Scripture 1 Kings 19:1-15; Luke 8:26-39
1 Kings 19:1-15 (New Revised Standard Version) Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid;[a] he got up and fled for his life and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” 8 He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. 9 At that place he came to a cave and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 11 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Luke 8:26-39 - First Nations Version When they finished crossing, they came to the territory of the people of Honored in the End (Gadarenes), across the Lake of Circle of Nations (Sea of Galilee). As soon as he stepped from the canoe, a man from the village was there. This man had been tormented with evil spirits for a long time. His clothes had worn off him, and he was homeless, so he lived in the local burial grounds. When the man saw Creator Sets Free (Jesus), he fell to the ground in front of him. The evil spirit cried out through the man, “Creator Sets Free (Jesus), Son of the One Above Us All, what do you want with me? I beg you not to torment me!” He said this because Creator Sets Free (Jesus) had ordered the evil spirit to leave the man. In the past this evil spirit had often taken hold of the man, so the villagers had kept the man bound with chains and under close watch. But the man had broken the chains, and the evil spirit had forced him out into the desert. Creator Sets Free (Jesus) asked, “What is your name?” “Many Soldiers,” he answered, because thousands of spirits had entered into him. They begged him not to send them into the deep dark pit of the world below. There was a large herd of pigs feeding on a nearby mountainside, so the spirits begged him to permit them to enter the pigs. When he gave them permission, the evil spirits left the man and entered into the herd of pigs. Then the whole herd stampeded down the mountainside headlong into the lake and drowned. The ones who were watching over the pigs were scared to death and ran away. They went to the nearby village and told them everything that had happened. As word spread, people came from the villages and the countryside to see for themselves. There they found the man whom the evil spirits had come out of, sitting quietly at the feet of Creator Sets Free (Jesus). He was clothed and in his right mind. This filled the hearts of the people there with awe and fear. The ones who had seen what happened told the people how the man with evil spirits had been set free. Then the people from the territory of Honored in the End (Gadarenes) begged Creator Sets Free (Jesus) to go away from their land. As Creator Sets Free (Jesus) entered the canoe to return to the other side, the man who had been set free from the evil spirits begged him to take him along. Creator Sets Free (Jesus) would not permit it and said to the man, “Return home to your family and friends.” He told the man, “Tell them all the powerful things the Great Spirit has done for you.” The man went his way and told his story in the villages, telling everyone the great things Creator Sets Free (Jesus) had done for him. Leader: A Word of God that is still speaking, People: Thanks be to God. Sermon We’ve heard about the Great Resignation - how since 2021 over 47 million American workers have voluntarily left their jobs and how there seem to be a shortage of workers across industries, everything from childcare to fast food joints to gas stations to construction to healthcare. Many are quick to point to the impact of the pandemic - and while COVID-19 has been an important factor, an article from the Harvard Business Review suggests in addition, what we’re seeing is consistent with a trend that started over a decade ago - that if we were to look at a graph mapping the percentage of the workforce that voluntarily leaves their job, the recent numbers don’t seem quite so out of line. They suggest this: [quote from the article] In our view, five factors, exacerbated by the pandemic, have combined to yield the changes that we’re living through in today’s labor market. We call these factors the Five Rs: retirement, relocation, reconsideration, reshuffling, and reluctance. Workers are retiring in greater numbers but aren’t relocating in large numbers; they’re reconsidering their work-life balance and care roles; they’re making localized switches among industries, or reshuffling, rather than exiting the labor market entirely; and, because of pandemic-related fears, they’re demonstrating a reluctance to return to in-person jobs. The first and the third - retirement and reconsideration - get at the heart of what the pandemic has caused for many people. According to the article, folks are retiring earlier because they want to spend more time with loved ones and focus on things beyond work and felt that they could do so because of property values and the stock market, and older folks retired because of COVID risks. For those in the reconsideration category - burnout was a major factor, particularly among women, who still disproportionately carry the burden of family care. Women have been affected more than men, and younger age groups more than older ones. Many have been forced to reconsider the role that work plays in their lives because of burnout, low support, and workers deciding that low pay or scrambling to make ends meet was not good for their overall mental health and well-being. We’re living in a society where so many people are at the end of their rope. Burnout and exhaustion and overwhelm are a way of life for so many people - and I can’t help but think of mental health and wholeness as I read these two stories from scripture - one from the Hebrew scriptures about a prophet running for his life and one from the Gospels about a man in mental torment. We may not be fleeing the vengeance of a wrathful and powerful queen - and we may not be plagued by actual demons, but many of us surely feel like we are at the mercy of forces beyond ourselves, forces that we may feel are trapping