redemption

The Blessed and Cursed (Sermon September 29, 2013)

Scripture: Luke 6:19-31

There are days when I really wish there were not rules. Like when the road is totally clear of all traffic and yet I am required to drive at a regulated speed. Then there are silly things at work, they are called guidelines or best practices, that require certain things out of me that must be recorded, many of which actually seem to slow me down. But generally these regulations and best practices are put into place by organizations to provide for the general welfare of that organization. The thing about many of these guidelines, rules, and laws is that you can break them countless times without hurting a single person, but then one day in a moment something happens and suddenly the guidelines seem to make total sense. For me the seemingly open road was suddenly filled with numerous deer. The speed limit is in place not because the government wants to be jerks and keep us from making it to places on time, but because as speeds increase there is a greater chance we will not be able to avoid accidents.

It is often hard for us as individuals to accept many of the rules we have in our society. At times we wish to throw off the regulations entirely but because we have grown accustom to that safety we forgot why it is certain things were originally put in place. I mention the chafing of regulations today because immediately when reading this passage of scripture our minds are directed into areas of judgment. I do not desire to speak on areas such as these because I frankly find that focusing on judgment tends to have an opposite effect on people than what is intended, the same effect that the regulation on speed has on the many drivers on the roads.

We meet today two men. One is rich and the other is poor. At first glance we may see that Jesus is condemning wealth and honoring poverty, which is an interpretation that can be made in this passage. But if we were to just stop there I believe we would miss the point. There is a reason Jesus so often honors the poor, not because the lack of means is a great place to find one’s self in, but because there is a perspective that can be seen through the eyes of the poor that is rarely seen by those of means. That perspective is need.

The poor are often in need. At any given moment they could lose the roof over their head, their forms of transportation, or the ability to eat. This perspective of need prompts us to seek relief. This is something that people of means rarely have to face. And when we do not need, our perspective can be skewed. We have two extremes in the conditions of the people in this parable of Jesus’, comfort and discomfort.

The first person that we meet is the rich man. This man is dressed in purple and fine linen, and he feasts every day. I want us to really consider what Jesus is saying about this man. Not only is he a wealthy individual but an individual that has so much wealth he must come up with ways to spend the money he has. Dyed fabrics in the ancient world were things of luxury. If you owned a garment that was dyed it would probably be something worn only for the most special of occasions. Now with that being said, dyed fabrics were not uncommon. The color of the dye is what sets one apart from the masses. It would be common to have natural colors in clothing because often dyes were made from natural occurring minerals or plants that would stain the fabrics. It is fairly easy to obtain an orange tint to fabrics by letting it soak in an iron rich soil solution. The problem with these is that the color fades. The rich and dark blues and purples are very special. We can get a blue with indigo the dye that is commonly found from a plant. Indigo was an expensive dye, but that is not the purple or blue that Jesus is referring to in this passage. It is one of a more sacred and rich variety. It is a royal or Tyrian purple. This dye is so special because of where it is found. It comes from a mucus membrane in a specific species of sea snail. People would dive into the see to gather the snails, they then would have to remove the membrane and then mix it in the dye solution. It was very labor intensive and thus expensive. It is prized because as the sun hits the dye it does not fade away like the dyes derived from plants, but instead gets richer and brighter. This was a type of dye that was used to make the stripes on the Hebrew prayer shawls and other ritualistic garments. So cloth of this variety was used to distinguish the separation of the sacred and the secular, the righteous from the sinner. To have a robe made entirely of this rich dyed fabric is making a profound statement, usually such wealth as this was reserved only for royalty or the royal courts, or in the case of the Hebrew people the Priestly class.

I mention this to establish something that this rich man was most likely a profoundly religious man, because of the cloth used to clothe his body, and because Jesus is speaking this parable to Pharisees. Jesus does not stop with the clothing, but he then speaks about the man’s diet. Jesus says that this man had luxurious feasts daily. The term feast implies that there was some sort of celebration. Scripture records several types of feasts, wedding feast and several holy feasts like that of Passover or the feast tabernacles. The first century people did not feast often; most could not even afford meat to eat regularly so a feast was a scared and holy thing. Luxurious meals were often attached to sacrifices offered in worship both among the gentile cultures as well as in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. Again Jesus is inferring to the crowd that this man was a religious man one that the community would see as being blessed by God.

