June 20, 2010

Dear friends, every Sunday from the center of this holy space, from the center of many, many sacred spots across our planet, words are read to committed, attentive listeners.  Words are read from “the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  “The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” is not a biography.  It is not “the life and times” of an amazing prophet or a moral hero.  The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the good news, a clear, positive message, the antidote to bad news, the corrective to the world’s conventional wisdom.  When examined word by word, the title reveals much about what will follow.  “The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” announces in unequivocal language that we will soon encounter divine revelation.  The message will come from God himself.  In his holy ways, he will inspire his chosen authors and they will record content concerning the authority of one singular entity that surpasses all other humans, all persons of any age past, present or future.  The good news of our one Lord will be instruction.  The good news coming from our Lord Jesus Christ is in essence a best selling “How to book.” 

As a timeless classic, it answers common human dilemmas, addresses cosmic conundrums and reveals the power and plan of a supreme being.  The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ has serious truthful solutions to serious worldly realities.  The descriptions recorded within the Gospel pages are never extraneous, superficial or coincidental.  Every word, every interaction, every aside has import.  Every encounter points the followers of Jesus Christ to God’s dream for us.  Sustained well-being, sustained well-being, think about that term and what it means.  Sustained well-being is definitely and clearly delineated in the Gospels.

This morning we learn the “good news” about dealing with evil in our world.  Jesus, Son of God, with his earliest followers arrives in an area of Palestine occupied by foreigners, by non-Jews, by Gentiles.  There in Gerasene, Jesus confronts darkness, brokenness, and energy contrary to God’s plan.  There and then, forces of good and evil recognize one another.  Jesus knows who he is.  The man possessed knows his current essence as well.  They see the truth of their own condition and the reality of the other.  They are not misled.  Both men know that since the original fall, the earth has become an enormous battlefield where every day there are skirmishes and assaults between the defenders of light and the armies of woe.  Good people with right intent pray to God for courage, will and patience to stand in his name  and for his equitable, merciful plan.  Other people, also created by the omnipotent, all merciful God, stand ready to defend and overcome all opposition to their private schemes for personal comfort, whether or not it comes at the expense of human suffering or the cost of their immortal souls.

Jesus knows, the Gerasene demoniac knows, there is a difference between heaven and earth. In heaven where God reigns supreme, there is only good.  On earth where God allows man to exercise free will, both good and evil exist and persist.  The two conditions are ever present, ever entangled.  In heaven – evil, heartlessness, hardheadedness, cruelty, dismissiveness, selfishness, me-firstness, me-onliness, short-sightedness, have been overcome, wrapped up, tied up, disposed of in a clear, tidy, once-for-all definitive manner.  On earth, evil and all its sister emotions and effects are still at large.  And when good confronts these life-strangling forces, the struggles are often prolonged and messy.  This is the reality of this world.  We are simpletons or oblivious if we do not recognize this truth.  Jesus himself demonstrates that in this world confronting evil will be both costly and inconvenient.  A man plagued with anger, violence, disease, unrest, off putting behavior, social isolation, a man, the epitome, the singular representation of brokenness, of separation from God’s providence of grace and wholeness stands before Jesus.  We know he is the representation of evil because when asked his name, he replies “Legion.”  He, in effect, answers, I am all that is dark and scary and unholy.  I am the opposite of the image of God.  To oppose and overcome this significant force of pain and blight and suffering, Jesus takes on the wrath and hateful focus and consigns that horrible, negative energy to a large herd of bystander swine.  On a hill nearby are several hundred hogs eating grass, enjoying the sun, pigs with not a care in the world, at least non that they’re aware of, are suddenly infused with a powerful, negative impulse to run head first down the steep slope into a lake where they drown.  Poor, innocent creatures are destroyed.

