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/