An Unenthusiastic Response—Psalm 42; Luke 8: 26-39
[SLIDE 1] A couple of weeks ago, I came across a performance from a music festival. The festival is called Coachella, and it’s held near Los Angeles, California. It is every bit as California as you would think it is. The folks there dress up in the latest fashions, which I describe as homeless mid-90’s chic. One of the performers was a man named Benson Boone, and he sang a song by the band Queen, popular in the 1970s and 1980s. [SLIDE 2] Out of nowhere came Brian May, the 77-year-old guitarist from Queen. He is still recovering from a mild stroke, but played in a way that would put any 20 or 30 year old to shame.
And yet, I sat there aghast at the performance. The crowd was quiet. I expected yelling, shouting, an absolute mind-blowing response like the young women of the 60s when the Beatles or Elvis came out. But there was nothing. They were unenthusiastic and painfully quiet. Unfortunately, the same happens in faith. All of our enthusiasm and hope is met with a dousing of cold water. Increasingly, the story of our faith and hope in life is met with this unenthusiastic response.
But that should not be so surprising. Jesus seems to have encountered the same thing. [SLIDE 3] Most people focus in on demon slaying part of this gospel lesson, but there’s a part more troubling than the possession itself. After the man is healed, he comes and sits normally at Jesus’s feet. We can assume from this that Jesus was either teaching or meeting with people in some capacity. After such an incredible miracle being done, one might expect the Gerasenes to embrace Jesus, be overjoyed, welcome him with open arms. None of that happened. They were afraid, and they begged Jesus to leave. They didn’t want more of him. They wanted him to go away. It has to be the most unenthusiastic response to any of Jesus’s miracles in the Gospel story.
One commentary said that though they recognize the mystery and power of what has been done, they cannot make a place for it in their lives. They are unwilling and incapable of finding room for Jesus and his power within the lives they live. Perhaps that’s not surprising. The Gerasenes were at odds with the Jewish people. They were unclean because of raising pigs. They lived outside of the general area of the closely knit Jewish people. But most importantly, they were aligned with the Romans. Most scholars say those pigs were going to be fed to Roman soldiers as the Gerasenes had an ongoing deal with the Romans. That’s why the demon is named Legion after a Roman Army Legion. Jesus highlighted their wrongdoing and their betrayal of others. They had no room for repentance and no desire to see more of Jesus.
[SLIDE 4] Many in our own lives will struggle in the same way. They know right from wrong. They know when they are failing. They know what it takes to do what is right and follow the goodness of God, but they’re just not there yet in the doing part. Though the folks we love may know Jesus, may know truth, may know what is right, they’re not ready yet to follow. They haven’t made room in their hearts and in their lives for the truth of who Jesus is, and what he has said.
[SLIDE 5] Jesus tells the man he healed, “Go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you.” So, he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.” Tell the story of grace and mercy even if people are not ready to hear it. Tell the story of God’s love even if the response is woeful or unenthusiastic. Tell of a welcome that says all should know the redeeming love that spans across all humanity, even if they don’t believe it, or others say they don’t deserve it. Go and tell was Jesus’s command to this man.
Why does Jesus say this? At some point, hearts will be turned. A friend asked his preacher, “How many times do I tell someone about God’s love?” The preacher replied, “As many times as it takes for them to believe it.” Many will not. And many will not want to hear anything about faith. The church has done itself no real favors on this front. Instead of relying on God’s life-changing love and grace, we’ve tried a lot harder to scare the Hell out of people…literally. It is not fear that changed anyone in the gospel. Jesus healed, showed mercy, compassion, taught of love, tore down barriers between the people and God. That’s what changed frozen and sinful hearts, not fear, legalism, and oppression.
At some point, every single person, will need to find the holy in their lives. Psalm 42 tells us, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.” At some point, we will all crave and need the living waters in our lives. Stagnant and still water will literally kill. Anyone who goes into an abandoned building or an uncleaned pool can tell you deadly things grow in still water and stagnant places. At some point, we will all want the living water of God.
[SLIDE 6] That is why we must keep speaking, praying, and imploring. The commentary on Psalm 42 says, “Human life depends on relatedness to God.” And that is because God is a necessity of life. We can try to go through life without God, being self-directed. But there will come a time when a trouble, a situation, a sadness, or some aspect of life is too hard and too much. In that moment, we will call for help, and that is when the truth of humanity’s need for the holy is made real and known. This Psalm is a call to those who rely on self-direction and self-care to place their dependence on God for all things.
Our job here on earth is to continue speaking, continue praying, continue imploring others to seek out and live the grace that Jesus teaches. Now, that is not the grace of people who would manipulate faith for their own gain. And that is not a worldly sense of grace from those who know and ignore the way of love. Too often we see the Golden Rule used in the sense of do unto others to get what I can, or do unto others before they get me first. Grace teaches us to offer mercy, love, dignity, and redemption to every person who is seeking something holy and something nourishes the soul.
Growing up in church, there was always a time of prayer requests and prayer between the singing and the preaching. There was a woman who requested prayer for her husband to find faith every single Sunday…morning and evening service. She asked us to pray diligently and weekly that he would find something holy in his life. This wasn’t a sense of religious fear and fervor that she just wanted him to go to heaven. She loved him and wanted him to find peace, hope, help for trials and troubles that had plagued him for years given the trauma of his work.
One day he faced a trial that was too much to handle alone. It was a health scare and the inevitable concern about health risks that getting to a certain age can cause. Finally, after decades of prayer and pleading, he asked her about what having faith actually does for her. Friends, I tell you this because it reminds that every heart and soul is beautiful and valuable, and that every single one can be changed to something holy and good.
[SLIDE 7] I still believe in a volatile and fearful world that the love of God can change each and every heart and mind. I believe that our faith, our prayer, and our living of what Jesus practiced and preached can testify to how grace and mercy can change a life that is destructive or even cruel. Be undaunted when you receive an unenthusiastic response. Jesus said to the man he healed, “Go and tell your family,” and indeed all who would listen to him. Jesus’s departure wasn’t a goodbye at all; instead, it was a call—“Let’s get to work!”
[SLIDE 8] Your words and faith may be met with a dose of cold water. When one of the greatest musicians and guitarists in the world took that stage at Coachella, the crowd was as dull as tarnished silver. The response may be unenthusiastic. But at some point in life, love can change each and every heart if we are consistent in our lives, our prayers, and our story of Jesus’s grace. May it be so.
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