my name is legion

from my sermon on 6/20/10 from Luke 8:26-39

My first response to this passage is "Ah, how quaint these ancient ones in their understanding of the world." They have Jesus crossing over to the "other side." You can tell how they divide people into "us" and "them." It is Gentile country. There are pigs which the Jews have nothing to with with. There are tombs which the Jews avoid. There is a crazy person.

We never get into us and them thinking. As if we divide Austin into east of I-35 and west of I-35. As if we divide states into red states and blue states. As if we have issues with border security and those people over there. As if we have troubles with other races. As if we warehoused the mentally ill. Oops...maybe this passage has some traction, some relevance in our lives today.

But at least we don't have the primitive view of demon possession. We don't believe in this. As if we were possessed by our possessions. I heard a man say, "The more you own, the more you groan." As if we had addictions--to alcohol and other drugs, to work, to pornography, to controlling other people, to gambling. As if we had compulsions to greater success, to security with gated communities and alarms. As if we were obsessed with "bueaty," checking out of HEB and seeing all of the magazines for tighter abs and sexier eyes. As if we had to stay in constant contact, tethered to our electronic devices. Who came up with the term "Smart phone?" What is so smart about always being available? I know some of us have to instantly pickup whenever we hear the "ding" of our phone or computer. I have created a new game; it is called email lotto. Whenever I hit send/recieve, I try to guess how many new emails will be in my inbox. This morning I guessed 21, and there were 21! Although 4 of them were spam and didn't really count. As if we were overcommitted. Used to, we would establish priorities...1, 2, 3, 4...but now it looks like this 1, 1, 1, 1. Oops, perhaps this passage has more relevance than we would like to think. If Jesus were to ask us our name, today in this house of God, we might truthfully have to say, "My name is legion."

Legions would be well known in that time in the middle east. There were at least 3 stationed there. A legion consisted of about 6,000 soldiers. So the possessed man was saying a great number inhabited his being. Legions were also the occupying army and were not well liked. So the man would be saying that he had been taken over by opposing forces, and was in conflict, at war with himself. Today we might say, My name is mob.

What has all this to do with Father's Day? Pastor Jim recentl had about 12 of us men go through a study called Letters from Dad. We had a book to read, we have DVD's to watch, we had weekly meetings, and we had a plan to follow. Over a month we were to write letters to our wives, our children, our parents, and then a legacy letter that contained our core values and treasured beliefs that we wanted to pass on to future generations. What many of the men said was, "My dad never told me he loved me. I never got a hug from my dady. I don't remember getting a blessing from my father. I don't have a letter of affirmation from my dad." I know that this is not unique to men, but what I am trying to say is that it is more complicated for men today. We have more roles to play. We are gettting into feelings and relationships. Our name is legion.

Well at least we don't get caught up in the power of the name. The ancient ones believed that if you knew someone's name, you had power and authority over them. And yet, when we go to the hospital with some mysterious ailment, we are petrified of the unknown cause. But when the doctor "names" the dis-ease, we feel more at east. Once it has been diagnosed, named, we feel that we can fight it. Naming it is the first step to a cure.

But we don't believe in exorcisms. The man with the demons begged for them to be sent into the herd of pigs. They didn't want to be sent into the abyss. But ironically, once they demons went into the pigs, the pigs rushed into the lake and drowned, taking the demons into the abyss. In one of the commentaries I read, it said that this is the first record of "deviled ham."

The ancient ones didn't have the therapies we do today of medications and counseling, which I firmly believe in, and often send people who see me off to their physician to get a complete workup. Yet I have seen people who were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit become different people, whole people because of that sacrment. I have seen people come forward and be changed because they heard, "Doug, the body of Christ for you." I have seen people on the Walk to Emmaus leave something horrible behind at dying moments communion, and it never has power over them again. I have seen you kneel here, and be anointed with oil in the name of Jesus Christ, our Great Physician, and be healed. Where else in life are we going to get sin and evil dealt with? Where else where we feel cleansed and holy? Jesus still has power over evil.

The man whose name was legion is in his right mind. I love that wording. He sits at the feet of Jesus. It is the proper posture of a disciple. The community is scared. They want Jesus to leave. Why if Jesus can do this for this man, what will he do in our lives? We can no longer project all of our issues onto this "problem child," we will have to deal with our own stuff.

I read a book by an Episcopalian priest who talks about visiting a sick person in the hospital. He read one of the standard prayers from the wonderful Book of Common Prayer. The person was instantly healed! The priest left the hospital and out on the street, this was his next prayer, "Don't you ever do that again!" It is scary to think that this God revealed in Jesus has that kind of power and might want to go places in our lives that we would rather he wouldn't go.

The man whose name was legion wants to go with Jesus. The Greek literally says, "be with you." Usually Jesus says, "Come, follow me." This one time he says, "return, go back to the very ones who cast you out and declare to them all that God has done for you."

We are trying to live into our new vision statement of Following One, Serving All. We don't always have to go to Africa or China. Sometimes our mission field is our very neighborhood.

Did the man whose name was legion actually witness to those Gentile neighbors on the other side? I think he did.....for down through the ages and even today there are legions of believers.