Community Church Sermons

Year C

June 23, 2013

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

What Has God Done?

Luke 8:26-39

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

It was President John F. Kennedy who spoke the famous words, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

Those are wonderful words. They form the basis for good citizenship, calling each individual to contribute to the greater good.

The Christian Faith adds an interesting twist to this thought. In order for us to do the best good we can – to be empowered to bring hope, healing and change to others and the world around us, we need to discover what God has done for us. And when we know what God has done for us, we are called to go and do the same.

That’s what today’s Gospel story is about. But first, let me bring you into the life of my family.

Our daughter Bethany grew up in the shadow of her older brother Pete. You know how it is with kids. Sometimes they feel like the other sibling gets all the attention. And even though we parents love our children equally, sometimes a child questions that.

One day when she was maybe 8 or 9 years old, Bethany was acting up. We told her to stop. She didn’t. So finally, we sent her to her room. Madder than a hornet, she stomped off through the house, up the stairs and into her bedroom where she slammed the door shut. It’s amazing how loud a little kid can get when they’re throwing a temper tantrum.

A while later, Sandy went upstairs. She called me to come and see something. It was a note Bethany had scribbled out and taped to the outside of the door.

In big letters it read, “Stop! Don’t come in here. Nobody loves me. Everybody loves Pete. When Pete was sick the neighbor asked, “How’s Pete?” Nobody ever asks how I am when I sick!”

Then she finished the note with these words, “I just a lonely left out little child!”

And below that was a penciled sketch of a little girl’s face with great big tears falling from her eyes.

We still have that note.

Sandy and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Either way, those are some pretty profound words. All around us in the world there are lonely left out little children, and big people too.

We meet one of them in today’s Gospel lesson.

His name was “Legion” although we don’t know if that was his real name or just one people had labeled him with because he was possessed by what seemed to be a legion of demons. One of the ways people are often pushed out to the edges is when we apply descriptions to them that strip them of their true identity. Someone recently told me about his experience with having cancer. “The worst part is not even the treatment,” he said. “The worst part is that people see me now as ‘a cancer patient’ and not just the guy I am.” Another person told me that even more than a year after losing her husband people still call her “the widow.” Well, she IS a widow, but that is NOT her name!

Isn’t it true? We see the conditions people are in and we give them names or titles accordingly. She’s “the alcoholic.” He’s “the jerk.” They’re “the illegals” or “the towel-heads”, or “what Paula Dean once said.” Have you ever thought about the labels we tie around peoples’ necks?

He was called “Legion” because he had a legion of bad stuff gripping his life.

And he was living in the local cemetery.

The people of the town had put him there because they were afraid of him. They kept him under guard, and had even chained his wrists and feet, but with some superhuman demonic strength he had broken the chains and now was loose and wandered among the tombs.

He was – I guess you could say - a lonely left out little child.

And that’s important to notice because when we label people as we do, we often lose sight of the fact that they ARE somebody’s child. Some mother once cradled him in her arms. Some dad once dreamed about him someday becoming a doctor. I imagine that today, on Scholarship Sunday, there are (will be) moms and dads here who remember the day their college student took their first steps. And now they are stepping into adulthood and a future all their own.

We are ALL somebody’s child. And underneath it all, we are children of God.

Every one of us.

But we lose sight of that when we label people, and push them out to places where we think they can’t hurt us or make us uncomfortable anymore.

So there he was – naked, alone, tortured by whatever demons possessed him.

And then Jesus showed up.

I find it interesting that Luke tells us Jesus sailed over to this place from Galilee, but he does not land at the local harbor where the fishermen moored their boats and the people gathered to swim and sail and jet-ski, and eat lobster and fried clams.

No, Jesus lands smack dab on the shore of that cemetery. Luke writes, “When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town.”

And here begins a story that models for us a way to care for “lonely left out” little – and big – children. Here is a way we can contribute to the healing, health and welfare of others.