Then the second man we meet is Lazarus, a poor man. This man longed to be able to eat the crumbs left around the table but instead he sits at the gate covered in sores. This man was so badly cared for that only the dogs came by to bring cleansing to the wounds, which is not exactly a balm of comfort.

Let us imagine the two men for a bit. One a religious leader wearing sacred cloth and eating celebratory meats of worship daily, and the second a wounded and broken man. They both die seemingly on the same day. Lazarus is carried by the angels to be with Abraham, and the rich man is buried and tormented in Hades. Wait the rich and righteous man goes to hell? That is what Jesus says. Yet the poor man is whisked away by angels to the Bosom of Abraham.

Blessed are the Poor because they will be comforted, woe to the rich for you have already been comforted.

This passage is one that is difficult to speak on, because it can judge each of us in some way. I believe that through it Jesus is teaching the discipline of simplicity and contentment, as well as ministry and blessing. It speaks of lavish displays of righteousness and a heart that is void of light. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth, but woe to the laughing now for they will weep and mourn.

The poor man Lazarus was content in his place. I see this because he allowed the dogs to minister to him as he sat at the gate. He knew that there was no other help around, he could have tried to scare the dogs away but he let them come and offer whatever comfort and companionship they could offer. Yet the rich man was not ever satisfied, daily he had to feast. Contentment is often a misunderstood term. Often it is seen as lacking ambition and at times fatalistic, those that are content have no desire to move beyond their current state and just stop where they are. But I challenge that because Paul says in his letter to the Philippians, that he is content in whatever state his is in, he has not given up but he has adjusted his life to be satisfied with little so that he can be a blessing to others. If he is well off he praises God because he has more to share, if he is poor he is satisfied because he has enough and praises God still. The poor man is content, sure he longs for food, but in his need he becomes a blessing to the dogs. The rich man in all his wealth has a poor man needing assistance sitting at his door yet in all his righteousness is not moved to offer him a morsel.

Woe to the rich, for they have already received their comfort. Behind the Kingdom of God, Jesus speaks more often about wealth and money as he taught through Israel. Eleven out of the Thirty-nine parables are about money and on average one in seven verses in the Gospel of Luke is about money in some form. This should tell us something about the subject, money is a tool that can consume us or can be used to bless others. But in most of those cases there is a central theme, God does not care about how much money we have but how we are using it.

In Luke the Gospel where Jesus is recorded as speaking the most about wealth Jesus encourages the wealthy members of society to use what they have to bless those that have little. He encourages them to give them jobs, and to provide assistance to those that cannot work. He told the rich young ruler to sell all he has and give it to the poor. He is calling us all to readjust our lives to live on less, so that we can be in a better position to help more. Only when we are released from the bondage of currency can we be free to serve God. James the brother of Jesus said that that is the true purpose of religion.

The rich man of the story is consumed in himself, rich foods rich clothing. This is a prophecy against the consumption aspects of our culture; every aspect of our economy is based on consuming goods and services. Rich or poor we consume. Every facet of our culture is consumed by greed, envy, and selfishness in some form or another. CEO’s want more profits, labor wants more wages, and assistance programs want more to offer. We think we need and some of us might actually be in need, but overall the issue is that we are not content. We can never be content when we are focused on consumption.

Which is why we need to rediscover the discipline of simplicity that the Society of Friends was known for. True simplicity is not cheap; cheap is an imposter to simplicity. Simplicity is to use wisdom where cheap is to cheat. Simple is sacrifice for the good of others where cheap is to sacrifice for the good of self. Cheap is consumption where simplicity is blessing. We cannot follow Jesus and have our lives based on consumption because in the kingdom of God the relationship with others and being a blessing to others is more important than our own pleasures and status.

Both of the men in the story die and one is comforted and the other is tormented. The rich man looks across into the distance and cries out for mercy yet there is no comfort. He cries yet there is a chasm of separation that cannot be crossed. He then pleads that Lazarus would go back and warn his brothers, and Abraham says to the man that if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets than even someone returning from the grave would not convince them.

It is a sad story, a story of judgment and condemnation, but also one of hope. It is one of hope because there is one that has returned from the grave that has bridged that chasm of separation, and can bring comfort. Repent for the kingdom of God is near is the gospel, the good news brought by the one that brings hope. Repent or turn. The Kingdom of God is the most often mentioned thing by Jesus. The Kingdom of God is not like the kingdoms of mankind because the kingdom of God is based on different things. Jesus is not a king in the same sense as the leaders of our world. He is not a tyrant because tyrants consume, but instead he lifts his subjects into his glory. His inheritance is shared with all of those who call on his name, and turn from a lifestyle devoted to worldly consumption and realigning themselves with the things valued by God.

