Raining Down The Fires of Heaven…in Jesus’ Name?

Was it hyperbole (were the boys just talking a big talk?) or were the Sons of Thunder prepared to invoke God-level destruction?  (See Luke 9:54).

I found myself wondering about why the term ‘hellfire’ seemed to resonate in my knowledge-base while ‘heaven fire’ seems excessive and contradictive.  It is not to do with the infamous ‘Hellfire’ club of the X-men comics (and also, apparently, of British and Irish origins).  No, in my knowledge base, the Hellfire missile is a mainstay of US military forces (making appearances in military-based video games as well). 

Hellfire carries a 'Sodom and Gomorrah' connection too, the bringing of fire and brimstone (but a mixed connection, fires of hell sent from heaven...that is another post...).

Fire from heaven as a thing occurs as well (but it’s ‘branding’ is not as pervasive as ‘hellfire’).  Maybe the best known example is the fire of heaven descending to consume the sacrifice of Elijah when he was engaged in worship battles with the 400 priests of Baal. 

Its not always a good thing.  In Leviticus 10, the two eldest sons of Aaron, newly minted high priest, are consumed by heavenly fire when they offered something translated as “unholy fire” before the Lord. 

Heaven fire was certainly on the mind of John.  This Son of Thunder we believe wrote significant portions of the New Testament, the gospel, the three letters, and the book of Revelation.  In a couple of places in Revelation, specifically 13:13 and 20:9, he talks about the fires of heaven coming down to consume the evil.

If there is any consistency in these expressions of heaven fire, it seems to be in how it purifies.  It burns away the evil to leave what is good.  Directly, as in the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, or indirectly, as in the slaughter of the priests of Baal that follow the fire coming down to show God’s acceptance of Elijah’s sacrifice.  But it is violent, elemental, and consuming.

Given their Biblical understanding (their bible being our Old Testament), given John’s return to this theme in the Book of the Apocalypse of John (another name for Revelation), I do not think the Sons of Thunder were just talking in exaggeration.  Especially in light of Jesus claiming that anything asked for in faith would be granted to the disciples. 

And Jesus rebuked them.  That’s an interesting word choice.  Did a quick concordance check of the word rebuke.  When Jesus uses it elsewhere, it is almost exclusively when he rebukes evil spirits-demons-before casting them out. 

Sidebar-when it came to Legion in last week’s Scripture, ‘rebuke’ is not recorded.

For Jesus to rebuke is for Jesus to invoke God-level interjection to say, in less polite terms, “Shut up and knock it off!”

I believe Jesus did it because what the Sons of Thunder were offering to do was exactly what Jesus had come to put an end to.  Jesus came to put an end to heavenly punishment for our sins.  Jesus came to take the punishment for sins upon himself.  Heaven fire would NOT fall upon Jesus because heaven fire is purifying, and Jesus is the Pure, Perfect one to be sacrificed on our behalf.  In other words, no need for fire.

He is without sin, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.  In fact, in our passage, Jesus is beginning His journey to Jerusalem, to do exactly that, to take on our punishment that would relegate the fires of heaven to punish and purify to the divine dustbin of history of how God works to bring us to obedience of God's will.    

Peace,

pastor pete

Then the Disciples said TO JESUS, and I quote, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

And these are not just any disciples.  This isn’t Judas Iscariot, the traitor and betrayer of the Lord.  He is biding his time to do his damage.  It isn’t Thomas the Doubter, misplacing his doubt about what to do with unbelievers.  It isn’t Simon the Zealot, who we know only from the disciple lists in the gospels.  Calling him a “Zealot” is to indicate he is part of a terrorist faction operating at the time of Jesus.  These folks were known to hide blades on their persons and assassinate fellow Jews they judged were collaborating with the enemies.  If there is a person of violence in the disciples, it would be him.

No, these two are James and John, brothers who were among the first Jesus called as disciples.  They, along with Peter, were called from their fishing boats along the Sea of Galilee.  And, along with Peter,  form something of an inner circle in the midst of the larger crew of Twelve disciples.  For example, it was only these three present at the Transfiguration.  

We know a couple more things about them.  We know their mom sought to get Jesus to do her a favor without explaining what it was.  This was for her boys to sit at the right and left of Jesus in the Hall of the King in heaven.  That caused a stir.  They were also called “Boanerges”, the “Sons of Thunder” by Jesus himself.  As the Google brain tries to put it politely, “(it)…likely reflects their passionate, sometimes fiery personalities.”  Or it could be because they did stuff like this, threatening heaven-fire?  

Yes, and Jesus kept them on. 

This has me reflecting on powerful feelings I see in the church today.  On the one hand, calling down the fires of heaven to consume someone, this sentiment of punishment and exclusion is all too common.  Why don’t people come to church?  One big reason is that this vengeful anger has become associated with the entire church, not only in one moment when they were rejected.

The reality is that Jesus took punishment for sins upon himself for our forgiveness, not for us to threaten people about what will happen if they do not accept Him.

On the other hand, someone who speaks out with what is considered extreme passion and vehemence garners backlash.  Can you picture James or John coming before a church board and trying to explain why, in the course of their ministry, they sought to misuse the destructive powers of heaven for their own purposes?  Cancel culture is a real thing, their ministry, in today’s terms, could have been buried for this.

The reality is that Jesus forgives us our sins and gives us a second chance and more.  He said something about forgiving seven times seventy times.

Of course, there is the cliché that "it is easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission."  I am very glad they asked permission.

In terms of understanding the gospel, this appears to be an outlier when it comes to the behavior of the disciples.  And, given that the parable of the Good Samaritan is coming in the next chapter of Luke, their threat could be a reflection not so much of their faith perspective as it is a biased perspective against Samaritans in general.  Which would mean that even those closest to Jesus had a few things to learn about what it means that God is love.

