What Are You Doing in There, Elijah?, The Rev. David R. Williams, Pentecost IV--Year C--June 24, 2007

God of the living word, give us the faith to receive your message, the wisdom to know what it means, and the courage to put it into practice.  Amen.

“What is your name?” Jesus asks an approaching stranger as Jesus gets out of a boat.  The man wears no clothes.  His home is a cave.  He is disheveled and offensive-looking to any of the people living in his community.  The town is called Gerasa and it sits on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee from Jesus’ more familiar territory.

Gerasa is “foreign” land for Jesus and his followers.  The naked, demon-driven, frightening man is the first person encountered by Jesus after crossing the sea in a small boat with his disciples.

“What is your name?” Jesus asks.

The name, our name, no matter what may be going on in our lives at that very moment, is so very important.  My name creates an identity, a connection.

“Oh, you are David.”  “Oh yes, you are Tom.”  “Ah, I know you are Mary, Susan, John, Ryan.”

Jesus meets the most unattractive, threatening person in town.  And Jesus asks to hear his name.

The man encounters Jesus, not just any newcomer to town, but he encounters Jesus.  The demons inside the man know Jesus.

Do we have demons?  What are they?  Who are they?  After two thousand years, we know we all wrestle inwardly with places of darkness.

“I just don’t know what got into me?”  “What made me do that?”  “I wish I could control my whims.”

We acknowledge to some degree these insidious forces of our own souls.  For some people, and for us at various times, the tensions can feel extreme and intense.

Obviously, the naked man standing before Jesus has a problem.

“What is your name?” Jesus says.

“Legion.”  “Legion?”

As we hear this story we might ask ourselves: is this really a name or could it be “legion” referring to something else in the story?  We surely hear about odd names being given to children these days: Sayden, Fresno, Derwood, Bonzo.    Have we every heard of Legion as a name for a person?

Without questioning the name, Jesus proceeds with one of the more unusual healing events in the Gospels.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all make reference to this event in Gerasa.  The demons know Jesus, and through Jesus’s use of the pigs, the demons are destroyed, and so are the pigs.

One commentator’s unusual explanation of the story and of the name Legion is worth sharing:

“The name, Legion, is the key to the story,” the commentator says.  “Everything begins to make sense when we allow the meaning of ‘legion’ to dictate the shape of the story.  It’s a story about Rome whose legions possessed Israel.  Israel lived in internal exile.  Why are there so many pigs, when Jews would have no use for pigs?  (Remember pigs were not kosher.)  Pigs had one purpose only – to feed the bands of Roman recruits.  As always, most commentators may miss the highly political significance of what the Gospel writer is recording.  This is a coded identification of Jesus the Liberator.”  Jesus saves the man by destroying a lot of pigs.  The violent transformation of that world is portrayed in this story from Gerasa, the country beyond the sea: many pigs die to save one person.  But the ultimate transformation takes place on this side of the sea, in Jerusalem; one dies to save many.”

Maybe the “Liberator” image of Jesus is a clue to understanding this story and understanding Jesus.  Jesus first asks the man’s name.  And from there a major transformation/liberation of the man’s life occurs.  Many people witness the event.  This truly is a sacred occasion for this man controlled by demons, naked before the world around him, and he is set free.

The healing begins with a question, “What is your name?”

When we at Holy Comforter celebrate the special occasion of Baptism, we move our attention to the font at the front entrance to the Church.  Just before the water is splashed over the candidate, a question is asked.  “Name this child!”  Transformation happens – in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, a divine encounter.

Let’s look at another scene.  Another time.  Another Divine encounter.  A frightened, traumatized person sits, hiding, in a cave.  The Lord’s voice – similar to the voice of Jesus – asks a question.  “What are you doing in there, Elijah?”

Have we heard a similar voice – maybe sometime when the demons get the best of us and we go into a shell? This place of refuge could be in our minds, or maybe we truly are hiding someplace.

“So, David, what are you doing in there?”

Elijah should have been sitting on top of the world.  He has just defeated and wiped off the face of the earth all remnants of the alien God Baal.  The monotheistic God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the dominant Divine force in the land of the Hebrews currently led by weak King Ahab.  Ahab’s conniving, power-hungry wife, Jezebel, is not Jewish.  Her God is Baal.  What Elijah has done to Jezebel is virtually his own death sentence.

Common sense sometimes guides us to smart, life-saving decisions.  In this case, Elijah is just like most of us – a human being ready to do something to save his life.  Elijah’s life is threatened by an angry, vengeful woman.  Elijah runs away and hides in a cave, a wise move.

We all know, even when we make such sensible decisions, the cave cannot last forever.  Some voice approaches us – our conscience, a best friend, the voice of the Lord--and asks the question, “So, David, Elijah, what are you doing in there?”

That question is usually a sign that a new choice must soon be made. Where now?

God says, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”  Elijah is not ready to stand out in the open.  He is still very much afraid.  From the cave, Elijah hears the boulder-shattering winds, the terrible earthquake and the ferocious fire.

And then Elijah hears the silence.  The silence brings Elijah out of the cave into the world once again.  And the Lord says one more time, “What are you doing, Elijah?”

The Lord then directs Elijah into the next steps of his life journey.

These two questions from the Lord provide divine encounters. For a man fighting a terrible disease with demons, and for a great and wonderful prophet hiding from threatening forces, both are encounters with the Lord of Life.

“What is your name?”  “What are you doing in there?”

Encounters with the Lord of Life offer transformation, freedom, and renewal.

God of the living word, give us the faith to receive your message, the wisdom to know what it means, and the courage to put it into practice.

Amen.