Pentecost 4

Pentecost 4

Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.

Separation from God has many consequences.

We see three examples of these consequences in this passage.
The first example is that of the demons. Demons are the burnt out remnants of once glorious and magnificent angelic beings. We all know the story how the most beautiful and exalted of the angels, a Seraph, named Light Bearer, seduced one third of the angelic beings to give themselves to him. They gave themselves to him by worshipping him.

Light Bearer promised the angels greater knowledge and greater power if they would immerse themselves in the glory of his own essential light. It was, of course, a lie. It was also a choice. The principle the Bible sets forth from this angelic choice in the heavenly realms is that it does matter who you choose to worship and how you choose to worship. You become who or what you worship.

Jesus describes Light Bearer, Lucifer, as a liar and a murderer from the beginning. His lie was that he was like God. His seductive promise based on that lie was that he could and would share his immense knowledge and power with those who worshipped him. The murder took place when Light Bearer attacked Michael, the smallest and least of the angels. In his pride Light Bearer not only believed he could defeat Michael, he knew he could defeat Michael. Heaven would be his and God would have no choice but to appoint him as his infallible all powerful co-regent of the heavenly realm.

But Light Bearer could not defeat Michael. Against all logic and reason Michael proved to be far more powerful than any of the angels imagined. As Light Bearer lost the battle with Michael he summoned his worshippers and ripped the power from them to magnify his own power. In that action he murdered the angelic beings.

When Michael finally won the battle he cast Light Bearer out of the heavenly realm, out of the realm of the infinite and eternal, into the realm of time and space, into our universe. As he fell from the heavenly realm Light Bear, now called Satan- the Enemy- reached out and claimed his followers as his slaves. They had given themselves to him willingly in worship. He had ripped them apart to seize their power, now he pulled them out of heaven to serve as his slaves.

The demons are desiccated burnt out remnants of their former glory. By their own choice they separated from God. By their own choice they unified themselves to Lucifer. By their own choice they abandoned love and holiness for knowledge and power. By their own choice they put their trust in Lucifer. Lucifer lied to them, betrayed them, and murdered their true essence.

The fallen angels abandoned eternal life and now only experience endless tedious existence. They will not and cannot repent. But they do seek some relief from their self inflicted torment. One means of relief is to possess a human being.
Human beings also chose to separate from God. But, unlike the demons, humans did not give themselves to Satan in worship. Satan has no right or authority to enslave a human being as he once seized and enslaved his angelic followers. Human beings can still repent and return to God.

For humans, the choice remains open. Humans are lost in separation but can still be found and given a choice to reunite with God. Human also have the choice to persist in separation. The Gerasene people had made some choices that produced consequences. Some of these consequences seemed desirable, in the short term.

The Gerasenes were Israelites who had compromised on one very specific command. God had commanded Moses that certain animals were to be classified as unclean for the people of Israel. Now, the command was given for two reasons. It was a boundary to protect the people from the excess of self will. And it was an image of holiness.
The Gerasenes had broken this command for a very practical and ordinary reason: money. There were many gentiles living in the nearby provinces. The gentiles did not observe the Law of Moses. Pork was perfectly good meat for the gentiles. The Gerasenes probably reasoned amongst themselves that they would not eat the unclean meat but they could sell it to the unclean gentiles. The Law not only forbade consuming pork for food. It also declared that the people should not even touch a pig. The Gerasnes probably did not eat the pork. But they did selectively violate the law by raising the pigs for export to the gentiles.

Such compromises reveal the problem that besets human nature. God says yes, and people say- well –maybe. God says- no, and people say- why not. Eventually, the compromise results in disobedience and the disobedience only creates greater division and separation.

Moses and the prophets clearly and distinctly taught that the love of God is the single most important priority in our lives. The love of God is expressed in worship. Under the Law of Moses part of that worship involved a choice for people to sacrifice a portion of their time and a portion of their means. God had declared pigs off limits to the Israelites. The command was a boundary set to help the people grow in trust and to grow in love. The people of the Gerasenes made a different choice. They chose money.