First, Jesus stepped into HIS world and befriended him.

You can’t love another person from a distance – that is, with you standing outside their world looking in.

When I first started bringing kids to Appalachia to help build houses in a little poor community nestled along the border between Tennessee and Kentucky, we all came with some preconceived ideas about poverty. By the end of our time, all our ideas had been blown out of the water. First of all, we discovered that the people who lived there were very rich in love and friendship. One of our kids said to me, “Marty, THEY’RE not poor. WE’RE the ones who are poor!” You see, wealth has little to do with what you have. It has everything to do with WHO you are. And getting know the WHO of the people of Roses Creek revealed a wealth of human beauty we had no idea about.

And they were smart. They knew more about the environment around them and how to survive in it than we could ever know.

And we learned that poverty has a lot to do with power – or the lack thereof. Up in those hills, when the coal companies pulled out, the people were left without infrastructure, schools, medical help, and employment. They were left with polluted streams and a contaminated aquifer. The place they had called home for generations was stripped bare of its resources, and the people were left with nothing.

Until Jesus – in the person of a little Roman Catholic nun named Marie Cerillo - showed up on their shoreline. She became a friend and came to live there. She organized the community into a Land Trust and bought up acreage, and set up legal rights that would always keep the property in the possession of the people. And then she helped them sue the companies that polluted the water. They won a huge judgment and were able to get clean water.

Some of us like to sit outside the lives of other people and judge them for their poverty, or lifestyle, or illness. But Jesus shows us a better way.

Learn to love from INSIDE their territory. Become a friend. Learn about them. Become a partner and not an absentee boss.

Jesus stepped into the world of the man in the cemetery and became his friend.

That’s how God does it. He makes friends.

Secondly, Jesus asked his name.

Names are important. That’s why we try to remind everyone to wear a nametag to church on Sunday mornings. It makes it so much easier to greet someone, and start the process of getting to know them. Make sure you wear your nametag, okay?

God knows our names. There’s a beautiful little song that we sometimes sing at WednesdayChurch! It goes like this:

I have a maker
He formed my heart
Before even time began
My life was in his hand
Chorus
He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
And hears me when I call
I have a Father
He calls me his own
He'll never leave me
No matter where I go
Chorus
He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
And hears me when I call

God knows your name.

Your name gives you identity. Your name declares that you are a human being. And your name is the first word in the story of your life.

Jesus stepped into the man’s world and became his friend. Then he learned his name. Friendship leads to relationship.

And then Jesus helped him get out from under the power of evil.

You see the demons that possessed the man were NOT the man himself. They were forces from OUTSIDE the man that had invaded his being. And these were destructive powers that required the help of others to overcome.

Do you know that almost every outreach ministry our church has is about coming alongside people to help them overcome the challenges they are facing in life. Children who have suffered abuse. Homeless families. People who’ve lost jobs and don’t know where the next meal is coming from. Lonely elders who live out in the counties without a friend except for the people who visit them as part of our Friendship Kitchen. We don’t believe in giving “hand-outs”, but we are firmly committed to giving people a “hand UP.”

That’s what our Scholarship ministry is about. The students we help are all aspiring to develop careers and vocations that will bring them personal fulfillment and that will enable them to contribute good things into the lives of their families and others. They will grow into President Kennedy’s call to “give to their country” – to their neighbors – to their world. Some of you may not know this, but each of the students has a friend on our Missions Team – a personal mentor, if you will. They know their names, and stay in touch during the school year, and sometimes for years after they graduate.

They offer three simple things: friendship, relationship, and whatever they can do to help them achieve their goals.

And it’s all because of God.

At the end of the Gospel story, Jesus tells the now-set-free man, “Go home and tell how much God has done for you!”

And that’s our challenge this week.

Make friends with someone. Build a relationship of integrity. Come alongside and help the best you can.

And go tell everyone how much the Lord has done for you!