Adopted

Yes, I know “not like us” is a notoriously slippery phrase that means different things to various persons, but we'll live with the ambiguity for the moment.

How is it that people become part of the church?

--by Holy Baptism with a confession of faith

--by a gift of the Holy Spirit,

--by a life-long process of turning away from some things and turning toward others.

Those are all positive answers to the question.

But if we are asked to describe it without using our typical church terminology, perhaps the best word to describe the process is “adoption.”

We are adopted into this family of the church.

The people of God may be vastly different from one another, and still be equally beloved of the Lord.

The process begins with the potential adoptee being identified and sought out.

Eventually there are the legal papers and the court order, and the new family is created by that declaration.

There may be many heartaches along the way, especially when the adoption is cross-cultural, but the declaration has made a new reality.

That is true in becoming a part of the body of Christ.

Newly-made members can be young or old, of any national or ethnic origin; the important thing is that they are chosen by God and by his declaration made a part of the body of Christ.

Problems? Yes of course there will be problems, squabbles, misunderstandings, divisions, etc. because of the enduring problem of sin in and among us... but the adoption is established and continues anyway, because the Lord says so.

Let's keep all of this in mind as we examine the Gospel story today.

Most of the events related in the Gospels are on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, but just prior to today's story, Jesus has directed the disciples to sail over to the east side.

There has been great confusion about the exact locale of the events; several different sites have been proposed on the basis of the confused name given.

I was privileged to visit one site which was a place of pilgrimage in the early centuries until it was destroyed in the Muslim invasions of the 7th century.

Whether that was the right spot or not, the point is that it was in foreign territory, non-Jewish, out of bounds for the usual interactions, where the people were “not like us” to the disciples.

Jesus immediately encounters a man on the outside of even that society, afflicted with demons, naked, living among the tombs, unclean in several different definitions.

The man addresses Jesus in a most remarkable way: “Jesus, Son of the Most High God.”

Amazingly, the ill foreigner names Jesus with a title that the disciples do not see or understand at this point in their relationship with Jesus.

Jesus does not ignore him or dismiss him, but instead heals him of the Legion of demons.

In the midst of the deadly seriousness of the situation, there is a humorous element, when the demons ask to enter the herd of pigs.

The unclean demons are sent to what Jewish people considered even more unclean animals, the pigs, and then to be drowned in the sea.

Imagine the early hearers of the story laughing about this result!

There is great consternation, and a crowd gathers.

They are distressed about several things, not least of which is that they have lost their source of income in the pigs.

They ask Jesus to leave the area, and he does.

Before he leaves, the healed man asked Jesus if he could go with him, but Jesus declined.

He sent him back to his home, “to declare how much God has done for you.”

He is healed, and given a new relationship , adopted into a new family connection, but then he is sent forth with a job.

The mission to the Gentiles is underway, even as Jesus is off to another area.

“So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.”

And that is where the story ends.

What happened next?; we want to know.

Was he successful in reaching all those folks who would hear him?

What was his continuing education in the faith?

We simply do not know about all of those things.

We just know that he was welcomed, adopted, and then sent.

A few minutes ago I mentioned that the presumed place of these events became a pilgrimage spot in the early centuries of the church, with a wonderful basilica with beautiful mosaic floors, a hermitage, vineyards, and much more.

People who were making the rounds of the places where Jesus walked in Galilee went to Capernaum, to the Mount of Beatitudes, to Tabgha the place of the fish, etc. all on the west side of Galilee, but Gentile Christians especially went to Kirsi on the east side.

This is where the mission to the Gentiles began; this is the model of discipleship for those who are Gentile outsiders who have been adopted into God's family.

We are outsiders no more; we have been adopted by God, or, the visual that the Gospel of John uses, we have been “grafted into the vine which is Christ.”

Gentile pilgrims who visited Kirsi were there to say “thank you” to the Lord Jesus for this foray outside of the usual Jewish places to include them and the rest of the Gentile Christians. Thanks be to God!

It was nice for that man healed so long ago, as well as for those who heard his story and responded.

And it is wonderful for us all these centuries later.

The point of the story of that healing is the assurance that God has time for all sorts and conditions of people here today.

We too need healing, we too need wholeness, we too use words without understanding their meaning, we too are touched by the Lord Jesus individually, we too are joined to the body of Christ, ...and yes, we too are sent back home with a message of joy and wholeness which we are to share widely.

So what is our reaction be to all of this?

A young man who had been adopted from a foster home when very young always thought of himself as very “special.”

This was not conceitedness or undue pride.

He said, ”My mother always told me, 'Some children are just born into a family, but you are different.

You re special, because we chose you.

From all of the possible candidates we chose you.

That is what Jesus' cross and resurrection has done for us.

We who were nobodies became somebodies by adoption.

God does not say “Now if you do this and that, then I will love you.”

That would be bad news, because we always mess up even the best of things.

Rather, in Jesus Christ God says to us “I have come to you, have sought you out, I have found you, so that I might bring you home, might make a place for you in the company of my people, and might set a place for you at the family table.”

Whom do we know that is profoundly alone, perhaps in ways that they have not even admitted to themselves, for whom this would be the best possible news?

To whom are you and I sent this week?

May we discern this, and do it. Let all say, Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.