They sailed on to the country of the Gerasenes, directly opposite Galilee. As Jesus stepped out onto land, a madman from town met him; he was a victim of demons. He hadn't worn clothes for a long time, nor lived at home; he lived in the cemetery. When he saw Jesus he screamed, fell before him, and bellowed,
"What business do you have messing with me? You're Jesus, Son of the High God, but don't give me a hard time"
(The man said this because Jesus had started to order the unclean spirit out of him.) Time after time the demon threw the man into convulsions. He had been placed under constant guard and tied with chains and shackles, but crazed and driven wild by the demon, he would shatter the bonds.
Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"
"Mob, My name is Mob, " he said, because a mob of demons afflicted him. And they begged Jesus desperately not to order them to the bottomless pit.
A large herd of pigs was browsing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged Jesus to order them into the pigs. He gave the order. It was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the lake and drowned.
Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had been sent, sitting there at Jesus's feet, wearing decent clothes and making sense. It was a holy moment, and for a short time they were more reverent than curious. Then those who had seen it happen told how the demoniac had been saved.
Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave - too much change, too fast, and they were scared. So Jesus got back in the boat and set off. The man whom he had delivered from the demons asked to go with him, but he sent him back, saying,
"Go home, and tell everything God did in you"
So he went back and preached all over town, everything Jesus had done in him.
Introduction:
I would like to share two stories with you. The first is what I dream of……
Bang! Crash! Hammer and nails. Concrete and gravel. Dust and noise. On a busy junction in renewed Manchester, a new church building is being erected. Apartment buildings on the left, trendy houses to the right, school playgrounds across the road, a shopping centre around the corner, and not one, but twelve coffee shops line the road, each teeming with people of every race and creed. But on the corner, watching the construction with take-away pizza in their hands, stand Sam and Sadie Public. They watch the freshly painted sign being set into concrete at the foot of the newly paved car park. Sam shrugs. Sadie sighs. They shake their heads. And Sam turns to Sadie and says: "Well, there goes the neighbourhood!"
They sigh, "Oh, my God! Those religious people have got a toehold in my neighbourhood! They might knock on our doors, advertise on our streets, subvert our kids from football practice on Sunday mornings, criticize our local council, intrude on education, and question our overloaded weekday life, and generally disrupt our traditional Sunday morning snooze. Oh, my God! There goes the neighbourhood!" Because Sam and Sadie Public know that the presence of the church changes things.
The other story, more of a parable, is, I am afraid, nearer the truth of what actually happens.
On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought of themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little lifesaving station grew.
Some of the members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in this club's decoration, and there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club initiations were held. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick, and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could he cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. They did!
As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club , and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today, you will find an umber of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown!
The first of these stories shows what the church should be like, the second shows what it really is. The problem with our friends in the lifeboat station is that they lost their vision of what they were called to be.
Jesus and the Demoniac
Jesus had parallel experiences. At one point, Jesus went to the region of the Gerasenes, and he met a demoniac who was possessed by so many demons as to be called "Mob". Jesus healed him by the power of God.
Now the Bible is unclear whether the people in that suburb were keeping pigs, or living like pigs, but whichever way it was, the demons came out by the power of God and by the power of God destroyed their livelihood. All the swine rushed into the sea. Then we come to the most remarkable part of the story of all. Legion experienced the power of God. The swineherds saw the power of God. They went and told the city officials about the power of God. And the instantaneous reaction of the city officials to the revelation of the power of God in their midst, was to formally parade outside and ask God to leave. So Jesus got back into his boat, and left.
The Demons in our Neighbourhood
The moral of the story is that people who live with swine, don't like Jesus. They don't want him in their neighbourhood. People who are addicted to chocolate, don't like dentists. People who are over-indulgent, don't like doctors. People who drive fast and live hard, don't like police. And people who love "the Good Life", but hate living good lives; people who can season their sin with salsa or soy sauce, and enjoy dishing it out to their neighbours plain or Cajun style; those people don't like the church.
The neighbourhood is filled with people possessed by a thousand demons. They live among the tombs of broken relationships, broken dreams, broken promises, and broken hearts. They are obsessed by lotteries, finger food, and the fantasies of self-interest. They are Legion. They are in our neighbourhood, our community. Jesus has come to heal them. And then Sam Public turns to turns to Sadie...sighs and shrugs...and says, "Well, there goes the neighbourhood!"
Losing the Vision
In the 1970s MCC grew at a phenomenal rate. This growth continued into the 1980s in spite of the effect of HIV and AIDS upon our congregations and pastors but as a denomination we are not much bigger now that we were in the 80s. Some of our congregations have grown at an amazing rate - many others have plateaued. The main reason for this plateau is that they have lost their vision.
