Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator and Sustainer, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us.

I heard an old joke this week that I am sure most of you know, but I thought I would share it this morning, anyway.  After all, it is Father’s Day, I am a father, and on Father’s Day dads are supposed to get to do what they want, so I want to tell this old joke.  So here goes!  Do you know how many Lutherans it takes to change a light bulb?  Change?  Lutherans don’t change!  Yeah, that’s right, Lutherans do not change.  We like things just the way they are, don’t we?  In fact, for most people, the status quo is good enough, even if the status quo is not good.  Human beings, and especially Lutherans, tend to resist change. 

Our Gospel story today is about the need for change in this world and the fear that comes with change.  Our story begins when “[Jesus and his followers] arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee” (8:26).  In other words, Jesus, for the very first time in his ministry, went into Gentile territory.  Jesus was a Jew and he was now going to offer the Gospel to those who did not know God.  It was not the first time Jesus ministered to the Gentiles, but it was the first time he went into an area that was Gentile.  As it turns out, it would also be the last. 

Now, one of the things that first strikes me in this story is that immediately upon stepping onto the land, Jesus was met by a man who was possessed by demons.  This man did not live amongst the people; he lived in the tombs.  This was a man that caused much fear in the city.  Out of fear, the people of Gerasenes tried to imprison him and keep him bound in chains, but he would always escape, so finally he was banished from the city to live amongst the dead.  He could not live in the community, he was not welcome there, and no one in their right mind would want to be around this man.  Well, no one but Jesus, that is.  Not only did Jesus cross the boundary from Jewish territory to Gentile territory, he was also willing to cross the boundary of the living and the dead.  Jesus went ashore in a place that everyone else avoided to change the way this community was living and offer them new life. 

It is at this time that we see who is in control of this world, even the Gentile world and the world of the dead.  God is in control, and in our text this morning Jesus shows this.  Jesus took control by learning the name of the demon, Legion.  In the ancient world, to know one’s name meant you had power over them.  The very name implies that this man was filled with many demons that held much power.  In the Roman world, a legion was a military term for a group of 6000 soldiers.  This man was filled with a mighty force, and Jesus had the ultimate power over it. 

Now, this is one of those stories that always seems to create an interesting response.  Every time I use this story in a Bible study, someone inevitably focuses on the pigs.  In fact, it happened this week at our Council meeting.  Someone said, I feel bad for the pigs, why did they have to die?  Well, to be honest, in today’s world, we would want to be more animal-friendly in our story-telling, but the fact is that the pigs are only a means to the end here.  From a traditional Jewish perspective, pigs are unclean animals, and so it would have been one of the most likely animals to talk about here.  Secondly, although we tend to feel bad for the pigs, the real ones we should feel sorry for are the townspeople, who fear their Savior.  Jesus just eliminated the one thing they had all lived in fear of for years, and what do they do, they ask him to leave.  “All the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned” (8:37).  They no longer had to live in fear of this crazy and dangerous man, but now they feared the one who brought healing to their community.  What were they afraid of?  I would argue that what they feared was the fact that Jesus had the power to change things that they thought were unchangeable.  If Jesus had this much power what else might he change? 
Dorothy Allison, a contemporary author, says that “Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.”  By definition, change is the process of becoming different and, for most of us, it is easier to stay the same.  We do not want to be different.  We do not want our lives altered, even if it is for the better.  We fear change because we do not know what it will bring.  The people of the Gerasene territory knew what to fear, the demon-possessed man, but now the people fear Jesus because he has the power to do things they cannot.  On top of this, I believe they feared that Jesus might command them to change next, and that they were not willing to do. 

If we really think about it, don’t we, too, fear what God might be asking us to do?  What if Jesus commands our demons to leave us; what might that look like?  You say you do not have any demons?  What about materialism, nationalism, and our prejudices toward those that are different from us?  Call them what you want, but the fact is they are the demons in our lives that keep us from committing ourselves to God and God’s mission.  We would prefer to have a god that will let us do things our way.  We would prefer to have a god that lets us be in control.  We would prefer to have a god that does not command us to change because we are quite comfortable just the way we are.  Like the people of the Gerasenes territory, we often ask Jesus to leave.  You’ve heard the old saying, “It is better to deal with the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”  Or maybe in this context I should say, “It is better to deal with the demon you know than the God that desires you to change.”

Our God is a God of change.  If you do not believe me, read the first two chapters of Genesis.  When Adam and Eve acted differently than God commanded, God changed the plan.  If you’re still not sure, read the story of the Canaanite women in Matthew 15.  In this story, this non-Jewish woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter, he initially refused, but when she expressed her faith in God, he changed his mind.  The world is changing all around us, and God calls us into that changing world, not to stay the same, but be one who is willing to tell the world what God is doing in this world and that He desires all of us to change.  God is in control of this changing world, and as hard as that may be for us to fathom, God says, I want you to change, too, and I want you to tell your story to the world.

In 1995, when I first heard God’s call for me to go into the ministry, I said no.  Like Legion, who met Jesus as he got off the boat, I shouted, “What is it you want from me, Jesus, do not come and torment me, please leave me alone.  I was afraid of the changes that God was commanding of me.  Like those townspeople, I kept asking Jesus to leave me alone.  I feared the changes I felt God calling me to make.  I feared what life would be like without my job as I knew it.  I feared what life would be like if I gave up control.  It worked for a while, but God did not give up, and I am so thankful that he didn’t.  Jill and I have experienced immeasurable blessings and change in our lives over the past 15 years.  Although we can’t boast that it was easy, we can tell you that the best thing to happen to us in the past 15 years is change. 

Brothers and sisters, we can fear change or we can embrace it.  We can run from God or we can run with God.  We can refuse to let go of our demons or we can send them over the cliff into the abyss.  The choice is ours.  Amen.

Lessons:
Isaiah 65:1-9
Luke 8:26-39