Sermon for 20 June

• 1 Kings 19:1-15a
• Psalm 42 and 43
• Galatians 3:23-29
• Luke 8:26-39
A friend of mine is very health conscious. This is a woman who plans her meals ahead of time. Not by a day or two, but by a few weeks. Her diet is very strict, very regimented, food is carefully measured out and eaten at the right times. Personally, I follow the seafood diet. If I see food I want, I eat it. Now, please don’t misunderstand – part of my friend’s carefully constructed diet includes ice cream, and she’s been known to enjoy some nachos when she’s out with the girls. But she keeps the amount of deserts and high-fat foods to a minimum. For very good reason – she’s in training. She’s a runner. She and her fiancé do races – this weekend is her third half-marathon of the season. It’s impressive – but it takes a lot of dedication, a lot of practice, a lot of planning ahead. Her body will need a certain amount of the right kinds of foods to help her get through the training and the races; and so she listens to her body and gives it the fuel that it needs.
All of us need fuel to get through our days. Some days may feel like a marathon and require more fuel than those more relaxed days. Whatever kind of day we’re having, though, will determine how much and what kind of fuel we will need. Physically, we need less shelter in the summer than in the winter, though if the rains keep up, we may just need boats. We need clothing, we need good food and clean water, and we need adequate sleep and rest. These things are essential for our basic survival. Without them, we cannot live.
Emotionally, we need fuel. This fuel comes in the form of a sense of safety and security, in laughter, in an understanding of peace, in the giving and receiving of love. Our emotional needs are met with family, with friends, with leisure time – recreational activities are appropriately named, given that they are designed to allow for us to re-create ourselves to be fully human. When we do not have our emotional fuel, we start to lose who we are; we succumb to stress, we cease to interact with others in a positive manner, we cannot cope with the world around us.
We also need spiritual fuel. We need a well of spiritual strength from which to draw upon on a daily basis. Our strength comes from God, but in what ways? We read the scriptures, we pray, we worship, we read devotionals. When we are doing whatever practices we use to connect with God, we will feel His presence near us, we will seek and serve Christ in everyone around us, we will be open to the gentle stirrings of the Spirit moving us toward justice and peace. Basically, we will live out our baptismal promises. When we don’t have our spiritual fuel, however, a void develops, one that we may not even be aware of. We feel the need to take everything on ourselves, without asking God’s help. We ignore injustices that we see around us. We judge others, labelling them by cultural stereotypes rather than as fellow children of God. We cease to be the people that God made us to be. When we have this spiritual void, we run the risk of evil creeping in.
Our readings today tell us how God meets our needs, how if we let Him, God provides the fuel for our lives.
In the reading from Kings, we hear how Jezebel threatens Elijah, and he flees from her – only to release his servant in town and go into the wilderness, where he asks God to let him die. He has asked God to do exactly that which caused him to flee from Jezebel. He is ignoring his physical and emotional needs by laying under a tree, alone. Yet hope glimmers on – when food and water appear beside him, he eats and drinks. When this happens again, he eats and drinks with the knowledge that his journey is not over, but rather it is just starting. He brings an honest assessment of his situation to the Lord, and the Lord provides him with spiritual strength to continue this journey – God sends winds and earthquakes and fire, and Elijah stands firm in his faith and speaks to God. He then continues in the path that God has set for him, and we later learn of all the good things that Elijah does, because he has sufficient fuel to meet adversity.
The Psalm celebrates the longing of the heart to be closer to God.
The reading from the letter of Paul to the Galatians reminds us of the benefits of faith – that every person who has received the sacrament of baptism is the same in the eyes of God – no matter what skin colour, hair colour, nationality, profession, orientation, gender, none of it matters when we are people of faith – our spiritual need of divine love is met when we become clothed in Christ. God provides the gift of perfect grace and acceptance
The Gospel, of course, tells us of a profound spiritual healing. We hear that THEY arrived at the shore, but only Jesus got out of the boat – the possessed man perhaps intimidated the rest of the disciples who chose to stay in the boat. The naked man at Jesus’ feet begs for help, and the God of Love acknowledges him immediately. Notice, however, that the demons within the man were not cast out by Jesus, but asked his permission to enter the pigs rather than be cast into the abyss. God’s compassion is so strong that he allows this to happen, and yet the pigs drown themselves, thereby presumably sending the demons to the abyss all the same. And then we see the man again – this time calm, clothed, still at the feet of our Lord. His physical needs have been met in his clothing. His emotional needs will be able to be met now that he is again in his right mind, and can enter into relation with those around him. Spiritually, he is challenged to meet his own needs, by sharing the good news of God in Christ with those he meets, rather than staying beside the person of Jesus; this will also prevent him from creating that void again into which the demons might enter. The rest of the people from the area become so afraid by what they have seen that they ask Jesus to leave – which he does. They are not prepared to look within themselves, and determine what their needs are and if they are being met. Their fuel tanks are empty, and they don’t want Jesus to see that.
So how are your fuel tanks? Are your needs being met? Or do you need a top-up? Physically, do you have enough to eat? Is there a roof over your head and clothing on your body? Emotionally, have you smiled this week? Had a conversation with a loved one? Celebrated some ‘down time’ with a good book or a soccer game? Spiritually, have you talked with God, thanked Him for the abundant blessings he continually bestows upon you? Made an effort to journey closer with Him in all you do? Have you recognised that God provides all the fuel we will ever need?
In order to live fully, we need a mixture of all of these fuels – we never know when we might need to call upon strength from within ourselves. When adversity strikes, if our tank is low, we may not have the fuel to get through the tough times. So our challenge is to make sure that we fill all of our fuel tanks every day. And then we too can go proclaiming throughout the town how much Jesus has done for us.