We thank this day for your goodness in Creation. We thank you for farmers and all those who work the land to produce good and tasty food for us to eat. We thank you for all those who raise livestock and grain, vegetables and fruit. We praise you for careful stewardship of all resources. We ask for you help and mysterious providence when accidents, calamities, tragedies, and crop failures might happen. We praise you for the community of associations that enable farmers to care for one another. We pray your continued guidance for those who govern to provide fair and just regulations for small and family farms. We lift up all who are in need today,...knowing and trusting in your ultimate care. In the great Name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Mark 5:1-20
They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.
Reflection:
Jesus. Apparently the herd was insured against an act of God. Haha. Sorry, I couldn't resist that one. This Bible story is a doozy of a strange and beautiful one! In this day and age, full of "itching ears," I would imagine the National Pork Council pressing charges against a religious freak that cost the lost of an entire herd. Their contracts, I imagine, require legal action against destruction over a much smaller number. Yet, no one was mad. Instead, they seemed quite impressed and pleased that the man was saved from his horrible condition. That is the real story, Jesus delivered the man. The confrontation of Jesus with evil yields a startling result. So shocking and extensive, that no evil is left in the area to argue or object to the wonderful goodness!
Think about that, arguing and objecting to something remarkably good are not a byproduct of Jesus' presence! Jesus objects to and reverses the injustices that bind up any one. There are no boundaries that Jesus won't cross to help and heal.
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