Peace

pastor pete

When Jesus is Not on a Winning Streak?

 It feels too heavy to suggest Jesus was ever on a losing streak.

First impression of Sunday’s text, Luke 9: 51-62: it feels like a string of losses for the Lord (feels like Canadian Hockey teams and the Stanley Cup…its been awhile…1993, Montreal Canadiens, not that I am keeping track or anything).

Context:  Jesus is beginning a journey to Jerusalem, well, his final journey to Jerusalem.  “When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem…” vs. 51.  He is in Galilee, vs. 10 reports Him at Bethsaida.  Apparently, Jesus is not taking the usual way to Jerusalem.  That is to follow the Jordon River south to Jericho, then uphill and west to Jerusalem.  No, he is headed through the hill country of Samaria. 

He begins by sending messengers into a village in Samaria to ‘prepare the way’.  But the Samaritans did not receive him, apparently because Jesus was headed through to Jerusalem.  I do not know exactly what that means, but the result is Jesus ends up in another village.  But Jesus' disciples take this rejection personally.  James and John offer to torch the place, literally.  For this, Jesus rebukes them and they move on.

Sidebar:  In the middle of chapter 10, we have the story of the Good Samaritan.  Did Jesus have these events with His fire-happy disciples, ready to destroy Samaritans, in mind? 

So, strike one, Samaritans are like “thanks but no thanks” to Jesus on His way through.

Then Jesus gets a volunteer!  Vs. 57.  “I will go with you wherever you go.”  While Jesus does not come out and tell the individual ‘thanks but no thanks’, He is firm that to make this commitment means that there is no nest, no base, “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  This is generally interpreted as a rejection.

Then Jesus calls someone else, “Follow me!”  This individual has a compelling reason to ask for a delay.  He needs to bury his father.  Again, Jesus’ response is curiously mixed.  On the one hand, “let the dead bury their own dead”, seems a strong reaction against a legitimate concern?  But then Jesus tells him, “Go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  Maybe this one becomes one of the Seventy in the next chapter that Jesus will send ahead.  Again, interpreted as a rejection generally, but the language is not so definitive.

Then we have the volunteer who steps up, asking only for the opportunity to bid his family ‘farewell’.  Not an unreasonable request, at least not to my ears.  But Jesus’ response again is heavy.  “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  Again, apparent rejection, but there is still some wiggle room in the language.  The volunteer has not yet put his hand to the plow.

If Luke were sending this to his publishers with a note that ‘in this section, we have church recruitment techniques as taught by the Savior himself’, I can see the publishers pausing, considering, maybe gently pushing back with ‘what else you got to show us’?

But if this is, rather, a litany of ‘typical’ human response to church recruitment, we have something very different.  We have what I think is an amazing insight into human nature.  So, maybe not a discourse on recruitment, but rather an introduction to the nature of human response when we reach out in the Name of the Lord?

Peace,

pastor pete

“From Hell’s Sway to Celebrating The Day" Sermon for the Lord's Day, Sunday, June 22, 2025

 Our Scripture for Sunday's Sermon is Luke 8:26-29

            Who will celebrate their faith in Christ Jesus more than a man who has been liberated from not just one but from an entire legion of demons?   

            But before we even get to this man and his situation, the whole set up for this gospel story is rather unique.  Were Jesus and company were washed ashore here by “accident”?  In the verses leading up to this, verses 22-25, Jesus silences a windstorm that had the disciples in fear for their lives.  The storm was quieted by the Lord, and perhaps they landed here to check for damage?  

            In addition, the crowds are absent.  Elsewhere, the gospel records Jesus getting into a boat to escape the crowds and the crowds walking around the lakeshore to follow him.  And after this encounter, the gospel records “Now when Jesus returned, the crowds welcomed him…”

This time, it’s a naked man who lives among the tombs came out to meet him, a man possessed of demons.  And he is not welcoming, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”  Sounds like Legion is talking through the man’s voice. 

            That makes this man a highly dangerous individual, as Luke goes on to record that, when Legion took control, his strength became preternatural, that he was able to break chains and shackles, that he would flee into the wild. 

            We are also not in Jewish territory anymore.  The swineherd is the most obvious clue.  Pigs are forbidden in the law of Moses.  What we know is that the land of the Gerasenes is part of the Decapolis, a Greek region known as the ‘ten cities’ that existed in what is now the border region between Israel and Syria, focused in the area of we now call the Golan Heights.

            So, it’s a Greek region, where the only one who seems to be able to identify Jesus on sight is the demon, and, what does this Holy Guy from the other side of the lake do?  He does not banish demons into the abyss but allows them to transfer residence into the pigs.  Then the entire herd destroys itself, running headlong into the lake.  And if this were modern times, the owner of the herd would probably have insurance.  But would this not invoke the ‘act of God’ clause to invalidate the claim?    

            Is it any wonder that the people of the region reacted with fear?  At best, they might have heard of this Holy Guy surrounded by crowds on the other side of the lake.  But they have no history with Jesus or his ministry, they have no history with Jesus’ bible, no common religious and educational links to place Jesus into the context of redemptive history.  And the evidence of their own senses?

1.     The demon reacted with anguish and torment at the appearance of this Holy Guy.  The supernatural tormentor is now being tormented!

2.     The demon named this Holy Guy who is NOT connected to any of the gods that are worshipped by the Greeks in the time of Christ.

3.     The demon names the Most High God, naming this God as more powerful than theirs.

4.     The Holy Guy demonstrates some pretty specific powers:

a.     He can order the demonic beings back to the abyss.

b.     He can be bargained with by demonic beings.

                                               i.     That’s a flip from the typical bargain a human makes with a demon at the cost of their soul.

c.     He can apparently destroy their sources of food and livelihood in this exchange.