What does God value? God values us. He created us in his image, he set us above all of creation, and he created us to walk in the cool of the evenings with him. God values the relationship, and we honor the things valued by God when we use all that we have been given to bring blessing to those valued by God. Rich or poor, in want or in plenty we honor God by being content with what we have and striving to be greater blessings to the world around us as we proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to bridge that gap separating us from the comfort of God. And we can live today in His kingdom when we turn and begin to use our minds, bodies, souls, and strength to build and honor the lives of those around us. When we use the talents and gifts of the Spirit to bring honor and glory to the things God values, and when we lay the chains of currency at his feet.

Today as we enter this time of open worship, I ask what kind of people are we and which side of the chasm do we dwell? Will we be a people of blessing or of comfort?

Fit for the Kingdom (Sermon June 30, 2013)

Scripture: Luke 9:51-62

Often scripture hits us differently when we read them. One day we can read a passage and it seems to inspire us in a way that nothing else could. Another day the very same passage can cut us to the core, convicting us to change some aspect of our lives. It is interesting how scripture can do this. The Spirit behind the words written in the scripture can use the experiences and events throughout our lives to speak directly to our spirits. The Spirit teaches us how to be fit for the Kingdom.

This passage has hit me a couple of different ways this week. At times I have been stuck thinking about Samaria and their conflict with Israel. Samaria was the capital of the old Northern Kingdom of Israel. Samaria is similar in many ways to the capital of the Southern Kingdom of Judea. Both had a center of worship and both claimed to worship the same God. The difference is that they did things in different ways. If we were to look at it we would probably not see the difference, because they would seem to us as being inconsequential.

The first section of this passage speaks about Jesus making his way to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the center of the Jewish faith. All those that held to this religion saw this place as being the most holy of all holy places. For those in the Northern Kingdom Samaria was the center of faith and Jerusalem was just another city. The conflict was which was the holiest?

We often get caught in these types of struggles. The Samaritans would not allow Jesus and his companions to take refuge in their city for the night because they were going to Jerusalem, and the disciple of Jesus wanted to call fire down from the heavens because the Samaritans would not give proper respect to their Holy city. We could draw several parallels to this story today. Differing views of the world, different preferences and ideologies with people demanding the proper respect from others while not granting equal respect.

At times I identify with the disciples. When I meet people with no knowledge of my personal expression of faith I can get annoyed. I mean how many times do we really have to explain that Quakers are not extinct? On the opposing end how often I am like the people of the Samaritan city, not welcoming of people that view the world differently than I do. Jesus responds differently. He turns to walk to the next town. He being a child of Judea did not enter into the argument of which was better. In other places he actually rises above the conflict to a different plain, saying that the time has come where you will not worship on either mountain but in spirit and truth. He actually rebukes his own disciples for their opinions of the Samaritans because their behavior is not fit for the kingdom. Their opinions were distracting them from the truth the spirit was trying to convey to their hearts. Their opinions even though they are right in their own minds was keeping them from seeing the whole truth. And Jesus rebuked them, because their opinions are based on pride.

Jesus has rebuked me for responding like the sons of thunder for responding to things from my own logic, often I have been caught trying to manipulate and press my own personal views on to the world around me. The kingdom of God is not one of manipulation and power. This is the realm of the world’s to continue the conflict, because in the conflict they gain power and influence, and with that they can control the world around them. Unfortunately we all can get caught up in these things we get distracted from the kingdom.

They began to walk to the next town. I am sure that James and John were walking with their heads hanging low after being rebuked, but walking just the same. Someone comes up to them and says that he will follow Jesus wherever he goes. Followed two others. Each wishing to follow Jesus, to become his disciples, but each person has a distraction in their lives.

Jesus responds to each of them individually. The first Jesus says, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” This man wants to follow Jesus but at the suggestion of an unknown future the man quickly changes his tune. Worry about the future can distract. We have responsibilities, bills to pay, and families to feed if we were to drop everything to follow Jesus without knowing what the future would hold how could we live? A distraction, Jesus spoke about worry. He says that the flowers do not spin and the sparrows do not sew yet God clothes and feeds them. Worry distracts us from participating in the kingdom of God.

