“A well-functioning Christian community is going to be one in which everyone is working steadily to release the gifts of others.”
Say what you will about the current state of the Anglican Communion, but Dr Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, hit the nail on the head in an article in a recent edition of The Christian Century. Perhaps you may find his quote somewhat ironic in light of fears and threats of schism happening weekly, if not daily. HOWEVER, there is much wisdom to be found in these words when taken at their full, face value; perhaps they are words that bear repeating.
“A well-functioning Christian community is going to be one in which everyone is working steadily to release the gifts of others.” Captured within that sentence is a perfect summary of what it means to be the Church. We, the Church, exist for the purpose of nurturing and elucidating the truest and most God-given essence and potential of each member of the Body of Christ.
Whether or not Archbishop Williams had today’s lesson in mind or not, there is great continuity to be found between his words and Luke’s story of the healing of the Gerasene Demoniac. This particular lesson can seem a little confounding. Undoubtedly many of us, including me on my first read, might be uncomfortable with the word “demon”—maybe there was even some eye-rolling going on. But don’t let that get in the way of understanding a perfectly beautiful story of realized transformation, a story of realized potential for one of God’s loved ones.
The beauty of this story is somewhat concealed by the frightening tale of demonic possession. But I would like to offer three specific threads going on in this story.
The first thread is found in the location of this miraculous story. Jesus goes out of his way and wanders off his regularly beaten path and crosses the Sea of Galilee. Jesus and his disciples go out of their way into a foreign and Gentile, i.e. non-Jewish, land for the sake of this one lost sheep. For Luke’s Gospel this marks Jesus’ first foray into the Church’s Gentile ministry. The Gospeller is explicitly clear in stating that Jesus had no-other reason for venturing across the Sea of Galilee. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus tells the parable of the farmer who sows his field broadly, casting his seed far-and wide, in hope and faith that the seed will take root and thrive in a wide swathe. His entry into the country of the Gerasenes was to seek out this one ailing man to bring about his divine essence; his true gifts.
The second and third threads that demarcate Luke’s agenda are found in the description of the possessed man. Luke carefully notes that this man had been naked for a long time. Secondly, Luke notes that the same man lived in tombs, no longer in his own house. This naked and homeless man—in the eye’s of Jesus’ faith the man’s habitation of tombs was an abomination, our lesson from Isaiah is explicit in that—this man’s life of suffering and ostracism held him captive from living into his life’s full potential.
So we have these three threads: Jesus’ intentional trip into Gentile territory, the man’s nakedness, and his physical ostracism from his people and home; and what does Luke do with those three threads?
First ‘the man from whom the demons had gone’ is clothed; but more than just being clothed, he is now ‘in his right mind’ and sitting at the feet of Jesus. From Geresene Wildman to active listener and disciple of Jesus, this man has experienced the transformative power of Jesus’ name of Love and peace. Here the words of today’s collect are being acted out where the possessed man through the loving-kindness of Jesus Christ, has been given perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name. The naked man has been clothed in Christ’s love and mercy, and find’s a new vocation as disciple and follower of Jesus.
The second thread of his homelessness, demonstrates his return to his family. Luke not only has him just returning home, but he went away with zeal taking Jesus’ command to heart. The man not only returns home, but he returns to the city and proclaims throughout out its entirety how much God has done. But he goes a step further by professing Jesus’ own divinity. This is Luke’s not-so-subtle way of showing this mans true gift. The formerly possessed man is now Jesus’ disciple, he is an Apostle even before Christ’s death and resurrection. He is a missionary even before the Day of Pentecost occurred.
The last thread is that after Jesus makes his foray into the Geresenes’ territory, just as Jesus arrived in the foreign territory, he departs. Jesus’ own ministry is rejected, but he leaves his ministry behind in good hands. The gifts of the suffering man have given him the ability to become a leader in his city. Professor Gordon Fee states that “the man recognizes Jesus as the one through whom God’s salvific purpose is being enacted” and this man becomes a partner in Jesus Christ’s ministry through his own redemption.
Just like Archbishop Williams article, Jesus shows us the real purpose of our earthly ministry. We are to bring people to a working knowledge of our truest potential, to clothe the ostracized in the name of Jesus’ loving-kindness and to proclaim to all people the largeness of God’s house.
In the words of Jesus and in perpetual love and reverence for his holy name, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”
The Most Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams, “In God’s Company” The Christian Century, June 12, 2007, page 24.