The man possessed by the demon is both an individual tragedy and a symbol of the spiritual state of his people. The individual tragedy is that because this man had accepted the compromises of his people he abandoned the worship of God. I doubt he ever meant to allow the demons to possess him. But, in the choices he made based on compromise and separation he opened himself to the possibility of demon possession. The precise detail of how this happened is unimportant. It was only possible because he had accepted an approach to life where money was more important that worship; and, where his own will to power was more important than the love and holiness of God’s will.

The Gerasenes were lost in their worship of money. Jesus had come to them as he came to others in Israel to find them and to offer them a different choice. The possessed man was lost in a Legion of demons. Jesus came to find him and to restore him to health and wholeness and to holiness.

The demons asked for relief of their suffering but did not ask for Jesus to restore their relationship with God. Jesus cast them out of the place where they had no right to be. He allowed them to enter the herd of pigs. The corporeal cannot sustain the demonic presence. As the demonic presence had driven the man insane so the pigs suffered the same state. They panicked, ran aimlessly, and eventually found relief by plunging to their death the Lake.

The principle revealed in this terrifying event is one of the basic principles in scripture. Be sure your sins will find you out. There is pleasure in sin for a time but after that the judgment. Human choice always enters into the world of cause and effect and always produces a result consistent with God’s Law. It may take minutes, it may take hours, it may take years. The Bible is a record of a thousand years of human experience that concludes: no one ever successfully breaks God’s Law. God law always stand immutable perfect and inviolate. Human choice enters the world of cause and effect and produces a result. There probably will be pleasure in sin for a time. But, without fail the consequence is disastrous. The consequence is separation, sin and death.

The man who had been tormented was now healed. His sanity had been restored. He recognized God in Jesus Christ and received the completion of his healing by proclaiming his faith in Christ. His family, friends and neighbors were astonished and fearful. As he so often did and continues to do, Jesus stood in their midst as a perfect mirror to their souls. They did not like what they saw in that perfect mirror. They reacted with fear.

They feared the power of Jesus. They feared the perfection of Jesus. They feared the Divine Presence in Jesus. They feared because they were unwilling to change. They made a choice not to change. So, they asked Jesus to leave. And, he did.
Jesus imposes himself on no one. He offers himself to everyone. Salvation is a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. It is always a real choice.
The man wanted to go with Jesus but Jesus had a job for him to do. The people had rejected the personal presence of God in Jesus Christ so Jesus asked the man to stay where he was and to share his personal experience with God in his own home.
Why would Jesus do this?

Jesus is the lover of souls. He loves all people everywhere. His love is unconditional and eternal. The Gerasenes were too fearful to speak with Jesus any longer so Jesus appointed the man he had healed to be his representative in that place at that time. Jesus appoints no co-regents to rule. Jesus appoints personal representatives to share his divine love and compassion with others.

The same principle is true for us. As we have received the gift of reunification with God the Father through our personal relationship with God the Son, so Jesus asks us to proclaim to our family, friends and neighbors how much good God has done for us. Jesus asks us to be his personal representative to the people we know and the people we meet.

Moses and the prophets observed the human condition for over a thousand years. They all came to the same conclusion. Human beings are lost in separation, enmeshed in rebellion, and broken by sin. We need a savior. That savior is Jesus Christ. Jesus has come to find the lost, reunite us to love and transform us in holiness. Jesus asks each of us to work and pray for that same goal.

As Jesus said to the man he had healed so long ago so he says to us today. You were lost and I have found you. You were broken and I am healing you. You are rebellious and I am transforming you as you make a real choice to immerse yourself in the real presence of Divine love and holiness in the blessed sacrament of the altar.
As you leave this building today in the sacramental power of divine love and holiness Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.