Pastor Richard Strick SERMON: the Thunder Rolls and the Lightning Strikes SCRIPTURE

DATE: May 24, 2015 SPEAKER: Pastor Richard Strick SERMON: The Thunder Rolls and The Lightning Strikes SCRIPTURE: Luke 8:22-39 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon- possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. A large herd of pigs were feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Garasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. SERMON: So, this morning, we get to talk about demons. It’s going to be a fun morning! We are continuing our series to the gospel of Luke and as we continue that series, we come upon this. When we look at this story, automatically there tend to be two extremes for us: One is to kind of step into, almost a Freddy-type of novel where you end up with a demon behind every doorknob and behind every rock. Then there’s the opposite extreme which is very common more so in today’s day and age than it was even 300 years ago which is to say, “well all of this is just wives and fairytales, old mother tales, these aren’t real.” So, what I’m proposing to you this morning is that both of these, in their own way, true and somehow, some way there is actually a synthesis there that we can better understand this passage and appreciate what’s going on here. So, when we look at this story, it’s not uncommon, Sandy you mentioned about is it 22 or 26? Usually we treat these passages separately, but when you look at the historical drive of the narrative, there weren’t verses separating things out and the language that’s used in both of these stories, they’re meant to be read together, and so this morning, we’re going to read them together, because when we talk about Jesus having power over and authority over the powers of this world we’re talking about on a cosmic level where the nature of the storm is even called into question with this. We’re talking about on a sociopolitical level with the region; we’re going to unpack that one a little bit. Especially, we’re talking about His power and authority over the storms that a person experiences in their own life, and we often talk about those as somebody’s demons. So when we do this, we want to recognize that there’s a truth in this, there is a reality in this. We want to better understand this dynamic. So to begin with that and to better understand all of this, we have to talk about Garth Brooks! (Laughter) Now, The Thunder Rolls and the Lightning Strikes! How many of you recognize that title? Right? This is classic Garth Brooks, depending on your viewpoint of country music, this is either when country music became great or this is when country music betrayed itself, because he was the first to begin to bring in elements of rock and the big amphitheater-stadium performances and he took off! He’s one of the greatest selling artists in the modern era of the last century. When we talk about Garth Brooks, his second album has a single on there – The Thunder Rolls and the Lightning Strikes. If you’ve ever seen this video, the music video for its time was very controversial; you watch it now and it’s like “Oh that’s pretty tame” but 20 years ago it was a big deal. Part of the reason why it was a big deal what Brooks was setting out to do was he wanted to talk about the storms in and without of a marriage; the storms that happen inside of a marriage and the storms that happen outside of the marriage and the whole music video is set in a driving thunderstorm. The band is playing and there’s just gallons of water being poured down upon them and then telling a story of a couple on a stormy night; however, the couple in question is one that has lots of storms within their own, in fact, the husband is across town in a place he never should have been, carrying out an affair that he has been carrying out for a number of years is implied. And when he returns home, she catches something, there’s a strange new perfume in the air and it strikes up this confrontation between them. Now we also note from the video and the way it’s depicted that there’s lots of domestic violence in this relationship, and that’s actually what made it controversial in it’s day and age. TNN and CMT both refused to air it after a few airings because they do not take a stand on social issues. Sometimes not taking a stand is taking a stand. VH1 however, not because there’s some great proprietor of social justice saw an opportunity, “Wow! Controversy? That means views, and views means advertising dollars, so we’ll air it!” So VH1, known for pop music begins to air Garth Brooks’ video and it leads into this whole conversation about the reality of storms; storms that we think of with lightning and thunder and rain, and storms that we realize and confess in relationship whether they become the sort of conflicts that leave bruises or not, they’re there. So we catch that there’s a thunder in and out of the marriage and that was his point in getting over this. So keep this in mind as we read through this because we’re talking about the storms of a physical tangible sense, but also the storms that go on in relationship when humans get together. So, the framing for this, you’ll notice conveniently Jesus speaks four times in this passage and so we just want to revolve our thoughts around them. We begin with His first words, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” Notice Jesus initiates the movement of this story. He is the one who is moving His disciples, He takes a small group of them, they gather in a boat and they begin to sail across the lake. And something that should have been a 3-hour tour becomes something cataclysmic because a storm comes up. Mark’s gospel suggests that this boat voyage happened at night. Now keep in mind that a number of His disciples are fisherman. They know the difference between a small storm and something life- threatening, and so when they begin to get afraid because of the boat swamping, there’s something major going on here. There’s something significant going on here. You see, when Jesus initiates the movement, He moves them into a place, crossing to the other side, will always bring storms about. When they experience that storm, there’s a natural reaction of fear.

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