Let us pray… … Lord God, may your peace and Holy Spirit fill this place. Open your scriptures to us, and may I clearly communicate what you intend us to receive. May your Word take root and flourish within each and every one of us, and through it may we be strengthened and transformed by your unconditional, living, and limitless love for each and every one of your children. In Jesus Name, Amen.
This morning’s reading about the tormented Gerasene, a Gentile, is the second in an arc of three stories in Luke. In the first story Jesus calms the waters: showing he is Master over Storms and Nature. In the last story, Luke tells us of the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, showing that Jesus is Master over Sickness and Death.
In this, the second story, Jesus is Master of Demons. But, what are these demons? Are they real? Or, are they a metaphor for something else?
In this story, the man is seen with no clothes, no home, not even his own will. He is unclean by every measure of judging “uncleanness” the audience knows of. He doesn’t have any community or friends. He’s alone, in a sort of living death, as outcast as any outcast can be.
The Here and the Hereafter 