Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

The lectionary text for Sunday is Luke 8:26-29, which I am inclined to give this headline: “Jesus Among the Demoniacs!” How appropriate. Isn’t it wonderful the way the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary—selected randomly about the time I was born—somehow meet us where we are right now, today? It’s spooky, to be honest, and most unsettling.

In Disciplines of the Spirit, Howard Thurman offers a telling that opens this passage for me in a way that makes it unforgettable. Have a look:

In the numerous encounters the Master had with individuals, none is more dramatic than his meeting with a certain madman, who stood staring at Him out of eyes that reflected agonizing turmoil within. From his wrists dangled broken chains. He was regarded by his community as possessed by devils; there were times when he became so violent that, as a measure of collective defense, he was seized and chained to rocks. Even then he could not be restrained when the turbulence within him leaped into muscle, bone, and sinew. The chains burst with the pressure and he would go shrieking through the waste places like a wounded animal. This was the creature who faced Him. He cried out to be let alone. And with gentleness, tenderness, and vast compassion, soft words issued from the mouth of Jesus: “What is your name? Who are you?” And the whole dam broke, and he cried, “My name is Legion!” He might have said: “This is the pit of my agony. There are so many of me, they riot in my street. If only I could know who I am—which one is me—then I would be whole again. I would have a center, a self, a rallying point deep within me for all the chaos, until at last the chaos would become order.”

Fundamental, then, to any experience of commitment is the yielding of the real citadel… Within us all are so many claims and counterclaims that to honor the true self is not easy. (Disciplines of the Spirit, Harper & Row, NY, 1963; pp 26-27)

These feel like times when demon spirits are taking over, running wild. “Jesus, do you notice? The tempest is raging! Don’t you care?” Those words are from Luke 8:22-25, the verses just before our text for Sunday, where Jesus calms the storm on the sea. Now, he has turned to the inner riots where we live. Interesting flow.

This book and this passage are unforgettable to me for more reasons than one. Mr. Clement and I read this book together very early on in our fifty-plus year relationship. (That’s impressive: courting with a soundtrack by Howard Thurman. The copy of the book we shared is so marked and obviously handled that it needs to be put in archival storage before it falls apart.) There were riots in my street back then, too, but I was in good company. The best!

FYI: As I read Howard Thurman these days, I notice that his language is not at all “inclusive.” I have decided that I will not let it bother me. Thurman’s grandmother was born in slavery and knew the most oppressive experience of “the Master” but that fact does not seem to make use of the same name for Jesus hurtful or off-putting for Thurman or his grandmother. I will honor his usage choices and extraordinary gifts as a teacher and pastor. I make no effort to rephrase or “update” it.

We’ll see what all this becomes by way of A Sermon for All Ages in worship on Sunday. Look for us, dear Streamers and Gatherers, online or in the building. Hope you can make it. Until then,

Grace upon grace, love and hugs,

Rev. Liz