Glorify Your Ministry: Why Theological Education Matters to Those who Minister

Note: This is a modified version of a talk I delivered at New Student Orientation for the South Texas School of Christian Studies for the fall semester of 2016.

In Romans 11.13, Paul says, Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry. Paul does not say he glorifies the minister - he is not proud of himself. Paul says he glorifies the ministry - he takes pride in what he does. And it is worth noting that the apostle makes this statement in the midst of a sustained theological argument that gives the biblical and theological basis of the calling he pursues. I want to talk about glorifying your ministry by submitting yourself to the training necessary to carry out God’s call on your life.

You may have seen the following meme: Please do not confuse your Google search with my medical degree. There is another version: Please do not confuse your Google search with my law degree. I want to challenge you to consider yet a third version: Please do not confuse your Google search with my theology degree. After all, does a profession that deals with people’s money, or with people’s bodies, deserve more honor than one that deals with their souls?

There are people who will tell you that the glory of Christian ministry is that anyone with the Holy Spirit and a Bible can do it. They are wrong. That is the glory of the believer priesthood. The glory of Christian ministry is that one loves God enough to submit oneself to the sustained discipline of training the mind for theological thought. As pastoral theologian Craig Dykstra says, “In our society - and even in the church - the malignant assumption that pastoral ministry does not really demand or require very much surreptitiously undermines both our legitimate expectations of and our sense of gratitude for the Christian ministry.” In other words, we fail to glorify our ministry.

We might think - we certainly might wish - that the Holy Spirit worked in us like Neo in the Matrix: Someone plugs a needle into our heads, images of Greek and Hebrew and Augustine and Barth flash across our mental maps and we jolt awake to declare, “I know kung fu!” . Well, the wind bloweth where it listeth; God could do that if God chose to. But the problem with such a process would be that it robs you of the opportunity to love God with all your mind. Your investment of money, time, and energy; your sacrifice of leisure, sleep, and relaxation - are burnt offerings laid on the altar of your service to Christ.

So if you feel a call to Christian ministry, I want to challenge you to pray about pursuing a seminary degree. Such study offers you the opportunity to develop not only the practical skills or the intellectual knowledge, but also the habit of mind to think in a deeply Christian manner about all of life. Dykstra calls this “pastoral intelligence,” the idea that “to be a good pastor, you have to be very smart in lots of really interesting ways.”

And if that goal seems a long way away and you feel you are floundering just thinking about it, remember that Usain Bolt was next-to-last out of the blocks in the Olympic 100-meter dash. They don’t give medals for starting fast; they give medals for finishing well.

Do you need to pursue education to be a good minister? Let me answer in the words of the legendary pastor and scholar Dr. Gardner C. Taylor: “Formal theological training is not strictly required to begin ministry. Someone might go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive. It is not likely.” You’re headed for the rapids. A boat beats a barrel. Plan ahead. Glorify your ministry.

Jesus as Racist - Mark 7.24-30

A friend who was a religious skeptic once asked the famous Baptist preacher and civil-rights leader Will D. Campbell to define Christianity in ten words or less. Campbell replied, “We’re all bastards but God loves us anyway.”

On August 20, 1965 in Hayneville, Alabama, a white civil rights worker named Jonathan Daniels walked to a store with two black women, intending to purchase soft drinks. Tom L. Coleman, an unpaid sheriff’s deputy, blocked the door and blasted Daniels point-blank in the chest with a shotgun round. A grand jury indicted Coleman for manslaughter. He pled self-defense and an all-white jury acquitted him.

On the very day of the murder, Campbell, still seething with rage and grief, chanced to see his free-thinking friend again. The man reminded Campbell of his definition of Christianity then asked two questions: Were both Jonathan Daniels and Tom L. Coleman bastards? Campbell admitted that, by his own theology, that must be true. Then he asked, “Which one of those two bastards do you think God loved most?” Campbell, who was saved as a child and ordained in his teens, replied, “Damned if you ain’t made a Christian out of me. And I’m not sure I can stand it.” Campbell’s ministry transformed from one of condemning racists to one of loving and seeking to understand them, without ever changing his views on race. He once wrote, “Anyone who is not as concerned with the immortal soul of the dispossessor as he is with the suffering of the dispossessed is being something less than Christian.”

