Living on the edge

He was a man living on the edge. 

He lived  on the edge between reason and insanity.  Who knew when all the powers that competed for his life would once again attempt to crush his will, his mind, even his very life? He lived on that edge between love and hate as his neighbors first tried to help, then in fear and frustration left him to rant and rave beyond the community.

 He lived on the edge of civilization, in that town across the sea, where pigs were raised.  He lived in a land that knew not YHWH and therefore, beyond the blessings of the Divine Creator.  He lived on the edge between life and death, out there among the tombs, hidden among the dead.

Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee to step into the world of a man who was living on the edge, just as Jesus crossed the eternal divide to step into the world of humankind who was perpetually living on the edge.

Take a moment and focus in.  Zoom in on that moment when Jesus stepped out of the boat on the other side of the sea, on the other side of the acceptable, on the other side of the land of blessing.  Focus in on that first step when Jesus, the very presence of God in our world, took that first step..  He came as the Divine Creator, the Divine Lover, the Divine Healer, the eternal bridge between our reality and God's desire.

Jesus came to see the anonymous man who was out of his right mind, raving at the furies, naked in every aspect of his tormented life, and 'living' (if you could call it that) among the dead. Jesus came to him and he was re-born.  The oppression of the Legion of demons - like the legion of Roman soldiers who ruled with an iron fist - was expelled.  His mind was released.  His tongue was released.  His body became his own once again.  Jesus stepped on that distant shore to give this man back his life.

That is all.  One man across the vast sea, living in a foreign land, experienced the total healing of every part of his life.  Then he is left behind to lead others towards this person who heals, this Son of God who gives life, this Savior who recognizes neither race or social status, but only wounded need.

In the end, the anonymous man was given two gifts: the gift of life and the gift of community.  Jesus?  Everyone asked him to leave.  They were frightened - by what?  Too much good?  Too much unknown?  Too much that was going to change?  Not sure, I just know that in the end, it was Jesus who was pushed to the edge, without community, without protection, without status.

The one who traveled to the edge to bring life was pushed to the edge yet promised life.  Whatever edge you are living on.....look for Jesus.

Where is your faith taking you?

It is the story about the storm on the Sea of Galilee in Mark that prompts this question.  Where is your faith taking you?

Might not be the first question that comes to your mind.  You might be thinking that this is a story of greater (or lesser) faith, or about Jesus as powerful, or a story about a miracle at sea.  A case can be made for all of those approaches, but I want to ask the question Where is your faith taking you? because of this little phrase at the beginning of the whole adventure  "Let's go over to the other side".

Jesus has just told the disciples a wonderful parable about how the mustard seed is like the Kingdom of God.  It is an unremarkable seed in size but it yields a plentiful harvest of .....mustard, which is considered a bit of a weed in most parts of the world.  This tiny, tiny seed will become a shrub so large birds can nest in its branches.  That is what the Kingdom of God is like.

Now let me propose that you weren't really paying attention when the mustard seed parable was read because you thought it was a parable about the size of your faith.  Not in Mark.  In Mark it is about the Kingdom of God growing large, strong and providing shelter for creation.

Then........

Then Jesus proposes taking the boat on a trip to the other side of the sea of Galilee.  The other side.  To those other people.  To that foreign and scary land.  On the other side of the Sea is the land of the Gerasenes, and waiting for Jesus' arrival is a man so possessed by demons that he has lost his mind along with any sense of decorum.  He is raving, living in the caves with dead people.

Sure, Jesus.  Let's take a trip to the land of the mad people.

Now the disciples didn't argue with Jesus, and one must presume that they had no idea how bad it was going to get once they got to the other side.  But we who know the whole story, who have the gift of distance from which to interpret this story, might not be so willing to pick up some oars and set off for 'the other side'.

So no matter how the disciples responded to Jesus' request, we might well take some time to realistically consider what our response would have been. Knowing what we know now, would you have started rowing?  Written a check?  Sent up thoughts and prayers?  Gone to Council to complain about wasted resources?  Hmmmmm.

So, on this Day 1 of Where is your faith taking you?  I want you to consider just how far you would go in response to God's command to 'go to the other side'.  Be honest with yourself.  What is holding you back?  What are really frightened of?  The people?  The locale?  That you will embarrass yourself?  That you will encounter people who you can't communicate with?

I have my own list.  It's time to make yours.

When was the last time........

......the demons drove you into the wild?


When was the last time..... life as you knew it stopped on a dime and you couldn't catch your breath and day after day you saw no way back to normal again?

When was the last time.......a hurt became a grudge became a quiet campaign (conducted in lower voices) to defame the source of your pain?

When was the last time.....a minor mishap became a explosion of emotion and energy that forced family and friends to duck behind some kind of shelter until the storm passed?

When was the last time....you watched as a friend moved from disappointment to fear to despair as they began to believe the voices in their heads telling them they had no worth?

There are forces in our world which want to deprive you of life.......the ease to breathe, to move among us, to walk with self-worth, to make plans for the future, to feel safe in your own body.  There are forces that will seep into our broken places and then drain us of the life that God has given us.

We have heard much in the news of the Stanford rape case.  When I read the victims letter I thought - ahhh, there are the demons at work.   I am not speaking of the man who assaulted her. That young woman spoke of her struggle against all that wanted to hold her prisoner in a place that is only dark and never light- a place of constant vigilance and fear, a place where she would forget who she was.  Rather, in the wake of that horrible experience, the victim was assaulted again and again by forces that would rob her of her future.  She has fought powerfully to find her way back to life again.  To live without fear and without hate.

