Isaiah 65: 1–9 / Psalm 22: 19–28 / Galatians 3: 23–29 / Luke 8: 26–39
This is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 22, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker, Interim Pastor.
“ENTANGLED”
(Homily text: Luke 8: 26–39)
Into every life, some tangles are bound
to occur: You get ready to remove your shoes, and as you untie the laces, they
wind themselves into a tangle, often with a tight knot, just for an added
challenge. Or, you finish using an extension cord, and carefully wind it up so
you can put it on the hook in the garage, and sure enough, the next time to
take it down to use it, it presents you with a tangle that requires removal.
This morning’s Gospel text presents us with the specter of a man who’s entangled: He’s become the host for a large number of demonic spirits, Luke tells us. [1]
His entanglement is so severe that he
can’t be controlled. He cannot live among others, and is so deranged that he
lives among the tombs.
In short, his predicament has destroyed
any relationship he had had formerly with his family or with the members of the
community he had lived in. It’s also worth noting that there was no possibility
of a relationship with God, either.
Into this situation, Jesus comes, having crossed the Sea of Galilee with His disciples. He has now entered Gentile territory, on the east side of the lake. [2]
As the Lord encounters the man, the demonic spirits engage in negotiation with the Lord. Eventually, they are given permission to leave the man and enter a herd of pigs nearby. The pigs, having received these evil spirits, rush headlong into the water and are drowned. [3]
The man, now delivered from his tangled
circumstances, is now in his right mind, Luke tells us, sitting clothed and
behaving normally. He begs Jesus to allow him to become a follower. Instead of
granting this request, the Lord tells him to go and relate what great things
God has done for him.
This encounter reveals the markers of
God at work in the person and the actions of the Lord. Specifically, these
markers are ones which create, which re-create, and – in this instance – also
restore.
Human beings can become entangled in
all sorts of things: Addictions of one sort or another are good examples. So
are harmful actions, harmful to the individual, and harmful to others.
In short, that was the situation with
the afflicted man who was living among the tombs, unable to be around anyone
else, and unable to be controlled: His condition entangled him, it was
destroying his life, and it would destroy the lives of anyone who got near him.
We can see God’s hand at work whenever new-or-restored
life comes into being. The addict who has come to the point of realizing that
they cannot deliver themselves, and that God’s help will be an indispensable
part of their journey to begin to turn things around. To be sure, twelve-step
programs, and other programs that are designed to assist individuals with
recovery are valuable, as well. I don’t think we should discount the role that
God can play, however.
The Church, too, can become entangled
in all sorts of things.
The time of the Reformation in the
sixteenth century is a good case-in-point. The Church in that time had become
addicted to wealth and worldly power. The Reformers sought to untangle the
Church of that day from its misguided values.
In our own time, the Church can
entangle itself through an infatuation with all sorts of causes. Many of these
concerns have validity in and of themselves, but the extent to which the Church
embraces these appeals can be to the detriment of its worship of God, and distract
from its mission of bringing people into relationship with God, and of nurturing
that relationship; it risks engaging in idolatry.
We will need the insights and the
wisdom of God’s Holy Spirit to avoid the tangles which beckon and call us away
from God’s intent for our lives and for the life of the Church.
AMEN.
[1] The two other Synoptic Gospel accounts also record this incident. See
Matthew 8:28 – 9:1 and Mark 5:1–21. Matthew tells us that two men were
involved, while Mark tells us that there was only one. It’s possible that, as
Matthew relates to us, there were two men involved. Perhaps Mark and Luke
recorded only one because Jesus directly interacted with one of the two.
Another possibility is that Mark and Luke’s sources remembered only one man as
being involved. It seems clear that all three accounts record the same
incident.
[2] We know this is not a Jewish area, because pigs were regarded as unclean
animals according to the precepts of the Law or Moses (Torah).
[3] It would be worth our while to remember that, in biblical times, some conditions were ascribed to demonic activity which were, quite likely, a medical condition. That said, however, demonic possession and demonic activity is a genuine phenomenon and one to be taken seriously. In the case of the Gerasene man, it’s possible that his condition was mental illness (notice that Luke tells us that he was “in his right mind” after his encounter with the Lord).