The story we read this morning is one of those which makes lay-people think that New Testament Greek is the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card, a magician’s trick which can produce rabbits of spotless white orthodoxy from the blackest top hat of a text. We like to point out that, of the two words available to him for “dog,” Jesus uses the diminutive term, something more like “puppy.” This is true, but it doesn’t change anything: “Dog” was a Jewish racial slur hurled at the Gentiles by a dispossessed people seeking relief from the injustice of their own position. By taking it in his mouth, Jesus enters the worldview and uncomprehending pain of every redneck, cracker, and Kluxer, every bigoted birther and flat-earther, every neo-Nazi, race-baiter and Confederate-flag-flying poor white trash who ever burned a cross in a black man’s yard. We like to think of Jesus taking our sins on himself in his death, but I think in this instance Jesus takes our sins on himself in his life. I’m not questioning Jesus sinlessness; I’m emphasizing his incarnation. He enters the cultural space of the poor Galilean peasants he came from and lets this anonymous woman show his disciples how love trumps hate. He is so concerned with the souls of the dispossessors that he puts himself in need of redemption by the dispossessed so that his disciples can see what conquering love looks like.

Many white churches have awakened of late to the need for diversity, and usually that refers to ethnicity, and it is important that we continue to struggle forward in that regard. But I know that I, at least, have been guilty of devaluing a different kind of diversity: the diversity of the Left Behinders and the KJV’ers and the Joel Osteen followers; I have taken patronizing amusement in the views of the six-day creationists and the no-women’s-ordinationists; I’ve preached that everybody is a sinner but God loves us anyway, while secretly adding that God’s loves some more because they sin less, or at least read more. But Jesus sides with those people. He doesn’t necessarily accept their views, only their pain and their sin.

Will Campbell also tells the story of the night of his nephew’s funeral. As was the custom in the South in the old days, the family asked that Will, as the minister, sit up with the corpse. Stunned by his own grief, Campbell barely managed to remain in his pew as the church grew dark and silent. Then he became aware that someone else had stayed, an uncle who had loudly condemned Will’s civil rights work, but who cared enough to be there in the hour of need with a quiet presence and a thermos of coffee. “Until the dawn,” Campbell recalls, “I sat in the redemptive company of a racist Jesus.” May we daily find sustenance in the presence of the wrong, racist, redneck Christs who occupy our worlds and give us hard lessons to learn. May they make Christians out of us, and may we be able to stand it.

What To Do When You’ve Outrun Your Soul: A Sermon in Triptych, Luke 10.38-42.

Collect

Great God who sits enthroned among the cherubim, Your Son commended Mary when she sat in simplicity at His feet. Grant us today the grace to know that we must sit with Christ before we can serve Christ, so that when we go forth in Jesus’ name, we will also go forth in Jesus’ presence and power. In the name of Him who promises rest for our souls, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Right Panel: The World in the Text

An apocryphal story tells of a group of Englishmen who hired some native Bushmen to guide them through the Kalahari desert of Africa. The whites pushed to complete the journey as soon as possible; to their dismay, the Bushmen sat down after a couple of days and refused to budge. No amount of threatened punishment or promised rewards could shift them. They were, they explained to their bosses, waiting for their souls to catch up.

Central Panel

In the passage before us today, Martha has outrun her soul while Mary waits for hers to catch up. Mary’s inaction in the face of Martha’s compulsion, and Jesus’ gentle decision in favor of the former, teach us the critical lesson that the soul advances fastest when it sits at Jesus' feet.

Before we talk about Mary, take a moment to look at Martha. Why does Jesus rebuke her? Why does he set aside her service and hold up the seeming inactivity of her sister? Martha does many right things, and she does those things right, but she misses the one right thing. In Martha’s hurry to serve the Lord, she has outrun her soul.

Consider Martha’s condition. We have three verbs to describe her state of mind (v.40-41): She was distracted, worried, and distracted. (The first and third are actually different words in the original; the English Standard version says Martha was distracted, anxious, and troubled.)

Consider Martha’s action. Martha went up to him. The phrase implies an impulsive and explosive action; the desire to be with Jesus did not push her beyond the social conventions of her day, but the desire to drag someone else away from Jesus overcame her sense of social etiquette.