us, pursuing us, waiting for us to stop so they can overwhelm us. It can be easy to feel like there’s Legion - Many Soldiers - within us, as, in the words of Dan Clendenin at Journey with Jesus, “we’re all a mysterious mixture of powerful influences that we did not choose — nature, nurture, geography, and culture.” And maybe, in the midst of all the chaos and confusion, God can feel like one of those mysterious forces too, as God also pursues and seeks after us. Elijah is a man on the run. He’s just won an epic throwdown with Queen Jezebel’s prophets of Baal after a display of God’s power and might that ended with the people of Israel rounding up all those other prophets and slaughtering them and that brought about a heavy rain that ended the severe famine in the land. Jezebel was none too pleased about what Elijah’s words and actions had instigated, and so he fled to the wilderness, fearing for his life. He finds a bush and exhausted, worn out, burnt out, he collapses there, begs for God to take his life because he’s had enough, and falls asleep. In that place, God doesn’t speak divine words of wisdom. God doesn’t encourage or compliment or try to cheer him up. God meets Elijah with food. With water. With rest. Sustenance for the long journey ahead that for 40 days and 40 nights takes Elijah to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. God again meets Elijah here with a question - “What are you doing here?” Elijah answers, God passes by, God asks the question again, and again Elijah answers - and in response this time, God gives Elijah instructions for what to do next. I’m struck by the provision and nurture God gifts Elijah while he’s in the wilderness. God doesn’t try to steer Elijah back on track, but companions him out into the wilderness, giving him strength to get to where he needs to be until Elijah is able to hear what God has for him next. God helps restore Elijah to a place, walking with him in his fear, holding space for him when he had had enough of it all, providing the well of silence and a gentle whisper that allowed for clarity and restoration to bring Elijah back to his prophetic role. God says, “Yeah, you’ve had enough. Eat something. Take some naps. Take some time in the wilderness. The world will still be on fire when you get back - but after you hear my voice you’ll know you’re not alone.” Contrast this story a bit with that of the demoniac that Jesus encounters. This man was so far from himself - filthy, naked, violent, exiled to live homeless in the burial grounds. Jesus wasn’t looking for this man; he was there when he arrived on the other side of the lake. The man, however, speaks words that were from the evil spirit within him “Creator Sets Free (Jesus), Son of the One Above Us All, what do you want with me? I beg you not to torment me!” He pushes Jesus away. But Jesus, undeterred, asks the name of the spirit - and receives the name “Many Soldiers” - “Legions” and acquiesces to the request to be sent into the pigs. It’s the stampeding pigs that drown themselves in the lake that scare the herders, who go tell the villagers what happened. When the villagers come to see, the man is now clothed and sitting by Jesus. They are filled with awe and fear but it wasn’t until the villagers get the full scoop from the eye-witness pig herders that they beg Jesus to leave. The healed man wants to go with Jesus, but Jesus tells him to return to his friends and family - his community - and share what has happened to him. And so a shunned outsider becomes an insider at the feet of Jesus, disclosing the mysteries and workings of God’s message of hope and healing. In this case, Jesus sees the man as whole, separate from the demons that plague him. He engages with those spirits, understanding that what ailed the man was not who he truly was. He sees beyond the surface - beyond the nakedness, beyond the dirt and the scars, the violence and aggression, and restores the man to himself. Restores the man to community and relationship. Also - and there’s a whole alternate reading of this text as political satire that I just read about last night and that made me seriously consider ditching everything I had prepared and read straight from what Diana Butler Bass wrote on this piece - but one piece that stood out to me was the whole name of the demons being “Legion” - a reference, of course, to the Roman empire - and as we think about human beings in relationship to empire and what expectations get placed on us, our bodies, our dreams as a result of oppressive forces demanding our allegiance and claims laid on our identities that cause us to place our sense of self-worth and source of meaning in what the empire can provide and that can be a source of deterioration and destruction as we become occupied by being a good productive citizen as opposed to the truth of ourselves as beloved children of God -- a powerful tool of empire is to undermine mental health and well-being. As I said, there’s a whole sermon in there as well. In both our texts today, we see the divine encounter in the midst of the noise. In the swirl of natural forces, God isn’t there, but in the gentle whisper. With the varied voices of Legion, Jesus’s voice shines through. God meets us in the midst of overwhelm, in the places where we’ve had enough and want to throw up our hands and toss it all to the wind, in the cacophony of demands that have their hold over us - God meets us, God strengthens and nurtures us, God feeds us - and lets us rest, and God accompanies us on the next part of our journey. We find sustenance - body and spirit - in what God provides. Our mental health and well being is just as important as our physical health and just as important as our spiritual health. To be sure, Christ is not a substitute for a therapist or a counselor or medication - but God’s healing spirit moves and meets us in those spaces just as powerfully, offering resurrection life in the barren places in our spirits. In the midst of the mess and chaos, we are reminded, too, of God’s ever loving, steadfast presence, the companionship of the one who will never leave nor forsake us, who will always seek after our hearts to bring us back to life, who, in the words of Isaiah 43, says to us, "Do not fear, I am with you. You are mine. I have called you by name. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." Those are powerful words as we navigate through the sheer volume that life throws at us. In simpler terms, “you are not alone, and this will not last forever.” As you navigate this coming week - as you look at priorities and to-do lists, as you consider the weight of the news, as you wonder how you’re going to make it through all the demands that summer on Chebeague can bring, as you sit with life sometimes at full-on screech mode, remember to breathe. To stop and find the gentle whisper of God to renew your spirit. To let Jesus speak through the legion of things that lay claim to you and banish them for a time to restore and ground you. Stop to rest. Eat, sleep, nap, take a break from your phone or the news; everything will still be there when you are ready to re-engage. But maybe find a different path forward. Reevaluate and find a more life-giving rhythm. Resist being what is expected of you this summer…this season… Let Jesus meet you in the chaos of the world…let him restore your sense of clarity and purpose…and be released to witness the healing and resurrection power of Christ - who breaks all that is death-dealing in this world, and who restores us to life. Amen.
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Many of the thoughts and ideas from this week's sermon come from enfleshed's commentary on the passage. Many thanks for their work!
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, John 16:12-15 Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? 2On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: 4“To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live. 22The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. 23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth-- 26when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. 27When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. John 16:12-15 - First Nations Version 12“There are many more things I want to say to you, but your hearts are not strong enough to hear them now. 13When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will be the one to tell you. He will be your one true spirit guide and will lead you down the path of truth. He will fully represent me and will tell you only what I have told him. The Spirit will show you what is coming on the road ahead. 14He will honor me by making known to you everything I have shown him. 15All that I am and all that I have comes from the Father. He has not held back one thing from me, and the Spirit will not hold back anything from you. Leader: A Word of God that is still speaking, People: Thanks be to God. *Hymn - Come, Join the Dance of Trinity (words insert needed) Sermon One of the things I’m enjoying the most these days about being a parent is watching my kids create things. Genevieve is only just discovering this idea that she can manipulate the environment around her - pour water over dirt to create mud that she can shape, shovel sand into mounds, put crayons and markers to paper to leave colorful marks - but Michael is turning into quite the pro. We have a box in our house of random things - toilet paper tubes, bottle caps, egg cartons and cereal boxes, strips of cloth, plastic meat trays (clean, of course!) - anything that can potentially be repurposed makes its way into what we call “Michael’s Maker Box.” Between that and the unlimited access to the craft supply bin of stretchy string, popsicle sticks, duct tape, paper and more, I am constantly amazed by what he can put together. Musical instruments, elaborate paper airplanes, houses for his 3D printer animal figurines from school, a bow and arrow set (he decided that since Mom and Dad won’t let him have play weapons, he will make his own). He’s constantly doodling, fashioning something out of clay, cutting paper or cardboard - and it’s fascinating to watch him playfully create and delight in his projects. Today is Trinity Sunday - a day that in our liturgical calendar we set aside to talk about this doctrine that was finalized in the 4th century at the Council of Nicea as early Christians debated and fought about how to understand God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and the relationship between them. One God, three distinct persons, all coequal, coeternal, and of the same substance, sharing the same essence. If you followed the link to the video in the enewsletter, you are all caught up on how not to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and the major heresies that cropped up trying to explain how the Trinity works - and if you didn’t see it yesterday, I’ll show it after service, it’s a 4 minute video, very amusing and highly informative. I love these texts for Trinity Sunday - the Proverbs text in particular, but also Psalm 8, which this morning we allowed to shape our prayer of confession and the John passage which shows this dynamic interrelationship between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. Mother, Child, Womb. Lover, Beloved, Love. In our Proverbs passage about Wisdom - Sophia in Greek, Chokmah in Hebrew, there are some notes in translation where scholars disagree - where the New Revised Standard Version translates “rejoicing”, a viable alternative translation - and arguably more appropriate translation - is “playing.” Likewise “master worker” could instead be “child” or “nursling.” So I want to read that part of the passage again substituting those words, seeing how that might invite us to a different way of experiencing the text and provide a different image of God to us today: 27When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was beside him, like a child; and I was daily his delight, playing before him always, 