We all have a desire to belong ….. Hear the words from a poem by Mary Oliver:

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing
your place in the family of things.
——from The Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Some nights we toss and turn and cannot sleep. Longing for restoration. Wendell Berry wrote about that:

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things. By Wendell Berry

We read today two scriptures about healing. The book of Psalms reminds us of our thirst for God, the longing for restoration. And the gospel, what a story is that! Pigs – demons entering them and tossing themselves off the cliff to drown– unusual part of the story. Who said Bible reading is boring? It has all the makings of a horror film. What was the name of this demon? “Legion” which simply = many, not one thing tormenting him, but many.

Yes, a wild scripture today with good winning out in the end.

And when the man was in his right mind again, healed of these legions of torture, the people were terrified and asked Jesus to leave. They didn’t know what to do with someone who once was walking around in the cemetery out of his mind, now cured. It just didn’t fit their idea of the way things work.

What an amazing story of Jesus power to heal. Did you notice, the demons begged Jesus not to torture them. They begged him not to throw them into the abyss. They begged him to let them enter the pigs and throw themselves into the water and drown.

James reminds us about claiming it is simply about belief.

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble. James 2:18-19

Belief does not mean a follower of Jesus. The demons know Jesus has authority. They know and are terrified. They simply do not follow what they know. Work and faith/ belief and action must go hand in hand. So much damage has been done to the church when someone preaches his faith in Jesus and murders a woman and her husband. Words claiming belief accompanied by hate of people are more than irrelevant, they are detrimental and damaging to the reputation of the Christian faith.

When someone is healed, cured, changed, can we accept it and rejoice for them? What is the fear in the by standers? They didn’t even want Jesus around anymore, upsetting the applecart of their well-established social system. A system that hides the unwell and even locks them in chains.

I know we do not see much demon possession these days. But let’s not quickly put it into a modern day category of mental illness. We do not want to make a direct correlation between demon possession and mental illness.

There is already much too much stigma put on mental illness to bring shame into the mix. An exorcism may not be the cure of a long-term struggle with depression, or bipolar or any other disorder.

It is more a story about Jesus. Jesus’ power, authority, and desire for wholeness among those being tortured with many afflictions.

Jeremiah asks ,”Is there no balm in Gilead?” The spiritual we will sings answers,
“There is a balm in Gilead”. There is a healing salve.

The Psalm goes through a cycle of emotions. I long, thirst for God, my soul is tormented, why am I cast down, why am I disquieted. Hope in God, there is a balm in Gilead.

Our soul longs for healing. So much torment is happening. Some of it in our restless nights. Jesus has authority to heal.
So much haunts our souls, yet we thirst, long, yearn for healing. As a deer thirst for water, our soul thirsts for God. I walked down the trail at Ridley Creek State park and saw a blue heron lurking to catch fish. As the brook babbled, creatures went to the water to quinch their thirst.

God still heals. We still need that quieting of our spirits. These ancient texts are alive and well in our world today. Are they alive and well in our hearts?

Trevor and Nick sang about the eye of the storm. The scripture text just before Jesus healed the man with a legion of demons, he calmed the waters. Storms come and sometimes discourage us to the point of leaving us too weary to seek help. Too discourage to believe it is still possible. Why is my soul disquieted in me? My soul longs for God, the source of my strength.

He makes us lie down in green pastures, he restores our soul. Let us not save the Psalm for words to say at death. We can rest in peace while we have breath. Our good God longs for this for us.

May this be our prayer and our steady rock of hope and clarity.

“I Carry It with Me” from The Touch of 10,000 Words
Somewhere there is a place where I belong
Where an orchestra plays my favorite song
Butterflies gather and birds fly high
A beautiful place in a sun-lit sky
I wake and I wonder the land of the free
Where souls dance happy and the shore meets the sea
Mermaids chat and whisper the day
And Gods of hope are not far away
The place where I belong sits right in my hand
It lies in oceans blue and drifts of hot sand
I carry it with me, for my eyes to see
That the place I belong, sits within me.