– Readings I Kings 19: 1-4,8-15a, Elijah runs to a cave and God passes by,Psalm 53:6 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Luke 8:26-39 – the story of the man possessed by demons named Legion
Is your faith empty of authentic power?
Does it seem to have no relevance to the news of war and powerlessness?
Today’s readings insist on the mystery of God who refuses domination and looks to heal human affairs. We followed dramatic events of Elijahs life and Luke tells us about Jesus in a way that tells us his followers refused Roman violence and looked to God to bring real change in their lives.
First Reading,was about a spiritual drama but prompted by history. There is evidence for King Ahab and a marriage with Jezebel.
Remember that……all the history in the Bible, is a faith history, rememberAbraham whose faith was counted as righteousness and who was promised descendants as numerous as the stars, so patriarchs matriarchs, Joseph, Egypt, Slavery,and a few Hebrews become many, Exodus and Moses, wilderness and promised land, disputes, King David and his wise son Solomon, but division, Judah and Israel, two Kingdoms, Israel north of Judah, eventually only Judah survives with Jerusalem as capital. Its confusing that Israel we know today is actually around the old Kingdom of Judah. But in the northern Kingdom, ancient Israel King Ahab marries a foreigner and her religion comes with her, worship of Baal, Elijah takes on a band of prophets and proves Yahweh is God in a way Baal can never be, the people witnessing it, side with the winner and kill the prophets of Baal, and Jezebel the Kings wife, is not pleased. Elijah will die. He loses his courage. Runs for his life and ends up in this cave. On the mount Horeb (known now as Sinai).
There is Lots of irony in this story. Why are you here? Does God not know?
God will reassure and pass by but like Moses, Elijah will not see God, for seeing is dangerous. The description is beautiful, not God of the weather like Baal is, even if God has proved he could send lightening outpowering Baal, nor in acts of power as so many religions imagine. There is nothing to see or hear. Not in the wind, earthquake, nor fire.
Instead, the sound of sheer silence is Yahweh passing by.
And wisely Elijah covers his face to meet God after God has passed by.
And the question comes back to Elijah what are you doing here? Which is really, why are you still here, you have what you need…….nowbe a messenger and means for this faith history to continue……..
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
The second reading is also in strange territory. Jesus is obeying the mission of God and travels across the sea of Galilee to foreign territory. Yet there too he is recognised as the Son of the Most HighGod, a phrase Gentile religions would recognize because they taught of many gods.
A possessed man, who is waiting for Jesus to land, cries out, and is healed. Today I want to highlight here is a political part to this story that tells you what Luke thought of Roman rule. Did you notice the name of the demons is Legion. And cast out, they enter pigs, unclean enter unclean, but nature resists too; the pigs would rather drown than be possessed by Legion. The demons go to the abyss. Several words in this story are military too. Shackles and chains (of prisoners) the commanding, herds of pigs when they don’t travel in herds but the word was often used for a band of military recruits, and they charge like troops rushing into battle, where hostile waters swallow them, like Egyptians being drowned in the red sea.
Most clearly this is from TheTorah.com : the Hebrew term for pig and boar are the same, The rabbis saw the boar’s tendency to roam and plunder the hillside as reminiscent of the the destruction and violence wreaked by the Romans, who ravaged the hills of Judea and devastated its population, the boar image was likely strengthened by the fact that the tenth legion of the Roman army, Legio X Fretensis (“of the straits”), which took active part in the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E., was known as the boar because of its prominent emblem
It is convincing that this story of Jesus had strong political overtones for Luke. Jesus brings the discontent of Roman occupation to light. But if Luke remembered this dramatic story for the promise that the violence and domination of Rome would come to an end. It did not come in their lifetimes. Christians were crucified, killed in the arenas, persecuted, just as their Lord.
Should we be surprised then that we are faced with a world with Russian violence and internal violence in the USA, spilling over to shootings in Toronto and Montreal. What of the sex trafficking this weekend around F1, shackles of the 21st century, or the UK Govt sending asylum seekers to Rwanda? And what other story appalls you? Powerlessness and possession seems to be as bad as ever.
So why are these stories in our Bible?
God found not in the force of nature, but the least of sounds, an Otherness full of promise.
Jesus and nature, together, refusing possession of demonic power.
Yet violence still at large.These stories are calling me, talking to me, of a nevertheless, a deeper reality than any dictator, Pharaoh or Emperor can ever possess. And this is for all, especially for those who have lost their minds, and lost everything.When you feel you are losing your mind, over anxious, oppressed or afraid, read this story of Elijah losing his nerve, and put yourself into the chains of the man possessed by demons of injustice and violence.
And know that God is with you. Look to God, not for the obvious power that you think would fix things, but within you, rising from the daily experience of nature, from your very breath and take this calm truth that connects you to eternity.
Its in the command to love your enemy, in the sound of sheer silence, in the promise Jesus is with us always, even to the end of the world. SoWhen I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Amen.