The next person is absorbed by his family’s legacy, saying that he first must bury his father before he can leave and follow Jesus. We often forget that first century culture is largely an agrarian society. Farms and businesses are passed on from one generation to the next. This particular man like the first is distracted by the security of the future. If he were to leave and follow Jesus what would happen to the family, would his inheritance go to someone else or would the family legacy simply disappear. He could not follow completely because in doing so he would potentially risk losing everything. Financial security, greed, and discontentment distract us from fully participating in the kingdom of God.

The third man comes to Jesus asking to be included in the group of disciples, but says first let me say farewell to those at my home. This person is consumed by his reputation. What others think about us can often direct how we make decisions. Jesus was a popular character even in Samaria and this man was applying for a position. He wanted to go back and tell everyone he knew that he was in. Often we our lives are governed by what others think of us, this distraction can cause us to make decisions based on how things affect our personal well being and our standing with or above others. It is a form of pride and pride distracts us from the kingdom of God.

We have three distractions that are keeping the characters of this story from participating fully on the kingdom of God: pride, greed, and worry. These distractions are forms of bondage that hold us from a life with God. But this is not what we were created for.

Mankind was created to share in the pleasure of God in His creation, to walk with Him in the cool of the evening as stewards of the garden of God’s delight. Sin enters our world when we as humans felt that we had to do more to earn God’s favor, but God loves us just as we are. We bind ourselves with pride, worry, and greed thinking if we subdue the world around us enough then we will earn our place by God’s side. Totally forgetting the fact that God did not desire this for us. Those are chains we have put on ourselves; chains of ideologies, theologies, careers, legacies, reputations, and countless other things. These distract us from the one that loves us and holds us back from being the people we were created to be. We make ourselves unfit for the kingdom of God.

God does not want our chains. He instead wants our freedom. He wants us to be free to be who and what he created us to be, but to do so we must let go of the chains. The last man that spoke to Jesus evoked a response from Jesus that was harsher than the others. “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Jesus is saying that we cannot keep looking back, we cannot keep doing things the way we have been doing things, we must move forward. I find it interesting that Jesus used agricultural terms to explain this. The act of plowing is preparing the ground so that it can produce a harvest. We must work the ground, nurture a relationship with Him, and allow it to grow. Abraham was blessed because he let go of the chains that bound him in Ur, and he followed God wherever He led, Israel followed Moses through the desert and were blessed, the prophets freely spoke the word from God and they gave us direction of how we can live a life of freedom, yet this was not enough. We as human bound the freedom up in laws and rules. Yes the laws are important but not to bind, instead the laws of God were given to free us from the bondage we put ourselves in. Moses wrote down the laws not to form a legalistic religion, but instead to provide a lifestyle that if participated in would lead to freedom and the joy of life with God. Yet we translated them into something far darker.

The nation of Israel split in two over the law, each side having a different interpretation and expression of faith, and the conflict only produced bondage in the people. Freedom comes only through living out two basic rules. Loving God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is like the first love your neighbor as yourself. Two basic rules complicated through our own forms of bondage. We choose not to love our neighbor because they choose not to accept our terms. We fail to love God with all our mind, because we would rather choose to fill our minds with other things. We choose not to love God because we would rather use our strengths to build up our careers and our reputations. Only to find ourselves where exactly? We choose to run our lives our own ways and we fail. We fight wars, we argue, we send bid, we sell only to fail again. It is not because we are not good enough for God’s blessing it is because we choose not to accept the very blessing that God has provided for us.

That is why Jesus came. Yes he came to provide freedom, to ransom us out of bondage and to grant us freedom in Him. He provides this by living His life for us. He came as a baby so that he could live a childhood for us. He grew as an adult and took on a trade with his earthly father Joseph so that he could live our career for us and with us. He hit mid life and made a complete transition into something totally different and he began to teach and minister to others for our own good for us again. He took on every aspect of our lives and he bore them each and he lifted them up on the cross taking the lives of bondage and sin and killing them and burying them in the ground for us. And He rose from the grave to give us hope of renewed life in him. He has already taken on our sins; he has already taken care of the things we feel we must continue to work on. They are already covered by His blood, and buried in the tomb. They do not have control over us if we were only to let go and follow him, tend the fields of our lives without looking back, and nurturing that relationship with him without caring about the distractions that formerly gripped us.

