Coming Out of Closets, Prison, Tombs, and Caves

by

Erwin C. Barron

Preached at Old First Presbyterian Church

San Francisco, California

June 20, 2004

Old Testament Reading:  1 Kings 19: 9-15

9At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"  10He answered, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.  I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."

11He said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by."  Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake;  12and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.  13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood  at the entrance of the cave.  Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"  14He answered, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.  I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."  15Then the Lord said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.

The New Testament Reading:  Galatians 3:  23-29

23Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed.  24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.  25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.  27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

The Gospel Reading:  Luke 8: 26-39

26Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.  27As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him.  for a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live ina house but in the tombs.  28When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me" - 29for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.)  30Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?"  He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him.  31They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these.  So he gave them permission.  33THen the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country.  35Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  36Those who had been possessed by demons had been healed.  37Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear.  So he got into the boat and returned.  38THe man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39"Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you."  So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

It has been a long time since I’ve preached a sermon!  Since I’ve moved into the academic world, I seem to be preparing lectures on philosophy more often than sermons.  So I was excited with Cindy asked me to preach this week.  And then, when I looked at the lectionary passages, I was even more excited.  I love Paul’s hymn to inclusion in Galatians 3:28.  It’s one of my favorite Bible passages, and I’ve never had the chance to preach on it.  I thought it would be very appropriate since we commissioned our PRIDE marchers this morning that we could declare with Paul:  “In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female,…”  And I’m sure he would have added “neither gay nor straight… for we are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Well, that is all wonderful and good, and I do firmly believe that.  That would be a lovely sermon that needs to be heard by many people.  But then I looked at the other lectionary passages for today.  And I got intrigued by Luke’s story of the Gerasene demoniac.  This is one cool and very strange story!   And, frankly, I think this story has a whole lot more to say to us about exclusivity and outcasts and God’s love than Paul’s lovely little declaration of unity.

So, let’s look first this morning at Luke’s very odd story.

Most of us have heard the story before.  Jesus finds a man possessed by demons named “Legion” and he casts them out into some pigs, and they go running off the cliff.

At first glance this seems entirely irrelevant to us!  Demons, and legions, and herds of pigs have nothing to do with modern day San Francisco , do they? 

I remember how a Sunday School teacher explained it to me when I was a kid.  She said, you know, those ancient people didn’t understand mental illness so they called it “demon possession.”   That poor ol’ guy was just crazy in the head, you know a lot like your Uncle Jim who always makes those stupid comments at family gatherings.  Jesus felt pity for this poor, mentally ill guy, and he cured him of his mental illness just like he cured so many other sick people.  Jesus was kind and could perform miracles of healing.  Isn’t that a nice little story?

That’s how I had always thought of the story of Gerasene Demoniac.  But then I read it more closely, and found all sorts of things that bothered me.

         Why did Jesus only talk to this guy?  He was in a new town where he had never been, and he only talked to the crazy guy.

         Why were the demons called “Legion”?  That seems like a very odd name, surely the demon could have been named Beelzebub or something more sinister.  And why was there more than one of them?  Can’t one big demon do enough damage?  One devil sure seemed to take care of Linda Blair in the Exorcist.

         And then there are the pigs!  Why send the demons into the pigs, why not just get rid of them completely?  Why did the poor innocent pigs have to get killed?

         And the story ends wrong!  The people got MAD at Jesus and insisted he leave.  They should have been throwing him a party instead of throwing him out of town, and they should have thanked him for having cured this annoying, troubled crazy guy who was causing so much trouble in their town?  Luke says the people were afraid?  What were they scared of?

Something is wrong with our usual way of understanding this story.  Something else is going on here that we miss if we simply make the guy into a mentally ill guy whom Jesus cured.  In fact, that just might be a dangerous way to interpret the story. 

In that traditional understanding, we make the demon possessed man into the bad guy who desperately needs Jesus’ help to be made good.  That makes the story about someone else… some crazy person, someone very different from me.  In that story Jesus heals some OTHER person who needs his help.  I should be kind to crazy people, but that’s really all the story has to do with me.  It’s about those OTHER people.. those CRAZY people.  

But… what if the bad guy is not the possessed man?  What if the bad guys in the story are the townspeople?  What if *I* am the bad guy in the story?  What if it is not the crazy man’s demons that need to be cast out… but MINE!

The people of Gerasa have lived with this guy for a long time, but they really haven’t done anything about him.  They drag him down into the tombs and chain him to the wall and complain about him.  He escapes every now and again and runs through town naked and screaming, just often enough that everyone can complain about him.  Can’t you hear the townspeople complaining:

-          “This town used to be a nice place before we had to deal with that demoniac.”

-          “No good companies ever locate in this town any more.  It must be because of that damn demoniac.”

-          “We’d have more tourists come down here to scenic Gerasa if weren’t for the demoniac scaring them away.”

-          “I’ve been so depressed lately and I just feel miserable!  I can’t imagine why. Must be because I’ve been so worried about the demoniac.”

-          “We don’t have any money for social services in this town because we have to spend so much on guards for the demoniac down in the tomb.”

The good people of Gerasa make this man into their scapegoat.  He becomes the Source of all of their problems.  They can all agree that he is the problem and not have to face their own issue.  Blaming the demoniac is so much easier.