5.     There is the crazy guy, the dangerous guy, the demon possessed guy, the guy they could not tie down, the guy who’d once been just like them (so who might be possessed next?)

So all the people gather together, bound by their fear of this unknown Holy Guy, so afraid of Jesus as some new God-level force outside their experience, that their panicked response to His miracle is a meek, “Please go.”  Which Jesus does.

 And this man, despite his pleas, is given his marching orders by Jesus.  “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”  Which, according to verse 39, is precisely what he did.

He’s got his marching orders, we have ours.  We call it our Sending Statement.  It’s on the bulletin.  A Statement of Sending is an interpretation from Jesus’ words in John, “Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me so I send you.”  This Sending statement, that we have been calling the Mission Statement, also often called a Vision Statement, it is the product of the work that a congregation does between pastors.  Who knows this community better than its residents?  Who are those working and worshipping in Christ in this place? 

A Sending Statement essentially fulfills the command from Jesus.  “Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me so I send you…so we, as FPC Merchantville, establish that this is how we shape our ministry in this time and in this place as those sent by Jesus. 

The opening words of our Sending Statement are “We are a people who encourage one another to celebrate our life in Christ.”  And in today’s Scripture, it is illustrated in the life of a formerly demon possessed man who “happened”-and I put that in quotes, because nothing ever just happens with God-he just “happened” to see boat blown off course arrive on his side of the Sea of Galilee.   

            In the end, the man celebrates.  There is a deep truth to understand that celebration is the appropriate response to our Lord Jesus when He sends us out into the world.  What we see in the renewed life of this man freed from the legion of demons is only an illustration of the whole plan of God set in motion for the renewal of all creation.  We have come through the seasons of celebrating all that Jesus has done for us.  The cornerstone event is that Jesus died for us and rose again for us, our sins forgiven and a new life in salvation there, literally, for the asking.  It is eternal life, offered freely.  What greater celebration might we seek?

            I believe it is especially appropriate that we are sharing the installation and ordination of our members of Session and the Board of Deacons today.  This is a celebration in the life of the church, looking forward to the gifts and stories and love that the new classes of elders and deacons are bringing to the leadership of the church. 

            But while we have reason to celebrate as we live into the whole Plan of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ, while we have reason to celebrate in the raising up of leaders to help us set the path and reach forward to do the Lord’s work as a congregation, there is another, more personal, level that is our cause to celebrate.  It is what Jesus has done for each of us, in our own lives.  Our bible story is illustrative of that.

            This is one event that happened in the life of this man.  Just one.  For him, it was a huge display of Jesus’ power.  But for Jesus, it is almost an afterthought that Luke tells us Jesus was in the process of evicting Legion.  It is an act of creation, Jesus speaks and it happens.  Such is the power of Jesus at any level, in any moment of our lives.  This loving power overcomes everything.  When we are attentive, we can see Jesus’ loving power intervening for us again and again and again all through our lives.  In our eyes, it can be as big as a demon hoard being exorcised.  But it can be as “small”, and I put that word in quotes, as a new insight into God’s Holy Word.  It can be as small as the right word spoken in a moment of despair. 

            Here’s an example from disaster response.  A Chaplain moves through emergency housing for disaster victims, shocked and barely able to function.  They have words, but they also have bottles of water.  Put a bottle of water into somebody’s hands.  Seems tiny, maybe insignificant.  But accepting a bottle of water may be the first decision in the power of the victim since the disaster.  Maybe it’s a tiny sign that ‘normal’ actually exists.  It can be the first in the chain of decisions that need to be made to move from victim to survivor, from survivor to someone who can thrive once again, someone who can even celebrate once again?

            The language of encouraging one another to celebrate our life in Christ is inspired.  Because how soon do we forget?  Or how easy is it to miss the active hand of God in our daily lives?  Or how often do we find out that the cogs of life out of our sight and beyond our capacity have somehow come together (somehow…yah, Jesus) to accomplish something we were convinced was impossible (despite that Scripture teaches otherwise).      

I opened this sermon with the question, “Who will celebrate their faith in Christ Jesus more than a man who has been liberated from not just one but from an entire legion of demons?”  But if we are encouraging one another to celebrate.  If the place where our heart is set to touch the lives of people in this community is in celebration.  If we have responded to Jesus when he says, “I am sending you” by turning our eyes to the light of Christ in joyful celebration, maybe the question should be asked, “Who won’t celebrate their faith in Christ Jesus more?”

Amen

Rev. Peter Hofstra

What Bugs Me: The Strategy of Distraction, as demonic in origin as Legion

In Luke 8:26-38, Jesus lays down a Sending Statement for the man freed of the demons collectively named Legion.  “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”  The terminology of a Sending Statement is drawn from John 21:8, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  It is a deliberate shift in vocabulary from “Mission” to “Sending”. 

To me, this shift takes our eyes back to Jesus.  Because distraction is a power tool of the devil.  Take our passage for Sunday.  It is easy (for me anyway) to get distracted, to go down the rabbit hole, of trying to figure out what scared Legion into bargaining with Jesus (something no other demon has done) about not returning to the Abyss.  It is not a stretch to sideline the magnificent power of Jesus expressed here to chase down these apparent ‘ethics of hell'.

Distraction, it speaks to another question bopping around this pastor’s skull.  Why is it such a big deal to change the phrasing from “Our Mission” to “Our Sending”?  Because of distraction.  “Missions” is a Christian technical term that is encumbered with so many meanings that a new term,  “Missional”, has been coined to try and recapture its focus. 

