WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:07.500 In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:08.500 Amen. 3 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:10.600 Grace and peace 4 00:00:10.600 --> 00:00:14.800 be to you from God, our Father and our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. 5 00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:15.600 Amen. 6 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:19.400 The sermon for this day is based upon the Gospel 7 00:00:19.400 --> 00:00:22.100 reading from Luke chapter 8. 8 00:00:24.200 --> 00:00:31.700 Strange, this story just strikes the ear of the modern person 9 00:00:31.700 --> 00:00:32.800 strangely 10 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:40.600 The tug towards suspension of belief is strong. First, there's a man 11 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:47.000 with a demon or should I say demons a legion of them. 12 00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:56.100 Have you even seen one demon-possessed person much less with a legion 13 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:03.900 of them? And he has been publicly bound with chains and shackles. 14 00:01:05.099 --> 00:01:10.900 And this man ran around naked and lived in the cemetery. 15 00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:17.500 One might call him a first-century zombie or the Living Dead. 16 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:22.000 He is a human being after all. 17 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:30.300 As you begin to suspend belief this story just doesn't ring true. 18 00:01:31.100 --> 00:01:36.900 You, and this Gerasene man, with a legion of demons, seemingly 19 00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:39.400 have nothing in common. 20 00:01:42.100 --> 00:01:45.800 But of course you can't suspend believe too far. 21 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:48.900 For into this world steps 22 00:01:49.100 --> 00:01:55.300 Jesus literally from a boat transversing, the Sea of Galilee and you 23 00:01:55.300 --> 00:02:01.100 want you have to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt. 24 00:02:01.100 --> 00:02:07.300 So perhaps this is there is some way you can truly hear this story. 25 00:02:08.300 --> 00:02:11.300 There must be something that rings true about it? 26 00:02:12.600 --> 00:02:18.100 The strangeness of it all perhaps were missing something failing to 27 00:02:18.100 --> 00:02:23.500 perceive a common world, a reality that belongs to you and to this man 28 00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:25.000 of the tombs. 29 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:29.800 To, what kind of a place has Jesus stepped? 30 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:35.600 He is entered into territory outside of Israel, much like the cities 31 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:36.800 of the Decapolis. 32 00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:43.100 A place dominated not by Jews, but by Gentiles. The Gerasenes tomb 33 00:02:43.100 --> 00:02:45.200 dweller is a Gentile. 34 00:02:45.900 --> 00:02:49.900 Jesus has entered home turf for you. 35 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:52.300 Turf just like ours. 36 00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:54.400 Gentile world. 37 00:02:55.900 --> 00:02:58.600 But the common turf ends there, right? 38 00:03:00.500 --> 00:03:02.800 Not so fast oh Gentile. 39 00:03:04.200 --> 00:03:09.300 Is it not interesting that his fellow countrymen reject, this 40 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:09.800 demoniac? 41 00:03:10.200 --> 00:03:16.000 They want nothing to do with him either before or especially after his 42 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:18.200 encounter with Jesus. 43 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:23.300 As one who dwells with the dead, they consider him unclean and impure. 44 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:27.900 We don't want to be like him or somehow become infected with his 45 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:29.800 spiritual weakness. 46 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:36.700 But the Gerasenes failed to see their commonality with the man from 47 00:03:36.700 --> 00:03:37.700 the tombs. 48 00:03:39.500 --> 00:03:43.600 He is the symbol of them all. 49 00:03:44.900 --> 00:03:48.200 His bondage you see is their bondage too. 50 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:53.700 He just happens to have really close communion with one of the demons 51 00:03:53.700 --> 00:03:56.900 that have made themselves at home in the creators world. 52 00:03:58.500 --> 00:04:03.100 Paul perceives this when he says in our Galatians reading in the same 53 00:04:03.100 --> 00:04:08.100 way, we also, when we were children were enslaved to the elementary 54 00:04:08.100 --> 00:04:10.700 principles of the world. 55 00:04:11.900 --> 00:04:17.200 Those elementary principles might appear in the form maybe Legion of 56 00:04:17.200 --> 00:04:18.000 demons. 57 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:21.100 It's not their usual garb though. 58 00:04:22.200 --> 00:04:23.400 It's much simpler than that. 59 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:26.400 Just take on the appearance of anything 60 00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:32.100 opposed to the Creator's, will any Gentile spirituality will do money, 61 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:37.000 food, drink sex, politics power, you name it. 62 00:04:38.300 --> 00:04:40.500 All of its under the table for 63 00:04:41.700 --> 00:04:43.600 the spiritual forces in the world. 64 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:48.800 It looks so common, so good. 65 00:04:50.900 --> 00:04:57.200 In the meantime, they have you enslaved captive just like our Gerasenes 66 00:04:57.200 --> 00:04:58.200 friend. 67 00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:03.300 We have much more in common with him than we thought. 68 00:05:04.700 --> 00:05:11.800 We were and often still are held captive just as he is. The spiritual 69 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:15.800 forces of the world had us in their grasp 70 00:05:16.900 --> 00:05:19.300 and they can still have us for lunch. 