Consider Martha’s prayer. She said to him, Tell her to help me. The command shows that her first question was merely rhetorical. Of course Jesus agreed with her about the problem and the solution. She wasn’t seeking information; she was giving orders.

In Martha’s hurry to serve the Lord, she has outrun her soul.

Now watch as Jesus offers gentle spiritual direction to Martha. But one thing is necessary. Some ancient manuscripts have Jesus saying, Only a few things are necessary, really only one, as if Jesus means, “Martha! There’s no need for the seven-course banquet. Just zap a frozen pizza in the microwave or something.” In other words, stop trying to be Martha Stewart of Bethany. Yes, society says that your only access to worth is through fulfilling a certain role. Never mind: dare to be a second-rate hostess and a first-rate disciple. But I think there is also a deeper meaning in Jesus’ words: Martha, only one thing matters, and that is to let my teaching transform you. After that, you may do many things, but you will do them all differently; you will do them like a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven and not like the president of the Junior League. Martha, your soul advances fastest when it sits at my feet.

In Mary’s stillness at the feet of Jesus, she waits for her soul to arrive. Mary only does one thing, and she not only does that one thing right, she does the one right thing. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. Don’t miss what it means that she sat at the Lord’s feet. That is the position of discipleship; that is the position of an apostle (Acts 22.3). The rabbinic teaching of the day held that it was better to burn the Torah scrolls than to allow a woman to read them, yet here sits Mary, not reading the written Word of God but listening to the words of the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us (Jo 1.14). Mary’s still soul leads her to perform a radically counter-cultural act. She abandons the kitchen for the position of an apostle and I don’t care what that great theologian Kirk Cameron says, Jesus not only does not condemn her but publicly defends her.

Mary leaves the social space that her culture said she should occupy and invades spaces where she supposedly does not belong. She does not set out to be a radical, only to be a disciple; she does not seek to gain attention from the world, only to pay attention to Jesus; by sitting still before Jesus she boldly marches where women had not yet gone. Mary’s soul advances fastest when it sits at Jesus’ feet.

Left Panel: Bearing Witness

The soul advances fastest when it sits at Jesus' feet. If we want to get it right as Christians, we must display spiritual sensitivity and courageous hospitality. We must receive Jesus, make him the center of our homes and hearts. When so many around us see the Christian faith as a yellow brick road to the opulent Oz of consumerism we must see it as a hard road to the cross. When others reject Jesus because he sets his face toward suffering, we must welcome him and turn our faces in the same direction. And like Mary, we can manage to do this only if we are willing to waste time at the feet of Jesus, and willing to breach social standards in order to do so. We should all keep a mental Martha List to let us know when we’ve outrun our souls.

When I share Martha’s language, then I’ve probably outrun my soul. When it takes three words to describe my distraction, then I’ve outrun my soul. When I find my vocabulary consists largely of words about my fatigue, my frustration, my distraction, and my division, I need to pause and wait for my soul to catch up.

When I commit Martha’s action, then I’ve probably outrun my soul. When I would rather keep others away from Jesus than be with Jesus myself, then I’ve outrun my soul. When I worry more about whether other people are allowed to be Christians than about whether I am seeking Christ, then I’ve outrun my soul. When I spend more time and energy rebuking others for ministering in Jesus’ name than ministering in Jesus’ name myself, then I’ve outrun my soul.

When I pray Martha’s prayer, then I’ve probably outrun my soul. When all of my prayers consist of rhetorical questions, then I’ve outrun my soul. When most of my prayer consists of giving good advice to God on how to run the world, then I’ve outrun my soul. When I automatically assume that God shares my anger at others, then I’ve outrun my soul. As Anne Lamott says in her book Traveling Mercies, “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

So how do I respond when I check the Martha List and realize that I’ve gone 0-for-3? What do I do when I realize I’ve outrun my soul? When I’ve outrun my own soul in the service of the Savior, I must look at the example of Mary.

When I accidentally violate the rules because I intentionally seek Jesus, there’s a good chance I’m waiting for my soul. Mary has chosen. We’ve seen that Mary is sitting where she does not belong, but she’s not some radical feminazi hell-bent on making trouble; she’s just a woman so focused on being where Jesus is that other boundaries become invisible. Christians are not called to break rules; we are called to follow Christ. If we do that, we’ll break plenty of rules in the process but at least we’ll know they were the right ones to break.