Consider our own church.  We have our Mission Statement (our Sending Statement) and we have a Mission Committee.  However, the Mission Committee’s responsibility is not the oversight and implementation of our Mission Statement.  Rather, it is the focal point for our church missions, whether they be ‘hands on’, in partnership, or through financial support.  Which in turn links us to our Presbytery Mission Committee, where we are exploring the possibility of ‘mission micro-communities’, churches that together work with the same mission partners.  This is NOT to imply that there is 'error' in either the Statement or the Committee.  There is not, but distraction and confusion from trying to parse the meaning of the over-burdened term "missions" dampens our energy or, even worse, has us dismissing it as a vague notion that this is 'just something churches do'.   

We are not dumping the word 'mission', we are simply going to clarify what it means FOR US (follow here for more details).

In our passage, contemplating Legion and the Abyss took my eyes off the Lord.  In our church life, wrapping our head around what ‘mission’ means invests our energies elsewhere than into our Lord.  I think that is why Jesus offers us Peace first, before He Sends us.  There is peace when things are clear.  Jesus said, "I send you" and our Sending Statement is a clear declaration of how FPC Merchantville responds.   

To begin, we encourage one another to celebrate our life in Christ.  As our example this week, we look to our Scripture and follow the example of a man freed of a legion of demons.  

Peace,

pastor pete

 

PS-As someone who loves language and enjoys playing with it, I offer the following. We have A Sending Statement that speaks of who we are as we carry Christ forward, that will lead to our Ascending Statement when Jesus calls us home.  : )

To Celebrate Our Lives In Christ: How When Life…Well…Is Tough?*

*Other language suggested itself in this title, but we seek to be a family-friendly blog…

            “We are a people who encourage one another to celebrate our life in Christ.”  So begins our Mission Statement.  And so begins a sermon series over the summer to explore our Mission Statement.  And, if you have read the ‘official report’ in yesterday’s post, you have seen that our Sunday passage connects ‘celebrating’ with a man possessed of a legion of demons.  Like an entire division of forces in modern military parlance.

            At first glance, my thought was what had I just done?  How do these two things fit together?  Demon possession and celebration of our life in Christ?

            They don’t, quite simply.  Because ***SPOILER ALERT*** Christ overcomes Demon.  Overcomes demons.  The images of Linda Blair and the pea soup (mostly the pea soup) and the spinning head in “the Exorcist” trigger when I think about demon possession.  Yes, I watch too much television.  But that was one.  Not a legion.  But in the gospel, one demon or a legion of demons have nothing on the power of Jesus Christ.  Consider the aftermath from Luke 8:

            “Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from who the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.”  Vs. 38

            “They” were afraid, the people of the land of the Gerasenes.  They asked Jesus to leave.  They could not deal with what had happened.  Because as scary as it was to have a man of apparent superstrength wandering in their midst, possessed of a demon, it was scarier to realize that there was a Man who could simply order it to leave.  A Man who, in some strange way, seemed to take pity on the demons, ‘allowing’ them to possess pigs instead of returning to the abyss (Where they belonged?  Where they were punished?  From where they’d escaped?  Now THAT is the movie that would be interesting to see Hollywood imagine: why are demons trying to escape the abyss?)

            According to the Gospel, one man in the whole region of the Gerasenes was not filled with fear because of what Jesus did.  That would be “Mr. L”, the fictional designation from yesterday’s post of the man who was possessed. 

            He literally got his life back.  He was not sent to hell for his unbelief.  Hell was literally in him, until Jesus liberated him.

            We celebrate our lives in Christ not because our lives are tough but because Jesus carries us through the tough times, the hard times, the tragic times, the ‘bs’ times, whatever time threatens us.  There is a reason we call a funeral service a celebration of life.  Because life in Christ extends beyond what we call death.  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

            And this passage, with all the elements of a horror movie woven into it, takes us to celebration as certainly as everything else that Jesus does for us.

Peace

pastor pete

Symptomology of a Demoniac

 So what if we took a different analysis of our Gospel Passage?  

How would Luke 8: 26-39 read as a observational report by a 'neutral' third party of the man's condition, our Lord Jesus, and their interactions?  I wrote 'neutral' in this fashion, because I have no neutral stance about Jesus.  For the purposes of this 'analysis', I call him the Messiah, because He is!

REPORT BEGINS

Initial Observation:  

The patient, Mr. L, was observed approaching the Messiah after we and his disciples arrived in the country of the Gerasenes.  We were ascending toward the city beyond, when he was spotted moving in an extensive graveyard of caves and tombs dug into the hillside.  When Mr. L appeared to notice the Messiah, he approached quickly.  From a distance, it appeared he wore brown clothing, but it became rapidly apparent that this was dirt, encrusting his entire body.  His approach was heralded by an impressive odor.

Background Information:  

On further interviews, it was determined that Mr. L had previously been a resident of the city.  However, he was presently diagnosed with ‘possession by an evil spirit’¹ (subsequently referred to as ‘demonic possession’).  Between moments of apparent lucidity, the ‘demon’ would take over and drive Mr. L into the wilds surrounding the city.  Local law enforcement and health officials who were interviewed indicated that Mr. L had been captured and taken into custody on a number of occasions.  For his own safety and the safety of those around him, he was kept under guard and restrained.  Restraint levels were continually increased as none were able to adequately bind Mr. L when he was ‘possessed’.  Local officials showed iron shackles and chains² that had been broken by Mr. L when ‘possession’ overtook him.  The iron was twisted and stained with dried blood where Mr. L had broken free.  At length, it was deemed impossible to keep Mr. L contained safely within the city and attempts at capture and restraint were discontinued.  Since then, Mr. L, has taken up residence among the tombs of the graveyard.

 Behavioral Observations:

1.     When first approaching the Messiah, Mr. L, apparently by means of his ‘demonic entity’, his possessing entity, identified the Person (it called him Jesus by name), and the Divinity (it called him Son of the Most High God specifically) of the Messiah. 