I know, we modern people don't believe in demons or evil spirits, but I think that a little thought will lead us to see times when we 'just couldn't let it go' or times when 'somehow it got blown all out of proportion' or times when disappointment crushed us and made it hard to step forward again.

These are the times when our relationship with God becomes our lifeline.  It is exactly the time to remind ourselves that we are children of the Divine Creator; God knows our name and desires goodness for us.  It is exactly the time to be surrounded by others who are strong, who will say the name of Jesus and pray for our welfare.  It is exactly the time to eat bread and drink wine and be filled with our Lord's strength.

It is exactly the time to remember the day we call Good Friday when evil took hold of people's cowardice and fear and executed the one who brought healing into this world...the day evil thought it was in charge.

Then remember this.....'early in the morning on the first day of the week, the women brought spices so to anoint Jesus' body....'

but he was not there.

In the end, love wins.

Where the wild things are......

Almost anyone in the US who has read the literature of the youngest among us are familiar with Maurice Sendak's Where the  Wild Things Are.  Wonderfully illustrated, it congers up the vibrant  monsters that roam the imaginations of young minds. A little odd looking, a little frightening....but not too much. These wild things are manageable.

As we grow older, the monsters of our imagination are not so tame.  Hiding behind trees or under our beds, these monsters too come out as the darkness falls and we try to settle into some semblance of rest.  These monsters have names like 'sending my children to college' or 'the heart disease in my family' or 'making a fool of myself at work' or 'the dead space in my marriage.' These are the wild things of our imaginations: real possibilities in our frail lives. They rob us of peace.

They, however, are not demons.
Demons are evil.

Demons want death in all its forms and simply for the sake of the terror and pain that are possible.  They worm their way into our minds through our ear canals and take possession of the space where imagination begins and terror develops.  They squeeze in through our eyes and forever mar our vision of this world and its inhabitants.  They are absorbed through our skin and make their way into our hearts and slowly change human flesh into stone. The demons will drive us right out of our minds.

Like that guy in Gerasene, the naked one, raving and howling at the moon and living among the bones of the dead.  With strength that breaks open the strongest chains, these demons hold their victim captive, a prisoner in his own body.  These demons are powerful.....very powerful....and they strike fear into the hearts of all the villagers.  Luke 8.26ff

Yet, they are no match for Jesus, the Divine One, the power of life from the first cell to the last trumpet....and to the very last pig as well.  In the presence of the Creator, they are powerless.

I know that modern, enlightenment folk don't believe in demons.  Yet someone walked into an elementary school and shot 20 little children plus their teachers to death.  Someone walked into a nightclub at closing and methodically murdered 49 young people.  Tomorrow, someone will walk with evil and bring death into a new corner of this world.

Come Lord Jesus, quickly come.  We are killing ourselves here.

Exactly who is crazy here?

He was naked, living among the dead, unable to engage in anything resembling socially acceptable behavior. 

They had tried binding him with shackles.  He broke them; the power driving him could not be controlled by mortals. 

Someone else was needed.  Someone with greater power.  Someone not afraid.  They needed Jesus, the Son of all Creative Forces. 

So Jesus came; to the tombs; to the company of a naked crazy man; to bring life.

The neighbors found the man clothed, sitting at Jesus' feet and in his right mind. 
So then they sent Jesus away.

Not everybody sees the gift of life in the same way.  Not everybody wants to have their shackles loosed and their mind set free. Nor do they want that for the neighbor they have spent their time pitying or forcing out of sight.

Jesus left that town without an argument; but he left behind a witness - a man who had been as good as dead, and now was as good as life.  Maybe the townsfolk will figure it all out some day down the road. 

Crazy Bill: The Gerasene Demoniac Revisited

a poem by Tim Melton

 

I was only eight years old, when I first heard The Voices
Seductive whispers in the night,
Painted horror blinded light
Perversion led to dark delight
When I was just a boy of eight, and I first heard The Voices

 

see the conclusion at

http://sacrosanctgospel.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/crazy-bill-the-gerasene-demoniac-revisited/

All thorns, no roses

 

You have reached the point where you hesitate to say, "It can't get any worse" since that's what you thought 3 days or 3 weeks or 3 months ago....and it did.  It got worse.  Lots worse.  And you wonder when the free fall is going to stop.

It doesn't matter where you started, how high you were; it doesn't matter if your free fall looks like child's play to someone else.  It's your free fall and you wonder, how come all I get is thorns and no roses?

Truth be told, if you are still able to even utter those words, you haven't reached bottom yet.  You haven't reached the point where all you can do is concentrate on breathing in and breathing out.  You make no plans for tomorrow since you are not sure you even want tomorrow to come.  You put one foot in front of the other.  You get through today, this moment.

Now the word abyss has real meaning and in the midst of this crushing 'nothingness' you can not forms words of supplication; you can not even form thoughts or hopes.  You are as close to the living dead as you ever want to be.  You are naked; living among the dead; held in bondage by the darkness.

Hold on.  Jesus knows where you are and who you are and what you need, and he will cross into enemy territory, brave wild waters, risk hostile and powerful forces for your sake.  For your life.    For you.

There is no creed you must recite, nor ritual you must perform.  Saving you is just what Jesus came to do.  He is the presence in the darkness that wants to lead you to light.  Trust me, I know.  I've been in the darkness myself.

Romans 8.18ff, Luke 8.26ff