When I do less in order to do more, there’s a good chance I’m waiting for my, soul. Mary has chosen the better part. When I’ve outrun my soul, I may have to sacrifice efficiency on the altar of prayer and let go of the praises and prizes I could win if I produce the goods and services that people desire.

When I let Jesus do the talking, there’s a good chance I’m waiting for my soul: It will not be taken away from her. Notice that Mary never says a word in this entire story. She does not defend herself against Martha’s accusations. She simply sits at the feet of Jesus and lets her Lord be her defender. The last thing that many of our own Christian brothers and sisters would ever understand would be a church full of people who decided to take Jesus’ teachings seriously. It will put us in the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. And sometimes we’ll just have to smile and let Jesus do the talking.

Martha hurries to failure. Mary sits still and succeeds. The soul advances fastest when it sits at Jesus' feet.

Conclusion

Brother Lawrence was a great man of prayer who lived in France in the seventeenth century. In a letter to a friend, he offered the following assessment of a mutual acquaintance: “She seems to me full of good will, but she would go faster than grace. One does not become holy all at once.”

Sometimes, in our zeal to be holy, to serve Christ, we try to go faster than grace; we try to become holy all at once; we outrun our souls. May this story be our reminder, as individual believers and as a congregation, that the soul advances fastest when it sits at Jesus' feet. Amen.

Benediction

When Jesus comes to us walking in the way of the cross,

May we welcome him as our unseen guest.

When Jesus comes to us walking in the way of the cross,

May we offer him the gift of our service.

When Jesus comes to us walking in the way of the cross,

May we sit to learn and rise to serve,

And join Jesus in walking in the way of the cross.

In the name

Of the Father,

And of the Son,

And of the Holy Spirit,

One God now and forever,

Amen.

The Parable of the Good Bad Guy: A Narrative Sermon from Luke 10:25-37

Collect

Great God in Whom all nations are blessed, Your Son taught that neighbors often come to us in distressing disguises. Grant us grace today to discover Christ in those who need our help, and Christ in those whose help we need, that we might show our war-weary world the New Jerusalem, where the tree of life in eternal bloom brings healing to all nations. In the name of Him who became flesh and moved into our neighborhood, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

A woman was going down from a frat party to her dorm, and fell into the hands of scholarship athletes, who stripped her, raped her, and went away, leaving her half dead. Now by chance a coach was going down that way; and when he saw her, he said, “What was she doing alone in such a dangerous place?” and passed by on the other side. So likewise a booster, when he came to the place and saw her, said, “She was probably drunk. She was asking for it.” But a work-study student while picking up trash came near her; and when he saw her, he was moved with pity. He went to her and bandaged her wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he balanced her on the handlebars of his bicycle, brought her to the emergency room, and called the police. The next day he took out his Obama care card, gave it to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of her; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”

A man was going home from his minimum wage job, and fell into the hands of payday lenders, who charged him exorbitant interest, put a lien on his car, hounded him with collection calls and went away, leaving him half broke. Now by chance a Christian businessman was going down that road; and when he saw him, he said, “When will these people ever learn to live within their means?” and passed by on the other side. So likewise a Dave Ramsey teacher, when he came to the place and saw him, said, “You should’ve attended my class,” and passed by on the other side. But an Über driver from Pakistan, while on his way to pick up a fare, came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him in his own car, even though the bloodstains would probably hurt his customer ratings, and brought him to his mosque, and took care of him. The next day he took out two twenties, gave them to the imam, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”

An Israeli citizen was driving his car on the Sabbath when he fell among radical Ultra-Orthodox Jews who threw stones at his car, breaking his windshield and causing him to crash. They ran away and left him to bleed out. Now by chance a conservative Israeli politician was going down that road; and when he say him he said, “I’d help, but there might be a photographer around and I need the Orthodox vote in the next election,” and passed by on the other side. So likewise a resident of one of the Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory, when he came to the place and saw him, said, “Probably those dirty Terrorists did this. The car may be booby-trapped with an IED,” and passed by on the other side. But a Palestinian, on his way to the checkpoint so he could get back home from his minimum-wage job, came near; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went  to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him in his arms and hauled him to a hospital and sat with him through the night. The next day he took out his entire week’s wages and told the administrator, “Take care of him, and when I get paid next week, I’ll settle the bill. It might take longer if the Israeli government closes the checkpoints, but I’ll get back eventually.”

