Family of God, there’s work to be done. It’s holy work. It’s good work, it’s hard work. And yet, when we look at the state of our world, it’s apparent that most of the world – especially the powerful and the gatekeepers of our society – have little interest in doing this work. It’s the work of reconciliation and love. It’s the work of seeing the unity we have in Christ and making that our focus instead of the things that are liable to divide us into different factions. And on a day like today, in a world like the world we find ourselves living in, it’s hard to see our world for what God has intended it to be.
It’s hard because the powerful of this world find it easier to keep their power when there isn’t one common voice of faith speaking words of justice and love into our society. It’s hard because our national media landscape that controls so much of the narrative finds it simpler – and more click-baity – to place everything in terms of “us” vs “them” or “let’s try to make this controversial for the sake of ad revenue.” All these things are meant to divide, and yet Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians today that in the faith of Jesus Christ – a faith that we all are participating in today, the things that divide us no longer matter. Because if Christ calls us to him, we are all called. It doesn’t matter if we’re male or female. It doesn’t matter if we’re slave or free. It doesn’t matter if we’re gentile or Jew. All that matters is we belong to Christ through the faith that we have been blessed to have in him. And it makes me wonder – what would it look like if we as the Christian faith were able to speak with one accord? What would that voice speak?
I have to be honest, I’m a pastor. I think I do okay at this gig. But to claim to speak as THE voice of the Christian faith makes me a little antsy. So I’m not gonna do it. But if we’re going to find out what that voice says – together – we’re going to have to be about the work that the Spirit puts before us today – to be people of Christ’s unity instead of people who like to categorize and divide. We are to be people of compassion and grace, even when it isn’t easy.
And our gospel text today has something to say about that. Because in the land of the Gerasenes, Jesus encounters a man who has been separated from his community. He’s separated not because of his actions, but because he has an unclean spirit upon him – Legion – which causes him to be unable to control himself. His community has attempted to restrain him, but for the safety of the rest of the community, they’ve forced the possessed man to live away from the village in the tombs. He’s isolated. He’s singled out. He’s alone. Until Jesus comes. And stepping out of the boat, even before the unclean spirit made up of many speaks, Jesus already is aware of what has happened to this man. Jesus is already beginning to cast out the unclean spirit. But even the unclean spirit gets a voice in this encounter. I wonder if the man beneath the unclean spirit had a voice in his community. I wonder who heard his pain, his fear.
And maybe this is a question on Jesus’ mind, as well – so much so that Jesus is willing to listen to the pleas of the unclean spirit within the man. Perhaps a little bit of the fear of this man is echoed in the pleas of Legion – “don’t cast us into the abyss.” Maybe this is the fear of the man beneath the demoniac – “don’t cast me aside. Don’t discard me.” And that voice – the voice of the voiceless – is one that I think we as people of faith need to be especially aware of – a voice that we are called to amplify rather than discard. So perhaps the first step for being people who speak with one voice is to be people who speak the voice of justice and truth for the sake of our neighbor. Perhaps the first step for being people who speak with one voice is to be people who are willing to do the work of examining whose side God is truly on throughout scripture – and that is usually those who lack power in the world. God speaks through the prophet Isaiah, “learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.” And again the prophet Amos speaks the word of the Lord, “But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
So that raises the question – if we are about this work, whose side are we on? Are we on the side of the rich and powerful, who offer us much to gain in this world? Or are we on the side of the weak and the lowly? Are we on the voice of the widow, the orphan, the poor and downtrodden? Are we on the side of getting what we can now, and thus participate in those things which divide us, or are we on the side of righteousness that calls us to give freely of ourselves and find unity with those that our world would consider our lessers?
Family of God, I tell you again today, there is work to be done. In a world where we’re told who should be our enemy – who we should be afraid of, we’re called to look for who is afraid, and how we can reassure them. We’re called to see our enemy as our neighbor. And if there is no longer Jew nor Greek, no longer slave nor free, perhaps we might find that there is no longer an “us” and a “them.”
So let me as you today – who is it that the powerful of our world want us to see as a “them?” Who is it that is fearful now because they know that worldly justice isn’t as available to them due to the fact that society has categorized them as disposable? And what are we called to say about it? Beloved, I pray that you look deep into your own spirit, and recognize that the Christ that is in you is the same Christ that is in your neighbor who the world wants to tell you is not actually your neighbor. But today, this day, know this: you are free. You are free to be people of God – not people bound by political affiliation or the “us vs them” conflicts of this world. You belong to God. And so do all of the “thems” out there that sometimes seem so separated from us. And if we all belong to God, then we are called to speak out in common voice – that the Christ who has compassion on the ones who are cast aside has compassion for all of us. And that is compassion to be shared, until all the world truly speaks with one voice for the justice and peace that is given for us all in the faith of Jesus Christ, in whom there can be no division – only different ways of speaking with one purpose – the love of God for all God’s creation.