Today is what the church calendar calls the Second Sunday of Easter. I didn’t grow up in a church that had much of anything to do with the church calendar, so I’ve learned a lot along the way. You know we just came through the 40 somber days of Lent, with its repentance and reflection.

Then, for most of us Easter was a great resurrection celebration for, oh, maybe an hour or so! But actually, Easter Sunday is just the beginning of a “season” called Easter that that lasts for 50 days. I like that it is longer than Lent. And I appreciate that we have this time of celebration and talking about the centrality of resurrection in our faith.

So it’s very appropriate to keep singing resurrection songs, to have the white cloth on the cross, the Easter banners up…and very appropriate for us to continue to say to one another:

Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed)
Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed)
Christ is risen! (Alleluia, He is risen indeed).

You all know that I read a lot. I usually have 3-4 different books going, and usually in different genres- one novel, one history book, some theology, etc. And lately I’ve read many things about “the church.” A lot of what I read is negative, it’s criticisms of the church. Honestly, I get tired of it, for a couple reasons:

One reason is that most of the critiques of the church talk about us like we’re an institution instead of a community of people. The church isn’t an entity as much as a family. It’s easy to throw rocks at an institution, not as easy to throw them at people.

But the second reason I get tired of all the knocks on the church is- it’s too easy. We Christians do lots of goofy things. The church has made an unbelievable amount of mistakes down through history. And since we are people, we are going to keep making messing up, being hypocritical, learning as we go. The church is an easy target.

But once in awhile you hear something that makes you go “Yes! It works!”

Most of you remember the terrible fires in California last fall. On October 20, the Malibu Presbyterian Church made a commitment to give $500,000, ½ million dollars to a teen center for young people living in some of the toughest LA neighborhoods. That was October 20.

The very next day, on October 21st one of the fires roared through the Malibu area and totally destroyed Malibu Presbyterian. Burned it to the ground, nothing but ashes. The congregation plans on rebuilding, but it will probably be 2-3 years before they can do that. You’d think they might have had to reconsider their commitment.

But last weekend, on Easter Sunday, Malibu Presbyterian went ahead and presented their $500,000 check for the teen center. One leader said “Christianity is a resurrection faith. We believe in a God who rose from death for us….we have lost a building…(but) we are still a church.” Once in a while we get it right, and it’s a beautiful thing! We don’t get to hear about those as often.

This morning we jump back into the gospel of Mark. Last week on Easter our first reading was from the end of Mark 4, the story of Jesus in the boat with his disciples, headed across the Sea of Galilee from the west to the east when a big storm arose and terrified the disciples. And when they woke up, Jesus stilled the storm with just a word.

Today’s story immediately follows that one, you’ll find it at the very beginning of chapter 5- please stand for the reading of the gospel.

Reading: Mark 5:1-20

This morning as we look at this text, I want to simply put 3 questions in front of you.

1: What will stop Jesus from working?

There’s two storms going on, and they both seem to be offering resistance to Jesus getting where he wants to go. The first was the storm in nature that Jesus and the disciples just came through, wind and waves conspiring to swamp their boat there on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus speaks, and the storm leaves. This second storm is a different kind. It’s an internal storm, a spiritual storm that again seeks to block Jesus from moving ahead.

Where is Jesus trying to get to? This story marks a new point in the gospel of Mark. Up to this point, Jesus has been in the region of Galilee: Nazareth, Capernaum, nearby villages, fields and towns, a mountainside, near the lake, all around the west shore of the Sea, and all predominantly Jewish areas. All predominately people who worship YHWH. People who view the world in terms of clean and unclean, acceptable and unacceptable, sacred and profane.

But now they cross the sea to the eastern shore. The east is an area called The Decapolis, (“the ten cities”), and it is a Gentile area…people clearly not from Jewish background, people without an expectation or knowledge of a messiah, people without an understanding of God or the faith of the Jews.

The Decapolis was an area Hellenized in the time of Alexander the Great, and encouraged to become a showcase for Roman civilization and for pagan religion when it was captured by the Roman general Pompey in 63 BC. (As an aside, the Seattle Art Museum has a wonderful exhibit right now of Roman statues and artifacts borrowed from the Louvre from this same time period, so there’s lots of overlap with Biblical history). The point is, this was an entirely different culture and contact for Jesus.

And there is opposition. First he’s opposed by the storm, and then by this man who is out of his mind, tormented by demons. Jesus has barely stepped out of the boat, maybe his feet haven’t even hit the shore yet and this wildman runs at him, broken chains and shackles trailing him, shouting. Frightening!

Do you see it? - everything is wrong. Everything is resisting the arrival of Jesus. Everything.

the entire Decapolis area is Gentile, they don’t acknowledge the God Jesus has come to display.

the man is clearly not in his right mind, and his speech indicates it is more than an illness, he is possessed by demons, strong spiritual forces beyond his control.

he comes out of the tombs. unable to get along in society, recognized by everyone as someone who needs to be “subdued,” (a word used for controlling animals), he lives among the dead bodies of the tombs. That makes him unclean according to the Old Testament. The man is a living dead.

the area is full of herds of swine, quite possibly being raised to support the dietary preferences of the occupying Roman army as well as their pagan sacrifices.

Again, in Jewish law, pigs themselves are unclean, along with the people that would herd them.

everything is wrong, everything is resistant to Jesus’ presence there, it’s amazing that Jesus even persists in going there…but he does. And we are about to learn that Jesus can operate in anyplace at anytime.

