When I was a kid, one of the pastors at my church also shared a passion for soccer, and he led a group called “Kicks for Christ.” It was a time for kids to come together to learn about Scripture and practice our soccer skills. When I was in high school and somewhat considering the idea of becoming a pastor, I asked Rev. Kev., as we called him, if we could bring back this small group. I still had just as much fun with it as a teenager as I did as a kid, except now I had an even greater appreciation for and understanding of the Scriptural verses that talk about what it meant to be a part of the Body of Christ. We spent a lot of time looking at Paul’s letters, using his examples to compare the Body to a soccer team; each player has a different role, but we are all a part of one team working toward the same goal. As simplified as that may be, it was a helpful way to think about this Body of Christ language because it gave me a way to think of it outside of the context of this “perfect,” idealized Body that functioned the way you wanted and needed it to 100% of the time. If you’ve ever played a team sport, you know just how difficult it can be if even one person is having an off day!
But, I bring this up because there are times when we do oversimplify the Body of Christ language, especially in the church, for the sake of our comfort. Paul’s writing to the Galatians today is one such example. How many times have we sat in church hearing “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 28). At its core, this is a message about how God is breaking down the hierarchies of the world and that the love of God is for all people; it is a breaking open of the understanding regarding who is included in God’s kindom. Hint…it’s everybody, not just who we want or think should be included! That is not the interpretation that I want to push back against today, but I do want to push back on our use of this to say that our distinct identities do not matter, when our diversity is glossed over for the sake of sameness, usually centered in the seemingly dominant identities.
That interpretation means that we ignore the reality that people are still impacted by their various identities in the world today. They are not identities that exclude them from the love of God, but I do think they give us different views on how we experience that love, as well as a different experience of living in the world. I also push back against this because so often it is something that we love to say, but do not always love to practice. It’s the idea of radical welcome, if you look and think and act like us. The Gospel reading today actually provides a really good contrast between this notion of all being one in the body of Christ and the challenge for humans in actually acting as if they believe that to be true.
It goes without saying that this is probably one of the weirdest Gospel stories, full of demons and pigs. However, I’m not actually going to focus on those details too much today. Instead, I want to focus on the man who was inhabited by “Legion,” and the way the community responded to him. Because, we are told that this man was experiencing some challenges with these demons, “Legion,” as well as experiencing nakedness and homelessness (Luke 8: 27). Jesus sends the demons out and the swineherds tell the others what has been done. And, then we hear, “Then the people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid” (Luke 8: 35).
The story doesn’t tell us what the people gathered were afraid of; after all, I would be pretty scared too if I saw or heard about a herd of swine suddenly jumping off a cliff… But, I also imagine that the people were afraid of Jesus and this mysterious work he is able to do, as well as having some fear regarding this man who miraculously seems to be healed. They had only experienced him as the naked man sleeping amongst the tombs, and now here he was in front of them clothed and in a different mental state than they had ever seen him. It seems that it might be taking the people some time to recognize this man as a fellow human, instead of this other being who inhabited the tombs. They don’t know what to do with this new reality because he was never really considered a part of their community.
But, this type of story is exactly what we are being called into when we say that we are all one in the body of Christ. When Paul talks about breaking down those divisions, that they no longer exist, it is a calling for the people to move away from the hierarchy and divisions that have been falsely created by other humans. It is not to say that we are all the same or that the stories which have shaped our lives no longer matter, but that we should not be falling into the false beliefs of society that some people are inherently better than others because of their identity. Instead, Paul and Jesus are reminding us that all parts are important in the body of Christ. All of our gifts, skills, passions, and stories matter. Every single person there that day is going to have a different story about how what happened impacted them, and none of them are going to know what it was like to be dwelt in by “Legion” and then finally be given a different chance at existence without that. Yet they are all a part of one community, one body.
Today’s story is also a reminder that when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer. This community in the Gospel story was not experiencing wholeness while this man was living on the outskirts, ignored or feared by everyone else. When we talk about being the body of Christ, it matters that we talk about how we are connected to one another within the body. This is not always comfortable, as sometimes other parts of the body are hurting or they may not be acting in the way that we would want them to, yet it doesn’t mean that we are no longer part of that same body. We have to figure out how we want to move forward, and often, that takes a lot of intentional time put into healing and restoration, even though we want it to be quicker and easier.
Our Gospel story today is not just a story of healing for the man, but is centered on Jesus’ teachings regarding care for the community. It was work that was feared and not always understood then, and it continues to be the case in our world today. When we are told that we should only focus on ourselves or that we do not need to care about what is happening in the world around us, it can be a big, sometimes scary, shift into this new paradigm. This isn’t to say that everything is going to change overnight or that you need to overload your nervous system by watching the news 24 hours a day, but is a reminder that our vocation turns us outward to the world, especially when the world tells us to turn back inward.
I think about how this Friday, we had so many people gathered from different parts of our community to help clean up the yard around church and the indoor spaces: congregation members, friends, Compass staff, and Garden Club members. We picked up garbage, pruned shrubs, weeded flower beds, moved chairs into the Sanctuary, set up tables, and we gathered together for a meal. It was beautiful to see so many people gathered for this project, and to see people who had never met talking and getting to know one another. Community care can be as simple as finding ways to be involved, to get to know your neighbors, and to begin to share our stories with one another. It can also be so much more than that, but at its heart, it is calling us back to the greatest commandment that we are given: to love God and love our neighbor. That may be hard at times, but there can also be a lot of beauty and joy in it too, as we learn more about who is connected to us in this messy, complicated, and beautiful body of Christ.
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Sunday June 15th, 2025 Worship