2.     The ‘demonic entity’ expressed fear and submission to the exorcism³ performed by the Messiah.

3.     The ‘demon entity’ challenged the Messiah that He was bringing torment upon the ‘demonic entity’ by these actions.

4.     Upon direct command of the Messiah, the ‘demonic entity’ would self-identify as Legion, further self-identifying as a plurality of ‘demonic entities’⁴. 

5.     The ‘demonic entities’ known as Legion demonstrated a phobic-level fear response of being ordered into ‘the abyss’⁵.

6.     Legion begged the Messiah instead to ‘transfer’ possession to a herd of pigs that were grazing nearby. 

7.     Apparently upon being possessed by the ‘demonic entities’, the pigs reacted by racing en masse into the Sea of Galilee, destroying themselves in the process⁶.

After action report:

In regard to Mr. L:  He was restored to full coherence.  He returned to his home in the city, returned to wearing clothes, all symptoms of the ‘demonic possession’ removed.  He requested to become an active follower of the Messiah in the aftermath but was refused.  Rather, the Messiah requested he remain a witness 'in place'.  It has been reported that Mr. L has become an outspoken champion of the Messiah.

In regard to the local witnesses:  Based on the attestation of the eyewitnesses, Mr. L was accepted back into the community, returning to his home and livelihood in the Gerasenes.  However, the destruction of the pig herd caused a fear response in the wider community.  It became so widespread that the Messiah was asked to remove himself from their midst as a result of the incident (the curing of Mr. L notwithstanding).

NOTES:

¹ Often, ‘evil spirit’ and ‘demon’ are being treated as synonymous.  However, in the gospel literature, it is possible to argue that a distinction is made at the time of the Messiah between these as separate conditions.  In this case, the evidence points to the more precise designation of 'demonic possession'.

² The physical evidence of the ‘demonic possession’ is consistent with a condition in which the pain receptors in Mr. L were either disconnected or ignored due to the possession.  There are several other conditions, including the ingestion of PCP, which result in similar ‘disconnections’ which permit the individual to exhibit ‘supernatural’ strength or endurance.  It is more likely that these displays are simply the extremes of human capacity when natural safeguards to protect the body from excess are not functional. 

³ In this case ‘exorcism’ should not be confused with media presentations of church-type rituals for the removal of demons.  Rather, there is the recognition of the ‘demonic entity’ of the Messiah, a recognition of the Messiah’s divine purview and power.  There was no ritual involved as we might recognize it.  Rather, the Messiah ordered the ‘demonic entity’ and it was compelled-although with the capacity to bargain-to obey by the simple authority of the Messiah.

⁴ It was impossible to establish an actual number of ‘demonic entities’ in this instance, however, Legion, as a Roman military unit, could indicate between 5000 and 6000.

⁵ ‘The abyss’ is common terminology to refer to the abode of demons, including Satan and the other named demonic beings.  In Roman mythology, it primarily represents ‘Tartarus’, the pit and prison for the wicked and those who ‘offend’ the Roman deities.  It is also differentiated from ‘Hades’ which is more broadly the realm of the dead in Roman mythology.

⁶ It is impossible to conclude whether these pigs, in the throes of possession, became uncontrolled to the point of blindly rushing into destruction; or Legion took some kind of control and intentionally drove the pigs to their destruction.  If the fear of ‘the abyss’ is to be accounted into the situation, is it possible that killing their host entity allowed Legion to avoids ‘returning’ to ‘the abyss’?

REPORT CONCLUDES

We are a culture that is obsessed with the supernatural.  The supernatural exists in the Gospel.  I hope moving our focus a little at how we read the Biblical passage might bring some new perspective to us.  Even more, an even deeper appreciation of the simple, total power of our Lord Jesus.

Peace,
Pastor Pete

A Journey of Disconnection and Reconnection

 First, a shout out to the Wednesday Night Bible Study!  God bless your wisdom!  

On this Pentecost Sunday, in Our Story, Jesus prays for us.  The prayer of our Lord Jesus is that we receive the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of our God.  It is in the gift of the Spirit that the church was founded and continues to this day. 

Humanity has not had access to that kind of intimacy with God since Genesis.  In the first chapters, God created the heavens and the earth, planted the Garden of Eden, put the man and the woman (whom we come to know as Adam and Eve) into the Garden, and carried on a close, personal relationship with them.

What was that relationship like?  Well, in the cool of the day, God walked in the Garden, came in to hang out with the First Couple.  How did God care for Adam and Eve?  Gave them every tree to eat from, they simply needed to go out and partake, not only to be alive but to thrive in their Creator’s care.

Then came the Fall. Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, in disobedience to God.  Consequently, they were banished from the Garden.  Curses followed, including the removal of the easy food supply of the Garden.  Adam would now have to toil on the ground, by the sweat of his brow, to grow the food they would need to eat.  But one thing did not change.  There was still an open relationship with God, to be seen in the next generation of Cain and Abel.  

Since I was Sunday School age,  I have pictured the nature of the communication changing.  Before the Fall, Adam and Eve spoke to God like people having a conversation.  Like, if they had a water cooler in Eden, that's where they might have gathered.  But when it came to Cain speaking to the Lord, well after the Fall, I picture Cain looking up into the sky to talk to God, that God took a step back and...up, away from humanity.  This is the picture from the mind of a kid.

Irrespective, it is not pleasant communication, because the conversations between Cain and God concern Cain’s anger, hatred, and eventual murder of his brother.  But the communication remains.  Until the next curse comes down from God.  There are two pieces to it.

The first is that Cain, who had been a tiller of the soil, is cut off even from that.  He will not be able to make things grow.  He will be a wanderer in the lands.  Is the implication that, cut off from his livelihood, he is now going to have to live off scraps or something?  But there is more.  He will also be cut off from God.  We know this from Cain’s protest in Genesis 4: 13.