And so the demons that Jesus sends out of the poor man are NOT a single devilish characteristic or mental illness in the man.  But the demons harming this guy are the townspeople themselves.  All those people in town who entomb the poor guy!  Those are the demons who have possessed him.  That’s why they are legion!  It’s not just one demon, it’s all the people in town who make him a scapegoat.  And then Jesus turns the table on the town!  Instead of just ridding the poor man of the demons the townspeople have scapegoated onto him, Jesus does the right thing and sends the demons right back where they belong into the herd – those swinnish townspeople who have so many problems they don’t want to claim as their own.

And that’s why they are so angry with Jesus.  Things were nice when they could blame all of their problems on the demoniac down in the tombs.  But when the former demoniac comes out of tomb and walks among them clothed and in his right mind, they realize they now must face their fears and prejudices and difficulties head on.  They no longer have their scapegoat!  That’s difficult!  That’s honest!  But that’s terrifying!  No wonder they want to run Jesus out of town!  He took away their scapegoat.  Jesus has got to GO!

This is not a story about having pity for and showing mercy to a poor, crazy man. Far from it!  Jesus points his finger at you and at me in this story.  We all have demons.  Each one of us has demonic forces and big problems that trouble us.  And we don’t want to face them!  So we send them over onto the demoniac, the scapegoat, someone we can blame for our own problems.   And then we can unite around hating him!

-          I’m doing poorly in school.  It’s got to be that awful professor Smith.  We all hate Mrs. Smith.  She’s just a lousy teacher.  If it weren’t for her, all of us would be making good grades.

-          San Francisco is going to the dogs.  The place is dirty, the economy is in shambles, and even the tourists aren’t coming any more.  It’s those damn homeless people.  We all hate them.

-          Old First Church is not what it used to be.  Our membership is down, our budget is way too small, we can’t get good leadership.  It’s all Sam’s fault.  If it weren’t for Sam, we’d be doing great. 

-          Gays and lesbians are so badly oppressed in American society.  They don’t want to come to church because the church is so cruel to them.  It’s those damn conservatives, they’re just ruining the church and our country!  We can all unite around hating those right wingers!

But you know… we don’t need to be casting our demons onto others!  Let’s not make gays and lesbians, homeless folks, or right wing Christians into our new demoniacs.  This story says we must let them come out of the tombs and live among us!   And we must come out ourselves and face our demons head on.  We have our own problems we must come out and face. 

We talk a lot about gay and lesbian people “coming out.”  They “come out” of their closets and accept themselves honestly for who they are.  When they have “come out” they can march down Market Street with PRIDE!   Well, this is a “coming out story.”  It’s rather amazing how often the story uses those words.  Jesus commands those evil legion of demons to COME OUT of the man… and they do!  Then, near the end that the people of the town “came out” to see what had happened, and when they had come out, they met Jesus and the perfectly healthy man they had labeled demon-possessed.  

And this is remarkably connected to the other scripture passages in our lectionary readings today.  They are also coming out stories.

In the Old Testament story, poor Elijah is running away from Queen Jezebel.  She blames him for all the problems in Judah .  He is her scapegoat, and she wants to kill him.  So Elijah flees into the wilderness, and he hides in a deep dark cave.  But then, the Lord God of Hosts commands him:  “COME OUT, Elijah!  Come out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.”  So Elijah comes out of his dark cave and faces God.  Then he has the courage to return to Judah and stand up to the evil Queen who passes her demons onto him.  Come out!

And to my amazement, even the Paul’s wonderful passage from Galatians has this coming out.  He begins, “We were imprisoned and guarded under the law.”  We were in  prisons condemned and guarded by the old Law.  And in Christ, we come out of that prison.  Paul says we were imprisoned, we were full of demons, ranting and raving in the tombs like the Gerasene demoniac.   Like the Gerasa townspeople, we are unable to face our demons.  In our prisons we must divide and scapegoat. 

-          Men separate themselves and make women the scapegoats.

-          The ruling classes imprison and oppress the slaves and the poor.

-          Good people of faith blame all the problems of the world on those non-believing Greek Gentiles with their secular humanism.

-          And the heterosexual majority isolates themselves from those sick and disgusting gay people.  They insist that society’s acceptance of homosexuality is clear evidence of the horrible decline of western civilization!  It’s their fault the world is so depraved.

In our prisons we cannot face our own demons.  We must scapegoat the demoniac!

But Jesus casts out the demons!  He refuses to allow such scapegoating.  He insists we COME OUT of our old ways imprisoned in our tombs and closets.  Come out!  The excluded and blamed demoniacs must come out and to walk among us clothed in their right mind! 

We can become a new society, a new world, coming out of the tombs!  Jesus shows us how!  We can step out of the closet and the cave and face our problems head on.  And with the God of Hosts at our side, we can face down those demons and send them headlong over the cliffs.

            We are all demon possessed! 

We must come out and face those demons!
And when we do, standing with the risen and conquering Christ ,  WE WILL WIN!

The demons will be cast out.

In Christ, you and I and the poor crazy demoniac, all of us are children of God.

We all come out of the caves and tombs together and stand before our God!

Women and men, slaves and free, Jews and Greeks, Gays and Straights

Townspeople and demoniac…

We are ALL free in the light of day and we are all conquerors --

All one in Jesus Christ, heirs to God’s amazing promise.

Jesus says, “Come out!  Come out, I say!”

Come out and be the heirs of Abraham, the children of God, that God made us to be!

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