June 20

June 20, 2004

Luke 8:26-39

“Life’s ‘Demons’ – a Laughing Matter?”

OK, here’s an old church joke. A man dies and goes to heaven and St. Peter meets him at the golden gates. “I’ll let you in,” says St. Peter, “but first you have to answer this question – What is God’s name?” “Easy one,” replied the man, “Andy!” “Andy?” asked St. Peter, “Where’d you get that idea?” “From a song we sing in church,” said the man, “…Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me…!”

Did you hear the one about the Christian woman who wanted to own a Christian dog? She told the pet shop owner what she wanted and he said, “No problem!” and brought out a dog and a Bible. “Select the 23^rd Psalm,” he told the dog, and the dog pawed his way quickly to just the right spot. “Perfect!” said the woman, so she bought the Christian dog and took him home. When friends came over later, she had her new pet look up the 23^rd Psalm for them. They were very impressed, but then asked if he could do regular dog tricks. She hadn’t thought of that, so decided to see if he could. “Heel,” the woman commanded and immediately the dog jumped up on her friend’s lap, put his paw on the man’s forehead, bowed his head and started to pray.

It’s OK to laugh in church, isn’t it? I sure hope so! Sometimes maybe we take church too seriously! The well-known family counselor and author, Rabbi Edwin Freedman used to ask couples coming to him for premarital counseling why they wanted to get married. If they told him because they wanted to “get serious”, he would reply, “Well, if you want to get serious, don’t get married!”

Actually, religious folk have been laughing for a long time. The lesson from Luke today is a good example. I think people of the first century (especially Jewish people) laughed when they heard it. Look at how the story goes – Jesus stepped out of a boat and a wild man appeared, possessed by many demons and we are told their names – “legion”. This is the same name as a group of Roman soldiers. Then, when the demons begged not to be sent back to the “abyss”, Jesus seemed to have a little fun with them, sending them instead into a heard of pigs! Jews considered pigs the most disgusting animals on earth, but what a perfect home for Roman soldiers! But even the world’s most disgusting animals didn’t want to be that close to Roman soldier-demons, so they jumped into the sea and drowned themselves! Just a little political satire here maybe?

How much of this story is historical and how much is just for fun, we’ll never know, but like many funny stories, there’s a hidden truth. We can see it by seeing where the laughter is directed. You’ll notice that the story doesn’t make fun of the man struggling with what modern medicine might call “multiple personality disorder”. Quite the contrary, where he once was chased and chained, he was now welcomed with compassion and healing, lovingly received by Jesus, demons and all. The joke isn’t on him. It’s on the demons. They cringe in the presence of the Savior. They are laughingly called “legion”. They jump into unsuspecting pigs and then the pigs go crazy.

The man’s condition is taken seriously, but the demons are a laughing matter. In the last verses of 1 Corinthians 15 we can see the Apostle Paul treating death in a similar fashion, laughing in the face of it; “O death where is your victory? O death where is your sting? But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

I think this is the essential truth of Luke’s passage. We are victors through our Lord Jesus Christ. Life’s “demons” and even death have no power before him and thus, ultimately no power over those who believe in him. The conditions we sometimes suffer through can be serious, but we can rise above them because of our trust in the One who gives us the victory.

Of course, these days we have medical explanations for most of what people two thousand years ago believed were demons. We can see that diseases and disorders like epilepsy, turret’s syndrome, autism, bi-polar disorder and other forms of mental illness were misunderstood and feared. It was believed such problems were the work of unseen demons. But what people needed most in that ancient time was not modern medical explanations, but the assurance that since Jesus was there, things were in good hands, that he would give them victory over all that troubled them. With Jesus, they might even be able to laugh in the face of adversity.

I think such confidence is something we all need, even in this modern time where, thankfully, there is better understanding of physical and mental illnesses. I think we all need such confidence because even with today’s medicines and therapies, many of us still have our “demons”, things that trouble us that we have difficulty controlling. Perhaps a smoking habit would be a modern “demon”, or a drug or alcohol problem or an eating disorder. Maybe difficulty controlling anger or anxiety or a problem with one’s sense of self worth would be a modern “demon”. You can fill in the blank.

