Gadarene Demoniac 2022

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. What are we doing here

today if not proclaiming, celebrating, confirming

the victory of God in us? that he is saving us.

I say that to begin a reflection on this gospel,

because this gospel accounts for us, it relates

for us, really the truly glorious, loving, wise,

powerful care, the compassion and care. that

Jesus has for everything. Absolutely everything.

We say in the Creed that we believe in one God,

the Father Almighty, and one Lord Jesus Christ,

Son of God, begotten of the Father before all

ages, light of light, true God of true God, begotten,

not made, by whom all things were made. This

reference is to Jesus, by whom and for whom all

things were made. The word gospel, I've told

my catechism class this a hundred times, I've

probably told you half that. The word gospel

means the good news of victory, the good news

of an enslavement to powers, principalities,

rulers of darkness. enslavement of all kinds

against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in

the heavenly places, as St. Paul says in Ephesians.

It ends destruction and death. That's what the

word gospel means. It's not a book. The gospel

book is the account of that victory, which we

are sharing now. And the proof of that to me

is this story, because that's not us. That man

living naked among the tombs. That's not us.

So we sing on Holy Saturday, don't we? Praise

you the Lord and supremely exalt him unto the

ages. And gloriously has he been glorified. We're

the body of Christ, brothers and sisters. It's

his body. He has changed us. So that united and

joined to him, we share in this victory over

death. We don't need to be afraid of that anymore.

Or the demons. The church is reminding us today

in this gospel, which we hear twice at least,

but sometimes three times in the year. Three

times you hear about this man who is possessed.

Archbishop Benjamin always used to make reference.

He says, we have cheese fair Sunday. We have

meat fair Sunday. And we have Swine Sunday. And

today is Swine Sunday. Today the church is reminding

us what great things God has done for us. And

so we're gathering for liturgy to thank him.

The word Eucharist means Thanksgiving. That's

why we're here to thank God. To proclaim the

good news to ourselves, to each other, and to

those outside that door about what As St. Luke

said at the end, quoting Jesus, what great things

God has done for us. If you were asked, can you

enumerate those things that God has done for

you? Those great things. Why you are here. We

say we're illumined at baptism. Can you give

thanks to God for that? Can you tell someone?

about that holy illumination, if you were asked

to give a witness, testimony for what Jesus has

done for us, illumined us, opened our eyes, first,

of course, not to everybody else's sins, but

to our own sins, and then to the cleansing and

the forgiveness and the light and the love of

his presence. We may not dwell in that joy all

the time, but we should be able to recount something

of it. I don't need to tell you the whole story

that we just heard. You just heard it, and as

I said, we hear it three times a year, most years,

mostly twice, I guess. This is a deliberate choice

by the church, by the way. This isn't just part

of... Well, we've got this gospel that just comes

around again, and oh gosh, do I have to preach

on those pigs again? No. This is deliberate.

The church gives us this account of this horrible,

horrible thing, which I hope nobody ever has

to see. But I want to say about, since I'm not

going to tell you the whole story, you just heard

it, but I do want to say this. When Jesus asks

the name of that man, and he's not asking because

he doesn't know. He's asking to show his disciples.

This is the creepiest moment. Halloween's got

nothing on this. What is your name? The man says,

Legion, because he had thousands of demons in

him. and he didn't know himself or his own name

anymore. What is your name, Legion? He's completely

stripped of reason and understanding, completely

stripped of freedom and personality by these

evil, evil spirits. It's embarrassing for many

Christians to admit that there is demonic power.

But it's true that there is such a thing. This

man is broken into a thousand pieces. He is the

image of what the devil seeks for each and every

one of us. Destruction. The destruction of this

world. He's an example of the culture of death

and violence. The desecration of the human being

made in the image of God. Jesus commands the

demons to go into the pigs. Actually, the demons

say, what have you to do with us, Jesus? Why

have you come so soon before the time? Are you

here to torment us? Because they know their ultimate

fate. And they ask Jesus, and he... lets them.

