Pam and I took a couple of hours to watch the movie Father Stu this week. It’s called Father Stu because it tells the story of one man’s journey to priesthood and becoming a “Father”. It was kind of neat to have watched it the week leading up to Father’s Day, which other than the name, I never would have expected it to be really relevant to that fact. It turns out that Stu had a very contentious relationship with his father. Each new skill or talent Stu had was harshly berated and whenever Stu emulated a role model his father tore it down. So Stu steeped in rebellion, gaining strength, fighting, drinking and driving and reckless and dangerous behaviors. I won’t tell you about the movie or Stu’s life, but I will say in a moment of realization Stu’s father says, “I killed every hero that boy had, hoping one day that hero would be me. But I never gave him a reason that I should be.” As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds. And the gospel of Mark tells us that, “Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.” Driven out and placed in chains. Stu was driven away and also resorted to self destruction where others just pushed him further. Stu and the father were bound by the same chain. Reacting to fear and pain resulted in both being dragged deeper down into darkness. Sometimes we don’t realize the chains and shackles that we forge and sometimes we forge for others and find ourselves shackled to the same chain. Charles Dickens comments on the chains we forge in his story A Christmas Carol when the ghost of Scrooge’s old business partner, Jacob Marley, shows up one night. Interestingly, the ghost of Jacob wore a long and heavy chain that he literally had to drag along with him. When Scrooge asks Marley about it, he says that he wore the chain he forged in life—a chain forged by all the merciless, unjust, ruthless, and oppressive deeds he had done in life and that Ebenezer’s own chain was as long and as heavy as his, and it had grown even longer and heavier over the seven years since Marley’s death! Scrooge and Marley held power over the lives of others and often resorted to debtors’ prison and chains to hold and increase their own power and wealth. When Charles Dickens was 9 his father was locked in Marshalsea debtor’s prison for failing to pay his debts. Charles at 11, was sent away to a factory, to cover and label pots of shoe polish in appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair. He was separated from his family, as his younger sister and mother were put in prison with his father. Later, he wrote in a letter: ‘No words can describe the secret agony of my soul as I sank into this companionship…. The sense I had of being utterly neglected and hopeless, fired with grief and humiliation, my lonely vulnerability, my hungry misery, and the knowledge they had willingly put me in this situation. I could not bear to think of myself beyond reach of any honorable success.’ Dickens grew to point out that the merciless and unjust who forged the chains and shackles for others were binding themselves into a downward spiral. Wikipedia tells us that “Annie Lou Hamer was an American voting and women’s rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was known for her use of spiritual hymnals and quotes and her resilience in leading the civil rights movement for black women in Mississippi. She was extorted, threatened, harassed, shot at, and assaulted by racists, including members of the police, while trying to register for and exercise her right to vote. On August 31, 1962, Hamer and 17 others attempted to vote but failed a literacy test, which meant she was denied this right. She was fired by her boss, but her husband was required to stay on the land until the end of the harvest. Hamer moved between homes over the next several days for protection. On September 10, while staying with friend Mary Tucker, Hamer was shot at 15 times in a drive-by shooting by racists. No one was injured in the event. The next day Hamer and her family evacuated to nearby Tallahatchie County for three months, fearing retaliation by the Klan for her attempt to vote. On December 4, just after returning to her hometown, she went to the courthouse in Indianola to take the literacy test again, but failed and was turned away. Hamer told the registrar that “You’ll see me every 30 days till I pass”. She said “I guess if I’d had any sense, I’d have been a little scared—but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do was kill me, and it kinda seemed like they’d been trying to do that a little bit at a time since I could remember.” On January 10, 1963, Hamer took the literacy test a third time. She was successful and was informed that she was now a registered voter in the State of Mississippi. However, when she attempted to vote that fall, she discovered her registration gave her no actual power to vote as her county also required voters to have two poll tax receipts. She was also barred from the ballot to run for the US Senate. She made the observation that “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” We see the chains of oppression bind us all and cut a wide swath of negative effect. This week we recognize, honor and celebrate Juneteenth. Pretty much since the beginning of the written history of this country, human beings were brought to these shores and sold as chattel or slaves. On September 22, 1862 Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. So that declared victory and freedom, but wait, it didn’t become effective until January 1, 1863. So then? No. More and more slaveholders migrated to Texas from eastern states out of the reach of the Union Army, and they brought enslaved people with them. By 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. Despite the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, not until the morning of Monday, June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston, Texas to enforce the emancipation of its slaves and read the order that informed all Texans that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves were free. Even then, there were still pockets of slavery. Even still, its legacy echoes to this day. It’s about freedom and the chains that keep us from it. Link by link, because of fear, chains are forged by racism, sexism, homophobia, abuse, neglect, jealousy, greed, injustice and oppression and like father was to son bound in a downward spiral, so are we. Jesus traveled across the sea of Galilee and calmed a storm along the way with disciples that had no idea what to make of him and were terrified. He got to the other side and met the naked tomb guy. Society had given up in fear and placed him in chains and the significance of this moment can’t be missed. That which encumbered this guy, Jesus drowned and then he was clothed by Jesus. It terrified everybody else but he got it. He wanted to follow but Jesus sent him to go and tell, to be free from the chains and that which oppressed him and to build bonds that link us together in an upward spiral of righteousness. We seem to be born with the mistaken hope that if we bring others down, that somehow moves us upward. Stu’s father and his methods unfortunately were not the statistical outlier. We set up altars and we worship the false gods of scarcity, live in fear and sacrifice our lives and the lives of others on those altars of selfishness. There’s not enough for all, so for me to have, I must take from someone else, becomes our creed. On the contrary we are reminded each week when we pour the waters of baptism that God is a God of abundance and that it is through that baptism that the demons are drowned and that as it says in Galatians, we are clothed with Christ. That grace, love and abundance… that’s our heavenly father giving us the reason, as Stu’s father would say, that God should be who we look to and adore. We come up from the water and are called to a life of abundance and to go and share it with others, to drown the demons of racism, sexism, homophobia, abuse, neglect, jealousy, greed, injustice and oppression. To borrow the words of psalm 46, to break their bows and shatter their spears; and burn their shields with fire and actually put our trust in the one who calmed the sea and the one who repeatedly shows us that there is more than enough, who has traveled through wind and wave and suffered death on the cross that ALL may be freed of their chains, clothed in righteousness, and have life and have it abundantly. With a savior, a father, a hero, a role model like that, who knows what risks God’s spirit may empower US to take for the good of the world. AMEN…
The Lord be with you, and let us pray. O Lord God, we bring before you the cries of a sorrowing world. In your mercy set us free from the chains that bind us, and defend us from everything that is evil, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.Amen
Jesus’ mission includes foreigners and his authority extends to the casting out of demons. Some who witness Jesus’ work are seized with confusion and fear, but the man who was healed is commissioned to give testimony to God’s mercy and power. The Holy Gospel is according to Saint Luke, the eighth chapter. Then [Jesus and his disciples] arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”—for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
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