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"In the Tombs"
Isaiah 65:1-9 &
Luke 8:26-39
June 20, 2010
It seems to me that there are more and more occasions when we are
faced with so many things going on that there are multiple emphasis that
would be very good to think about. We have great scriptures to consider
with demons, healing and a call to be faithful to God. It is World
Refugee Day and it would be both good and appropriate to remember the
struggles around the world that have left so many without a place to
call home. We do have our missionaries with us and it is fascinating to
hear about the world and the church in far away places. And it is always
appropriate to think about national holidays like Father’s Day and
consider what that might say to us. And of course we might ponder the
world of county fairs and rain and wind and those things that might be
very much in the fore front of our thinking this weekend. In the midst
of it all, I wonder what it is that God wants us to hear today.
As I thought about all of these things, the one thought that
jumped out at me from the scriptures seemed hard to incorporate into all
these varied things. Interestingly this unlikely thought or phrase is in
both our first reading and our Gospel text - perhaps that is the reason
it stood out in my mind. In both scriptures we find people gathered ‘in
the tombs’. In the TO scripture it seems as though a religious ritual
that the Israelites were involving themselves in during their exile in
Babylon involved sitting inside tombs. In the Gospel text a man
tormented by demons had resorted to living among the dead in the
cemetery outside the city. It is not exactly a happy thought on a day
when we would rather have the skies clear so that the rain might go away
and we could rush over to the county fair for hamburgers heavily laden
with fried onions and some of that great potato salad.
Yep - that is where we would like to be .... But we find ourselves
in the tombs. I found myself feeling that way as I tried to prepare for
this morning. I suppose that such is often the case. We want things to
be sweetness and light and yet, we keep running into the darkness and
death of the world. We want the sweetness of a fair stand hamburger but
we are confronted with nothing but the onion breath that follows.
It is Father’s Day and as I have often done before I went in
search of some great stories that might help us to celebrate the gift of
fathers. Unlike Mother’s Day when you can find tons of great sentimental
and love filled stories of mothers and mothering, Fathers Day does not
offer the same hopeful, loving stories. ...... I did enjoy the one story
that seemed to connect to the image of the demons in our Gospel text
while at the same time lifting up the theme of fathers. The story
involved two first graders who were overheard talking about their lesson
as they left their Sunday School class one day, "Do you really believe
all that stuff about the devil?" asked one. The other replied without
hesitation, "No, I think it's like Santa Claus. It's really just your
dad."
It is somewhat funny ..... Unless you begin to read some of the
negative things that are predominate among the articles concerning
fathers. Certainly there are some positive articles about fathers but so
often it is the absent fathers with all of our human failings that the
articles talk about. Over and over the articles that I read spoke of the
father who works too much and pays too little attention to his family.
The failures were lifted up until I found myself feeling like I was
living in the tombs and desperately searching for just one good and
positive article.
Do you really believe all of this stuff about the devil .... Is it
really just dad? No .... Absolutely not. But I do believe that even
fathers find themselves living among the tombs .... Tormented by demons
of so many different sorts that they could easily be called ‘Legion’.
There is too much to do, too many pressures pulling them in too many
directions - too many human failings that stand in the way of being the
kind of father he might long to be ..... Too many demons. Too often we
are all overwhelmed by the demons and we can not get a hold of our right
mind ....... And so we live among the tombs.
World Refugee Sunday ..... What a great thing to recognize that we
have been able to welcome so many refugees from around the world into
the United States through organizations like Lutheran Social services.
What an exciting thing it is to be in touch with our brothers and
sisters in Christ on the other side of the world and know that we have
had some small part in touching their lives through the missionaries
that we have been able to go out where we could not or would not be able
to go. People are being cared for and ministered too. But what it means
that we have to send missionaries to distant parts of the world is that
there are places and people who live in desperate need of the gifts that
we can offer. What it means that we have a World Refugee Sunday is that
there are places and people who live in the darkness of fear and need
..... people who live in the ‘tombs’ and need someone to come to their
aid.
One of the things that is interesting in the reading of our first
lesson and our Gospel text today is that in one case, living in the
tombs happens through no fault of the person ... the demons that have
overcome him have left him helpless to do anything but exist in the
tombs. In the first lesson, the people make the choice thinking that the
tombs are the place to be. In both cases God does not abandon them. God
comes to call them to life in Him. Though there is suffering in the
world there is also hope and renewal. It amazes me how consistent that
message is throughout the scriptures. It does not matter how divergent
the situation is, the Word of God constantly holds out hope and the
possibility of life.
One of the interesting articles that I read this past week noted
the fact that the word ‘evil’ is actually the word ‘live’ spelled
backwards. God calls us to live. Too often we find that we turn away
from the life God has called us to live and end up in the midst of evil.
The theme that we emphasis mostly during the Lenten season calls us to
turn around away from evil and live in the arms of life.
Today we say thank you to fathers for all of the love and nurture
they give. Thank you to all of the refugee agency and all of those who
open their arms to those that need to run to life. Thank you to our
missionaries who carry the word of life in our loving God to distance
and sometimes dangerous and difficult places in our world. Today we say
thank you to God, our ever loving Father, who does not leave us to exist
in the tombs, controlled by the demons that torment us, but comes to us
so that we might really live.
AMEN
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