71 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:25.200 There can be no question that we have suspended 72 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:28.200 belief much too much. 73 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:35.400 Our Gerasenes friends, world is not so different from ours. 74 00:05:36.200 --> 00:05:39.700 We may not have seen a human being a human brother with a legion of 75 00:05:39.700 --> 00:05:45.000 demons, but we have seen the spiritual forces of this world. Who is not 76 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.800 spent days at the bedside of a loved one? 77 00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:52.000 Under the firm grasp of a sickness that might lead to death. 78 00:05:53.300 --> 00:05:57.200 Who doesn't have some experience with Brothers and Sisters in Christ 79 00:05:57.300 --> 00:05:59.200 at each other's throats. 80 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:05.000 Because their will is right and right makes might. 81 00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:10.800 Who is not seeing the impact of nations blinded by their attention to 82 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:14.800 their own national interests above all else. 83 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:17.100 Yes, Russia. 84 00:06:18.700 --> 00:06:22.400 But don't approach Russia like a stranger like the Gerasenes 85 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:23.400 demoniacally. 86 00:06:24.700 --> 00:06:26.800 And who has not and will not for themselves 87 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:32.100 confront, the spiritual darkness wrapped up in death, both Earthly 88 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:33.200 death, and the death 89 00:06:33.200 --> 00:06:38.000 that lingers beyond the grave outside of God's life, 90 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:43.200 Living in a world, infiltrated by the spiritual forces of darkness, 91 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:46.500 there is much for Gentiles to fear. 92 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:49.500 Are you afraid also? 93 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:56.300 Here is the last thing that you have in common with our unnamed 94 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:58.400 Gerasenesen brother. 95 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:04.900 You know, the one who commands, the spiritual forces of darkness 96 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:11.100 and from whose voice they cannot escape. Legion knew who this one was. 97 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:12.600 Jesus 98 00:07:13.200 --> 00:07:20.400 Son of the most high God, but our Gerasenesen brother truly knows him 99 00:07:21.900 --> 00:07:24.000 and trust in him. 100 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.900 When the crowds of his national brothers and sisters come out to see 101 00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:34.900 him clothed and in his right mind sitting at the feet of Jesus. 102 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:38.200 And here you are 103 00:07:39.700 --> 00:07:41.400 sitting at the feet of 104 00:07:42.700 --> 00:07:43.400 Jesus. 105 00:07:45.200 --> 00:07:49.700 You have seen the Son of the most high God cast out the forces of 106 00:07:49.700 --> 00:07:50.800 spiritual darkness. 107 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:58.400 You have at your baptism. At your baptism, Jesus exercised, every last 108 00:07:58.400 --> 00:08:02.600 Legion of them. You are taken back to the place where it happened 109 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:08.200 every time you see a sister or a brother baptized. Jesus is casting 110 00:08:08.200 --> 00:08:12.100 out the spiritual forces of darkness in baptism. 111 00:08:12.700 --> 00:08:14.800 And we know it when we renounce Satan 112 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.600 and all his works and all his ways. 113 00:08:19.300 --> 00:08:22.200 We know it in the alternative form of baptism in the agenda. 114 00:08:22.200 --> 00:08:28.200 When the pastor says, therefore, depart you unclean spirit and make 115 00:08:28.200 --> 00:08:31.600 room for the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father, and of the Son 116 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:32.900 and of the Holy Spirit. 117 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:37.000 And we know it went in Luther's 1526 baptismal right. 118 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:42.200 The pastor says, I adjure thee unclean spirits by the name of the 119 00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:44.800 Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. 120 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:48.800 That thou come out of and depart from this servant of God for He 121 00:08:48.800 --> 00:08:50.800 commands thee, thou miserable one. 122 00:08:51.300 --> 00:08:56.000 He who walked upon the sea and stretched forth His hand to sinking 123 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:56.400 Peter. 124 00:08:59.500 --> 00:08:59.800 There 125 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:00.700 sit 126 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:06.100 in your right mind clothes and all 127 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.900 after the dripping wet waters of Baptism. 128 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:12.600 At the feet of Jesus. 129 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:17.900 The one who walked upon the sea and stretched forth His hand to Peter. 130 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:25.900 The Son of the most high God has cast the forces of evil far away from 131 00:09:25.900 --> 00:09:26.300 you. 132 00:09:27.100 --> 00:09:29.100 He has called you by name 133 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:31.500 oh nameless Gentile. 134 00:09:33.500 --> 00:09:40.100 And when your acquaintances, coworkers, friends come looking for you. 135 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:46.500 You know where they'll find you with the spiritual forces of this 136 00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:47.900 world cast out 137 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:51.200 sitting at the feet of Jesus. 138 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:53.800 Unafraid. 139 00:09:55.800 --> 00:09:59.500 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 140 00:10:00.400 --> 00:10:00.700 Amen.