One of my demons is stress. It doesn’t give me trouble often, but it came to haunt me while we were on vacation this week in New Hampshire. It was a wonderful and relaxing week away, but wouldn’t you know it, on the last full day there, I woke up feeling uneasy. Without even realizing it, I had begun to get worked up over unfinished business I have at home, not just with church work, but with all the oversized expectations I put on myself in my personal life, too. I didn’t know what was wrong at first, but I knew I felt sick. We stopped at a clinic and when I told the doctor I felt tightness in my chest, he called an ambulance and sent me off to the hospital! All the tests came through fine, which led a doctor there to ask me about how well I’m managing the stress in my life and a prescription for something that would “help me relax”. How about that – on the last day of vacation needing a prescription for something to help me relax! So now I’m making some lifestyle changes that I should have made a while ago.

But how did Jesus help me face my “demon” last Friday? Well, I can assure you that I prayed for that help and I can assure you that it came. I had the peace in knowing Kay was with me the whole time and that the doctors, nurses and technicians were doing their jobs, so I was in good hands. To tell the truth, I found a lot to smile about and even laugh about that day.

The EMT in the ambulance has a brother and sister-in-law living in Stonington. His brother-in-law works at EB. The nurses at the hospital were wearing motorcycle T-shirts because there was a big motorcycle rally in town and they were obviously enjoying their work while helping me and Kay feel better.

The journey back to where this little saga started provided plenty of smiles and laughter, too. I was discharged from a hospital ten miles away from our vehicle and there weren’t any taxis available because the roads were clogged with motorcycles. So we took a local transit bus to a shuttle train. Only problem was, the bus driver took us to the wrong train station! We found a Chamber of Commerce office and an employee there tried her best to find us transportation and finally said, “I’ll take you to the train”, which she did in her own car, including stopping so I could fill my prescription. The train was a scenic railroad, so the next leg of the journey was slow and relaxing and the scenery was beautiful. It dropped us off in the middle of the motorcycle meet, so we got to check out all the neat machinery and hang out with bikers while waiting for the next train to arrive. I got a kick out of all the gray-bearded biker guys, going bald and with potbellies, wearing black leather and chains, still trying to look tough. A real “high” point was the drunk lady who sat across from us on the second train, babbling on and on while her husband rolled his eyes and tried to pretend he wasn’t there. When we got back to our boat (we rented a house on an island), the ignition key was gone and so was the battery. The battery I left at a local garage to be charged that morning but now the garage was closed and the key was removed by the marina when the doctor called them to say the hospital would probably keep me overnight. Of course, the marina was now closed, too! So, I swiped the battery out of my truck and put it in the boat and crawled under the dash (I was feeling a lot better now) to hotwire the ignition. Kay spotted an employee of the marina getting on another boat and I called out to her to see if she could get our key, but she couldn’t open the building. What she did do was offer us a ride back to our house on the island. We finally arrived safe and sound and it only took four hours to travel about fifteen miles! In the morning, the marina sent over a boat to pick me up and returned my key, free of charge.

There’s more, but I better save that for another sermon! The point is, all along the way, Kay and I were abundantly blessed by the kindness of others, by love, by funny situations and our own good company. I think the Good Lord helped us laugh a demon away that day.

Is it easy for a big, strong guy like me to admit he can have a problem with stress? No, it isn’t. But I want you to know I can understand your problems because I have some of my own. I also want you to know that none of us are alone with our “demons”, that the Savior is with us and that by trusting him, we can find kindness, good company, love and laughter even in the worst of circumstances.

We are a victorious people even when life gets us down. This is not our doing, but God’s doing. As Paul said, God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a great hope to have and share. We can chase demons with it, even laugh at them. We can touch others with healing. Thanks be to God.