This morning's scriptures introduce us to two very different people who are in the midst
of great despair. In our Old Testament lesson, we meet Elijah, the prophet of God who is constantly pitted against
the powerful King Ahab. By following the call of God, Elijah has gotten himself into such trouble that he has
to flee from his home and hide in the desert to save his own skin. In our Gospel lesson, we meet a Gentile man
whose only name we know is the name of his demons-Legion, or too many to be named. He lives in a graveyard on
the other side of Lake Galilee, exiled from human community and chained among the dead. These two men have very
different backgrounds and stories, but they both share a sense of abandonment, a sense of isolation, a sense of
having lost themselves. The words from our call to worship, Psalm 42, could be a theme for both of them-"People
say to me continually, 'Where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within
me'?"
Elijah's story begins with a major showdown with the pagan priests of Ba'al. When King Ahab married Jezebel, a
Phonecian, she brought the religion of Ba'al into the royal court of Israel. Ba'al priests were for the first
time given official sanction by the king and replaced the priests and prophets of Israel, who were put to death.
Elijah challenges these priests to a showdown, proves the Ba'al religion to be hollow, and then kills the Ba'al
priests. Jezebel, in a fury, puts a price on Elijah's head, and he flees. He leaves Israel, travels through Judah
and down into the Sinai desert until he at last reaches Horeb, the place where Moses received the tablets with
the Commandments and devout Israelites always called the Mountain of God. There, he faces God to raise his complaints
and to hear God's response. God asks, "What are you doing here." Elijah responds that he has done all
that God has asked, and that his only reward has been to have his life endangered, saying, "I have been very
zealous for the LORD, for the Israelitse 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." God promises to
pass by for Elijah to see. There is a great wind, so strong that it split the very rocks, but Elijah does not
see God in the wind. There is a strong earthquake, but Elijah does not see God in the earthquake. There is a
blazing fire, but Elijah does not see God in the fire. Finally, there is a sound. This sound has been translated
in various ways-"a still, small voice," "a sheer silence," or "a gentle whisper."
The Hebrew cannot be easily translated, but means something like the sound of powder falling, a sound so subtle
and small that it could only be heard in absolute silence when one was intently listening for the voice of God.
When Elijah heard it, he covered his face and went out to face God. Once again, God asks, "What are you
doing here Elijah?" Once again, Elijah offers his complaint. This time, God sends him back to Damascus,
charging him to crown a new king for Israel and to bring about the downfall of Ahab. Far from comforting Elijah,
God sends him right back into the midst of the danger to continue to which he has been called.
Elijah is a good corrective to those of us who would like to both do the work of God and to be comfortable, liked,
and accepted. Clearly, Elijah's obedience to God's leading has been the cause of great personal pain. Elijah
goes into the desert seeking to die, but he leaves the desert prepared to go back into battle against Ahab, renewed
in his resolve to do the work that God has called him to do. What happened? No doubt, part of the solution for
him was that he had time to rest and be renewed. When life falls apart, a good vacation is always one solution.
But, having traveled in the Sinai Desert myself, I can assure you that walking through this barren wilderness
may be exhilerating for a few days, but it isn't the same as a week at a seaside resort, and after Elijah's forty
days, it would be tiring, hot, dirty, and exhausting. This may be a retreat of sorts for Elijah, but it's no vacation.
What is more significant is that Elijah had the opportunity to bring his complaints to God, and then in silence
he had an encounter with God that gave him the courage to return to Israel for the showdown.
Many of us would say that we've never had an encounter with God that was so profound that we could do what Elijah
did. Some suggest that God doesn't operate today the way God did at one time. Others have suggested that the
stories of these profound encounters with God were told by pre-modern people, and that we now can explain scientifically
what people at one time explained as acts of God. I'd like to suggest another reason why we don't often have these
profound divine encounters. How many of us have every spent forty days in the desert waiting to hear the voice
of God? Of course, in our lives, we don't have the luxury or perhaps even the desire to go to those lengths to
experience the divine. And, so that we don't get too down on ourselves, the vast majority of people in biblical
times didn't take these types of extended retreats either. However, we have become so busy, we have so much noise
around us, there are so many distractions in our lives that we rarely take the time to listen for God's voice.
