{"id":3135,"date":"2019-06-23T10:22:56","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T10:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=3135"},"modified":"2019-06-23T10:22:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T10:22:56","slug":"sermon-23rd-june-2019-morning","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-23rd-june-2019-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 23rd June 2019 – morning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermons index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Sunday after Trinity \u2013 morning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 23rd June 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Trinity 1 – Proper 7 \u2013 morning
\nGalatians 3. 23-29
\nLuke 8. 26-39<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Maureen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nThis seems as good a Sunday as\nany to speak about Mental Health. In recent years we have begun to\nchip away at the stigma that often attaches itself to this subject.\nWe have become much more aware of how Mental Health can affect all of\nus. It is quite likely that here this morning there will be several\npeople experiencing some difficulty in this area… I hope my\ndiscussing it does not add to your pain, and please be assured that I\nonly want to help you to know that you are not alone and that we are\nhere to support each other and walk alongside each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnxiety, Stress and Depression\nare perhaps the most common manifestation of Mental Health problems\nfor us today \u2013 but there are many others and it is not something\nthat affects only \u2018other people\u2019. We are all\non a Mental Health spectrum and move up and down it through life. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nToday\u2019s Gospel shows us\nsomeone perhaps at the extreme end of that spectrum \u2013suffering with\n \u2018dissociative personality disorder\u2019 as it would today be called\n\u2013 in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states,\nare present in \u2013 and alternately take control of \u2013 an individual.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nNow this is a very extreme\nexample where this poor man seems to be the plaything of not just\ntwo, but a whole cohort of personalities. He has been driven\nliterally \u2018out of his mind\u2019; out of civilised society \u2013 such\nthat he can only exist on the extreme fringes of his community,\nwandering around the graveyard dressed only in rags and rattling the\nchains with which others had sought in vain to restrain him. He both\nfrightens us and intrigues us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWell, lots of us have come\nacross individuals who are one person at work or in public, and a\nvery different person at home!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd being a follower of Jesus\nChrist does not automatically spare us from suffering Mental Health\nissues, but it can help us to begin the process of integrating those\nparts of our lives that seem permanently to be at war \u2013 pulling us\nin different directions, threatening our wellbeing \u2013 or even our\nsanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd notice what Jesus does. He\nasks the man his name. He recognises that this man \u2013 like all of us\n\u2013 has a precious identity; he is \u2018named\u2019 by Jesus as a fellow\nhuman being. He himself responds with a kind of dark wit \u2013 he is\nLegion \u2013 his multiple personalities are the size of a Roman Legion.\nAnd it is no accident that it is the Romans who have possessed the\nsacred land of Israel. No other words are spoken, but in that\nencounter with Jesus the man\u2019s innermost, raging, tumultuous self\nis brought to stillness and peace. We may imagine the sense of relief\nthat caused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThis passage in Luke\u2019s\nGospel comes just after Jesus has also demonstrated his divine power\nby calming the raging storm on the Lake. That story is profoundly\nconnected to this one. Jesus is the one who brings peace, who \u2013\nlike God at the moment of Creation \u2013 brings order out of chaos. And\nif Jesus has this power over the storms of nature and the storms of\nthe human psyche, just who is he? What are we to make of him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nFor the townspeople it is all\ntoo much. They are not ready to face up to such radical power being\ndemonstrated among them. Ironically, where his authority is\nrecognised by the once deranged and now healed man, the townspeople\ncannot live with it. It is too much of a threat to their entire\nunderstanding of the world. Better to remain in a safe binary system\nin which the obviously mad are banished to the edge, than a world\nwhere the previously deranged are restored to their right mind and\ngiven back to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBut the story does not end\nquite yet, because Jesus \u2013 while apparently rejecting the man as a\ndisciple, nevertheless commissions him to be a kind of Gentile\nevangelist \u2013 to proclaim to his friends and neighbours all that God\nhas done for him. And although the first reaction of the Gerasenes is\nto resist salvation in the person of Jesus, there is still the hope\nthat the testimony of the healed demoniac will turn hearts and minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThroughout the Bible human\nbeings have to choose whether to embrace the costly disruption of\nGod\u2019s liberating work. It was true of the Hebrew slaves who looked\nback with nostalgia to the certainties of life in Egypt as they\nwandered through the desert. It is true here \u2013 would you have\ntrusted that this man was truly healed and allowed him back to live\namong \u2018decent, ordinary folk\u2019? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd how do we view those who\nappear to have had difficult lives turned around by God\u2019s healing\ntouch. Are we prepared to accept the power that God demonstrates to\ncalm the storms we see around us? To calm the storms that may rage\ninside us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThis is also the Sunday when\nwe give special thanks to God for the reality of the Eucharist \u2013\nfor Holy Communion, the Mass \u2013 the feast of Corpus Christi. Many\npeople feel that in that moment of receiving bread and wine they gain\na special kind of peace. May you feel your equilibrium restored as\nyou come to God\u2019s table today. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Sunday after Trinity \u2013 morning Sunday 23rd June 2019 Trinity 1 – Proper 7 \u2013 morning Galatians 3. 23-29 Luke 8. 26-39 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs This seems as good a Sunday as any to speak about Mental Health. In recent years we have begun to chip away at the stigma that often attaches … <\/p>\n

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