not afraid to be with the man in a graveyard at night. Jesus spoke to him by name and gave him the compassion he needed.

Jesus entered into his life and calmed his troubled soul. This is what Jesus does, he meets us where we are with our conflicted souls. Many people feel just like Legion, as if every day is a battle and we should be reassured that the words of Jesus are words of comfort.

When Jesus meets his disciples after the resurrection he says to them three times ‘peace be with you’

May we each know that peace of our Lord Jesus and may we be messengers of that peace to those we meet bringing his peace to troubled souls in God’s name. Amen 

Commentary

Elijah was not the last prophet left in Israel, but when he ran away from Jezebel and sought God in the mountains, we can understand that he probably felt very frightened and alone. He was a desperate man, hunted by the authorities and in fear of his life for very good reason. It was at this time of deep distress and panic that he ran to God and sought help. It was a legitimate thing for Elijah to do, all that he had done was to follow God's instructions, now he was a fugitive. 

Of course he found that running to the mountains to Horeb was a good thing. In the quietness of the desert he found strength and a conviction that God was with him to see through to the work which must be done. In truth we all find ourselves in times of crisis and doubt. Christians leaders can begin to question the decision which they have made, doubt their own ministry and calling. It is at times like this that we need to stop and listen afresh to the voice of God. 

This is true for prophets engaged upon great spiritual enterprises, it is also true for each one of us as we seek to be faithful to God in our daily lives and the 'ordinary' decisions which we have to take. In a sense we all do this, we seek God in the panic of exams, marital breakdown, unemployment or a bad visit to the doctor. The real advantage comes in not waiting until things go wrong before asking for God to become more intimately involved in our lives. Seek God now while he may be found, don't make God a last resort. 

Commentary 

Our journeys sometimes take us to destinations we don’t always expect. The further Elijah tries to travel from trouble the closer he journeys towards God. When we feel under pressure or in times of trouble or distress we often feel as if we need to get away from the anxiety that has come our way. Sometimes this is exactly the right thing to do. Other times we may need to face up to what is troubling us and deal with it ‘head on’. Whatever our course of action we need to use the opportunity to allow ourselves to be drawn in the direction of God’s loving and caring presence, a presence that Elijah came to realise was with him wherever he went. God was not just concerned with the Elijah who the won the victory at Carmel, He was concerned with the desperate Elijah who had fled to the wilderness, petrified by his powerful enemies, not knowing where to turn and in real fear of his life. Fortunately it is often in our sloughs of despond, as Bunyan would have expressed it, rather than in our mountain top victory experiences, that we find God, 

Given the bonfire competition with the prophets of Baal at Carmel, where God came down in a consuming fire, we may have expected God to speak to Elijah from the fire. Elijah himself may have expected a meeting with God to involve the three symbols of His presence during the Exodus: wind, earthquake and fire, all of which are present in this encounter. But instead of revealing himself in the fire, God chose the whisper. Not the fire, not the wind, not the earthquake but the whisper, the ‘sound of sheer silence’ as it is translated in the New Standard Revised Version of the bible. The omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent God chose to reveal himself in the paradox of the quiet silence, a concept that the mystics throughout the ages have pondered through the years as they wrestle with trying to comprehend the enormity of God and His presence pervading every atom of the creation, including us. 

God is indeed so great that, like Elijah, we experience Him when we least expect him to appear. He reveals himself to us. We do not demand or expect him to answer on our terms. Even when we are under pressure, if we wait on God, He will answer. And though God’s voice may have been quiet, when God answered Elijah the message was loud and clear. Elijah was to return from where he had come from and anoint Hazael as king, continuing his ministry under the divine protection of God Himself. Not only was the manner of God’s speaking a surprise to Elijah, the message itself was not what he was expecting to hear.

However God chooses to speak to us, through the great noise and tumult of life or through the ‘sound of sheer silence’, like Elijah, we should follow His command and allow God himself leads us on and through our times of trouble, protected by His mighty presence, into the times of peace and glory which lie beyond. Sam Cappleman

Commentary

God Chooses the Strangest People... Among early Christians, especially those with a strong Jewish background, the gospel story is rich in symbolism. It takes place across the lake from Galilee, in foreign, Gentile, territory. The demon-possessed man at the centre of the story is an outsider, probably a Gentile, and even if not, his demon-possession has rendered him unclean to the Jews. The encounter takes place in a cemetery, a place traditionally the abode of spirits, a place ritually unclean for the Jews and somewhere to be avoided in darkness. The pigs into which the spirits flee are unclean animals, and the sea into which they run was a place where demonic powers were thought to live. 'Legion' was not just a term meaning many, but a designation for a Roman army, and the one stationed in Palestine had a boar on its standard. It's a meeting of the holy and the unholy, the clean and the unclean, the Jewish world and the Gentile world. Above all it's a confrontation of evil powers with the Son of God, for whom they are no match. But the mission in Gentile territory is more than a triumph of good over evil. In travelling to the other side of the lake and exorcising the demons from the Gerasene man, Jesus demonstrates that His freedom and salvation is for all. No one is beyond His love and salvation, not even those the Jews would have thought beyond redemption. Jesus is all-powerful and all the forces of the ritually unclean Gentile world have been overcome. The Gentiles and their land have been exorcised and liberated. There can be no stronger demonstration that everyone is included in God's saving plan for the world.

