Sunday Homily - June 23rd, 2019 - Jesus the Foreigner

Jesus and the Gerasene Demoniac Icon

I.

Have you noticed how skilled we are
 at dividing ourselves into groups?

Think about how many ways we do this.

For example,
 if you walk into the high school cafeteria,
  you will undoubtedly see that there are distinct groups
   that everyone has subdivided into.

The "popular kids" are in that group,
 the "nerds" are in that group,
  the sports players are over in another group,
   and so on and so forth.

But you and I both know
 that it's not just the kids in junior high that do this, right?
  We adults are often no better.

In a workplace, you may have the outdoor adventurers who are hiking and camping all the time,
 you'll have the active people who go to yoga and gym class together.
  You'll have the golfers talking about which course they are going to next,
    you'll have the book loving group talking about the latest novel.
     And you will have the 9-5'ers who put their nose to the grindstones and don't talk to anyone.

But the danger comes when our groups
 become dividing walls that alienate anyone looking for companionship.

We often form groups with people who are like us,
 with people who think like us,
  talk like us,
   have the same values in life as we do.
    And when we run into other groups that DON'T think like us,
     talk like us,
      or have the same values as we do,
       we can so easily create "us" versus "them," don't we?

Rich versus poor.
 Old versus young.
  Republican versus Democrat.
   Baby Boomers versus Millennials.

When our territories of division become battle lines
 drawn in opposition to anyone standing in our way,
  we might have lost where our Christian priorities ought to lie.

And we might be tempted to our own special group's gospel
 rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

II.

Think about what Jesus does in today's Gospel reading.

First, Jesus goes out of the country.
 He is in the country of the Gerasenes.
  And one way that you can tell he is outside of Judea
   is because there are swineherds keeping pigs and grazing them in the banks near the water.
    Pigs are unclean according to the Torah,
     and no Jew would have kept a herd of them.
     [c.f. Oxford Commentary on the Bible]

So, Jesus has become a foreigner,
 crossing into a foreign territory,
  and he meets a man who lives among the tombs of the dead,
   is naked,
    and with an animal-like look in his eyes.

Jesus, recognizing that demons have taken hold of this poor man,
 commands them to come out.
  And the man falls to the ground, screaming,
   "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me!"

The demons then beg Jesus to allow them to go into the swine,
 and Jesus allows them.

The swine run down into the water, drowning,
 but this man all of a sudden is in his right mind.

The people from the surrounding town, seeing the power that Jesus had demonstrated,
 beg him to leave.
  And on the way away from the Gerasene territory,
   the man who was healed begs Jesus to let him come and follow him.
    But, instead of coming with Jesus,
     Jesus simply tells him,
      "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you."

This previously demon possessed man,
 who has been ostracized from his home and the village,
  lives among the dead and was oppressed by a great evil within himself
   was set free by Jesus,
    a foreigner who had crossed the borders.

And the people of that land see this foreigner, this "Jesus,"
 and the power that he has,
  and they do not want him there.
   They don't want anything to do with this foreign man
    who has just performed a deed of power.

And yet, nonetheless, there was a man who was oppressed that was set free
 by this foreigner named Jesus.
  And this man became a witness to the healing that Jesus gave him in his life.

III.

What else do you think Jesus could have done
 if the people living in the territory of the Gerasenes instead wanted to get to know Jesus
  and engaged with him instead of becoming afraid of him?

What other things could Jesus have done there
 what other lives could have been changed
  if they but gave him 5 minutes of their time
   instead of making assumptions based upon the miracle that they had seen?

But also, are we not often like the people of the Gerasenes?

Do we not also sometimes see God do deeds of power,
 reveal his face in the hungry,
  the naked,
   the imprisoned,
    the poor,
     and in those who are different than us,
      and yet instead of curiosity and engagement,
       we fearfully disregard Jesus's very presence in those people?

Every one of us here does that in some way, friends.
 I know that I do it.

I often divide myself into my "in group,"
 and so often am I oblivious to those who are outside of it.
  And yet, I have found over and over again,
   that standing in the middle of those "outsiders"
    is usually where you will find Jesus.

Where in your life, friends,
 do you need God to come and set you free from your "in-group?"

Where in your life
 do you need God's healing from the divisions that WE erect?
Where in our engagement with the world as Christians
 do WE need to reevaluate where the boundaries have been drawn,
  and where in our community are WE being called to become foreigners,
   crossing the borders of our self-inflicted divisions,
    in order to reach those people who are crying out to God for healing?

I encourage you all,
 in the name of our Lord Jesus,
  to really examine yourself in this upcoming week
   and to try at least once to take a step of faith out and across a border
    that Jesus may be calling you to walk over this week.

Because when we get past all of the externals that we judge,
 whether it be gender,
  or color,
   or language,
    or nationality,
     or economic status,
      or anything else conceivable,
       we may find that for us who follow Jesus,
        there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female.

But rather, we may find that we are all called to be One in Christ Jesus.

In the name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.