When we describe God, one word we often use is “powerful.”  We claim to be followers of a God who is all powerful.  Yet if one were to look at the way we live our lives, they might wonder what, if anything, God’s power has to do with us.

          What about the church?  Not just our church, but think of any church you like.  How often do we see anything in the church that really looks as if we have a connection to an all powerful God?

          If we truly believe that we are gathered together here in obedience to our powerful God, why don’t we see evidence of his power in our midst?

          Maybe we’re a lot like the folks in this story that we are going to read from the book of Luke.

          In this town, there was a huge problem—a man who was demon-possessed.  They tried to keep the man under control by chaining him down, but he would tear the chains apart.  This story is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and Mark tells us that night and day the man wandered among the tombs, crying out and bruising himself with stones.

          Then one day, Jesus came that way.  Jesus saw that this man was not only possessed with a demon, but with a whole army of demons.  Somehow—we don’t understand how or why—this man was full of powerful evil spirits, and they tormented him.

          Jesus showed his great power over evil by casting the demons out of the man.  It was very clearly a miracle, but also a demonstration of Jesus’ power over evil. 

          So you would think the town’s people would be in awe of Jesus’ power, and grateful for what he had done in their presence.  But apparently Jesus didn’t do it the way they would have liked it done.  Apparently they were more comfortable living with the power of evil than with the power of God.

          Listen as I read Luke 8:26-39, and notice the way the people respond to Jesus.

 ²⁶They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!" ²⁹For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

 ³⁰Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

   "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. ³¹And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

 ³²A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. ³³When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

 ³⁴When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, ³⁵and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ³⁶Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. ³⁷Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.

 ³⁸The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹"Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

          Now, it might be natural for the people to feel some fear at the sheer power that Jesus exhibits when he frees the man of the demons.  And it might be natural for them to be a little annoyed that Jesus destroyed a large herd of pigs in the process.  But wouldn’t you think that life without a crazed demoniac in your community would be enough of an improvement that they could overlook those inconveniences?

          The power of God had been demonstrated in their midst, and what was their response?  They were afraid, and they asked Jesus to leave them.  They should have been afraid at the evil spirits that Jesus cast out of the man, but instead they were afraid of the power that Jesus demonstrated.

          I wonder if we do the same, today.  Maybe the situations are not quite so extreme.  But I wonder if, when God tries to do something even slightly powerful among us, we send him away.  That’s because unfortunately it seems that much of the time, God does not play by our rules.

          When the people came to see what Jesus had done, they found the man who had been possessed by the demons sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind.  But they were afraid.  They could not get past their idea of the way things ought to be. 

          Do you think, now that the man was dressed and in his right mind, they invited that man into their homes?  I rather doubt it.  The man told everyone how much Jesus had done for him, but I really doubt the people welcomed him with open arms.  They were still afraid.

          What does it look like when God does something in our church?  Well, most of the time it doesn’t look quite like what we were expecting.  That’s because God is God!  If God did things our way, would God be God?

          If we’re going to keep God in the equation, we are going to have to give up our desire to control the outcome.  If we want everything done the way it’s always been done and we want things they way they used to be, we will need to keep God out of it.  That’s because God does things God’s way.  And yes, it can be downright frightening.  So what we do is just like what the people did:  we tell Jesus to just go away.  Not in so many words, of course.  We just put him over to the side and go about our business.  That is because we are afraid of God-sized power.

          God is our loving and gentle shepherd, but God is also infinitely powerful.  In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, there is a great lion named Aslan who represents Jesus.  In one place, Lucy asks the question about Aslan, “Is he safe?”  And the answer is given, "Safe?...Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

          If we want a safe God, we have come to the wrong place.  Church should not be a place where we simply hang around trying to make ourselves better people. 

          Annie Dillard writes this:  “The blithe ignorance is frightening:  ‘Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?...On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions.  Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?  Or, as I suspect, does not one believe a word of it?  The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.  It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets.  Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares: they should lash us to our pews.”

          Do you hear what Dillard is saying?  If we really believe in this all-powerful God, why are we so timid in our way of doing church?  Do we even believe that God is ever going to do something here?  And when God does do something, how will we react?

          Will we be afraid, like the people were when Jesus cast out the demons, and ask Jesus to go away?  Or will we even notice?  If God does things here that aren’t what we were expecting or hoping for, will we just ask him to go away?

          In fact, when we ignore what God does, are we not in fact asking him to just go away and leave us alone?  I think that when we do that, we had better understand what it is we are doing. 

          In the scripture passage we read, when the people asked Jesus to leave, what did he do?  Did he hang around and try to explain to them why it was better to cast evil out than to continue with the status quo? 

          It says, “Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.”  He just got into the boat and left.

          What’s my point?  God does do things in our church.  He has blessed us in many ways.  But if we are so busy with life as usual that we do not notice what God is doing, we need to realize that God will not hang around.  That’s because if we refuse to accept the gifts God gives us, he will politely leave us alone.

          What if we were to look carefully for the gifts God is giving us every day and we were to truly treasure those gifts?  Suppose, for example, that each time a stranger came to our church—on Sunday morning or any other time—we truly believed that God had brought that person to us.  What if we really welcomed that stranger by getting to know his or her name, listening to them, and praying for them?  We might even invite them to our homes.

          How about the people who use our building during the week?  What if we were regularly praying for them and looking for ways we could serve them and let them know we cared about them?  When the Sweet Pea Preschool moved into our building a year ago, they brought us a box of cookies in the office.  As far as I know, we have never done anything for them in return.  Since I ate some of those cookies, I take full responsibility for this.  I really wish we could start thinking about ways we could be better at reaching out to our neighbors.

          Is this easy?  Most definitely not.  We are more inclined to think about ourselves and our own needs. 

          I have suggested that we need to have a group of people who would get together to look at outreach to our community here on Queen Anne.  I hope you are carefully considering being part of that group.   We really need to get our heads together and look for ways of reaching out to our community.

          But much more important even than that, I hope you understand somehow that the God we claim to serve is immensely, insanely, infinitely powerful.  Somehow, with God’s help, we need to open our hearts and our minds to understand just who this God of ours is. 

          Maybe, as Annie Dillard says, we ought to show up on Sunday mornings wearing crash helmets, in case God shows up in a powerful way.  But Dillard also reminds us to look for God in the tiny little things that surround us every day.  We need to begin to listen and to watch carefully for the little gifts God gives us every day.

          That’s because God is here with us, even right this minute.  God doesn’t give up on us very easily.  He is a God of hope, and his hope is for us, that we will listen to him and watch for what he is doing here among us.

          The God we worship is all powerful.  Like Lucy, we may ask, “Is he safe?”  And the answer is given, "Safe?...Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."  He may not be safe, but he is very, very good.  And he is our God and our King. 

Prayer:

Almighty God, you alone are good.  All power and all glory belongs to you.  May we humbly bow before you as we acknowledge your power and your goodness. 

Help us, Lord, to begin to look for your handiwork in this world—whether it is in the beauty of nature, or in our relationships with one another. 

Forgive us for prefering to dwell with evil spirits than to allow you to cast out the evil that surrounds us.  Help us to seek you in everything we do.

Jesus, we do not want to be a church that asks you to kindly move on to the next town because we cannot handle your purity and your power in our way of doing things.  Help us to want you; to seek after you; and to acknowledge you in all of our ways.

Holy Spirit, come and fill us with your presence, that our hearts and our minds would be open to the greatness and the power and the goodness of God.

Amen