“Is There a Doctor in the House?”


Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – June 23, 2019

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 42; Luke 8:26-39

 

    The episode of Jesus' healing featured in our lesson this morning is unlike any story that we have in the Gospels.  There are several aspects to this story that require an interpretation.  One aspect is the existence of demons in which the people in Jesus' day fully believed.  Because demons are frequently mentioned and described in the Gospels, many people in our present day also believe in their existence.

    In our lesson, a man had a severe mental disorder that made him quite violent.  There were moments when his condition seized him in a way that was very disturbing to those living in his community.  People put him in chains for their own safety.  However, his illness often gave him super strength powerful enough to break the chains. His condition drove him to live among the burial caves where he would not hurt anyone. 

    Try to imagine the courage of Jesus to face this man when he saw him running toward him from the caves screaming, "Jesus, Son of God, what do you want with me.  Please do not torture me."  Jesus asked, "What is your name?"  He said, "My name is Legion." This name communicated that he was possessed by many demons.  A Roman Legion was the name given to an army of six thousand Roman soldiers. 

    Earlier in my ministry, I was on the Board of Directors of a Mental Health organization.  I found myself alone with one of the psychiatrists. I asked him if anyone ever came to him that felt they were possessed by demons.  His response surprised me.  He said, "Yes, they have.  Dick, these are very real. I have even found some of them have a voice and can speak.". 

He told me that demons are given birth from human fears that are fed regularly by strong emotional responses like:

My parents are right! I will never amount to anything with my life.  No one loves me; I will remain alone for the rest of my life.  My own mother has hated me since my birth.  Why am I afraid of meeting new people?  I only feel safe when I am in my bedroom. 

    What separates relatively healthy people from those who are possessed by demons is that the latter have been feeding their brains with a steady diet of self-defeating thoughts.  Soon these thoughts take on a life of their own and become a condition that may hold people prisoners for the rest of their lives.

    Today, people harmlessly label compulsions, addictions, and quirks in their personality as demons because they come from the conditioning of their minds over many years. People say, "He has a short fuse and can become intensely angry from small issues where his response in no way matches what upset him."

    However, there are certain religious groups that define demons much differently, believing that they are living entities whose mission is to take possession of the bodies of people. One has to wonder how they reconcile our loving God with the existence of such evil spirits that invisibly spend time stalking their prey.  

    In addition to the aspect of demons, we also have the aspect of Jesus sending these spirits into a large herd of pigs that ran into a lake and drowned.  Jesus was in a territory where people ate pork so this alleged act of Jesus not only represented the death of a food source for people but Jesus also inflicted an enormous financial loss for the farmer.  Most Biblical scholars suggest that what likely occurred was that the pigs stampeded because they were startled by the screaming of the demented man.  Under normal circumstances the area would have been quiet and peaceful but that day, the screaming man broke that silence. 

    There was a healing element caused by the stampede.  The mentally ill man saw the result of what he believed was the exit of his demons into the herd.  Seeing this evidence and the death of the pigs caused what the medical community calls a spontaneous remission for the man's mental illness. 

    His agonizing illness was changed by profound gratitude to Jesus for such deliverance.  His healing gave him a freedom that he had never known. Gratitude cancelled his negative patterns of thinking.   He was so excited that he begged Jesus, "Please, let me go with you."  Jesus responded by telling him to go home and tell everyone what God had done for him.

    Of course, a number of Christians today will bristle with such an interpretation of this passage believing that, once again, logic is explaining away one of Jesus' healings.  However, there is more to this story than a healing.

    One of the great qualities of the Scriptures is their flexibility.  We can breathe new life into ancient stories that originated during a time when fears and the existence of an unloving God reigned in the minds and hearts of people.  People lived in a time when the fear of God was perfectly justified by their understanding of God's nature.  

    One of the mysteries of mental illness is its origin. Where do mental illnesses come from?   A theory held by my psychiatrist friend was that many mental illnesses have their origin in early childhood.

    Recently, I encountered stories that came from two women who were abused by their parents.  As children, they were both told by their religious parents that they were demon-possessed and the parents assumed the responsibility of beating them in a fashion that is horrible to imagine.  Today, the two people with whom I spoke have been healed from their scars. It is a miracle that such children have escaped the imprint of their early childhood experiences.

    One of the toughest assignments for a pastor is dealing with people who are totally absorbed with thoughts and feelings of being unloved, unworthy, and a disappointment to everyone they know.  How are pastors able to convince people that in spite of what they believe about themselves they are intensely loved by God?  We may get a hint from our lesson.

