Galatians 3:23-29 & Luke 8:26-39 Year C, Pentecost 2
This passage from Galatians is the reason that people
like me love Paul. “There is no longer
Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and
female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” It’s a beautiful idea—that baptism is the
great equalizer. It unites us and makes
us one. There is no doubt in my mind
that Paul really believed this.
That is what makes some
of Paul’s other comments a bit harder to handle. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he tells
slaves to be obedient to their masters.
If he truly believed that all were equal when clothed in Christ, why
would there be a master and slave? Why
not support the elimination of slavery as a whole? In Paul’s 1st letter to the
Corinthians, he told women that they should not speak in church, and should be
subordinate[1]. In 1st Timothy, Paul told women
that they should not teach men or have authority over them[2]. These are texts that churches still quote to
prevent women in leadership. If there
was no longer male or female, how could one be subordinate to others?
Let’s start with the issue of slavery. Slavery in biblical times was different than
it was in our country. It was not based
on race. It was not something you were
born into. It was a broad term.
Sometimes that word referred to those who were taken as captives during
a war. Sometimes it referred to a paid
servant. For instance, people who were
slaves to those in high positions had more power than some people who were
considered free. Typically when the word slave is used in the New Testament
(rather than servant), the translator is indicating a lack of freedom. That doesn’t mean that a person was owned by
another person (like how it was in our country during slavery), but their time
was not their own and they have limited freedom in what they could do and who
they could be.
While slavery wasn’t
the same in biblical times, it certainly wasn’t a good thing. It was an unjust economic system that kept
some people down while others prospered. Paul argued at times for justice and
good treatment of slaves, but he didn’t argue for a change to the economic
system which would eliminate slavery, at least not in the writings we
have. I think it was because he knew he
couldn’t accomplish that. It was too big
for even him.
Changing the economic system of a place and time requires
more than one person and even more than a lifetime. We see it in the Gospel
reading today as well. Jesus went to the
country of the Gerasenes. That area was
most likely Gentile territory, not a place that Jesus would have been
welcome. As soon he just got out of his
boat, he was confronted by a man who was possessed with so many demons that he
referred to himself as legion.
These spirits had
terrorized the man so much that he was forced to live among the tombs. This wasn’t a nice well maintained cemetery
that we are accustomed to seeing. It was
the wilderness, away from people. When
he did come near people, they chained him up so he could be restrained. But whatever possessed him was stronger than
the chains and shackles. He was able to break free from them. That was how strong the spirits were. Yet even
the evil spirits bowed before Jesus and Jesus was able to free him with just a
few words. He sent the evil spirits into
a herd of pigs who then ran off a cliff and drowned. As a result, this man went from being naked,
violent and living in the wild, to sitting at the feet of Jesus like the other
disciples.
You would think the people of the town would have been
relieved to have this possessed man healed. After all, he was tormenting them
as well. Instead, seeing this dramatic
transformation scared them. It’s unclear
why they were scared, but I think it’s partly because this exorcism also
affected the economy of the region. Who spread the news of the healing? It was
the swineherds, the people who were responsible for the pigs that had been
drowned. In drowning those pigs, Jesus had ruined their livelihood.
Their frustration is
understandable, but you would think it would have been tempered by the
knowledge that a man had been healed. He had been given his life back. He was free now. Yet it would seem that
didn’t matter at all. All that mattered was the money they lost. Instead of learning more about Jesus, a man
who had the power to heal and provide true freedom and transformation, they
forced him to leave the town. After all, who knows what else he could have
destroyed?
Jesus left them. He left them to their fear and their
obsession with what they had over who they could be. If Jesus couldn’t make them see the
importance of a human soul over a herd of pigs, how was Paul supposed to
convince communities that the economic system that enslaved people might be
unhealthy and sinful? Paul knew his limitations. In the end, he was human like we all
are. Do I wish he would have spoken even
more boldly and clearly supported women’s leadership? Yes. Do I wish he could
have ended slavery then and there? Of course.
I don’t think he could. Sometimes sin is so entrenched, it takes more
than one person to defeat it.
In our Gospel reading
last week, Jesus told his disciples, "I still
have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit
of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…” I think even Jesus knew that there were some
things people were not ready to understand, some things that would take
thousands of years for us to understand.
That doesn’t mean that he was ok with the injustices that he witnessed,
he just knew there were certain truths they could not handle. So Jesus left them and us with the Holy
Spirit that would continue to inspire people and help us discern God’s wisdom,
God’s will for our world.
The man
that Jesus healed wanted to follow Jesus. There is a part of me that hates that
Jesus would not let him. After all he
had been through, why couldn’t he hang out with Jesus for a little while
longer? But Jesus knew that his presence in the town would force that community
to see what Jesus was capable of. Maybe that one transformed individual could
accomplish more in time that Jesus could in that one day. Jesus’ time was
limited.
There are
times when I read this text from the Galatians about us all being equal in
Christ and wonder, why has this been so hard to understand? How did slavery
happen in this country when Christians had access to this text? How did the abolition of slavery then allow
for discrimination and just more forms of enslavement when we had this text? Why
did it take almost 2000 years for Christians to allow women to be ordained when
we have had this text? 2000 years…that’s quite a learning curve. Why are so many Christians still unwilling to
see the beauty in our LGBTQ+ community? Why are people in the trans community
being murdered just for being who they need to be? It’s maddening. Why don’t we know better when we have this
text?
Martin
Luther King famously said that “the arc of moral universe is long, but it bends
toward justice.” That bend toward justice feels quite flat sometimes. It’s a slow bend. Yet I do believe that
Christians have corrected many of the mistakes of the past. We have opened our
hearts and changed course in ways we would never have expected even 100 years
ago. The church and our world has
changed because Christians have pushed it to change. Christians have reminded people of what Paul
said in Galatians, what Jesus said on the sermon of the mount.
We are here
to continue the ministry that Jesus and Paul began. Even in the last 20 years, I have seen the
Episcopal Church stop arguing about so much that they argued about 20 years
ago. We have found new stuff to argue about, but I think that is the way
progress happens. It’s a slog.
I like to
think that the man who Jesus left in the country of the Gerasenes eventually
got through to people, not everyone, but enough, enough to make a change,
enough to bend that arc toward justice.
That’s why we can never give up.
Jesus didn’t suffer, die, rise again and leave us with the Holy Spirit
so we could give up 2000 years later. Much like the man who was healed, we
continue serving and living in our imperfect community sharing what God has
done for us and what God’s love can do for others. Because that arc isn’t going
to bend itself. That’s up to us.
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