*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
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