God came down to live among us, God gave Himself to free us, and God provides hope for us. We are not fit for the kingdom if we demand from Samaria that they pray at Jerusalem, or if we demand Jerusalem to pray at Samaria. We are not fit for the kingdom if we worry, or if we are consumed by greed. We are not fit for the kingdom if we hold on to our worldly reputations and look back. We are fit for the kingdom if we take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of in us. If we boldly live our life for and with him, and if we repent and live our lives loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living the Love of Christ with others. We do not need anything more than that.

As we enter this time of open worship and holy expectancy. I encourage you to look at what is distracting you from fully participating in a life with God in Christ. Is it worry? Is it finances? Is it you reputation with others? Is it you ideology or theology? These can become idols keeping us from the Spirit of Truth in Jesus, lay them down before the cross, let Jesus lift them out of your hand and lay them in the tomb, and let us embrace a restored life the life he wants you to have today. Let us allow the Spirit of God to make us fit for His kingdom.

The Cry of the Possessed (Sermon June 23, 2013)

Scripture: Luke 8:26-39

I’m sure we have all heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” Yeah I know it is a silly saying but it is a very true statement. Kids get this speech from their teachers in school, their parents at home, and their grandparents when they are supposed to be eating their broccoli. It is probably not a statement we expect to hear in church, at least not on a Sunday without a meal following worship.

The concept is filled with deep wisdom, because we consume multiple things. If we were to eat only a single type of food every day our bodies would rapidly deteriorate, we would be more susceptible to illnesses many of which could become fatal. To combat this nutritionists develop trendy ways to promote a balanced diet things like the food pyramid, the food groups, and various diet plans. I am not a nutritionist. If you would ask me what you should eat I would probably ask you how much money you had in your wallet and then suggest the nearest fast food restaurant. Consumption has many faces. We as humans consume not only food but also a whole host of products and services.

Consuming in and of itself is not wrong. Our nations economy is based on consuming. Without a constant demand for food, oil, transportation, and pretty much everything you can buy at our local retailers each of us would be impoverished. Yet again we are what we eat.

This passage is probably one of the most frightening passages in all of scripture. Just imagine for a moment how you would feel if you stepped off of a boat only to be greeted by a naked grim covered man. It is a situation that I would hope none of us would have to experience. Scripture tells us that an evil spirit, a concept that many of us may not be too comfortable, possessed this man. Our culture does one of two things with this, both being extreme. We either disregard the concept as being mental illness, something that today can easily be treated with various behavioral and pharmaceutical therapies. This idea totally negates the possibility of spiritual beings. The second concept is one that promotes evil spirits being behind every aspect of our lives, demons responsible for every vice we partake of. What then was wrong with this man?

There are several issues in this passage that can point the way too the roots of the issue. The first thing to remember is that the people of this community as well as this man, were all of the Jewish culture. Members of a culture have certain expectations. This community as a whole has fallen away from those cultural norms. For one they were raising swine. For us bacon lovers we tend to forget that producing bacon in a Jewish is about as wrong as growing Marijuana today. It is hard for us gentiles to consider bacon a drug, but the consumption of this substance was unlawful. This community has strayed from their roots. They as a community became focused on consumption and the profit that could be gained from it.

The community took a step away from their center. It is not unlikely that members of that community would begin to take more steps away. This man is living in the tombs, living with the dead. Death is unclean; those that spend time around death are not able to participate in the community. The community is marginalizing itself and within that community individuals have taken steps further.

We may not consider these little steps a big deal, but we are what we eat. With each step they consume more, their focus is reconfigured away from God and more on themselves. They become a consumer-based community. With each step they become more consumed by their own desires.

Consumption had taken hold of this man. He consumed until he lost his mind and his soul to the very things he sought to fulfill his desires. The ancient church gave a name to these activities calling them the seven deadly sins. The sins of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony are consumer-based sins. Each of these sins is present in consumer-based communities, each of these are present in all consumption-based cultures. It does not matter if it is a free market or not if there is consumption these sins can creep into the lives of those in the culture.

The scripture focuses in on a single man, but there is much more to the story. The entire community was consumed by sin. The man cried out in the presence of Jesus because the spirits of evil consumed him, and Jesus did not say a word. All he did was take a single step off of a boat and it sent this man into a violent rage. The man was not the only one with a reaction to Jesus; the entire community was in fear of Jesus. Were they all possessed?

