Little Demons

While I was in the office this last week I told the same story multiple times about an experience I had and it seems that is what I must talk about today. While I was on internship there was a man, Matt, who attended the congregation that I was serving at, and the pastor had told me that he was on medication. He was on medication to control his mental state which if he did not take them would cause him to have delusions of grandeur. For those of you who don’t know a delusion of grandeur is an episode where a person takes on the persona of someone completely different and acts as if they are that person. In their mind, they truly are that person.

One day I walked down the stairs to the basement of the church to where the fellowship hall and some classrooms were and at the bottom of the stairs was had many encounters with him before but on this particular day I discovered what it was like to be with a person who was having a delusion of grandeur. Matt began to tell me what he needed me to do something for him. He had recently been told by God that he was the second coming of Christ and that he needed to get onto national television to let the world know that he was Jesus come again so that he could bring all people to faith.

I stood there and listened to Matt talk. I knew it was best to let him go through everything he needed to go through and then excuse myself. He then told me he needed something from me. He needed me to be his Judas. He wanted me to come and be on national television with him so that as the world turned into the broadcast he could walk onto camera and I would then come on camera and kiss him on the cheek. That way people would remember the way Judas betrayed Jesus and know that he was now Jesus returned to the world. I remember not wanting to argue with him, but I also remember not really giving him an audible answer but simply nodding my head.

Eventually Matt had finished everything he needed to say and I was able to go on my way. I remember talking with the pastor about it and the one thing I remember from the conversation that really stuck out to me is that he was glad Matt was here so that he could be a part of a place that loves and cares for him and is there to help him when his mental state isn’t stable. The pastor was right. Matt was harmless. The conversation was uncomfortable and unforgettable but I would rather have Matt in a place that was there for him rather than a place that didn’t care for him or no place at all.

The pastor was right. Matt was harmless. The conversation was uncomfortable and unforgettable but I would rather have Matt in a place that was there for him rather than a place that didn’t care for him or no place at all.

Which is unfortunately where this demoniac in our story finds himself. We don’t know the full back story, but we do know that he didn’t live in the city and that he was guarded and chained at times. He was suffering from a whole bunch of demons and no one knew how to help him except Jesus. So Jesus helps the man by sending the demons into the swine and making the man whole again.

Now making the man whole again is great for the man who had been possessed by demons, but it doesn’t make everyone happy. The people are upset at Jesus. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that some are upset at the loss of their income, their swine. But something I read when studying this text caught my attention. Perhaps part of the reason that they are upset is that Jesus upset the way things had basically always been. This man had been possessed for so long perhaps they had become accustomed to it. Perhaps, even though it was not the best situation, they had known and dealt with it in this way that they didn’t want to have to deal with it in another way. Now they would have to find a place for this man in society.

Where would this man live and what would he now do for a living? Would someone have to take him in and feed him? Did Jesus really cure him or was he just experiencing a temporary lapse? Was he no longer in a delusion of grandeur like Matt had been that day and they were just waiting for it to happen again? There are so many unknowns that it may have been more upsetting to have cured this man than to have just left him as he was.

As I was writing this message today I pulled up Facebook on my phone because I had a notification and as Facebook pulled up there was a shared post from the Rickety Cricket Brewing that Kingman has been nominated as nicest city in Arizona. The article centered around two main topics. The first topic talked about how kind people are around town. Helping people load their groceries into their car. Which is interesting because we just talked about this at our Wednesday Bible Study. We talked about how sometimes we judge people based on how they look and sometimes that includes people with lots of tattoos and yet those are the same people that are the ones helping others.

The other topic was about the city’s adoption of Santa James. That article then lead to the piece that the LA Times did about Kingman and Santa James. He is a wanderer who has taken up residency in Kingman and is beloved by so many different people. I have seen him many times along Stockton Hill Road and it was interesting learning about his story when the LA Times article first came out. Now Santa James isn’t naked like Legion was in the Bible story, but they are both men who are different than what society considers normal. In the case of Legion the people tried to keep him away and locked up. In the case of Santa James he was welcomed and people took the time to learn his story. People discovered there was more to this man than a Santa suit.

Now Santa James isn’t naked like Legion was in the Bible story, but they are both men who are different than what society considers normal. In the case of Legion the people tried to keep him away and locked up. In the case of Santa James he was welcomed and people took the time to learn his story. People discovered there was more to this man than a Santa suit.

Now there are a lot of obvious topics we could have gotten into about today’s text, but in light of Matt and think the most important thing to take away from today is that we have an opportunity as a community of faith to be open and welcoming to everyone no matter where they come from or what they look like. Jesus came up to Legion and made him whole again and turned that man from an outcast into a disciple. He wasn’t a disciple that followed Jesus in the sense of the 12 disciples, but he went into his home town to try to change the hearts and minds of the people so that they could see the life-transforming power of Jesus. He was probably one of the very first missionaries that existed. The man took his new life and proclaimed through the city just how much Jesus had done for him.

How do we welcome people into this community of faith? How often do we recognize and with open arms welcome anyone who comes into this space knowing that we are all a little broken and all have our own little demons? How do we as people of Grace embrace that nomination of the nicest city in Kingman? How do we declare how much God as done for us and for everyone? And as you ponder those questions of sharing also remember how much God has done for you. How much love you receive from God. How much forgiveness has been given to you and how actively the Spirit works in and through you to make God’s love known. May you embrace the gift of life given to you and may you walk away from this place of worship declaring how much God has done for you through Jesus our light and our Lord. Amen.