St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
June 19, 2022
Year C, Proper 7: The Second Sunday after Pentecost
1 Kings 19:1-15a
Psalm 42
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39
Agents of Liberation
Most of you know that before I was a priest I was a high school history teacher.
Although I’ve been out of the classroom for quite a while now, I have so many vivid memories, making it feel like not too much time has passed.
But, every once in a while, I have an experience that forces me to realize how long ago that all was, and just how much has changed.
So, I can’t remember. Have I mentioned to you that my wife Sue recently earned her doctorate? Has that come up before?
Well, what most of you don’t know is that one of the other students in Sue’s program was a woman named Aileen - who I taught more than twenty-five years ago, at St. Vincent Academy, an all-girls high school in Newark.
I’ve known about that remarkable connection for about three years, but it was still a little unnerving to actually see Aileen and some of her high school classmates who came to celebrate with her at the graduation ceremony a couple of weeks ago.
I was glad that these former students all still recognized me and even happier that they wanted to pose for a picture with me, but our little reunion was still a kind of disorienting reminder of just how much time has passed since they were all in my History class.
So, as you might guess, that experience put me into a kind of reflective mood.
And, as I’ve thought back to my teaching days, I’ve cringed a bit at my younger self: so sure that I had things mostly figured out, thinking that I really knew what I knew and that I knew what I did not know.
To give just one example, having grown up in the relatively peaceful time after the end of the Vietnam War, I remember saying to my students that I was sure that Americans simply would not tolerate another drawn-out military conflict in a faraway land, only later to be proven quite wrong, of course.
And, even though the history curriculum at St. Vincent’s emphasized Black history and women’s history, there was so much that I just did not know, so much that I certainly did not teach.
Like, for example, Juneteenth.
Do you know the story?
On June 19th, 1865 – more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation - Union General Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom at last for the enslaved people of Texas, the most remote and the last to be occupied part of the Confederacy.
Of course, Black people did not forget this day of liberation.
Each year in Texas and across the South, they celebrated what came to be known as Juneteenth.
And then later, during the Great Migration, they brought this tradition to other parts of the country.
And, as you probably know, just last year Juneteenth became a Federal holiday, now meant to be a national celebration of liberation.
When I first turned my attention to today’s Gospel lesson, I was immediately struck by how appropriate it is that today - on the 157th anniversary of the first Juneteenth - we hear a story of liberation.
Jesus and his disciples have traveled away from home, to the “country of the Geresenes.” We don’t know exactly where that was but, thanks to the presence of an unfortunate herd of swine, we know that Jesus and his friends are no longer in Jewish territory.
The moment Jesus steps foot on this foreign soil, he is immediately greeted by a disturbing and pathetic figure: the man with many demons.
We’re told that he’s naked and lives among the tombs.
His neighbors tried to keep him under guard and chaining him, maybe to protect themselves and maybe to protect him from himself.
But those demons were powerful.
And, it turns out that those demons were knowledgeable, too.
Unlike Jesus’ own disciples, who always have a hard time figuring out his identity, the demons in this foreign land get it exactly right:
Jesus is the Son of the Most High God.
Well, without waiting to be asked, Jesus liberates this poor man.
And, at the demons’ request, he sends them into the swine that promptly rush down a hill and drown in the lake, leaving the swineherds suddenly without their livelihood and probably feeling not so positive about Jesus and his ministry.
Actually, it’s interesting that, aside from the man who was freed of his demons, nobody seems very happy about this turn of events.
Instead of rejoicing at the liberation of their neighbor, the people are afraid. No doubt this miracle has upset their sense of order.
If this man possessed by a legion of demons can be liberated, just what else might be possible?
Faced with that uncomfortable question, they probably just want Jesus to turn around and go back where he came from.
Not the liberated man, though. He becomes a disciple, telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him.
The story ends there, but like so often with the Bible, I wonder what happened next.
In this case, I wonder about the moment when this man’s family first saw him “clothed in his right mind,” finally free.
What was that day of liberation like?
Joy, yes, of course.
But maybe also anger and sadness about how much had been lost: time, opportunity, dignity.
And, I wonder, in the years ahead, did this man and his family continue to celebrate the anniversary of his liberation?
At this week’s Bible Study, we had a lively conversation about this amazing story of liberation.
Although we know from the gospels that exorcisms were a significant part of Jesus’ ministry, we don’t talk about them much because, with our modern understanding of illness and healing, they confuse us, or make us uncomfortable and embarrassed.
And horror movies certainly haven’t made things any easier.
Yet, even just a quick look at the news reveals that the old demons are on the loose.
The demons of hate, and violence, and fear, and addiction are on the march, wreaking havoc, destroying people, just as surely as that naked man living in the tombs was nearly ruined.
But, here’s the good news: just like two thousand years ago, Jesus is the Liberator.
And, today, Jesus calls us to be his agents of liberation.
With God’s help, this liberating work begins by us building a community here that is a demon-free zone:
A church where absolutely everyone is welcome.
A church where we are unafraid to confess our faults.
A church that offers itself in loving service to the poor and oppressed.
A church where, like the liberated man, we proclaim how much Jesus has done for us.
A church that is wonderfully diverse but where, as St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, there is no longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free, no longer male and female, because we are one in Christ.
Today is Juneteenth – and, regardless of our age, or our history, or how much we still have to learn, Jesus calls us to be his agents of liberation.
Amen.
Posts
