2 Pentecost, Cp7, June 23, 2019
1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a Psalm 22:18-27
Gal. 3:23-29 Luke 8:26-39
Why don't parents name their daughters Jezebel? If you say about a woman, "She's a real Jezebel," it's a supreme insult. Who was Jezebel? Jezebel was the daughter of a Phoenician King who married, Ahab, king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Jezebel brought her religion with her to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. King Ahab built temples for Jezebel's gods, Baal and Astarte and she perhaps was a royal priestess in one of the temples. In this political marriage, Ahab perhaps was too drawn to his wife's religious leanings and Jezebel managed to support lots of false prophets who served her gods. Against this compromise with the foreign gods, the prophet Elijah made a heroic stand; he called down fire from heaven in a showdown with the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and he killed the false prophets with a sword but then he fled in fear of the bounty that Jezebel put on his head. Jezebel is the patroness for harlots as she is known for dressing up in finery and putting on facial make up. Jezebel was all painted up, perhaps as a seductress, when Jehu saw her on a balcony and had her thrown down and trampled and left her corpse for the dogs to eat. (Do you see why we censure portions of the Bible as being X-rated for children?) Elijah, in fear, retreated to a most holy place, Horeb, the Mountain of God, formerly known as Mount Sinai. Elijah perhaps thought that if he ran away to the Mountain of God, then he could meet God in the same place that Moses did. Moses had a cloud and light show and shaking and thundering on Mount Sinai, but alas when these happened to Elijah, he could not find God. He found God in sheer silence when God spoke to the pouting prophet who was so consumed about the persecution and he did not know what God knew the faithful of other people in Israel. And this is all a prelude to his departure and the finish of his prophetic ministry on earth.
Jesus of Nazareth did not confront Jezebel; he confronted a configuration of fallen angels or gods who went by the name Legion and who possessed a man.
Fallen angels and gods of ancient days had morphed into inward beings who tormented and possessed people and caused them to harm themselves and others.
The earliest writer of the New Testament, Paul, wrote that we don't fight against flesh and blood; rather we fight against principalities and powers of darkness in heavenly places. In Paul's spiritual psychology, the heavenly world is an inner world of battle against unseen cosmic forces of darkness.
The spiritual warfare of St. Paul is instantiated in the ghost busting and people whispering ministry of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. John does not present Jesus as an exorcist as the other Gospels do.
When illness of the physical and mental sort occurs, the ancient world had their own public health systems and systems of classification. The unseen cause of people having unclean spirits within them was an all-embracing diagnosis for all manner of maladies particularly those that show the signs of some severe mental health disorders.
I have come to favor Jesus as a People Whisperer to best explain the phenomenon of exorcism. Jesus was such a person of extraordinary internal strength of peace and calm; that the interior lives of other reached out in various ways to him.
The early church believed Jesus was the name above all other names and that he had authority, inward authority over unseen inner forces, the forces which compelled harmful acting out behaviors.
In ancient time as today, people are afraid of the public displays of extremely erratic behaviors, one that can be seen as dangerous to other people. Today, one of the biggest social issues in our country is that there is not enough treatment for mental health disorders and the panorama of drug and opioid addictions, resulting in unseen inner forces becoming harmful behaviors. In the ancient system of medical diagnosis, a person's interior force of motivation could be declared as "unclean." In the Purity Code, something or some state of being was either "clean" or "unclean." If it was designated as "unclean" it was to be shunned and quarantined so others would not be made unclean through contact with such an agent of defilement. It was a system of infectious disease control.
Jesus, the people whisperer, saw the pain and the isolation that such designation brought to the suffering persons and their families. He had the inner strength to confront the inner forces of other people. The Gospel narrative the exorcism that we've read today is highly symbolic. Where were the "unclean" spirits sent? Into the poor animals designated in Jewish society as being unclean, the swine. So the unclean spirits enter the unclean swine causing them to kill themselves by drowning. They jumped into the abyss of the water. The unclean spirits were sent back to the chaos of the abyss and this indicated how Jesus was the Messiah in the heavenly realms. Jesus was not yet a king on earth; but he was the king of heavenly and inner forces.
The church has bishops, priests and deacons, preachers and prophets and all sorts of ministries. What the church needs and what this world needs are more people whisperers.
Think of all of the times when you and I have needed people whisperers? When we we infants and children worried about the "boogie men" in our rooms at night. The horrifying images of a nightmare. And mom or dad was there to be a people whisperer for us. And many times, our unseen inner worlds have seemed to be threatened by the forces of accusation, addiction, victimization, fear, anxiety, illnesses of all sorts and we have needed an authoritative people whisperer to say, "now, now, everything is going to be well. just hold my hand, I'm here with you and for you."
