Gadarene Demoniac 2023

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. The human

body, our bodies, especially the baptized and

chrismated body, the Christian body, is more

holy than any church, than anything in the church.

Think about this. I give you holy communion,

but if I drop a particle, On the floor. I will

go down on my hands and knees to consume it.

And I will burn that spot on the floor. To consume

it. You become a chalice. When you receive Holy

Communion. A living chalice. And St. Paul is

very clear about what Christians are. We are

the temple of the Holy Spirit. It's through the

Holy Spirit that Christ is with us at the liturgy

in the Holy Communion. What do we say at the

liturgy? Send down thy Holy Spirit and make this

bread the precious body of thy Christ. And that

which is in this cup the precious blood of thy

Christ. And first we say, make us also upon us

and this bread and this cup. So you're holy.

You're sanctified. You're a chalice. God is living

within you. Do we feel it always? No, we don't.

Our senses are so attuned just to the world and

how we feel and taste and see and touch that

our spiritual senses need to wake up more. Contrast

this, brothers and sisters, with this story,

this account you hear today. A legion. Thousands

of demons have fragmented this man. He doesn't

even have a name anymore. He's a living dead,

which is why it says he lives at the graves.

He's full of violence. They have to tie him down.

He's naked. He tries to destroy his soul and

his body. The demons hate humans because we have

a body. We're not just spirits. Not just souls,

but we are a mixture of the heavenly and the

earthly. Where one begins and the other, we don't

know. It's our body. It's keyed together. The

demons hate that because we have been called

to be holy, to be chalices, to be the temple

of God, and to sanctify everything around us,

the whole world. This is our calling. to pray

and to offer everything to God, to sanctify it.

The fallen angels, the demons, hate that. They

hate it. They're jealous. They seek to destroy

us. They seek to destroy our body and our soul,

to mutilate both, to disfigure them by temptation,

to violence, to anger, to hatred, to murder.

to see others as less, to gluttony, sexual immorality,

addiction, on and on, illness, sometimes. We

have to take care of what we have. I remember,

it must have been 1975, the summer after high

school graduation. I went to a drive -in movie.

Now, maybe some of you don't know what a drive

-in movie is. I very much date myself. You drive

the car into this big lot. There's a giant screen

bigger than that back wall, and there's a speaker

on a post, and you put that speaker on your window.

You roll that up a little bit like this. There's

no buttons in 1975. Well, unless you had a Continental

or Cadillac. And you watch the movie. My friends

and I went to see, a group of us went to see

The Exorcist. The horrible disfiguration of that

girl's face, her body, her voice, scared me so

badly. I could not sleep that night or for an

entire week without the radio on, listening to

Jazz Station. It turns out, brothers and sisters,

that the violence and the hatred and the disfigurement

of the human in that movie, while real, while

accurate in some ways, can't compare with the

reality of what goes on in the world and the

hatred and the violence. Jesus went to that village

to free that man. From the shackles that he was

under. He was caught. We don't know the story

of how that happened. That doesn't matter. But

freedom is the core message of the gospel. Our

freedom in Christ. We become servants of God

and we are freed from the slavery of the darkness

of this world and of ourselves too. I've quoted

this verse from the epistle to the Hebrews many,

many times. St. Paul writes, Christ came to destroy

him that held the power of death, that is the

devil. That's why you see that fresco of Christ,

the descent to Hades, on the bars and gates of

death and sin, crushing them. He came to destroy

him that held the power of death, that is the

devil, and free those who all their lives were

held in slavery by their fear of death. And John

the theologian wrote this. He said, the reason

the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's

work. St. Paul wrote that we wrestle not against

flesh and blood, but against principalities,

against powers, against the rulers of darkness

in this world, against spiritual wickedness in

high places. All this destruction talk, this

gospel of freedom. But we wonder, don't we? Have

the old spiritual powers that were cast out,

have they returned as people forget God? St.

Peter says, be sober, be vigilant. The devil

goes around like a roaring lion waiting to consume.