31playing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. Wisdom has been there from the beginning. She’s there crying out for people to take notice of her, claiming her place as one playing, working, building, delighting in the world that is, helping it take shape, right on the front of the scene - dancing between God and God’s creation. Catherine Keller, one of my seminary professors and noted process theologian, shares that Wisdom points us toward a God that creates with less “Intelligent Design” and more “Creative Wisdom.” And I can imagine, much like watching a child at play or move to music or leap to catch floating bubbles the delight God has and pleasure God takes in creation and creativity and the Creative Wisdom dazzling us all. Or as William P. Brown, presbyterian minister, theologian, and author has said, “Play requires partnership, and Wisdom has two partners: God and creation.” For me this is a reminder that even though we talk about God as eternal and unchanging, there is, within God, a movement and dance. A relationship. Creative force cannot come out of a static being. Perhaps it’s more reasonable to talk not about God as never changing, but that God’s nature does not change - and that nature is one of an eternal dance as we see described this morning in three persons - perichoresis - (peri = around, choresis = dance) and in this divine circle dance I envision God shaping the universe, shaping the earth, shaping us the joy and abandon like one might see a child immersed in their work - and we see Wisdom dancing among us all, moving and inviting us to engage in that work as well. That we, too, in relationship and partnership with her and with God can be about that work of delight and creation, bringing about the world around us marked by that same delight and hope? What if that was the approach we took to engaging the challenges and problems of this world - to lean into our creative ability to discover new solutions, different ways of looking at things, finding the hope and life in the midst of struggle and death? We don’t need any reminders about how hard and heavy the world is for many people these days. You may be one of those folks - I know there are days for me that I experience that weariness - and I grieve the hardship and pain that so many of us and our non-human kin know so deeply. Yet I am also reminded that we are in connection to a God who has seen it all - the devastation of the earth, the ways humans can hurt and wound each other, the way we separate ourselves from God…even the ways we turn against our own selves. Yet the dance suggests that Wisdom believes there are possibilities still among us - she still persists in calling to us, she invites us again and again into the dance, invites us to heed her call, invites us to follow her lead. For when we do, we are drawn into the mystery of the Three in One God who longs for us to delight in ourselves and the world around us in the same way God does. But it takes time and practice and intention to do this - if it didn’t, Wisdom wouldn’t have to cry out for our attention! Wisdom comes to pursue us even as we find ourselves drawn in a thousand different directions. Wisdom doesn’t come easily - but comes as we search beneath the surface of things, as we discover connections around us and within ourselves and our bodies, naming the reality around us - pointing us back to God. And so what if this week, we took the time to make pursuit of Wisdom a daily practice? This is, after all, what we’ve been learning about in our Council meetings together - a practice of discernment, of paying attention, of noting what happens within our hearts and minds and bodies as we receive the world around us, and sorting out the way Spirit is moving us to respond. It is about paying attention to what our bodies are telling us (like when we experience emotion or when we’re actually tired and need a rest), or our gut intuition about a situation, or deciding to clear space in our lives for listening to the voices of those whose life experience is vastly different than our own. It could be a practice of learning how to ask really good questions as opposed to responding with advice or our own experience when talking with a friend. Or even sharing “I’m going to pause and think about this before I speak” and taking the time to seek Wisdom in the midst of it. It could be spending five minutes in silence, barefoot on the ground to connect with God and self and the earth. I believe our lives - our communities - even our churches - would look vastly different if we took the time to intentionally pursue Wisdom - discernment. Because in that space, as we open ourselves to the God in whom we live and move and have our being - we’ll discover again the divine dance that leads us into places of life and flourishing, grace and peace, hope and justice. God’s own being is dance -- Wisdom is a part of that -- and we, being made in God’s image -- well, we are just made for the dance, aren’t we? Dancing with God, with one another, and with all of creation. The dance is one that binds us together and knits us into a community where we’re inviting others to dance along with us. May we - like enthusiastic children engrossed in a creative endeavor - be so focused on pursuing this life within God’s circle dance, so deeply paying attention to the leading of the Spirit with our dance partner Jesus, hearing the love of God as our only tune, so that we as co-creators with God, can bring forth a world made new for ourselves and for those around us. Amen. |
AuthorPastor Melissa Yosua-Davis has been serving the community of Chebeague and its church since July 2015. She currently lives on the island with her husband and five year old son and 2 year old daughter, along with their yellow lab. Read here recent sermon excerpts, thoughts on life and faith, and current announcements for the church community. She also blogs at Going on to Perfection. Archives
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