    Prior to his healing, the last words that were spoken by the man were these: "I beg you, do not torture me!"  The punishment of his own people had isolated him.  They had put him in chains and banished him from their community.  This only set-in-stone his own conclusion that he was, indeed, possessed by evil spirits.

    What is the message in our lesson today? Jesus showed no fear of this man.  He spoke to him.  Healing came because Jesus found him worthy enough to talk to him.  My psychiatrist friend said, "One of the things that keeps me awake at night is our use of this thing." He reached over and took from his desk a prescription pad and he tossed it in front of me. 

    He told me that today, members of his profession are very busy treating symptoms and not causes.  There is not enough time for one on one sessions with everyone needing treatment. He said, "We are creating zombies."

    Think of what happened to people during Jesus' ministry because he took the time to talk to them.  He spoke to one of the great teachers of Israel about changing how he interpreted his life-experiences.  (John 3:3) Jesus invited himself to lunch with Zacchaeus, the chief of all tax collectors. (Luke 19:8).  Another moment came when Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.  (John 4:7f) On another occasion, Jesus healed a woman by forgiving her sins as a prostitute as she washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  (Luke 7:48)   Who can ever forget another time when Jesus said, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone"? (John 8:7) In each case society had isolated these individuals because of their role or their behavior.

    We do not know the power of our presence when we are accepting of another person to the point where we talk to them.  Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is within you."  (Luke 17:20f) When we allow the love of God to show up with our words and presence, we are doing exactly what Jesus did for the man in our lesson.  

    What frequently happens to us is that we stay away from toxic personalities who constantly complain, who are always seeing the flaws in others, and who only see the negative and hostile headlines as being true for the condition of the world.  For them, everything is wrong.  Everything is unacceptable.  There is little in their lives that they can celebrate with gratitude.  They are creating demons that grow the more they are fed a steady diet of thoughts that isolate them from happiness.

    The two women I spoke to last week were healed by people who brought the love of God into their lives. Today, the two healed women are shining examples of what it looks like to share the love of God with those who are lonely, broken, and lost.

    It may be that this one encounter by Jesus with this broken man represented the first-time anyone had spoken to him in years.  Jesus shattered this man's isolation.  Jesus' presence was enough to bring healing.  Jesus said, "Go home and tell the people in your town what God has done for you." This is what Jesus meant when he said, "Follow me."

    This drama had a happy ending without a prescription pad.  Jesus said, "Let your light shine.  Don't hide it."  (Matthew 5:16) When we follow through, miracles happen.  Each of us can become a healing physician just through our compassion and caring for people in spite of their living in a universe of thought that we will never know.  If we ask, "Is there is a doctor in the house that can help this person?"  We may look in the mirror and hear Jesus saying to us:

Yes, there is and you are that doctor. Show up in people's lives with your presence of compassion and understanding. I will do the rest.

     

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

Loving and always faithful God, our experiences often teach us that life happens while we are busy making other plans.  We have learned that life-reversals can often become stepping-stones to our next adventure. We have learned that a significant loss often becomes the doorway to a vital discovery.  You have called us to look at life as a journey to a promised-land.   We thank you for giving us moments when we must wait for the next phase of our lives to take form. Thank you for the eyes of spirit that allow us to perceive your guidance with peace, faith, and trust.   Amen. 

                                                   

THE PASTORAL PRAYER

Thank you, God, for sending us new horizons toward which to walk, new problems to solve, and new fragile moments that challenge us to find the tools to live creatively. Thank you for the times when the symbols of security dissolve around us and once again, our thoughts must find peace in the unfolding of something unexpected.  If it were not for the moments when we have to wait for the results of such times, there would be no need for faith and trust.

Why is it, O God, that we so quickly respond with frustration when we have to wait because other people have adversely affected some desire that we have?  Why is it that we find detours in life so unattractive?  Why is it that we conclude that some experiences in life are unfair?  Has not hindsight repeatedly shown us that some of those detours took us to places that we needed to go? Too many times, O God, we forget who you created us to be and we ignore living our faith when circumstances could not be more perfect to let our light shine.

As we reflect on our lives, who could have known ahead of time that we would be where we are?  It has been interesting as we have looked back on our lives to realize how each unplanned piece has fit so neatly into all the others.  As we anticipate our future, may our faith help us to realize that in every moment we have the opportunity to reflect the qualities of your spirit to an audience of onlookers whose names we may never know.  We pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .