When 2020 arrived, I was looking forward to it. A trip to Iceland early in the year to visit my oldest daughter was in the works. My wife and I were also thinking about traveling to New York City to see a Broadway show or two. Funny how things can turn on a dime and change. Days before our Iceland trip, the government announced all U.S. citizens returning from European countries (including Iceland) would be quarantined because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Soon, cities and states began shutting down, and in NYC, all Broadway shows went dark.
This has not been the year I (or anyone else) had hoped for. A pandemic, the subsequent collapse of our economy, and cities on fire after George Floyd’s death have caused great stress and consternation. Life has changed and we are now navigating our way into a new normal way of living. Many of us dislike change and we seek peace and stability in our lives. Yet, life is always about change and how we adapt to it.
I find hope in believing that Christ comes to bring us a sense of peace and acceptance even in the midst of chaos. A story that illustrates this is found in three of the Gospels. It is the story of the Gerasene Demoniac. In Luke 8, Jesus tells his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” There had been huge crowds coming to hear Jesus teach and perhaps he was just a little tired and needed a break from the people pressing in on him. The lake referred to is the Sea of Galilee and on the other side was the Gerasenes region. This was an area inhabited by pagans or non-Jews. The disciples couldn’t have been too thrilled to be going there. The law of Moses taught that a good Jew was to have nothing to do with pagans, but Jesus had said ‘let’s go’, and so they did. Their misgivings were only magnified when on the way to the Gerasenes, a storm arose on the lake and the disciples thought they were going to drown. They had to wake Jesus so he could still the storm.
Tired and wet, they finally reached the other side. They asked Jesus where they should put ashore. Jesus looked up and pointed to a graveyard. From a distance, the disciples could hear and see a man in the cemetery who was screaming incoherently at them as they got closer. If there was ever going to be a mutiny, it was surely now. Jesus insists they dock near the man. It’s almost as if he had an appointment to see him. Somehow, he knew this man would be there.
This man was well known to those who lived in this region. It was believed he was possessed by demons. He roamed the cemetery naked. He had no home. Chains had bound the man, but he broke free and terrorized the countryside. To the residents, he was a monster. Jesus approaches the man and casts out the demons. In the next scene, Luke reports that the residents of the Gerasenes came to see what had happened and found the man sitting at the feet of Jesus, “clothed and in his right mind.” This man had finally found a sense of peace in his life.
In this ever-changing world, Jesus comes to give us peace. He will not be deterred. Jesus and the disciples braved a storm on the water; they traveled out of their comfort zone to go to a region occupied by pagans and landed in a graveyard to see the Gerasene Demoniac. I think Jesus does no less to seek us out today, even in the middle of a pandemic.
Rev. Dave Poteet, Pastor of Congregational Care