“My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face…”  God’s final 'act' of communication is to put a mark on Cain so that, when people meet him, to kill him is to suffer massive divine retribution, seven fold's worth.   

From there, the nature of God's communication with humanity shifts.  God will still speak to humanity, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses but on God’s terms, in God’s own way, to God’s Chosen.

Sidebar: This is a VERY brief summary of the depth of context and content in the first chapters of Genesis.  But it is our origin story; from God’s good creation to humanity’s choice of disobedience-the Fall of Humanity.  It lays the groundwork for our understanding of what God has planned out, in Christ, to restore us to right relationship with God.  The open communication ended, until Pentecost. 

Communication is opened once again.  God indwells us as the Holy Spirit.  Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, lives in our hearts.  This is the result of Jesus, by His death and resurrection, having undone the consequences of our sins, undoing the curses inflicted upon us, renewing our right relationship with the Almighty.  Whenever we need Him, Jesus is right there with us, there for us.

Thanks be to God.

Pastor Pete

Were You The Kid Who Asked Annoying Questions?

 😁 That was me.

I was the kid who would raise their hand with the point of insight or distraction that was off-track to the teacher’s lesson plan.  I was like the Sunday School kid Jodie Foster describes herself as in the movie “Contact”.  She asked her Sunday School teachers about who “Mrs. Cain” was (we can talk about that in Wednesday night Bible Study)

Being that kid is great fun when you have a teacher, parent, or other leader who ought to be ‘in the know’.  But for the one having a hand waved at them, knowing the kid at the end of that arm…oi.  Today, I seem to be doubly ‘blessed’, as the kid with a question and the ‘adult’ to provide the answer. 

The question is this, “Why ten days?”  Jesus ascended and ten days later the Holy Spirit was received.  The Ascension is forty days after the Resurrection on Easter Morning, so 50 days all told.  Now, the simple answer is that this is not to align with a calendar so much as with the holidays.  Let me give an example.

Our seasons have start and end dates on the calendar, but they also align to holidays.  For example, summer.  It “starts” on the summer solstice, longest day of the year, this year at 10:41pm on Friday, June 20.  Oddly specific, like to the minute, but okay.  To give the Google AI full credit, this only works in the Northern Hemisphere because we are backward.   Summer solstice down south is in December.  Up here, summer then ‘ends’ on Monday, September 22 of this year, on the Autumnal Equinox (say “Autumnal” ten times fast, it is fun).  This is one of the equal-est days of the year, equatorial dawn to dusk then dusk to dawn.

But the cultural summer is different.  Starts on Memorial Day weekend, last weekend in May.  I know this because I remember this is when they start charging to use the Sandy Hook National Recreational Area.  It then ends on Labor Day weekend, when the kids are marched off to school and parents breathe a sigh of relief.  And they stop charging to drive out onto Sandy Hook, but AFTER Labor Day proper (at least that is how they used to do it).

I am not saying that the solar fixation we have for the seasons is not a good thing.  But it doesn’t fit our cultural lifestyle so neatly.  I have vague notions of old-fashioned ‘celtic-inspired’ rituals taking place on the solar days marking the seasons, but culturally, the holidays mark Summer with cultural rituals  that involve barbeque and grilling.

So, why ten days between the ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit?  It is actually a holiday thing as well.  What we call Pentecost in the church is NOT a New Testament invention.  It is not a ‘church’ holiday.  Then again, neither is Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The arc of his death and return falls upon Passover, when the angel of death passed over the Israelites in ancient Egypt.  Not a stretch to know that Jesus, in bearing punishment for our sins, again has the angel of death, the punishment for our sins, pass over we who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we who receive the free gift of salvation in His sacrifice.

Leviticus 23 carries a list of the Holidays for the Israelites in the law of Moses.  We just recapped the Passover and Jesus’ death and resurrection (for us I might add).  What follows is the Festival of Weeks, or the Festival of Harvest. According to Leviticus 23: 15, 16 “And from the day after the sabbath (of Passover)…you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days (the Jesus-time 'modern' title for the holiday being Pentecost); then you shall present an offering of new grain (emphasis added) to the Lord.”   New Grain=Harvest.

So we are back on a Sunday, day after the Sabbath, and we, the church, celebrate the Holy Spirit coming down on the Festival of the Harvest.  

So why ten days?  Without entering into the whole realm of ‘holy’, ‘magical’, and ‘divinely significant numbers’ in the Scripture, its because it takes us out from 40 (a ‘holy’ number) to 50 days, to the Festival of the Harvest.  Why?  Because apparently Jesus not only speaks in Parables but arranges the Calendar in Parables as well.    

I invite you to open your bibles to Matthew 13.  In verses 1-9, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower.  In verses 18-23, Jesus explains the Parable of the Sower.  So, verse 23, “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Pentecost is the Festival of the Harvest.  Jesus' parables have a lot to do with seed-sowing.  Why ten days?  Because the Parables have more to do, ultimately, with the Harvest of those seeds.  So, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, we celebrate the Harvest as foretold in Parables and actually experienced on the calendar.  And the results are listed in Acts, a community of 120 to a community of over 3000 in a day.  Harvest indeed!    

Now, the problem here is that this explains the FIFTY days.  I am still that kid who asks the annoying question, yah, but what about these TEN specifically?  I now understand the teachers who looked at me with the expression of “just be quiet” in their eyes as they sought out someone, anyone else who might have their hand raised.

Pastor Peter

Our Story: Pentecost: Jesus Prays FOR US.

Jesus teaches us the Prayer of Intercession at Pentecost.  He was ascending, told the disciples they would not be left alone.  That the Father had promised to send the Holy Spirit upon them.  He interceded on our behalf.

