Sermon Tone Analysis

“What is your name?”

Luke 8:26-39

 

A couple of weeks ago I met with the transition team of the First United Methodist Church of Freehold.

The first question I was asked was: “What do you want to be called?”

this is a very important question in the United States, back home we would call the person by their full name and title and if the person wants to be called by a more familiar name them they would give you permission without you asking.

“Call me Ramon,” we would say.

When our Bishop first came to our area, he asked the members of the cabinet to call him Bishop Suda, a shortened version of his first name, rather than Bishop Devadhar.

But even after getting permission I could not do it, so I compromised; I do not call him Bishop Devadhar, nor do I call him Bishop Suda, I just call him Bishop.

Knowing that about myself I left it to the individuals as to what to call me.

Some might call me Ramon, others pastor Ramon, yet others pastor Evangelista, whatever made them feel comfortable.

I would know that I am in big trouble if any of them call me Rev. Dr. Ramon Evangelista.

In the bible names are not just labels that they used to identify people; they were adjectives that described them.

In fact the names changed according to the changes in the person themselves.

You continually see people receive new names after a life changing experience.

After Naomi’s husband and two sons died in a foreign land and she returns home, her old friends could hardly recognize her and she responded to them saying: “Don’t call me Naomi, which means pleasant, call me Mara, which means bitter, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.”

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus sails to the region of the Gerasenes just across the lake from Galilee and upon stepping ashore, he is met by a demon-possessed man from the town.

Jesus immediately begins to work commanding the evil spirits to come out of the man.

Jesus then asked him: “What is your name?” Legion, he replied, because many demons had gone into him.

It is interesting that even though, according to Luke, he has been in that condition for a long time; we never get to know his real name.

I wonder if he was so long being legion that he could no longer remember his real name.

Identity is very important, it is the center from were you draw meaning for your life.

It is the point of reference that gives your life direction and significance.

In the television series: “Roots” about slavery in America.

There is a scene in which the new owner is attempting to give his new slave a new name, a new label to identify him.

The owner keeps asking him: “what is your name,” to which the new slave responds with his real name regardless of the punishment that followed: “Kunta Kinte.”

The man in Luke’s gospel calls himself: Legion, because of the many demons.

Too many churches lack direction because there are too many people offering different direction, all of them want their individual needs to be met, and they lack unity of purpose and vision.

For some time you have called yourself: Batsto, Green Bank, Lower Bank, and Nesco.

But now your new name is Pinelands.

You have not been called to be Absecon, or Linwood, or even Weymouth; but to be the Pinelands.

You have not been called to be all things to all people, but to be the people of God in these communities.

No one else can be that.

Too many times the church has lost its way; in a desperate attempt to attract new people, they have lost their name and their identity.

This is not a new problem; the writer of the first letter of John had to remind the church of his time: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.

But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

What you will become is not know yet, but what you need to do is to continue to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit that will guide you to all truth, and ultimately will guide you to whom you are to become as a church.

You are co-creators with God in who you will be, as a Christian and as a church.

That reality is exciting, and powerful.

This journey of self discovery is not over by today’s celebration.

You are still in the process of becoming.

When Jesus began to release Legion from all his demons, he cried out and fell at Jesus feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What to you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

I beg you, don’t torture me!” Imagine that, someone so confused that being free from his demons is perceive by him to be torture.

Luke tells us that for a long time he has not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

He was usually chained hand and foot and kept under guard and many times with the extraordinary strength of his demons he would break the chains and run into solitary places.

You would think that that was a miserable way of life and yet when the one who could free him from that life came around, when the son of God who came so he might have life and have it more abundantly finally arrives in his life, he experience it as torture.

Too many of us, like this demon-possessed man, get accustomed to a diminished life and even become comfortable with our misery, it becomes part of us and we rather continue in the hell that we know than enter into the heaven promised.

A few days ago I went to one of the churches in our district to have a Pastor Parish Relations Committee meeting.

While waiting for some of the members to arrive one lady began to talk about the many graduations they were preparing for in her family.

She shared that the celebrations were going to be subdue because one member of her family was badly burn in an attack in Iraq.

There was sadness in her voice, but also resignation, she spoke as if there is nothing that anyone could do; that war and death are a normal part of life.

Out of respect for her pain I kept silent, and yet I felt angry that she was so resigned of her lost.

I have found that most Americans believe that it is unpatriotic and even unchristian to question the death of our children in a foreign land.

What is happening in the Batsto, Green Bank, Lower Bank, and Nesco that you believe can not change?

What evil in these communities are you taking for granted as if there were nothing you could do about it.

What unrighteousness do you believe is out of the reach of the Pinelands UMC to address and transform?

“We can do all things thru Christ who strengthen us.”

When the church gets to believe that all we can do is to pray for the parents, children, and spouses of the dead; is the time when the church has lost is mind, is naked and in chains.

You have been called to be the light in these communities to bring clarity to what is right and wrong.

You have been called to be the salt that preserves the life of theses communities.

You are not legion anymore, you are not many, you are the Pinelands United Methodist Church and you have been call to be the body of Christ for them.

When the demon-possessed man was liberated by Jesus, a crowd came and gathered around to see what happened and Luke tells us that “they found the man sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.”

I am fascinated by that statement.

Before this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

He was so dangerous that he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard.

And many times he broke his chains and ran into solitary places.

But when they see him, sitting at Jesus’ feet, just like Mary Martha’s sister; he was at Jesus feet learning.

They found him dressed and in his right mind they become afraid.

I would have been afraid of him before, but not now, to me now he is normal.

But you see people get use to evil, they get comfortable with injustice, and become friendly to unrighteousness.

I imagine the life around town with this crazy, demon-possessed man, running around free.

A large group of the men in the community would gather to hold this man down and chained him in the nearby cemetery.

They would collect funds to pay for professional guards to keep this man away from their homes and especially away from their children.

Yet time after time they would learn that he had broken the chains and was running around again, naked and as crazy as ever.

I would be afraid for my children.

I would accompany my children to school and not allow them to play outside without adult supervision.

But these people are afraid of the man who is now sitting down, dressed and in his right mind.

If it were me I would have asked the town leaders to give Jesus a medal and declare him man of the year.

I would work for Jesus picture to appear in Times Magazine, most influential person.

But not this crowd, the entire town sees the man in his right mind and asks Jesus to leave.

Why?

What were they thinking?

Why is insanity more acceptable and sanity?

When the church is learning at the feet of Jesus, when the church is fully dressed in righteousness, when the church is in its right mind the world will become afraid.

When the church becomes prophetic and loves mercy, kindness and walks humbly with God the world becomes afraid.

When the church becomes the church and acts like the church the world becomes afraid and the church is persecuted or it is asked to leave.

Luke tells us that “all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them because they were overcome with fear.”

People might resent your attempts to bring them freedom and life, they might even ask you to leave the area; but it is better to leave the area than to stay by losing who you are in Christ.

The worst that can happen to the church is not persecution but irrelevance.

You have been called to be a unique church sent to minister in a unique place, fulfill your historic calling, become all God wants you to be.

Your mission is to become the Pinelands United Methodist Church and all of what that implies.

I know you will be successful, because God is with you; and if God is with you who can be against you.

In Christ you are more than conquerors, go and place fear in the heart of these communities by learning at the feet of Jesus, by being in your right mind, by having the mind of Christ.

Amen.