Creekside Church Sermon of June 24, 2001 "High the Cost of Healing" Luke 8:26-39	Rev. David Bibbee
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I can still picture him, though it has been at least 40 years since I last saw him. His name was Chuck Clendennon, a short man who walked with a spring in his step and who wore a long-billed ball cap that made him look like Ernest T. Bass on the Andy Griffith Show. Chuck never went anywhere without his wheel. I didn't say wheels, as on a car. Chuck spent hours each day on the sidewalks pushing his bicycle wheel with a broom handle which my best friend's father had specially designed for him. He got a kick out of chasing people with it. It was all in fun. Chuck wouldn't hurt a fly. He just loved the reactions he got from others. Back in the 1950's people like Chuck were called insane or retarded. Chuck was in his 40's and had the cognitive capacity of a five-year-old.

For years my Grandma Bibbee cleaned Dr. Burton's office on Saturday mornings, and occasionally we would take her home. The last thing she did was sweep the office sidewalk. One Saturday as we waited in the car and Grandma swept, my Dad said, "Oh boy, here comes Chuck!" We were in for something interesting. He didn't chase Grandma with the wheel. Instead he tried to pinch her bottom. My very modest, proper grandma was not amused…or at least not as amused as we were watching from the car. Grandma went after him with the broom. No harm was done. Later I learned that this run-in had happened before. In fact it became choreographed into a ritual which they played out several Saturdays each year.

I still laugh at the memory, but looking back it is sad to think about Chuck and those like him. He was kept on the fringe so the rest of us, when we felt insecure or down on ourselves, could look at him and think, "Thank God I'm not like that!" or be assured that we were normal, rational people who were in control of our faculties.

Today's text finds Jesus getting off a boat at a place called Gerasenes. This was not a hospitable place for a Jew. It was Gentile territory. Everything about it was unclean; pig farms everywhere, Bob Evans restaurants, the place from which a Jew would shake the dust off their feet. No sooner had Jesus stepped on dry land than he was confronted by a man in his "wrong mind". He looked intimidating. There were shackles around his wrists and ankles from previous attempts to subdue him with chains. He was naked and totally deranged. He lived in the graveyard and his neighbors resided in the tombs.

In a matter-of-fact way, Luke says the man was possessed by demons. Contemporary, enlightened folks like us get squeamish at the thought of demon possession. It conjures up images from The Exorcist. What they called demons we call schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress syndrome or improper toilet training. I don't want to get bogged down with demons, but let it suffice to say that they represent dark, evil, oppressive forces at work in people's lives which keep them from being fully alive. Without belaboring the point I would simply ask, "Is there anyone here who can point to something inside which casts a shadow over your capacity to live what Jesus called the abundant life? Is there anyone here who, if they had the power, would not rid themselves of dark thoughts, feelings, and behaviors?" I didn't think so. There are times when the word "demon" strikes us as the right word.

This broken, possessed man fell at Jesus' feet and screamed, "What do you want with me, Jesus?" Then Jesus asked his name. He said his name was "Legion." There was a Roman legion of demons in him begging Jesus, "Leave us alone!" When confronted by the presence of the living God, things change…something has to give. In his spiritual classic, A Testament Of Devotion, the Quaker Thomas Kelly said:

It is an overwhelming experience to fall into the hands of the living God…to be invaded to the depths of one's being…to be blown away by a tempest of unbelievable power which leaves one's proud self utterly, utterly defenseless.

The demons knew they were utterly defenseless. Jesus is unrelenting with forces which oppress. Knowing they would soon leave their host, the demons begged Jesus to let them take up residence in a herd of pigs foraging nearby. Jesus granted their request. When they entered the swine, the herd stampeded over a cliff and drowned at sea.

Those who witnessed it rushed to tell others. When they returned they were shocked to find the "formerly" possessed man sitting at Jesus' feet…quiet, calm, clothed and in his right mind. Were the people thrilled by the miracle of a restored life? Hardly. They instead began assessing the damage Jesus had done. The pork producers started calculating their losses. Stock in Bob Evans plummeted. There was more concern for lost revenue than joy over a restored life. The forces of darkness were not confined to one man, but pervaded the whole community.