What is a Prayer of Intercession?  In his book “Prayer”, Richard J. Foster defines it this way: “If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer.  Intercession is a way of loving others.”  This is the prayer of intercession from the human point of view.  When Jesus prays, it happens.  Yet He prays this prayer to teach us how to pray in our turn.

The result is the cornerstone of our ministry of prayer in our church.  In each worship service, the pastoral prayer is when we pray for God’s intercession in the things of life that we lift to Him.  There are prayer request cards in our pews for that purpose, multiple opportunities to deliver those prayer cards into our hands.  In the News of Heaven and Earth in our bulletins each week is the ongoing prayer list for our congregation.  I am hooked into a group of a dozen and a half to share texts for ‘real time’ prayers where there is need.

We pray as Jesus teaches us to pray.  That’s the whole point of the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father.  The disciples asked Him to teach them to pray.  Now we pray that one more than any other prayer in Christendom.

That Christ Prays For Us also concludes Our Story across the annual Church Calendar.  This is our Story since Christ the King Sunday in November:

Our Story (Capital “S”)

Jesus was born for us; Jesus was baptized for us; Jesus lived for us; Jesus died for us; Jesus arose for us; Jesus ascended for us; Jesus prayed for us.

We use the past tense to mark these as events that have happened in history.  But as Our Story unfolds, we mark them in the present tense because Jesus’ work in us and through us is ongoing. 

We pray for God’s intercession because we know it works.  These proofs are not simply in the prayers answered in our own lives.  These proofs begin in Scripture, where Jesus Himself offers us this prayer when he talks to the disciples about His coming ascension, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”  (John 14: 18-19)

Notice the difference?  When we pray for intercession, we ask Jesus to step in.  When Jesus prays for intercession, it is a done deal.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Pastor Peter

How Do We Figure Out What the Holy Spirit Feels Like?

             Am I supposed to feel different?  More holy?  More…forgiven?  This is a big thing.  Ten days from Ascension Day, the disciples waited for this promise of God.  As per Sunday’s sermon (last post for reference), with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, we are in Phase Four, out here in the ends of the earth.  To read Acts 2, it is an earth-changing, church-founding thing that has happened.

            What exactly did the disciples feel?  Is there something there that can be a guide as we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and seek anew to discern the spirit within ourselves?  We know a few things about the disciples.

• They’ve been in the apostle-apprenticeship program with Jesus for 3 years.  They have baptized; watched; listened; received small-group instruction; been sent out 2 by 2; been stumped in how to feed thousands; experienced first hand the Last Supper; watched Jesus die; and when Jesus appeared after His resurrection, they were in the room when it happened.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
• The one who inspired the writing of the Bible has inspired the disciples on how they need to READ the Bible.  Many will be inspired to write MORE Bible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
• Jesus has made some specific statements about this Holy Spirit.  One is that this is what is promised by the Father, the All-Father, the All-Powerful Creator of Everything.  The second is that Jesus himself carries on with the disciples in the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Counselor (John 11), the Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9).

From all of that, since we Presbyterians are often teased about being God's Frozen Chosen, we might explain that the disciples, upon receiving the Holy Spirit as per Acts 2, became a 'trifle enthusiastic’ under the Spirit's influence.  So, to answer the question that opens this blog post, “Am I supposed to feel different?”, I believe it is fair to say that the disciples certainly did.  So, for us?  Yes.

Well, we know they have done ‘hands-on’ ministry with Jesus.  They baptized, for example.  The gospels are clear that Jesus did NOT baptize with water.  Their thoughts and words have been all about the ministry with Jesus.  One theologian, in surveying the gospels, says that Jesus spent more time alone or with the disciples in small group study than he did with the crowds.  We know from the last 40 days that Jesus inspired their very souls, setting them aflame as they open the Scriptures.

I believe what we call the Holy Spirit activating within them underplays what they knew in their hearts.  I believe that they recognized Jesus in the Holy Spirit, in their hearts.  Jesus’ followers know Him in a way that we, as yet, do not.  We sing about Jesus in our hearts.  We talk about having a personal relationship with our Savior.  The disciples had that with Jesus Incarnate, Jesus the human, and I believe they recognized that same Jesus as the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Jesus returned, Spiritually.  

This is some next level stuff that has happened.  I believe the followers of Jesus received a whole body sense that they recognized as Jesus.  They have eaten, prayed, and loved with the Lord for three years.  And this was different, it was more.  Where Jesus had been their Master and their Friend, now Jesus is recognizably integrated into their very being, in ways and means that they can recognize as new and different from whom they were before.

So what does that mean for us?  How about this?  When there is love in our actions, in our words, in our thoughts, in our souls, love for God and Neighbor, there Jesus is within us.  Paul elaborates in Galatians 5 with the ‘fruit of the Spirit’, from verses 22 and 23, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  There, we touch the heart of Jesus in our own hearts. 

From there, we have a lifelong journey of coming to know Jesus ever more wonderfully each day as we live into Him as Our Way, Our Truth, and Our Life.

Peace,

Pastor Peter   

Ascension Day Sermon: June 1, 2025

 Scripture Lesson: Acts 1: 1-11

            “So, Jesus, you are leaving, we get that.  You’ve walked us through the whole thing.  We never realized…who’d have thought that You are literally all over the Bible?  You’ve taken us piece by piece, all the way through.  We know you gotta go, that’s part of the plan.  We know we have work to do, that is also part of the plan.  But here’s the question, as related in Acts 1:6, “Is this the time you will restore the kingdom of Israel?”

            Is this when it is done done?  You died for us, rose for us, are about to ascend for us.  Naturally end date to your work here on the earth…is this the moment when the plan all comes together?

            Seems like a natural question for the situation.  And the disciples have made some progress.  They are asking, not assuming.  There is a natural break in the way things are being done.  Jesus is going to heaven. 