When you and I don't think that we have any ministry at all, we do have the ministry to be people whisperers to the ones to whom God puts in our way to be present to as those who are willing to be acquainted with the grief and sorrows of others.
The forces like that of Ahab and Jezebel are always threatening. People of power can incite others to do things that an individual would not do on one's own. Outward events can instill inward fears and disorders. Who ya' gonna call? Jesus the ghost buster and people whisperer.
And if you and I have received the gift of being whispered through some difficult times in our lives; then we too are called to make ourselves available to allow God's Holy Spirit to whisper other people through us.
May Jesus, the great people whisperer, whisper us; and may we go forth to whisper the people who need to know the inward calm and peace of Christ. Amen.
Jesus of Nazareth did not confront Jezebel; he confronted a configuration of fallen angels or gods who went by the name Legion and who possessed a man.
Fallen angels and gods of ancient days had morphed into inward beings who tormented and possessed people and caused them to harm themselves and others.
The earliest writer of the New Testament, Paul, wrote that we don't fight against flesh and blood; rather we fight against principalities and powers of darkness in heavenly places. In Paul's spiritual psychology, the heavenly world is an inner world of battle against unseen cosmic forces of darkness.
The spiritual warfare of St. Paul is instantiated in the ghost busting and people whispering ministry of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. John does not present Jesus as an exorcist as the other Gospels do.
When illness of the physical and mental sort occurs, the ancient world had their own public health systems and systems of classification. The unseen cause of people having unclean spirits within them was an all-embracing diagnosis for all manner of maladies particularly those that show the signs of some severe mental health disorders.
I have come to favor Jesus as a People Whisperer to best explain the phenomenon of exorcism. Jesus was such a person of extraordinary internal strength of peace and calm; that the interior lives of other reached out in various ways to him.
The early church believed Jesus was the name above all other names and that he had authority, inward authority over unseen inner forces, the forces which compelled harmful acting out behaviors.
In ancient time as today, people are afraid of the public displays of extremely erratic behaviors, one that can be seen as dangerous to other people. Today, one of the biggest social issues in our country is that there is not enough treatment for mental health disorders and the panorama of drug and opioid addictions, resulting in unseen inner forces becoming harmful behaviors. In the ancient system of medical diagnosis, a person's interior force of motivation could be declared as "unclean." In the Purity Code, something or some state of being was either "clean" or "unclean." If it was designated as "unclean" it was to be shunned and quarantined so others would not be made unclean through contact with such an agent of defilement. It was a system of infectious disease control.
Jesus, the people whisperer, saw the pain and the isolation that such designation brought to the suffering persons and their families. He had the inner strength to confront the inner forces of other people. The Gospel narrative the exorcism that we've read today is highly symbolic. Where were the "unclean" spirits sent? Into the poor animals designated in Jewish society as being unclean, the swine. So the unclean spirits enter the unclean swine causing them to kill themselves by drowning. They jumped into the abyss of the water. The unclean spirits were sent back to the chaos of the abyss and this indicated how Jesus was the Messiah in the heavenly realms. Jesus was not yet a king on earth; but he was the king of heavenly and inner forces.
The church has bishops, priests and deacons, preachers and prophets and all sorts of ministries. What the church needs and what this world needs are more people whisperers.
Think of all of the times when you and I have needed people whisperers? When we we infants and children worried about the "boogie men" in our rooms at night. The horrifying images of a nightmare. And mom or dad was there to be a people whisperer for us. And many times, our unseen inner worlds have seemed to be threatened by the forces of accusation, addiction, victimization, fear, anxiety, illnesses of all sorts and we have needed an authoritative people whisperer to say, "now, now, everything is going to be well. just hold my hand, I'm here with you and for you."
When you and I don't think that we have any ministry at all, we do have the ministry to be people whisperers to the ones to whom God puts in our way to be present to as those who are willing to be acquainted with the grief and sorrows of others.
The forces like that of Ahab and Jezebel are always threatening. People of power can incite others to do things that an individual would not do on one's own. Outward events can instill inward fears and disorders. Who ya' gonna call? Jesus the ghost buster and people whisperer.
And if you and I have received the gift of being whispered through some difficult times in our lives; then we too are called to make ourselves available to allow God's Holy Spirit to whisper other people through us.
May Jesus, the great people whisperer, whisper us; and may we go forth to whisper the people who need to know the inward calm and peace of Christ. Amen.