In Acts 16, Paul and Barnabas cast a demon from a slave girl whose owners made money off her as a carnival act. Her owners had Paul and Barnabas beaten and thrown into prison for ruining their economic livelihood. In Acts 19, the silversmith's union that made shrines of the goddess Artemis wanted something done about the Christians who said Artemis wasn't a god and were causing sales to plummet. Healing is okay as long as it doesn't cause a slump in business. Certain interests would just as soon not want people to be better.

People who often wrestle with addictions sometimes call them demons. Addiction is a slave master that takes many forms…drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, food, sex, work, and even religion. Do companies that produce addictive substances ever say, "We want you to quit using our product."? Have you seen the commercial which shows big freight helicopters unloading tons of food in Kosovo? The narrator says that Phillip Morris is doing its part to alleviate the suffering of people in that war ravaged land. The Phillip Morris Tobacco Company also owns Kraft Foods, and as the freight door of one helicopter opens, a pretty female company representative says, "I've come with food from Phillip Morris." In my version of the commercial she would say, "I've come with food from Phillip Morris…the same company that brings you lung cancer and emphazema."

When Jesus healed people, not everyone was happy. Families and communities had to change the ways they related to those that Jesus and the disciples restored to health and sanity.

Saint Francis of Assisi was born into a noble Italian family. His father was a wealthy textile merchant who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, but instead Francis chose to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. He took Jesus at his word, gave his possessions to the poor and vowed to live a life of poverty. His father was not pleased that Francis was going into the ministry. He was so dospleased he disowned Francis, and in turn, Francis gave his last possession to his father…the clothes he wore. In the church at Assisi, there is a fresco depicting the scene. Francis stands naked with his eyes to heaven. On one side the angry father holds Francis' clothes. The Archbishop stands on the other side, hurriedly covering Francis' body with his cloak, and bearing an expression that seems to say, "I know Jesus says we must give to the poor, but you don't have to take him so literally." The people of Assisi weren't prepared for Francis' change of life, and the citizens of Gerasenes weren't prepared for the possessed man to be restored to sanity.

Had you been there, where would your sympathies lie? With the restored man, or those doing a cost-benefits analysis? Would you beg Jesus to stay, saying, "Do for us what you did for him. Restore our minds. Forgive our sins. Heal us of our need to push those we fear and don't understand to the fringes." Or would you join the meeting at the Chamber of Commerce lending your voice to those saying, "We're glad our friend is better, but we lost a lot of hams as a result. If it costs this much to heal one person, we'll go bankrupt if Jesus heals many more." They took a vote. It was unanimous. Jesus had to leave. And Jesus did as they asked. He will leave us if we want. He will allow us to grope in the dark if we choose.

Someone observed the significance of the demon's request to go into the swine and then fall into the sea. The sea was an abyss. It was a place that harbored dark, powerful, primordial evil forces. It was the final hideout from Jesus' power. But as the story previous to this one shows, Jesus had power over storms at sea. Caught in the fury of a storm, Jesus commanded the winds and the waves to subside. There are echoes here from Psalm 139…"Oh where shall I flee from your presence? If I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall hold me." There is no final refuge from Jesus' power.

Jesus honored the order to leave, but not before leaving a part of himself. The man possessed by demons was now possessed by love and gratitude for Jesus and the desire to be a disciple. Luke says he begged to go with Jesus. It was a reasonable request. After all, Jesus said to many people, "Follow me." But Jesus wouldn't let him. Instead, he made him the first missionary to the Gentiles. "Go home, not to the tombs, but among the people who feared you and chained you and saw you naked and out of your mind. Go back and live among them and declare how much God has done for you."

The man they had feared and hated was now their hope. We don't know if they responded or not. What matters at the end of the day is how we respond.

[This is the end of the sermon transcript.]

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