A teenage girl was running away from Sinton to Corpus, and fell into the hands of a sex trafficker, who got her hooked on drugs, pimped her out, and, when he saw she was too sick from venereal disease to turn a profit, went away, leaving her half dead at her usual corner, trying to score tricks. Now by chance a pastor was going down that road; and when he saw her, he thought, “Look at those tattoos! Look at those needle marks! And she’s half-naked. What a tramp! I can’t imagine what I’d do if that was my daughter!” and passed by on the other side. So likewise a deacon, when he came to the place and saw her, thought, “If anyone saw me talking to her, or if I gave her a ride to a shelter, I could claim I was helping her, but who’d believe me? She might even blackmail me by threatening to yell rape,” and passed by on the other side. But a female impersonator while on his way to work at a nightclub came near her; and when he saw her, he was moved with pity. He went to her and bandaged her wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he gave her his own bus pass, told her to go to his address, and wrote out a note for his housemates to look after her. The next day he took out his tips from the night before, gave them to the other residents, and said, “Take care of her; and after my next shift, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”

An atheist UT professor was going down from Austin to Kyle, and fell into the hands of some rednecks, who stripped him of his “Hillary for President” T-shirt, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a colleague who was in line for the same teaching post was going down that road; and when he saw him, he took a photo and tweeted it out with the caption, “Drunk again,” then passed by on the other side. So likewise an academic dean, when he came to the place and saw him, thought, “Well, this should give me some leverage for negotiating his salary.” But a construction worker while stuck in traffic on his way home from a double shift came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him in his dual-axle pickup, which sported a rifle rack and a  “Make America Great Again” bumper-sticker, brought him to a nearby Motel 6, and took care of him. The next day he took out his credit card, gave it to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you in case the card maxes out.”

A cheerleader was going down from a pep rally, and fell into the hands of some mean girls, who stripped her of her boyfriend’s letter jacket, beat her up and went away, ruining her makeup and her hair and tearing her $200 blouse. Now by chance the student class president was going down that sidewalk; and when she saw her, he passed by, smirked and said, “Serves her right.” So likewise the class valedictorian, when he came to the place and saw her, thought, “I’m sick of the jocks and the cheerleaders getting all the attention around here anyway.” But a Goth chick, who was cutting class to sneak a smoke, came near her; and when she saw her, she was moved with pity. She went to her and bandaged her wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then she hefted her up piggyback, brought her to the school nurse, and insisted on staying until her parents arrived. The next day she cashed her paycheck from her job at Whataburger, took the bruised, beaten girl to the hairdressers, and said, “Give her a makeover. If this doesn’t cover it, I’ll come back and settle up.”

A boy was growing up in Robstown, and fell into the hands of a father who cooked meth for a living and a mother who was hooked while she was pregnant, who beat him regularly and finally went away, leaving him as a ward of the state growing up to repeat the cycle of addiction and crime and finally winding up homeless. Now by chance an evangelist was holding a meeting down in the Cut; and when he saw him, he gave him a tract. So likewise the guest soloist, eager to plug his new CD, saw him, told his wife to keep an eye on the sound equipment because it was easy to steal and easy to fence. But a child molester, who lived in a camp outside the city limits due to the terms of his release from jail, came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and nursed him through withdrawal. Then he put him on his own bicycle, brought him to a shelter, and got him checked in. The next day he took out his last five singles, gave them to the attendant, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”

Which of these, do you think, was a neighbor to the one who fell into the hands of the athletes, payday lenders, religious radicals, pimps,  rednecks, mean girls, and drug dealers?" The one who showed them mercy? Go and do likewise. Amen.

Benediction

May you love your neighbor as yourself,

For this is the law of love.

May you love your neighbor who is unlike yourself,

For this is the law of love.

May your neighbor be whoever loves you, when you are in need yourself,

For this is the law of love.