Let us bring this closer to home. Each of us are members of a consumer-based culture. We live to fulfill the desires and urges we have. I could mention a word and probably upset ever person in this room, we get upset because that one word is the sin that we ourselves are consumed with. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony everyone has a hold of some area of our lives. For the corporatist we can easily say they are ruled by greed, for the socialist envy each is consumed by sin. How do we feel? Is pride creeping in as we pat ourselves on the back for not being one of those?

“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” the man cried out. We too cry that out when we sense judgment, but where is the judgment coming from? We are uncomfortable around holiness, because it shows us that we fall short of the standards God has set before us. We cry out and scream for the righteous to stop their judgment, they do not even have to say a word and we demand for them to stop. Why do we do that? Because we have justified our actions in our own minds, we have built philosophies and theologies around our own sin and claimed that it is right. We then judge those around us through those eyes. I am greedy and those that wish to take what is mine are wrong. I envy so those that have what I want are evil. I lust and if I cannot have what I desire I demand that no one can have it. These are the very things that have caused every war, all of poverty, and probably every argument. We each fall to these because we are human, and when we let consumption take hold and rule our lives we become a slave to it.

Yes a slave to greed, envy, lust and all. I see it every day. I watch people consumed by these very things, I listen to their justifications of their actions, and I see the devastation of their lives when they devote all they have to fulfill their desire and their addictions. And yes I have to say that the stories of the demon possessed man could fit right along side the stories I have at work every day.

Jesus did not initiate the conflict. We initiate it. We have become consumed by ourselves and when Jesus takes a step into our community we demand that he leaves us alone. But how does Jesus respond to this possessed man? He asked for the name. He did not look at the man and demand that he stop doing what he was doing, he met him where he was and asked for the name. He wanted to know the man, to know the deepest essence of who this man was, but we cannot be known when we are hiding behind our sin. When we are consumed and possessed with our sinfulness and rebellion we cannot be know or build a relationship with God because to do so we would have to let go.

The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the swineherd and to be left alone. Jesus gave them permission to leave the man. And all the community was in fear, because not only did they lose their incomes, they too were exposed. This man who was gripped by every sinful desire was left redeemed, the community found him clothed and in his right mind. Yet the community was still in fear, not only of Jesus but this man as well. He now was able to expose them, because there he was restored.

We are all gripped by sin, we may not realize just how much or where that sin is affecting us, but we are gripped all the same. If we get upset at an idea that is different than our own we are being controlled by something other than the Spirit of God. This is why Friends have their queries, why the prayer of examine was developed by the religious orders, this is why the spiritual disciplines were explored by those that seek God. It is through participating in these things that we with the Spirit of God can release the grip of sin in our lives. But it is a process. We are what we eat. We must feast on the things of righteousness and practice the ways of Christ.

Jesus gave this man a new life. He gave him a life where sin did not rule, a life where the voices of the evil ones were quieted by the overpowering voice of the Spirit of God. The man wanted to follow Jesus wherever he went, but Jesus did a remarkable thing for this man, he told him to stay where he was. This man had experienced something, was changed, and Jesus told him that the greatest service that he could do for God is to stay right where he was to live and teach among the people of his own community. Yes some are called to travel to foreign lands to spread the Gospel of Christ, but more are called to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom right where they are.

We each have a story of redemption to tell, a story of hope to proclaim to those around us. Each of us have had struggles in our own ways with the evil desires that want to consume us as we consume and fall victim of them. But in Christ we can overcome the evil one. We overcome by consuming the holiness of God, by living a life of prayer, worship and service. We overcome by turning from sin and living a life loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. We can become victors if we confess our struggles to God and turn from them, by developing a disciplined life of prayer, of study of scripture, and through helping others along their own paths. We beat our bodies to make them a slave to righteousness instead of sin, we press on to the goal set before us, we take hold of that which Christ has taken hold of in us, and we proclaim loudly in word and deed, “to live is Christ and to die is gain!”

As we enter into a time of open worship and holy expectancy imagine this passage imagine what you would feel like if you were there, imagine what you would feel like if you were the man sitting naked possessed by the demons that haunt him. Examine if you dare your own life and explore with Christ where sin has a grip on you. And let us call on Christ to release us from those sins and let them run down into the sea, let us let God take them from us so that we can live among our community proclaiming how God has helped us along our path of life.