Reading: Luke 8: 26-39

Here is a vivid, colourful story of Jesus out on the fringes of his world, at a place called Gerasa. The first person Jesus meets is a tormented man who is possessed by a demon. Ranting, raving and stark mad.

The film,’A Beautiful Mind’, starring Russell Crow tells the story of a mathematics proffessor suffering schizophrenia. Tormented by hallucinations and voices, he is shunned by friends and collegues. We, however, can see a beautiful mind trying to break free of the hallucinations and work again.

Jesus acts in the story because he sees pain and sees a beautiful mind trying to beak free. We often find Jesus in such places in the gospel stories; on the edges of society with the damaged and despairing seeking help to break free.

To all those people who suffer on the edges with their demons of despair or confusion or fear, this story tells us that, through the example of Jesus, there is hope for healing and wholeness. Jesus worked on the edges; Jesus is our example and our leader and he is leading us to places on the edge where people cry out to be free.

In indigenous communities deep in the outback, out on the edges, children have been screaming and crying out for help for too long. Our politicians are responding while many indigenous and non-indigenous leaders question their motives and the fairness of the proposed action. I don’t care about motives or fairness! I just care that the voice of the suffering is heard booming into our complacency and we respond as Jesus would have responded. Jesus always cut to the heart of the matter, never being put off by egos or pressure groups or interest groups and released beauty and life from pain and death. We are called to do the same.

Rev. Chris Howard
25th June 2007