Good morning. Any other week I’d be compelled to talk about the Gerasene Demoniac, as this man in our complex and very troubled Gospel reading is often called. This is one of the most fascinating, and also heartbreaking, stories in all the Gospels, and it touches deeply those who have ever struggled with or had a friend or family member suffer from mental illness.
It almost seems unfair for the church to drop this in our laps on an early summer Sunday—the second day of summer, even!
So I’m going to preach on something different today, but first I’d like to pause, and acknowledge this man, possessed by a legion—that is, many—demons, whose life is improved at the end of the Gospel passage, but whose struggles undoubtedly didn’t end there. Because many of us know that mental health challenges of this kind are often lifelong, and are seldom cured in one fell swoop.
Instead, there are moments of relief, and that relief comes in the form of small touches, gestures, displays of love and compassion … but families sometimes run out of the energy it takes. My heart today is with anyone whose own story in some way connects with this one, and I’m grateful to our Gospels (and the Church) for bringing people like him out of the shadows.
Now! That said, we’re also here this morning to celebrate—to celebrate the baptism of Lalo Chow, just newly one year old and the baby Jesus in last year’s Christmas pageant. A promising start to this sweet little man’s life :)
Welcome to his parents, Caro and Kyle, grandparents, Donna and Ray, and friends and family visiting.
I know Lalo’s parents and what draws them to this church and the Episcopal tradition, which is very much what this service of baptism is all about: caring for our neighbor, repairing the world, pursuing justice, living a life of service and surrender. The values we’ll clothe this child in today will be the ones he continues to be surrounded by not only in church, but at home. I’m grateful you’re all here and are a part of our parish. You bring to this place as much as we give you.
Our selection from Paul’s letter to the Galatians is perfect for today and I hope you’ll always remember it and associate it with this day in your son’s life. We’ve many of us heard this passage, even if we weren’t exactly sure who said it: in Christ there is neither east nor west, Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free, but we are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul lived and wrote just twenty years after Jesus, so earlier (by 20 and more years) than the Gospels were written. It’s sometimes said that Paul changed the homespun, rural faith of Jesus of Nazareth into an urban, philosophical faith. But Paul (more often than not) captures something of the spirit of Jesus, as much as those who came later. And I think very much so in this passage.
These were the big divisions of Paul’s (and by proximity, Jesus’) time, in their part of the world—life or death divisions. In his sermon “Paul’s letter to American Christians,” one of his early sermons, Martin Luther King sought to update this passage for our time. Pretending to be Paul speaking to Christians in this country in 1958, and using various excerpts from Paul’s writings including today’s reading from Galatians as his inspiration, King called out our fealty to our own small, petty manufactured divisions.
In Christ there is neither Lutheran, or Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, or Protestant, Methodist, or Baptist, or Presbyterian. In Christ (he goes on) there is neither White, nor Black, nor enslaved, nor rich nor poor. Some of these divisions, Paul never would have known. Others are exactly the same.
As it turns out, today’s Gospel story of the Gerasene demoniac (the man who suffers and who is calmed by Jesus) is instructive, this morning. It takes place on the other side of the sea (lake) of Galilee, in territory and among people who weren’t Jesus’ own people. It’s one of the earliest instances in the Gospels of Jesus reaching out to someone outside his own tribe, on many levels--a Gentile, not Jewish, a sick person, not well, a societal outcast afflicted with demons. A lot of boundaries are being crossed in that journey from one side of the Sea of Galilee to another.
This Gospel reading is about crossing boundaries, and refusing to accept the divisions we create for ourselves, just as Paul implores in his letter to the Galatians.
As I liked to repeatedly say to our confirmation kids last year: When someone is lying on the side of the road hurt, it doesn’t matter what their faith is, or skin color, or sex or gender, or political party or whatever else we get so worked up about all the time. Male, Female, Jew, Christian, Muslim or Buddhist, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, black, white, rich, poor, Republican, Democrat, cis, trans, we’re all people with the same fears and vulnerabilities, and when someone is in down and in trouble,
Just jump in and help.
We’re about to welcome a new child into the faith. We’re about to reaffirm our own faith, and though Lalo (about to be baptized) doesn’t yet know how committed we all are, or are not, let’s remember that we do this, together, at every baptism of a new child, to hold ourselves accountable to God and to each other--and especially to the youngest among us. We will instill in them the trust and hope and faith that is only passed on by example--our example. Amen.