This is not a negotiation. He lets them go into

the pigs. St. Ephraim the Syrian writes this

very kind of humorous meditation on that. He

says, O wise pigs, they could not endure the

wickedness of the demons, whereas the demoniac

endured them, and the people of the Gadarenes

coexisted with them, and we ourselves tolerate

fallen passions. And we ourselves tolerate sins

within ourselves, which is our own sort of spiritual

craziness. We ought to be, says St. Ephraim,

more like the pigs and root out the evil within

us. After all, the kingdom of heaven is taken

by force and the violent bear it away. But we

have to say, brothers and sisters, As baptized,

chrismated, communing, confessing Orthodox Christians,

we have the Lord's victory, not as some historical

event, but within us. This is something that

dwells within us. His victory over death, the

cross, the tomb, the resurrection, the ascension

into heaven, the gift of Pentecost, the demon's

power over us in the church, says many, many

of the saints. May be great for those outside,

but for us, it's no more than a counterfeit $100

bill. It looks impressive, and it might be used

for terrible means, but it has no backing. I

had a rough draft of this sermon in which I started

a rant about society. Obviously... You don't

need to hear a politician's rant. You need to

hear the gospel. So I'm not going to let this

sermon become a tirade. Let's just ask ourselves,

what is the church? If the church gives us this

gospel three times, what does the church tell

me today, this very day, right now, practically

speaking, what I need to know? Yes? First, God's

power over evil and death. That incident there

in Gadara, the Lord would destroy all the power

of Satan on the cross and in the tomb and in

the grave and in his glorious resurrection. Why

else would we show a fresco with the locks and

the bars of Hades being broken apart if he didn't

do it? Number one. So yes, there's that to remind

ourselves. Yes, it's because he has concern and

love and care and compassion for each of his

creatures, every single creature, especially

the human, because we are in the image and likeness

of God. And this is where I think we have to

focus for a moment. The Lord's labor was to heal.

He was also humble in this story. He left the

people who didn't want him there. Who's worse

off, that man with the demons or those people

who don't want Jesus Christ in their life? It's

amazing how people reacted to the greatest miracle

they had ever seen. God created us so that we

would know him, but he will not force us to follow.

His commandments. He won't. He's gentle. He's

good. He weeps. He follows us. Sometimes he steps

in front of us. Sometimes he sends us difficulties

so we'll be reminded we are not eternal. He will

indeed leave us if we ask him. But it's here

in this kind of leaving sense that I want to

say just one thing. That we might get overshadowed.

We might think that counterfeit hundred dollar

bill is real. We might forget that we have been

clothed like that man in the story. What's it

say? Then they went out to see what had happened

and came to Jesus and found the man from whom

the demons had departed sitting at the feet of

Jesus clothed and in his right mind that's the

baptism image this is what we want for himself

now it may seem trivial but how do we how do

we let that goodness and that holiness and that

purity that right -mindedness and our baptismal

robe stay cleansed how do we do that sounds trivial

but i'll tell you i woke up this morning the

alarm went off And the thought went into my head,

Father Nicholas is going to be here today. You

can stay in bed. Don't worry about it. I got

up and I said, no, I'm going to church. Do you

find yourself doing that with prayer? Easy to

do. Put something in its place. To forget. That

God comes first in the day. To keep the commandments,

we have our own vision of what's going to make

us happy, what's going to be fulfilling for us,

what's going to be good, relationships and so

forth. But we put them before Jesus Christ, especially

when we're young. And we lose that moment when

if we hit when the iron's hot like that, the

love of God will just heat up within us. And

we will have joy. And the kind that St. Paul

says we can't even imagine because it hasn't

entered into our mind what joy and goodness God

has for us, for those who love him. Do we find

ourselves, again, these are all trivial things,

but they all lead to turning away from Jesus.

Do we find ourselves unable to take criticism

from somebody we love? And we get defensive?

Do we find ourselves, I think maybe this is the

worst thing of all, and I'm going to end with

this. We just went through two and a half years

of a very difficult season. Our country was gripped

with ideology. That is, the feeling, the thought

that we had to follow a certain way. Those people

are bad. Those people are on my side. and anger

and destruction seemed to grip such a big part

of our society. Do this, don't do that. There

was no love, or very little. Why? Because we

were in the power, not of our own mind, not clothed

in our right mind, but we were in the power of

an ideology. We had no freedom. There were thousands

of voices. Shut the TV news off if it's making

you angry. Go to your room and pray. Pray for

those that you feel you don't love, that don't

love you. Let your heart be at peace. The Lord

said, as the time comes towards the end, before

his glorious appearing to all of creation, the

love between people would grow cold. These are

his words. Let us gather in this small sacred

space, just us few, love each other as the liturgy

says. Let us love one another so that with one

mind, what? We can confess Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit, the Trinity, one in essence, and apply

the remedy of love, Christ's healing. and cleansing

to be in our right mind and at his feet begging

trusting keeping his path and his destiny for

us amen