Sadly the reaction of the majority of the population to this newfound liberation is strange. Perhaps failing to understand what's going on they react with fear and ask Jesus to leave. People always have the right to choose. The offer of salvation is open to all, not all will accept. The task that Jesus calls us to, is to present His gospel to the world with our words and our lives, sometimes in places we don't expect. The task of salvation is His alone and no one is beyond His love. Even in a world where people often seem possessed and obsessed by material things or entombed by events or circumstances God can, and does, break through, to bring freedom, peace and salvation. Rev Dr Sam Cappleman

Commentary Liberation and Freedom

The mission in Gentile territory is more than a triumph of good over evil. In travelling to the other side of the lake and exorcising the demons from the Gerasene man, Jesus demonstrates that His freedom and salvation is for all. No one is beyond His love and salvation, not even those the Jews would have thought beyond redemption. Jesus is all-powerful and all the forces of the ritually unclean Gentile world have been overcome. There can be no stronger demonstration that everyone is included in God's saving plan for the world. Sadly the reaction of the majority of the population to this newfound liberation and salvation is strange. Perhaps failing to understand what's going on they react with fear and ask Jesus to leave. People always have the right to choose. The offer of salvation is open to all, not all will accept. The task that Jesus calls us to, is to present His gospel to the world with our words and our lives, sometimes in places we don't expect. The task of salvation is His alone and no one is beyond His love. Even in a world where people often seem possessed and obsessed by material things or entombed by events or circumstances God can, and does, break through, to bring freedom, peace and salvation. However we imagine the powers that oppress people, Jesus came to bring liberation from them.

Elijah certainly felt oppressed and frightened by the powers of darkness that surrounded Jezebel, Ahab’s wide and a religious fanatic who is furious with Elijah for killing the prophets of Baal and as a result has threatened that within a day she will kill him. Fear and exhaustion generated self destructive depression. But when Elijah focuses on God, rather than being oppressed and frightened, he has a new freedom and is without fear. 

Ironically sometimes it’s the very presence of Jesus that makes people feel uncomfortable and even a little bit fearful. Sometimes this can be because He begins to challenge long held beliefs and preconceptions or perhaps because they way we live is far from the ideal God intends for our lives. Perhaps we all need to hear the God’s challenge to Elijah in our own lives – ‘What are you doing here?’ When we step back from all the frenzied activity and listen to the whisper which is God’s voice we will hear again His commission for us. Like Elijah, we have to trust and obey as we move forward along our journey of living out our faith.

God sometimes chooses the strangest people, in the strangest circumstances to do His work. In the gospel reading we see Jesus instructing the Gerasene man to return to his former home, and in so doing calling him to a new vocation, giving him a new purpose and point to his life. Under Jesus' direct instruction, the Gerasene demoniac becomes the first missionary to the Gentiles. Elijah was a lonely and frightened man, full of questions about his faith and even his reason for living. If God can use people like this, how might He want to use us? Sam Cappleman 

Meditation

In the Elijah narrative people are in the habit of making vows. Elijah said in chapter 17: "As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word" Now it is Queen Jezebel's time to make a vow: "So may the gods to do me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them (i.e. the dismembered prophets of Baal) by this time tomorrow". Elijah swore by Yahweh, God of Israel; Jezebel by the unnamed "gods." Nevertheless, her vow sparked fear in Elijah. He was terrified and ran for his life. So fearful was he that he not only left the area of Jezreel, in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but he ran until he came to Beersheba, the southernmost settlement in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Fear often sparks an overreaction. Instead of just locking the door, we bolt it with a double lock, carve a moat around the home, put alligators in the moat and drop the portcullis in front of the door. We will make ourselves so secure that even friends, who may want to help, have no means of entering. After Bill Long 

Meditation

God sometimes chooses the strangest people, in the strangest circumstances to do His work. In the gospel reading we see Jesus instructing the Gerasene man to return to his former home, and in so doing calling him to a new vocation, giving him a new purpose and point to his life. Under Jesus' direct instruction, the Gerasene demoniac becomes the first missionary to the Gentiles. If God can do this with him, how might He want to use us?

Meditation

It is likely that the story of the Gerasenes demoniac had circulated for some time before it is recorded in Mark. Among Christians with a strongly Jewish background the story contained potent symbols. It took place in Gentile territory, not a holy land. Pigs are unclean animals. Cemeteries were the abode of spirits, to be avoided in darkness. ‘Legion’ was not a term meaning many, but a designation for one of Rome’s armies. The one stationed in Palestine had a boar on its standard. The sea was a place a danger, an abode of demonic powers. For people within such a system of values Jesus, by this act, has defied the forces of the Gentile world and exorcised the Gentile land.

Meditation The Summer Solstice

Our planet takes 365 days to orbit the Sun – the basis of our calendar year

The Earth's axis is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees

This means that different parts of the globe receive varying amounts of sunlight during the year, creating the seasons 

The shortest day and longest night occurs on December 22, the winter solstice. The longest day and shortest night occurs this week - 21st of June is the longest day of the year. It is called the Summer Solstice.

For those living in the northern hemisphere, the Summer Solstice is the day on which the earth, spinning on its axis, has its North Pole ‘tipped’ as far as it will go to face the sun. Because of this ‘tipping’ towards the sun, the northern hemisphere receives the longest hours of daylight of the year. 

The further north or south you live in the world, the more pronounced the seasons are. For example, in the far north, Alaska has sunshine 24 hours a day during their summertime. If you live near the equator, the Sun doesn't shift up and down in the sky as much. This means that the length of day temperature doesn't vary as much. So countries near the equator only have two seasons - rainy and dry.

No one knows why the Earth's axis is tilted by 23.5 degrees. Whatever the reason, it's a good thing - if the Earth did not tilt, countries near the poles would be cold and dark all year round. If it tilted too much, the seasons would be very extreme – like on the planet Uranus. Here the winter lasts for 42 years in total darkness!

Lord God, Creator of light, at the rising of your sun each morning, let the greatest of all lights - your love - rise, like the sun, within my heart. (from the Armenian Liturgy)