Preaching the Scriptures

  The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Luke 8:26-39   The Man in the Cemetery Church of the Redeemer, Rensselaer   No one visited the cemetery anymore.   It was occupied by a man who was himself occupied.   And so everyone else in the country of the Gerasenes avoided the old tombs, the graves of their ancestors and friends, because they were afraid.   The man in the cemetery wasn’t always like this.   There was a time, before the occupation, that he was more, I guess you might say, normal.   When it first happened, his loved ones tried to help.   They wrapped him up in chains to try to subdue his chaos and frenzy.   But it never worked.   And so now, he was alone, with the dead.   Alone, except for his demons.   Unlike the humans, his demons refused to leave.   And they refused to let him leave, refused to return him to the people he once knew and loved.   The town was terrorized by the man’s wild...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 1:21-28 Spiritual Forces of Wickedness Public confrontations are so uncomfortable.  So it is not difficult to imagine the edgy energy present in today ’ s Gospel.  You can feel the tension ripple through the congregation.  Eyes shift to the floor.  The security team moves into position.  Parents hold their children tighter.  And Jesus pauses his teaching mid-sentence – his eyes fixed on the possessed man screaming at him from the center aisle. Somehow, despite his demons, this man got into the synagogue.  Probably because no one was keeping an eye on him.  Because once the wickedness took over, friends and family slowly drifted away.  And he was left alone – a shell of a man, a shadow of his former self, a lost cause.  That is the thing about those evil spirits, those spiritual forces of wickedness: they corrupt and destroy.  They corrupt and destroy not only their host, but the corru...