Yes, the demons still harass us. This is the

truth. Psalm 110 claims, and we sing this at

Christmas time, note it, Christmas is coming.

That Christ rules all things. He is the Pantocrator.

That's what that icon up there is. The ruler

of all. Pantocrator. He rules all things. Even

Psalm 110 says. In the midst of his enemies.

There is footstool. And yes. We most certainly.

are wrestling against principalities, against

powers, against rulers of the darkness of this

world. But not only is Jesus ruling in the midst

of his enemies, those forces against us, listen

to what he said before he was crucified. Now

is the time for judgment on this world. What's

judgment? To set it right, to fix it. Now the

prince of this world will be driven out. And

I, when I am lifted up from the earth, he means

on the cross, will draw all people to myself

to save them because he will be crucified and

rise from the dead. And that icon is the reality

of what happened. The villagers, the citizens

of this world, of all times, The villagers in

the gospel were witnesses of two things. The

terrible, horrible, demonic power. And there's

a long story there. I'm not going to go into

that. Why they were afraid. Why they asked Jesus

to lead. They were witnesses of that. They also

saw the power and authority of Jesus over that.

Complete, utter power control over that. They

saw those things. The whole world sees these

things. So let's set aside the notion that people

need to see miraculous things in order to believe

in Jesus. You heard last week, the man in Haiti

says to Father Abraham, just send somebody back

from the dead and they'll believe. Jesus says

in the parable, well, even if I send someone

back from the dead, they're not going to believe.

After seeing what had taken place, those villagers

begged Jesus Christ to leave them. And so he

did. God leaves us free. God is about freedom.

Those people chose darkness to continue what

they were doing, raising pigs for pagan sacrifices,

because that's what Roman sacrifices used, were

pigs. And the word of the Lord is ever true.

This is the judgment. The light... Capital L.

The light has come into the world and people

love darkness rather than the light. Such is

the state of things. How does it operate? If

Jesus has destroyed him who held the power of

death, that is the devil, we still have to recognize

that dark and evil spirits Not just an inclination

that a person has. That doesn't explain what

happens in the world, the horrible things. Dark

demonic spirits operate, yes, only through suggestion.

Only through temptation, manipulation, and deception.

But if we enter into that temptation and deception,

there is no end to the bottom of that. And many

are very willing to believe the lies to acquire

power for their ego, control, money, whatever

it might be, thinking they can manipulate dark

forces for their own happiness. And all of it

just produces profound misery and cruelty. The

gospel is called the good news because it remains

true that Jesus releases all of us from the bondage.

Of that terrible thing. The account we heard

today. Reminds us that Jesus is indeed. Lord

over all things. Has power over all things. He

says behold. I have been given. From the father

all authority. Both in heaven and on earth. And

he sits at the right hand. At the throne of the

father. Ruling and we are in him. And he is in

us. You have become the chalice. You have become

the bearer of the good news. Not just words,

but your actions, your life. You are the witnesses

of that good news. God, help us, please, Lord.

Help us to rejoice that we are in Christ and

that he is within us and that he is our peace,

which is why we start the liturgy with the peace

from above and the salvation of our souls. let

us pray to the Lord that peace is the precious

gift from God to us. And if we fall into sin,

if we fall into temptation, we can cleanse it

through confession. Our conscience convicts us

and we can be cleansed and peace will return

to our soul. And that power has no control over

us because we are illumined by the grace of God.

And we struggle to keep our conscience free.

The gospel says that the man formerly possessed

was what? He was sitting at the feet of Christ.

He was clothed and in his right mind. This is

the picture of the Christian. This is what we

are. This is what we are to be. Being clothed,

that's the description of the baptized Christian.

having died with Christ, risen in baptism, and

put on Christ. Now it is not I who live, you

heard in the epistle, but Christ who lives in

me. Rejoice, brothers and sisters, for the Lord

our God has saved us, and he will save everyone

who desires it. To him be glory, now and ever,

to ages of ages. Amen.