            Jesus response is, in essence, “Sorry folks, that information is on a need-to-know basis only, and you don’t need to know.”  But he says it Bible-lee, verse 7, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”

            But Jesus does give them something.  Jesus reads them into the program to a certain degree, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

            There are two pieces of note in that statement of our Lord Jesus, one looks back and the other looks forward.  The one that looks back is the one that takes us back a few steps in Our Story, to Sunday, January 12, was the moment in Our Story when Jesus was Baptized for us.

            The key to the Baptism of our Lord, for us, is in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as in the form of a dove, descending upon our Lord, and God the Father’s words of confidence and encouragement.  Because what happened there, Jesus repeats here, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…”  Jesus received power when the Holy Spirit came upon Him.  That marks the formal beginning of his ministry.  Looking back, what happened to Jesus is about to happen to the disciples-but more about that next week with Rev. Jonathan Miller in our celebration of Pentecost.

            “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  This is the piece that looks forward into the Acts of the Apostles.  It is an intentional four phase spread of the Holy Spirit.  There will be a moment in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and then a moment where Gentiles (representing the ends of the earth) will also receive the power of the Holy Spirit.  As of right now, the First Presbyterian Church in Merchantville continues in phase four of Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit.

            So why won’t Jesus tell them when the kingdom of Israel will be restored?  But before that, every time anyone ever mentions that we do not know the day that Jesus is returning, could be before we take communion, could be beyond our lifetimes, it all ties back to this.  The kingdom of Israel will be restored, but there is a timeline.  Our Story today is that Jesus ascended for us.  And this if FOR US because Jesus will, someday, descend FOR US.  And that’s when it is all fulfilled.  In that, there will be a final blending, a coming together of the creation and the Creator.  When reading the gospels, we read more about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.  That is in line with the Kingdom of Israel and the spread of the Power of the Holy Spirit.  It starts in Jerusalem, the center of Israel, and spreads to the ends of the earth. 

            But that doesn’t answer the question. 

            I think it is because this work is still be conducted in a sinful world.  And even with the power of the Holy Spirit, we are sinners and in danger of every trick of the devil to pull us off the work that Jesus has assigned us.

            One response would simply be to stop.  Consider professional sports, football, baseball, hockey, basketball.  Not everybody makes it to the playoffs.  There is even a ‘magic’ number thing for teams to gain a slot, to make it.  If the magic fails, it becomes “why bother”.   Attendance drops, teams go through the motions, no matter how much we try to spin it into “rebuilding”.

            If we knew when the end was, how many people would be like “so why bother”?  Why do I need to work at the faith anymore?  The best evidence that Jesus is coming back and people better get their lives in order is on the calendar.

            Why not tell us?  Another reason is because of the very nature of the work that the Holy Spirit empowers us to do.  Some Christians can get so caught up in the language of saving people, that blinders can form around the Great Commission, to go forth and make disciples of all the nations.  The Bible speaks of the whole creation groaning under the burden of sin.  Our job, in Genesis, was to tend to the Garden of Eden.  Those folks messed up and got tossed, but the job didn’t change. 

            What is our work?  What does it mean to make disciples of all nations?  To feed them, to clothe them, to visit them in prison or in hospital-Matthew 25.  We have been granted the gift of creation as the means to feed everyone, to make sure our basic needs are taken care of, that we can build dignified lives for everyone-even the imprisoned.  But that means taking care of the gift of creation as well.

            There is one strain of theological thinking that basically says “Let the creation go to hell because Jesus will come to clean it up anyway.”  How many places in history can we point to, in our living history as well as across the centuries, where we have seen just how hellish things can become here?  Despite the power of the Holy Spirit upon us.  How much more hell will be inflicted on creation by human, sinful neglect?  How much worse will it be if we Christians decide this is actually what God wants?

            I think that is why Jesus is very clear with his disciples about two things.  The first is that Jesus will  descend the way he ascended, in joy and triumph and the end of time.  The second is that we have the power of the Holy Spirit to keep working for the day.  There is a job to do, to care for all creation.  And in Christ Jesus, all God’s children are invited to partake of the free gift of salvation, and all of us who have are mandated to work in the power of the Spirit to bring them in. 

            The piece that I truly love about ascension is that Jesus really does not leave us alone.  Yes, the human ascends, so that God’s Plan will be brought to its final fruition, its final conclusion in God’s own time.  But the Spirit is not some adjunct faculty member of the University of God that has been sent to teach us how to be a church.  When the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus, it opens the truth that Jesus speaks throughout the gospel (although particularly in John) that “the Father is in me.”  But then the Holy Spirit comes upon us and it opens the truth that Jesus speaks throughout the gospels (although, again, particularly in John), “that I am in you.”  It is extra clear in John 14, that the Spirit IS Jesus in us.  There is the Hebrew word Emmanuel fulfilled, literally “God With Us”.

            So we pray for those in need, Jesus prays along through us, as Holy Spirit.  We serve our community, with food, with the thrift shop, with direct aid to people and organizations, Jesus serves through us.  We sing to the Lord a new song, Jesus sings through us.  Jesus calls it the Holy Spirit, well, Jesus is speaking of the things of the perfection of heaven to we limited, created, sinful, broken people.  He breaks things down, so that we may understand more wonderfully.

            So, Jesus left, in human form, the form that could walk and talk and interact with us.  Didn’t tell the disciples when he was coming back.  But the key takeaway is that He IS coming back.  But Jesus hasn’t left.  He will come upon them, in just a few days, in the power of the Holy Spirit, as fully God as Father and Son.  And we are out here at the ends of the earth, recipients of that same Spirit, our same Lord Jesus.  Folks, there is work to be done.  We are building the kingdom.  We have the Spirit, we have our Jesus within us.  Let God worry about the when and lets just get her done.

Amen.