26Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27As 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. 28When 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”— 29for 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.) 30Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. 32Now 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. 33Then 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. 34When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. (Luke 26-34).

“This work of supporting each other through burnout is not just the work within congregations but might be a critical calling for Christians to their communities.” (https://faithandleadership.com/what-if-we-are-all-burned-out?fbclid=IwAR2koBY3ZXOb1JaBGtrzWAfNWlE1lNlK9HS-_hOMWCIajGP8XZUsVEyrgoc)

 

This morning as I was driving up to the church, and listening to the radio, I heard two items of news that got my mind spinning into overdrive.  The first was the news that there are two new Covid variants coming down the line; just as we are removing mask mandates in most settings, and the second was the weather report saying that there was a scary bunch of storm cells making their way into our area; as we’re still cleaning up from the derecho that was, what 3 weeks ago?  2 weeks ago?  Time seems to move strangely at times of crisis, doesn’t it.  Dr. Who (yes, I know, this quote automatically makes me a super-geek) would call it “wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey”.

Sometime on the drive, in between Chantry and Highway 15, I had turned these two events in to Incidents of Catastrophic Proportions.  “I can’t do another lockdown.  I just can’t.  Bethel can’t do another lockdown; it will be the end of this community.  I can’t do another power outage.  Heavens, there are people in our area that still don’t have power from the last outage.  This time there will be far more devastation and difficult.  I can’t do this.  I can’t.  I can’t”.

I actually had to pull over at the parking lot of County Road 5 and Highway 15 to start taking deep breaths and get a grip on what was going on.

We have had SO much to deal with in these last two years.  The collective trauma that we’ve all experienced means that now we anticipate trauma before it even happens, and the coping skills that we have threaten to come up short.  I have often heard the phrase “God never gives you more than you can handle”.  Usually that phrase comes with with knowing nods, sympathetic glances and a patronizing pat on the knee.

But guess what.  That phrase.  Its not biblical.

Sometimes, things are too much.

Sometimes things happen to us that no one should ever have to deal with.

But maybe the point isn’t that we’re just supposed to square our shoulders, deny the trauma and get on with our lives.  Maybe the point is hidden in the scripture passage I quoted above.

You see, the man with the demons had nothing left.  The story tells us that he had no clothing and he lived among the tombs; and that many people had tried to ‘get rid’ of the demons before Jesus.  I wonder if this story not only tells us the physical reality of this man, but also the metaphorical reality.  You know, no clothes is like having no coping skills.  Living in the tombs is like giving up and just pulling the covers over your head, and people telling you to ‘get over it and move on’ is kinda like the well meaning people who tried to get rid of the demons before Jesus.

And Jesus does something different.  Jesus asks the man what the demons are named.  ‘What is it that you’re coping with?” – and the man responds with “I don’t even know where to begin, because there’s just so much – just so many”.

“But whatever you do, please don’t send me back there”.

So today, my Bethel friends, if you find yourself like me and going into overdrive contemplating what next week, next month or next year will look like.  I hope you’ll remember this story, and remember that we too have been dealing with a Legion of trauma.

And we need to name it.  Out loud.  To each other.

And then remind each other that we don’t need to live among the tombs with no clothes.  We can, together, find a place to cast the trauma so that we can go forward in our healing.  In fact, that’s what we’re called to do as God’s beloved community.

Come away from the tombs my dear friends.  We can do this together.

Blessings today and remember you are Loved.

~Rev. Lynne