Exorcising the Demons
The demons still
are thriving in the grey cells of our minds:
tyrant voices, shrill and driving, twisted thoughts that grip and bind, doubts
that stir the heart to panic, fears distorting reason's sight, guilt that makes
our loving frantic, dreams that cloud the soul with fright."
In order to remove those demons from our mind we need to perform a rite of exorcism. Now people get very jumpy when you start to talk about exorcism - but it was an exorcism that Jesus did in our gospel reading today. Jesus did three distinct things: first, he named the demon, second he commanded it to go and third he told the man to replace the demon with holy things - in this case with preaching about what God had done for him.
If we were to exorcise our friends in the lifeboat station we would first name the demons. They had lost their vision, become selfish and saw their vision and mission wrongly - in terms of just being a social club. The demons would then have to be commanded to go. This is done by recasting the vision of the lifeboat club and inviting the members to "come on board" with the vision. Those who don't will leave as the vision captivates the rest. The third part of the rite would be to replace the demon with holy things - in this case with a return to their original mission.
Rejuvenating the Church
All that is needed to renew the church for the 21st century is one person with a vision. Not a committee! Not a Task Group! Just one man with a vision. Or one woman with a vision. Or even one teenager with a vision. Just one person proclaiming the vision of God's power....courageously, ecstatically, compassionately, and constantly....over and over again....in every one of the twelve coffee shops that line the street. And soon all the region of the Gerasenes becomes so enflamed with excitement and zeal for the Lord, that it becomes a veritable hotbed of Christian faith.
The Bible says that 25 years later that neighbourhood had become so passionate for Christ, that the municipal authorities had to send the great persecutor Saul to put it down. Moreover, it was on that same road to Damascus, through that same neighbourhood of the Gerasenes, perhaps near the very spot where the rejected Jesus shoved off in his boat, that Saul would see the blinding light and be changed forever by the voice of Christ. And it was all because of Mob....one man with a vision.... proclaiming the power of God.
That was the strategy of Jesus among the gentiles of the 1st century, and it is the strategy of Jesus among the public for the 21st century. The power of God heals the demoniac of today. He begs to come with Jesus. Or she begs to be sent on some glorious mission to Africa, or Asia, or Central America, or into the inner city. But the greatest mission field in the world in the 21st century ... outside your own back door. Jesus says, "No... just go home...and start proclaiming the power of God, as you have experienced it...courageously, ecstatically, compassionately, and constantly."
Change yourself...and the neighbourhood will change...and the world will change. This is the message the public yearns to hear:
Some Shocking Truths
As we recapture, and are recaptured by God's vision for our church we will need to learn some shocking truths.
The First Shocking Truth that Thriving Churches have learned is that the future of your church is not the youth. Many churches believe that the youth are the future - a recent Church of England report bemoaned the lack of young people in the church. However, the youth are not the future of your church. The future of our church is transformed adults. Transformed adults are the future of your church. Mob is the future of our church. You get to Mob...you reach in among the tombs of your community and get to Mob....you transform him or her...you send Mob home proclaiming the power of God. The first shocking truth that thriving churches have learned is that the youth are not the future of your church....transformed adults are.
The Second shocking truth that thriving churches have learned is that the Creator and the Holy Spirit are not enough for the coffee shop clientele. We must talk about Jesus. The Creator who gives growth to the world, and the Spirit that leads folks on incredible journeys are all very good, but the "Mobs" of people who drink coffee and read their paper in the fast food shops on Sunday morning, recovering from the hangovers of Saturday night, are unmoved by slow growth and incredible journeys. They couldn't care less about inching up into the sunlight and time-consuming travels through the wilderness of life. We need to either change them....or let them be. Jesus changes people. That's why the Bible talks about Jesus. That's why the 21st century church that is serious about mission will talk about Jesus. The Creator nurtures people, the Holy Spirit guides people, but it is Jesus that will transform Mob...and Sam and Sadie Public, too! And it is Jesus that will transform the church for the 21st century.
Our Own Demons
As we are captured again by the vision that God gives us, we need to be clear that we are called to preach the Jesus who transforms people, the Jesus who will take the Mobs of our world and change them. We need to, with Jesus, name our people's demons, cast them out and help them replace their demons with an experience of the holy.
But that means we too need to go through a similar process. What are the demons that hold us back? What are the demons that stop us from fulfilling the call of God on our lives, that stop us being serious in our commitment, that stop us opening our wallets and purses. As we name the demons of embarrassment, laziness, of wanting to be like the lifeboat club, we can cast them out and replace them with a vision of God who calls us be a church which is know for the lives that are transformed here.
Let's worship that God again now, as we sing about entering into God's presence.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.