We are uncomfortable with silence, particularly intentional silence. The thought of taking fifty, thirty, or
even five minutes a day to listen for God's voice is almost unbearable. Don't believe me? Let's try something.
I'm about to invite you into a time of intentional silence for two minutes. I'm going to sit down and ask you
simply to listen for God's voice, to intentionally enjoy the time of silence. Don't look at your watch; don't
look around. I'll watch the time, so you just sit and listen.
- - -
What was that like? Did you hear anything? Think you could do that for an hour a day? Think you could do that
for forty days straight? Silence is important way for us to hear God's voice, but for most of us, silence is at
best a luxury and at worst a torture.
The man with demons from the Gospel lesson presents us with a different situation. Jesus has traveled across
the lake, leaving Israel behind and venturing into the uncomfortable and unclean land of the neighboring Gentiles.
He encounters the man alone and naked, bound by chains in the graveyard. This man has been for so long an outcast
that no one even recalls his name. The demons are named only by their number-legion, too many to count. Jesus
casts them into a herd of pigs, which runs over a cliff and into the water where they drown. The locals are furious
because their livelihood is tied up in the pigs that are now dead, and they ask Jesus to leave them. The man who
had been cured, now clothed and sitting quietly at Jesus' feet, asks to be allowed to travel with Jesus, but he
replies that the man should go back to his home to proclaim there what has happened.
FBI agent Robert Hanssen apparently told a psychiatrist that he was spying for Russia as a way to handle "demons"
from his own childhood. He spoke of an obsession with pornography and fear of a domineering father as contributing
to his need to engage in this risky behavior. You may or may not buy into this as a reason for this man's actions,
and you may or may not accept the idea of literal demonic possession. However, there is no doubt that we all have
our own demons that often prevent us from fully engaging with the world around us. In an online lectionary discussion
group, a contributor calling himself Sam in Alabama wrote: "A friend of mine and I were discussing this and
thought about the significance of Jesus asking for the man's name...He couldn't even tell it...instead he said
my name is Legion. Have there been times when we've been so overwhelmed by the many demons in us that we don't
even know our own names? For example: What is your name? My name is "Divorced." or My name is "Addict"
or my name is "Overworked and Underpaid." We all have those parts of our lives that cause us tremendous
pain, parts that at times can be so overwhelming that we lose all perspective and become obsessed with them. The
good news of the Gospel lesson is that Jesus has the power to release us from those demons and to set us free.
Elijah was so fearful for his life that he fled his home and ran into the desert to die. The man from the Gospel
lesson is an exile, alone and trapped in an illness that prevented him from even knowing himself. Both of these
men had powerful encounters with God and were freed, enabled to live as whole people in mission for God. Where
do you turn when your world falls apart? Where do I look when I face those times when I am so locked into some
painful experience or event that I cannot face the world as a functioning person? Certainly, there are many resources
in our community that we can turn to for help with these situations, resources that were not necessarily available
to these people in biblical times. Mental health professionals, marriage counselors, law enforcement officials,
surgeons, support groups, medicines-these and numerous other resources can offer tremendous help in dealing with
life's most difficult moments, and we need to turn to them, for they are gifts from God.
But, if we rely solely on these resources, we may get well, but we won't be healed. Healing is always more about
wholeness than it is about curing, and we can only be made whole when we have been changed by an encounter with
the presence of God. Elijah met God on Horeb and was given the courage to return to his mission. The man with
the demons met God on the lakeshore and was empowered to bear witness to God's redeeming work. Both of these stories
assure us that even in the depths of our personal hells, God is there, and where God is, healing can occur, restoration
can happen, wholeness is a possibility. This may or may not mean that everything gets better, but it will always
mean that God gives us the strength to live in faith anyway. And, when we have met God in that place, we will
be empowered to go forward in ministry, just as Elijah went back to Damascus and just as the healed demoniac returned
to his home.
Life is hard, and we will have moments where we're overwhelmed and confused. We all have baggage that keeps us
from being all that God has made us to be, we all live with fear, we all have times of despair. The question is,
where do we go in these times. Whatever else you do to deal with these, seek God in them. Only by encountering
God in the midst of pain can we be truly freed to go forth in ministry. Amen.
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