August 9, 1997 Sermon

August 9, 1997

Joyce Fry

Joyce Fry
The District Superintendent of our Dayton North District of the United Methodist Church.

I. Legion
There is this story that has become good news for me and I pray that it may become good news for you tonight as well. Not only is it a story about good news for the man who was filled with evil spirits but it is a story about how Jesus, a person with a very clean heart waded in and got his hands mighty dirty -- a model of ministry that you and I are being called to exemplify. The story tells us that Jesus was out in a boat out on a lake. The bible has several different names for this lake: if you are from the region of Galilee, you call it the sea of Galilee. If you are from the city of Tiberius you call it the sea of Tiberius but if you live on the southeastern side of the lake you call it the sea of the Gerasene.

Mark 5:1-5
1: They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Ger'asenes
2: And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
3: who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain;
4: for he had often been bound with fetters and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the fetters he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him.
5: Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones.

Jesus had landed his boat on the Gerasene side and he met a man who had been living in the cemetery among the tombs and he asked this man, "What is your name?" The man answered, "My name is Legion." Now, Legion was a term used for a group of 6,000 Roman soldiers. This man was saying, "I feel like I have about 6000 soldiers running around inside of me and they are at war with one another....and it’s terrible!" At times, the story tells us, this man would pick up rocks and he would gash his body. He would cry out in anguish. The Bible says he was filled with an evil spirit.
Now I ask you tonight, "What is your name?" I firmly believe that all of us have lots of names. The name that I am called most of the time is ‘Joyce;’ but, I remember when my folks use to get kind of upset with me it became ‘Joyce Elaine.’ I was born during the war years and so I made sure that my mother showed me the birth certificate; because I had heard lots of stories about war babies. I wanted to make sure who my mom and dad really were; and, I found that my legal name was Joyce Elaine Fry. I go by lots of other names. The United Methodist Church calls me a minister and an employee. Besides those -- I am a daughter; I am a sister; I am an aunt.
What are some of the names that you go by -- ‘spouse,’ ‘husband,’ ‘wife,’ ‘grandma,’ ‘grandpa,’ ‘mom,’ ‘dad,’ ‘kid?’ Are you a boomer or a buster or a mature one or one of the generation X’ers? Are you a coach, tutor? We each have lots of names. What happens to us when our spouse and our kids and our parents and our employer and our church all start calling our name at the same time and saying, "Hey, would you do this for me?" We are like that man; our life gets all out of balance and we just want to scream!!!!!

Mark 5:6-20
6: And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him;
7: and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me."
8: For he had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"
9: And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many."
10: And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country
11: Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside;
12: and they begged him, "Send us to the swine, let us enter them."
13: So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
14: The herdsmen fled, and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened.
15: And they came to Jesus, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had had the legion; and they were afraid.
16: And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine.
17: And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their neighborhood.
18: And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.
19: But he refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."
20: And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decap'olis how much Jesus had done for him; and all men marveled.

II. Live Spelled Backwards=Evil
The story says that this man was in the shape he was in because he was filled with an evil spirit. I want you to notice how the word ‘live’ is spelled. Then, I want you to spell it backwards and I want you to realize that when you spell the word live backwards you get the word evil. This guy had it all backwards. He did not know what it really took to live. I would suggest to you tonight that the bible has a unique definition of what it means to be fully alive.
According to the scriptures you become alive when you are filled with God’s spirit. Remember the story in the book of Genesis about God creating man and then creating woman? It says that after he created them, God breathed into them the breath of life. Generally, the words ‘breath’ and ‘air’ and ‘wind,’ when used in the scriptures refer to the Spirit of God. Adam and Eve became fully alive only when they were filled with the spirit of God. A hospital has a very different definition for what it means to be alive. They put a heart monitor on you and a monitor to measure your brain waves. From these, they can tell whether you are living or dead. According to the scriptures, the way we become fully alive is to be filled with God’s spirit. But this man from the region of the Garasenes was filled with an evil spirit. He had it all backwards.
Often, when we talk about spirits, folks in the church get mighty nervous. It seems as though when we walk through the church doors we kind of forget what it really means to be filled with the spirit. Those of you who have gone to sporting events at your local school know what it is like to be filled with ‘school spirit.’ It always amazes me that you can jump up and down and scream -- you can say just about anything -- because you are filled with ‘school spirit.’ And, we have all met folks who are filled with a mean spirit.
I was talking to a guy the other day and he was filled with an angry spirit. Every other sentence he said, "You know, I’m just really pissed off!"
We know what it is like to be filled with the spirit of love. You can tell when someone is in love. You can tell by the way they talk; you can tell by the way they walk; you can tell by the way they act.
We know what it is like to be filled with the spirit of God -- that very same Spirit that was in Jesus Christ.
I have noticed that if two different people are filled with two different spirits, they do not hang around together very long. When Jesus walked up to this man that was filled with these evil spirits, the evil spirit said, "Can we be excused now? I don’t think we want to hang around with you Jesus." (It’s kind of like being an Ohio State fan and going to the Ohio State vs. Michigan game and sitting on the Michigan side when Michigan is ahead by 7 points. It’s not a very comfortable spot in which to be.) The evil spirits were excused and this man was filled with the very spirit of God. We know he was because it says he wanted to go with Jesus. If he had still been filled with the evil spirits he would not have wanted to hang around with Jesus.

