Talk by Mary Staunton

Do you ever get that feeling that it’s good to get back to a normal routine? I certainly get it after New Year when I am usually pleased to put away the trappings of Christmas and get back to “normal” life.  For the Church, in the last six months we have travelled from Advent, through Christmas and Epiphany There was a short break at that point but then Lent and the celebrations of Easter followed on fairly quickly and finally Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.  So today is the first Sunday in what we call Ordinary Time. Time away from the round of special services. So, time for what instead? The liturgical colour for this season is green and that gives us a hint. This is the time for getting on with the normal business of life. Time to get on with living out our Christian lives on a day by day basis. Time to be open to the work of God in our lives. Time to receive.  Time to give. Time to grow as Christians.

Both of our readings (Galatians 3v23-end & Luke 8v26-39) talk about the changes that God can bring and the freedoms and the challenges that comes with those changes. So much of this can been seen in the Gospel reading we have just heard. It is the story of someone who badly needed change. Someone who was literally bound in chains. The first thing to notice is that Jesus has travelled over the sea of Galilee. He is in foreign territory and the people he meets are Gentiles, not Jews. So, this story is saying something important about Jesus’s desire to reach everyone. In His lifetime Jesus healed Jews, Romans, Samaritans and Greeks like this man. He was setting the pattern for His church. All would be included in the future – including ourselves. This man is untouchable as far as the Jews were concerned. He is a Gentile, outcast from his village and unwell. He is not obviously a believer in the Jewish God. He recognizes Jesus as “The Son of the Most High” but in fact it is unclear what that means and the only thing he asks of Jesus is not to be further tortured. He does not in fact ask for his healing.

The man is described as being demon possessed. I am not going to analyze what that meant or, whether or not, we would consider him to be mentally ill today. The fact is that his behavior is extreme and his community are terrified of him. He has been cast out by his village and has been sent to live in a graveyard with the dead. That says something pretty profound about how his community saw him, doesn’t it? Jesus arrives in a boat and literally steps into this situation. Unlike the local people he is not concerned for his own safety he breaks all the taboos. He comes into the graveyard. He reaches out to the untouchable. He restores the sick, and sets free this excluded man.

Jesus as always brings a new start but He also brings a challenge, both to the man and to his community. The man longs to leave all of his old life behind – his sickness and the community who have hurt him. He wants to follow Jesus who has saved him. To get away from the difficult place and the difficult relationships that have surrounded him and we can understand that can’t we. But Jesus says “no”. Jesus knows that the man is running away from the one place he can give most service and so He sends the man back to his family and to the community which has rejected him. This is a community which has struggled for years over what to do with this man and maybe they have dealt with him badly, but Jesus knows they also need restoration and a second chance. A chance to welcome back into their midst this man who has been so amazingly transformed.  Had the man gone away with Jesus, stories would have abounded – was he healed? had he finally run away to trouble another town? was he dead? but with him living in their midst, the community would have had the evidence before them everyday of the difference Jesus can make. His home village is the place where he is needed most and can make most difference. It was also possibly the toughest place for him to be. Going back required him to forgive. It meant hard work building damaged relationships.  It meant reaching out to people who had hurt him in the past.

So, how does this speak to us today? Do we really know the freedom Christ brings or are we still sitting in chains of our own making?  In the Galatians reading Paul talks about freedom to the Church in Galatia. He reminds them that they are all children of God.  All of them, without divisions of race, class or gender are God’s children. He calls them to live together as a new community sharing this love with each other.

So, I wonder, do we as individuals and as communities allow Jesus to name the things that need changing in our lives?  Or do we really prefer to live in the shadowlands? As individuals, how much do we want to be transformed by God into the people we are called to be? This is a journey which takes a lifetime for each of us.  We are all complex beings aren’t we.  Each of us with our own history.  Each of us with our own relationship with God.  Do we want God in our lives on our own terms or are we prepared to be open to God and what He wants to do in and through us?  Are we prepared to invite God into the whole of our life?     We may be able to find reasons for our ambivalence – business, worries, past hurts, present uncertainty.  So sometimes we live with these chains. Some we have chosen and some have been put upon us by others in what they have said and done.  But we can still choose whether we live with them or not.

God calls us to freedom. He calls us to change and grow. Sometimes it may take a while. Find someone to talk to and someone to pray for you.  Ask God yourself for the freedom he wants for you. I don’t pretend this is easy. It may take years, but Christ came to set us free. Free to be the people he created us to be. We may sometimes feel this is a lonely journey but we need to remember that we are not called to be Christians on our own. We are called to be part of the worldwide body of Christ. As that community we are called to walk with each other at the difficult times but also to rejoice at the transformation God is bringing. We shouldn’t be wary and draw back from change either in others or in our Churches because God does not just heal individuals, He heals communities.

At the beginning of Galatians 5 Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free” In this season of Ordinary Time let us pursue God’s calling.  Let us together be people who are open to God and the healing He can give us and let us be prepared to listen to His call to us individually and as churches to serve Him in the wider world in the places he calls us to be.                                      

Every Blessing Revd. Mary Staunton