In the Name of the Triune God,

Father,

Son,

And Holy Spirit,

One God now and forever,

Amen.

What Does That Have to Do with the Price of Pork? A Sermon in Tryptich

What Does That Have to Do with the Price of Pork? A Sermon in Tryptich

Luke 8.26-39

Calallen Baptist Church

June 19, 2016

Collect

Loving Father, with a single word of power Your Son sent the demons of Hell scurrying to destruction, never counting the cost for the salvation of a single soul. Grant us grace today to declare that the redemption of even one sinner outweighs any price we must pay to see it come to pass. This we pray in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our deliverer, Amen.

Right Panel: The Text in the World

On Saturday afternoon, May 31, a four year-old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. When a 420-pound male gorilla named Harambe began to manhandle the child, zoo workers shot the ape dead, saving the boy’s life.

Then things got interesting.

Protesters swarmed the zoo. 180,000 people signed a petition calling for an investigation of the boy’s mother. Twitter exploded with righteous indignation.

It seemed that we grieved the lost life of a gorilla more than we rejoiced over the saved life of a child.

Central Panel: Christ in the Text

Welcome to the Gerasene demoniac, one of only two destructive miracles Jesus performs.

Elsewhere Jesus takes a little food and makes a lot of food; he takes sickness and turns it to wholeness; he takes death and turns it to life. Here, his actions directly result in the death of an entire herd of presumably innocent swine. The villagers charge into the field brandishing placards that proclaim, “Exorcism is murder!”

Don’t be too quick to take this lightly, or to condemn these villagers. Jesus just wiped out a considerable portion of their shared economy, and they probably weren’t rich folks to begin with. And this is a respectable business: Jesus is on the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee where bacon and pulled pork are completely legit. It’s not like the Lord busted up a moonshine still or a meth lab. Imagine if this demoniac haunted the Veteran’s Cemetery out on I-37, and the demons asked to be cast into the nearby refineries. Jesus gives them permission, they swarm into Citgo, Flint Hills, Valero and freak out all the gauges until those things blow sky high and the wreckage rains down into the ship channel.

How many jobs did Jesus just cost us? Would a single soul be worth it?

Jesus required these people to pay the price for a debt they didn’t think they deserved, and they decided they were better off without him around. They learned that Christ is the only cure. But Christ is the cure that costs.

Why did the Lord do this? He cast out lots of demons over the course of his ministry and we never read of any collateral damage elsewhere. Yes, he withered the fig tree outside of Jerusalem but that was apparently a volunteer sprung up by the roadside and nobody missed it much. The water at the wedding feast in Cana could have come with a disclaimer: “No animals were harmed in the making of this wine.” Why this? Why now?

Something in the way Luke recounts this story tells me that community is the key here. Luke identifies the territory as the country of the Gerasenes, associating it with its occupants. He identifies this guy as “a man from the city,” linking him to the community. And of course after the pigs die, the whole populace enters the picture, everyone in the city and in the country. At the end, Jesus refuses the man’s desire to become a disciple and instead commands him to return to your home in order to share the gospel there.

We don’t how this man came to host a legion of demons; the New Testament does little to satisfy our morbid curiosity about such matters. The text, however, hints that whatever happened to him came about in the midst of his society. Luke implies that something in the way they treated him contributed to his condition. And while we don’t know what he or they did to create this crisis, we do know how they tried to respond: they chained him up and kicked him out.

At first, they chained him up. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds. In other words, they tried to keep him quiet, to make him behave himself. This probably goes along with the thing about him running around naked. It’s one thing to host an infestation of unclean spirits but at least pull your pants up, put your baseball cap on straight, take those piercings out of your nose and cover up those tattoos! But it didn’t work; he was too far gone. So they said, “If you’re going to act like that, we’ll warehouse you in a prison. We’ll chain you up, lock you down, kick you out and fence you in.”

When that didn’t work, they drove him out. He did not live in a house but in the tombs. When they couldn’t clean him up, they put him out of sight. They gave him the graveyard, land nobody really wanted, comfortably removed from their own neighborhoods. If they ever needed that land again - say, to build a bridge on - they could just declare eminent domain and drive him somewhere else. They said to him, “We can’t stand to look at you. We’ll see to it that you have your own neighborhood, your own schools, your own nightclubs, even your own churches. We can live with your situation as long as we don’t have to live with you.”

