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Trinity Episcopal Church Hattiesburg, Mississippi Fourth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 7) June 24, 2007 Go To Trinity's Home Page

1 Kings 19:1-15a
Psalm 42 and Psalm 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39
Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 75 th General Convention of the ECUSA

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee . As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me” -- for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:26-39)

Empathy and Compassion
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop

     Marianne’s parents had protected her all of her life. They moved from their suburban home into the country where Marianne could be herself and do the things she wanted without being the subject of semi-whispered conversations behind their backs at best, or the object of derision at worst.

     Marianne was born with some birth defects that caused her to be clumsy. She couldn’t speak very clearly, but she seemed to understand what was said to her. She often seemed uncaring to the people around her, and she would get frustrated and act out when she could not make her intentions or desires known to others. Sometimes her frustration reached the level of a tantrum.

     Her face was slightly deformed, and she had a large mole on her forehead. But her mother learned how to style her hair to make her look pretty. One of her legs was a little shorter than the other, and she walked with a slight limp.

     Marianne liked animals, and she played with the family dog all the time. She began public school, but the schools didn’t have right kind of programs for special children like her. Although some of the teachers wanted to help Marianne, they were often too busy with twenty five other children in their classrooms to give her the attention she needed. The fifth grade was Marianne’s last year in school.

     Marianne’s dad worked long hours to make ends meet, and Marianne’s mom stayed at home and taught her in the mornings as best she could. In the afternoons, they would walk the dog, read books on the sofa together, or watch their favorite cartoon shows and eat popcorn.

     One rainy evening as her father came home from work, he fell asleep; in an instant, their loving family relationship was shattered. Because of her problems, Marianne had trouble making the grief she felt known; she was nearly uncontrollable at the funeral. Many of the townspeople had not seen Marianne since she stooped going to school, and they were horrified by her behavior. Weeks after the funeral, when their finances began to get tight, Marianne’s Mom knew it was time to enter the workforce. As she looked for work in the town, many people suggested that because of Marianne’s behavior, she needed to be put in a home. Feeling that there was no other option, and being tired of seeing their looks of pity and incomprehension, one cold November day, her mom took Marianne to the state hospital.

For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds. (Lk 8:29)

     For the first several weeks in the hospital, Marianne did not speak. She did not take notice of the many cats on the hospital grounds. She did not interact with anyone else. Her uncaring attitude worsened. She lost weight. And then, as if possessed, she awoke one day enraged. She threw herself against the walls, and banged her head on the floor. Her anguished screams terrified the other patients. The staff had to wrestle her to the floor to sedate her, and they kept her sedated, day after day.

     Her mother tried to love her as best she could, but Marianne couldn’t relate to her anymore. Their once close relationship was now crippled; broken.

     In the spring, a newly graduated therapist came to the state hospital, and she was assigned to the ward where Marianne was held.

 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him (Ps 22:24 )

     No one knew what it was about the young therapist that touched Marianne. Maybe it was because she did not see a deformed young woman, but a person struggling to express her grief and receive consolation from others. Maybe it was because she did not find excuses to avoid Marianne. Maybe it was because she spoke to Marianne like she was an intelligent human being. Maybe she had the gift that Abbie Rogers had. What ever it was, Marianne quite suddenly began to improve.

     One morning the therapist took Marianne on a trip to town. The townspeople who remembered the deformed little girl and the tormented tantrum she had at her father’s funeral now looked upon Marianne with amazement. Marianne seemed happy as she limped along, her hand tightly clasping the therapist’s hand.

     As the sky began to take on its pinkish hue that evening, Marianne and the therapist walked into the dress shop where Marianne’s mother worked. As she looked up she saw Marianne standing in the doorway, angelically framed by the glow of the setting sun. Her mom didn’t know whether to smile or flee. Time seemed to stand still. Without taking her eyes from her mother, Marianne began to walk. Small steps at first. Her arms came up from her sides and she reached for her mother. As her mother dropped to her knees to embrace her daughter, Marianne said, “I miss Papa.” “Me too, honey,” her Mom croaked.

     The story of Gerasene demoniac is first and foremost a story of demons and relationships. He was too dangerous to live in town, and so the townspeople sent him to live among the graves, which were believed to be the home and haunt of demons.

     Although today we don’t believe in demons in the same way the ancients did, we certainly have the capacity to demonize that which we don’t understand, like less obvious mental difficulties that render the spoken word difficult. Marianne made the people of her town feel uncomfortable, and strangely vulnerable. They didn’t like her disturbing their vision of normalcy any more than the Gerasenes who did not like their lives disturbed by the demon-possessed graveyard dweller and by Jesus who made them aware that they loved their herd of pigs more than they loved the man they imprisoned in their graveyard. Placing greater value on things than on people is what makes us act selfishly.

     When Jesus cured the demoniac, the man’s health was restored. But as I see it, that is not the miracle of the story. The miracle is how reconciliation between the man and his people came about once Jesus got involved. This man was reviled by his own people, and he had every reason to fear those who treated him badly. Nevertheless, he went to them and proclaimed how much God had done for him through the man who healed him. He was brought back into community with his people, and the community was enriched by his presence.

     Marianne’s therapist treated her with compassion, dignity, and respect, and those simple actions effected a cure; they began the process of reconciliation between mother and daughter who were estranged from one another. Both Marianne and her mother had been the victims of the demons of grief and rage because their beloved father and husband had seemingly been unfairly taken from them.  And it took an act of compassion to drive them away. 

     Compassion is the key. Compassion is more than empathy. With empathy, we feel the feelings of another; we put ourselves into other people’s situations and experience their fears, wants, desires, and more. Compassion starts with this, to be sure. But compassion has the added component of then being willing to work to relieve the suffering of another.  What Jesus had in great abundance was both empathy and compassion. May we all recognize the demons in ourselves and others, and drive them away by acts of compassion and love

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1 Kings 19:1-15a

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah ; he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” [Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”] He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” Then the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus .”

Psalm 42 Quemadmodum

1 As the deer longs for the water-brooks, *
so longs my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; *
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night, *
while all day long they say to me,
“Where now is your God?”

4 I pour out my soul when I think on these things: *
how I went with the multitude and led them into the house of God,

5 With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, *
among those who keep holy-day.

6 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why are you so disquieted within me?

7 Put your trust in God; *
for I will yet give thanks to him,
who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

8 My soul is heavy within me; *
therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan ,
and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.

9 One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts; *
all your rapids and floods have gone over me.

10 The LORD grants his loving-kindness in the daytime; *
in the night season his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

11 I will say to the God of my strength,
“Why have you forgotten me? *
and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?”

12 While my bones are being broken, *
my enemies mock me to my face;

13 All day long they mock me *
and say to me, “Where now is your God?”

14 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why are you so disquieted within me?

15 Put your trust in God; *
for I will yet give thanks to him,
who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 43 Judica me, Deus

1 Give judgment for me, O God,
and defend my cause against an ungodly people; *
deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked.

2 For you are the God of my strength;
why have you put me from you? *
and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?

3 Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, *
and bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling;

4 That I may go to the altar of God,
to the God of my joy and gladness; *
and on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God.

5 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why are you so disquieted within me?

6 Put your trust in God; *
for I will yet give thanks to him,
who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Luke 8:26-39

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee . As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me” -- for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Collect of the Day

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Copyright © 2007, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
21 June 2007

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