Their keepers look on aghast.  What happened?  Their entire livelihood just went under, literally.  Loss of life, loss of income, the cost is profound.  How will they recover?  Consider the disruption to their planned day, their week, the rest of the year.  They go into the city to inform the owner of the livestock.  There are reports to fill out and depositions to file, authorities to notify, claims to adjust.  This is one big mess.  Officials come to take statements and analyze the cost benefit ratio.  Evil is put down, contained, succumbed, but not without consequences.  In heaven, it is accomplished neatly.  On earth, evil goes down with a fight and good only triumphs at a cost and with expenditure of considerable energy.  This was true for the Old Testament prophets, it was true for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and it is true for his modern day followers.

While living in this world, we will share the realm, the planet, the land, the air, the waterways, the governmental structures, and the human family with evil forces.  Individuals and groups will succumb to plans and desires contrary to God’s better dream for us.  Evil is any attitude or action that creates suffering for any of God’s beloved children as a result of our pursuit of personal comfort.  Evil can be pointed and brutal or evil can be tacit and belied by an “I didn’t know that was going on” and “I’m only one person” defense.  Evil is real.  Evil is here.  Evil is contrary, at odds with, emphatically against God’s will and desire. 

As followers of his Son, as self-acknowledged, self-proclaimed Christians, as marked and sealed as Christ’s own forever, we are drafted into the army of good.  We are conscripted to serve, to fight, and to wage war against the forces of dark.  There are no deferrals, no furloughs, and no alternative options.  If we follow the Risen Lord because we believe his message is the way to sustained well-being for us, for all humankind, then we are obliged to put down evil.  If we plan to reap the benefits of a life with God, a life of purpose and peace of mind and peace of soul on earth and a life of ease and joy in heaven, then we’d best plan to do hard battle through our years on earth.  All about us, God’s children are suffering because some of God’s other children are preoccupied with their own comfort and ease. 

Today, some of God’s children do not have a dry place to sleep tonight; do not have access to clean drinking water, let alone tropical fruit Gatorade.  Today, some of God’s children do not have sustenance level nutrition or access to entry-level education.  Today, some of God’s children do not have freedom from violence or sexual exploitation.  Today, some of God’s precious children do not have access to basic, basic dental, vision, and health care.  They die of diseases a series of four shots or a net over their bed could prevent.  This is evil.  This is contrary to God’s will and desire for us.  If we trust God’s providence, if we believe his way is the better part for us, if we give our hearts and allegiance to his Son, then we obligate ourselves to the fight.  We will take on the costs and the inconveniences, and our lives will become more complicated as a result.  This is true and unavoidable. 

If we stand against evil, our short-term comfort will be compromised.  Sacrifices and losses will be exacted.  This dynamic is a part of the Christian experience on earth.  It was after all Christians in our country who became Abolitionists, who said slavery is evil, slavery is contrary to God’s plan.  It is not of God to shackle a man and force him to work for another with no compensation or recompense.  It is not of God to rip the enslaved man’s child from his side and sell her to another.  Make no mistake, this Christian stand came with costs, social, economic, physical.  This stand came with considerable inconvenience.  Decades later, it was Christian women who ended child labor in our country and many parts of the world.  They stood against formidable opposition and said it is not God’s plan that some of his children work ten hours a day, six days a week so that some other precious children have pretty, but expensive bows and shirts to wear. 

Later still, followers of Jesus Christ said it is not right that the best educated, most experienced teachers, the new textbooks, the latest lab and gym equipment goes to the “white schools” and everyone else makes due with the leftovers.  Christian folk enacted desegregation and it came with a cost.  Lawsuits, commissioning, subsidies, buses- money went out. Inconvenience followed.  Every day of my high school career called me out of bed earlier than I would have preferred.  Every day of my children’s schooling we drove past neighborhood schools to the newly assigned one in the interest of equal education for each of God’s chosen, each of God’s beloved children.

Today, evil is still present, still persistent.  For love of God, for trust in his promises, where will we stand?  Where will we make our fight in his name, for his cause?  Counting the costs, fully aware of the inevitable inconvenience, where will we stand against evil…today, tomorrow, the day after?

This, dear friends, is the question posed this day in the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for wisdom.  Pray for courage, patience and forbearance so that when evil presents itself, as it most assuredly will, we will be armed and ready.

Amen.