I’m not saying they were wicked people; they were just out of options. They had no idea how this guy got this way or what to do with him now. So they chained him up and then they drove him out. I don’t blame them for that; I do blame them because, when Jesus arrived with the solution, they balked at the size of the bill! Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them. It didn’t work to chain him up; it didn’t work to drive him out; but it cost too much to make him whole. Christ was the only cure, but Christ was the cure that cost!

Left Panel: Bearing Witness

We like to say that Jesus is the answer, and he is - but while salvation is free, the delivery system can be expensive. Christ is the only cure, but Christ is the cure that costs! What price would we pay to see the demons depart?

Is the life of a forty pound boy worth the death of a four-hundred pound gorilla? Is the life of one man worth the death of a large herd of swine? Is the redemption of those in the prisons and on the peripheries of our own society worth it when the cost comes down to blood and treasure?

Today is Juneteenth, a very specific Texas holiday. It marks the day in 1865 that the Emancipation Proclamation finally became effective in Texas. It should remind us that much of our nation’s wealth, much of our state’s wealth, was stolen in the form of the lives and the labor of African Americans. Slave labor built the White House. Whether we wanted it or not, white Americans today profit from the exploitation of African Americans. If there are ghettos in our city, we helped create them.

In 1915 the Texas Rangers killed, by some estimates, 5,000 Texans of Mexican descent, supposedly because they were revolutionaries but probably because the Anglos wanted their land in the valley. In ways that are difficult to define but easy enough to imagine, we benefit from those actions. If there are barrios in our city, we helped create them.

The United States has five percent of the world’s population and twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. Blacks and Hispanics make up twenty-five percent of the population of the United States but roughly half of its prison population. Five times as many white people use drugs as black people; ten times as many black people go to prison on drug charges as white people. We lock them up. We drive them out. It doesn’t work.

One in three women worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence during their lifetime, and these women are twice as likely to seek an abortion as other women. Sex trafficking of women and girls is soaring in America, and it is pornography that drives the demand. Nearly half of trafficked women say customers show up with porn images to demonstrate the acts they want these women to commit, and an equal percentage say their pimps forced them to perform in pornographic videos against their will. Fifty-five percent of trafficked women report having at least one abortion, with thirty-three percent of these reporting multiple abortions. Violence against women and trafficking of women stems from a culture that sees women as objects and property rather than people. If there are abortion clinics in our society, we helped create them.

Lesbians, gay men, bisexual, and transgender  persons are  twice as likely as African Americans to be the victims of a hate crime. In fact, they suffer the highest incidence of hate crimes of any group in America. Much of this stems less from a view of homosexuality as morally wrong than from a view of homosexuals as evil people. If there are Orlandos, we helped create them.

What price are we willing to pay to set these injustices right? Or will we shut up and lock up the victims and fall back on the rhetorical question as old as Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In fact I am either my brother’s or sister’s keeper or I am my brother or sister’s killer.

What might it cost Calallen Baptist Church to see Jesus drive out the demons? What precious pigs, what sacred cows, might wind up in Corpus Christi Bay? Might we have to give more money because we start reaching people with no money? Might we have to put up with differences so radical that we think we cannot endure them, and wait for Christ to change them? Might we have to do some uncomfortable re-reading of the Bible, not because the Bible is wrong, but because we got the wrong things out of it? Christ is the only cure, but Christ is the cure that costs.

Conclusion

Christ is the only cure, but Christ is the cure that costs. In his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln spoke these immortal words regarding the Civil War that still raged in the American south:

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Christ went to the cross for us, but Christ calls us to take up our own crosses. Christ’s blood pays the price of redemption, but it may be that our own blood must pay the price of restoration and reconciliation.

Christ is the only cure, but Christ is the cure that costs. I wonder if we’re willing to pay the price. Amen.

Benediction

May the Lord release our world from legions,

For the Enemy has many soldiers.

May the Lord redeem our world and restore it

Unto a right mind and right heart.

May the Lord prepare us to pay any price

That the captives of this world might go free.

In the name at which the demons tremble,

The name of the God who is

Father,

Son,

And Holy Spirit,

One God now and forever,

Amen.