Lost

Proper 7 C 2010
I Kings 19: 1-15a; Ps 42, 43; Gal 3: 23-29; Luke 8: 26-39



How lost is lost?

Today we find Elijah hustling his way out of town. Jezebel swore she would do Elijah in, and our prophet is no noble martyr. He literally heads for the hills. Depressed and discouraged, he lays down, waking up to find just enough food to keep him going for the next step.

He crawls into a cave, feeling ready to die. But the God who first breathed into his heart is not done with his prophet and friend. Fire, earthquake, wind—all the terrifying chaos of creation blazed outside, as dangerous as the hate of a powerful and revengeful queen. “But the LORD was not in the earthquake…nor in the fire…nor in the wind…”

Elijah was lost, lost in his fear, lost in his helplessness, lost in his hopelessness, lost in a cave in the wilderness. He had lost, too, his sense of what God wanted of him and what God was doing in his life and in the life of his people. And then, after that storm washes over him, he hears a voice made of silence.

That still voice calls Elijah from depression and fear to living once again as a prophet, a prophet who now knows that the power of God can pick us up when we are lost and at the end of our rope. In that stillness Elijah hears he is not done, and God is not done.

Ever feel totally lost? Ever felt at the end of your rope, like there is nothing but anxiety and fear? The power and strength of God is greater than this. God finds us when we are lost, and God can speak in silence with power greater than the chaos.

There’s lost, and then there’s lost.

For anyone who has been really lost or loved someone who was really lost, today’s Gospel can make your skin crawl. A man lives in the cemetery, completely lost, lost outside and lost inside. It’s amazing what a strange cave one’s own head and heart can be when we are overwhelmed with darkness. This hopeless man is filled with a teeming horde of powerful spirits. When Jesus finds him, he answers Jesus’ question with an awesome image. “Legion”, he says, a legion is inside of me. A Roman legion was an unstoppable fighting force of at least 6,000 battle-hardened soldiers. When the legion shows up, it’s best to surrender. He lives in the tombs, the dead outside, the teeming legion inside—no one could be more lost.

But Jesus finds the lost. And Jesus brings hope and new life to the lost. Frankly, I’ve always felt sorry for the pigs as they are the new hosts for the mighty legion of possessing spirits. But the point is made clearly—the all-powerful legion that filled this man, who drove him to isolation and hopelessness and despair—they’re only fit company for pigs. In fact, even the pigs can’t stand them, and would rather jump off a cliff than host the filthy legion.

Everyone else had accepted the possessed man’s hopelessness. Maybe some people need to think that some other people are beyond hope so they can be ignored and we can go back to our well-ordered lives. The life-changing power of God in Jesus is too much for the locals. They “beg him to leave the district.”

Well, people who feel their lives are well-ordered tend to resist any upset to their lives, even an upset caused by God. But the lost and the fearful and those in need are more ready, more open to accept the saving power of the God who finds the lost and speaks in stillness.

How lost is lost? No lost is too lost for God. No hopelessness is beyond hope for God. No wound is beyond healing, no darkness too deep, no legion too strong for the God who comes in Jesus to find us, to heal, to drive away darkness, to bring new life.

“O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving­kindness.”