Psalms 51:10
10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

When we accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of our lives, we have accepted God’s spirit into our lives. That’s what we are asking for when we pray the prayer that is found in the book of Psalms -- "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

III. Let God Tell You Who You Are
Once we allow that spirit of God to enter into our lives, it is extremely important that we, then, let God tell us who we are. It is so tempting to let other people tell us who we are; but, we are called upon to let God tell us who we are.
That is what this man did. The Bible tells us that we are created in the image of God. We look in the mirror and say, "Wow, God, you did a good job!" The Bible tells us that we are part of the family of God.

Matthew 3:17
17: and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Do you remember the story of Jesus’ baptism? Jesus was baptized. Then he heard a voice speak and say, "You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." I would hope that each and every one of you when you are baptized would hear God say to you, "You are my beloved son - you are my beloved daughter."
We are part of God’s family. God wants what is best for us. Jesus said, "God sent me so that you may know the way and the truth about life." "God sent me," Jesus said, "because God wants you to have abundant life." Now that does not mean that you are going to go home and win the lottery tonight! It does mean that God wants you to have a rich, full, meaningful, abundant life. God wants what is best for you. So, let God tell you who you are.
We need to be really careful. You who are young people, need to be really careful when someone calls you stupid, that you not believe that. Teenagers and young adults, you need to be really careful when someone calls you easy, prostitute, whore. Don’t you believe it for a minute. If someone describes you in terms that are inconsistent with what God tells you you are, you need to listen to God. Parents, when your teenagers and young adults get to an age when they are really struggling with their own self-identity, and they say some pretty nasty things to you, do not believe it. Let God tell you who you are.

IV. Let God Tell You Who Others Are
We should not only let God tell us who we are; but we should let God tell us who other people are. I heard the other day that the moment we meet someone for the first time, we hear their name and we automatically fill in about 2000 bits of information about that person. If one of you whom I have never met before walked up here and I said, "Hi, I’m Joyce" and you introduced yourself, within moments I would have 2000 bits of information in my mind about you. I would probably guess whether you are male of female. Maybe I would know by your name and maybe by your appearance. Maybe it would be a guess! I would guess at your approximate age. I would make some assumptions because I met you here. If I would have met you at a bar, I may have made some other assumptions. We fill in about 2000 bits of information when we meet someone. If we are filled with God’s spirit, that information that we filled in will be very different than if we are filled with some other spirit.
When the town’s people looked at this man, some of them said, "That guy’s really crazy." The doctors in the crowd said, "That guy’s really sick." The religious folks said, "That guy’s filled with evil spirits." Jesus, being filled with the Spirit of God, looked at him and said, "That guy is created in the image of God! That guy is a valuable member of God’s family, a beloved son of God."
That guy! Can you believe it? Can you imagine looking at that guy and saying, "You have the ability to go out and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others."
I have been on the Board of Ministry for a number of years now and those aren’t generally the kind of folks we look for to go out and proclaim the gospel. Jesus could see it because he was filled with the spirit of God. Yes, we need to let God tell us who we are. We need to let God tell us who other people are.
I have been fascinated recently and I suspect all of us have been fascinated with that little car that has been traveling around the planet Mars. It, too, has a bunch of names. It's called the ‘rover.’ I heard one news broadcaster say, "It’s the little rover that could." When it went up and kissed Barnacle Bill it was called the ‘mini-geologist’; but its official name is ‘Sojourner.’ We are told they had a contest to find a name for it. They wanted to honor a woman with this trip in space, so they choose the name ‘Sojourner.’ It’s named after Sojourner Truth -- a woman who was born somewhere around 1797. We don’t know exactly when she was born because she was born to a slave woman between chores up in the state of New York. Most people didn’t think that her birth was valuable enough to record; therefore, we really don’t know when she was born. Her mother gave her the name ‘Isabella’ which means ‘God’s oath.’ Isabella was sold into slavery for $10 and a few sheep when she was 9 years old. Four years later she gave birth to her first of 5 children. A number of years later, in 1826, she was given her freedom by her master because of her good behavior. One year later, in 1827, slavery was made illegal in the state of New York. That woman went and sued to get her youngest son back because he had been sold illegally into slavery. Can you believe it -- she won! A few years later she was back in court suing a white man for slander -- can you believe it? She won again and got $125 in damages. She was so empowered by her victories and by her faith in God that she renamed herself ‘Sojourner Truth.’
Sojourner is a word that comes from the Bible. It is a name given to those who see that this world is just their temporary place to live -- they are on a journey. Isabella said, "As long as I am traveling this way, I am going to tell the truth about women," and so she fought for woman’s rights. She also said, "I am going to tell the truth about black men -- they are capable of voting." You want to talk about getting your hands dirty? That’s getting your hands mighty dirty!
Now the society around Sojourner Truth gave her different names than she gave herself. They called her ‘woman.’ They called her ‘black.’ They called her ‘property.’ They called her ‘slave,’ and they called her ‘illiterate’ because she had never learned to read and write. She did not let society tell her who she was. Every time she went to give a speech, she would begin with these words: "Children, I talk to God and God talks to me." Because she talked to God and God talked to her, she allowed God to tell her who she was and she allowed God to tell her who others were.
I pray for all of us that God’s Spirit would fill our lives so that God may create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us so that we would be willing to go out and serve God and get our hands dirty.