Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 23, 2013.
Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac (bronze cross panel)
The prophet Elijah foretold destruction and exile in a time when the Kingdom of Israel was falling apart. A bold man in violent times, he fought the priests of Baal and spoke truth to King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. In acts that might make us think of Jesus, he made a poor widow’s food last for months; restored her son to life, and finally went up to heaven in a fiery chariot. But now Elijah is worn down and afraid. Fighting despair, he hides under a broom tree and begs God to take his life. But God has other plans, and sends winds, an earthquake and fire to get Elijah back to God’s work.
Psalm: Psalm 42
The beautiful, lyrical language that opens today’s Psalm softens the deep sorrow and lamentation that fill its verses. “Why is my soul cast down? Why has God forgotten me? Where is God?” Elijah might have asked these questions when he cried beneath the broom tree. But finally, for the Psalmist as for Elijah, there is hope in God.
Second Reading: Galatians 3:23-29
Paul’s letter to the people of Galatia continues this week, reminding us in ringing words that we are all equals in Jesus: As it was then, so it is now: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of us are one in Jesus.
Gospel: Luke 8:26-39
This may be the strangest of all the Gospel stories about Jesus healing. Jesus meets a loud, scary man, naked and in chains, and he sends the demons that possess him into a herd of pigs, who rush into the Sea of Galilee and drown! What were Jesus and the apostles doing in a graveyard in the first place, which would have made them unclean under Jewish law? Why did the demons talk to Jesus, and why did he answer them!? Why did the whole thing scare the neighbors so much that they asked Jesus to leave town? And when the healed man wanted to follow Jesus, why did Jesus tell him no, go back to your people and tell them what God has done? This story shows us Jesus’s power, but it leaves us wondering. So many questions!