It’s something to remember, isn’t it? I’m sure that there are places in your life where things seem so dark, so broken, so confusing that you can’t actually imagine what it would look like if Jesus was there, working. Someone is sick, a friendship is so bitter,

you are injured, or a situation is so dark. It may seem there are forces that don’t want Jesus to be there, but he shows up anyway. It doesn’t always look like you thought it would, and it won’t for these people either. But storms, demons, paganism won’t deter Jesus. In fact, in this story the only thing that will stop Jesus from working…is when he is asked to leave.

2: What is Jesus after? What’s his purpose here?

Everything is wrong in this picture. The man is partly dead, the area is full of uncleanness, demonic forces hover around, the deck is stacked, storms are everywhere...and Jesus comes to start setting things right. Jesus wants to restore creation from the chaos of storms internal and external. What Jesus wants is the unclean clean, the possessed released, the broken made whole.

But what is the purpose of the demons here? I always wondered why this story had the bit about the pigs jumping off the cliff and drowning. Now I think it’s to show us what the spirits are about: destruction. It’s the purpose of things that oppose God, to destroy what God has made. The spirits had been working on the man, bringing death into his life, keeping him from clear thinking, outcast from his people, destroying life, destroying the image of God in him.

Life-destroying things are all around us, too. We just don’t always see it. The things that oppose Jesus oppose life, or at least life as God intended it. When violence becomes commonplace, when injustice is shrugged at, when relationships are powerplays, when sex is merely a physical act- life is destroyed and we become tomb-walkers, living dead people.

This man was dying until Jesus showed up. Jesus wanted life, not just the continuation of the breathing function, but wholeness, life in the image of God. It’s why he came. It’s why he died. It’s why he was raised. “He is the resurrection and the life.”

The pig herders run off and tell the story all over the place, people come running, they know what they know. This guy, this Wildman, they know him. They’ve known him for years. He’s a problem. He’s the guy who walks by my window on QA Avenue, screaming obscenities at someone who isn’t there. He’s the one sleeping over on the park bench and making neighbors wish they lived somewhere safer. People know that when they arrive, they are going to see a self-mutilating lunatic, rags hanging on him, foaming at the mouth, the possessed guy from the cemetery that they don’t know what to do about.

They know what they’re going to see.

In February there was a tornado in Tennesee that killed over 30 people. Two hours after the storm passed, a sheriff’s deputy was walking a field north of a bunch of totally destroyed houses. He’d already found a number of bodies. He knew what he was going to find.

Just before he gave up looking for the night he spotted what looked like a child’s doll. But it wasn’t a doll, it was Kyson, an 11 month old boy who had been thrown over 100 yards from his home…and other than a few scrapes was just fine! Absolute miracle. Can you imagine being that sheriff’s deputy? He knew what he was going to find, and it was totally different.

And when the people come running up towards Jesus in this story, they know what they’re going to see…but it’s something different. Jesus has calmed another storm: yelling, voices, chains, demons, pigs, trampling, chaos, and then…the man from the tombs is calm. He’s in his right mind. he’s cleaned up, has clothes on, is sitting with Jesus, is alive. He is fully alive. That’s what Jesus wanted, isn’t it? It’s what he wants for us. Not to exist, not to get by, not to go through motions but to live.

And the people who come and see it are afraid.

I suspect it’s what people always thought they wanted. I suspect they’d talked about “what if?” What if the tomb-guy was healed? What if God showed up? Their wildest dreams have just been exceeded by Jesus and…they ask him to leave. In fact, they beg him. And interestingly, Jesus leaves. Be careful what you ask for.

3: Where’s your calling?

Now, this is what I love about the scripture. When we get to the end of this story, we’re set up for a “it all ends happily ever after.” The healed man asks to join up with Jesus and the disciples (even uses the same language, “begged that he might be with him,” just like Jesus in 3:14 “appointed 12…whom he also named apostles, to be with him.”)

Of course Jesus will say yes, and they’ll continue on their way, right?! Oops. Jesus says “No.” What?! What could be more important than this guy heading off into ministry, being a missionary for the gospel in the Middle East?

Well, apparently in this case there was something more important: “Go home to your friends (actually it says “go home to yours,” family, friends) and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.”

There is no formula for ministry, only calling. It doesn’t look one way for everyone, but everyone is called to ministry. Jesus calls me to be a pastor, calls you to be a businessperson, calls Julie to schools in Afghanistan, calls Anne Thomas to Laos, calls you to be a teacher. It’s not a formula. It’s a calling. Jesus called some fishermen to give up their vocation and leave home and follow him, but he calls this guy to go home and tell those closest to him what has happened.

I don’t know if this newly healed man groaned when Jesus handed out his assignment, but I would have. “Go home to your people, and tell them about the gospel.” That is some very, very tough sledding sometimes. A prophet has no honor in his own hometown. A person new and excited to what God is doing may find the very toughest audience in their own family and friends. “You were just like us- now you think you’re better than us?”

A friend of mine met Jesus back in high school. He had an older brother who just wouldn’t buy it. He would taunt him: “Gonna walk across the bath tub today?” I’ve tried sharing my faith in Christ with close friends, with grandparents, with my dad. I’d say the results are mixed at best. It is not an easy thing.

But the good thing is Jesus didn’t say “go convert them.” Didn’t say “put some notches on the spiritual scoreboard,” or “get them to sign a statement of faith.” Didn’t tell him to explain theology or postmodern philosophy or anything. He said “tell them.” Tell them how much the Lord has done for you. Tell them about the mercy God has shown you. Somehow that seems more doable, maybe I can do that.

So here it is:

Jesus will go anywhere, against all opposition.

Jesus’ desire is for people to truly live.

Jesus puts a calling on each of our lives. Different location, same calling:

“Tell them how much the Lord has done for you. Tell them about the mercy God has shown you.”

Amen.