Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 22 June 2025.
Mosaic of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac from the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, sixth century AD (Source)
• First Reading: 1 Kings 19: 1-15 (Elijah flees to Horeb)
• Second Reading: Galatians 3: 23-29 (Children of God)
• Gospel: Luke 8: 26-39 (Jesus restores a demon-possessed man)
I wonder whether there have been times when we were completely drained. Exhausted by effort, drained by rejection and spiritually suicidal. Just wanting it all to be over.
It could be a problem in the family, at work, or a romantic setback. It could be a profound embarrassment, the betrayal of a trust, the sense of having been used or a deep disappointment coming from one who we had respected and trusted.
Whatever the issue, it was a point when we felt that we just could not go on. The prospects were of bleakness, darkness and confusion. All previous spiritual, moral or emotional landmarks demolished or abandoned. Certainly badly damaged.
Now look at Elijah.
It had been a glorious triumph at Carmel when he had overcome the so-called prophets of Baal. They might have been protected by Queen Jezebel but they had no part in the Lord.
And so having seen his own sacrifice accepted by God, Elijah set about dealing with these false prophets.
Then came the rage and fury of Jezebel and Elijah took to his heels. He ran and ran and ran, until he collapsed, overcome by physical, emotional and spiritual exhaustion.
Now he was a wreck, wanting only to die. It was all too much.
Anyone of my generation would have been told to pull ourselves together and stop feeling sorry for ourselves.
Yet God was rather more sensitive – instead of a lecture, He told Elijah to rest and take some nourishment. Only after that would he be ready for the coming journey. Yes, there was more to do and more travelling in hand.
And then refreshed somewhat Elijah continued until he came to Horeb. And then it all came out – the misery, the deflation, the dereliction and all the rest. Once he had started, Elijah could not stop – and neither did the Lord try to stop him.
But our God is a listening God. He waits for our prayers but He still sees what is within us: all the unresolved issues, the habits, the relationships, the personal agendas, the whole structure of our lives and beliefs. The glorious and the profane and corrupt.
That is why we can come before Him with total honesty – He can see it all anyway but He respects us sufficiently to allow us the time and space to lay before Him the issues and confusions of our lives. He does not interrupt us – and yet He also looks for us to give Him the time and space to answer.
And He definitely does that – through personal contacts and discussions, through circumstances and even natural phenomena. He may light up for us a verse in scripture or in a hymn or poem. Somehow, it just comes alive – and we know it.
OK – so that is how it was for Elijah. The great prophet of the Lord, equal only to Moses in the Old Testament. This is the stuff of heroes – not the ordinary person at home or in the street or pub.
Look again. In the gospel we have Jesus crossing to the east side of the Sea of Galilee. Not part of Israel – now under the influence of the Greeks and Romans and the 10 towns. Definitely not under the law, the prophets or the psalms of Israel.
And yet ever here the mercy of the Lord was also on display. This time a wild man of the wilderness – disturbed and controlled by forces of unspeakable evil, spiritual darkness, which had overcome his resistance and now taken up residence. He had lost his will to and appetite for anything.
But he still found within himself that there was a light which responded to Jesus Christ. No matter how dim or fleeting. It was there. Something called out from the deepest part of his soul and Jesus was not going to reject or ignore it.
He was far greater that the torments afflicting the man. And He acted – with authority over the darkness afflicting him and in love and mercy for the man himself.
Not being of the House of Israel did not debar the man from the deliverance and the healing mercy of Jesus. Even the deepest and most pressing need could and would be heard.
Again we live and find ourselves, we thrive and find meaning only within the mercy of God as He gives it forth.
And in this Paul, writing to the church in Galatia also tells of the mercy of God. People might have tried to live under the Law of Moses, but it was only ever going to be a preparation for the love of God. To honour the law was to honour His purposes. It was never going to be a matter of earning the Lord’s favour and so putting Him under an obligation or debt to us. More perhaps giving us a language in which to approach Him.
But that real approach to God is made with faith: believing and trusting in Him and receiving His mercy as He gives it. This kind of faith, first shown by Abraham, is also the kind of faith that the Lord looks for in us.
It is the basis for our relationship with Him and allowing us to know Him, speak to Him and be personally renewed in Him.
And so He draws us into His family – children, adopted in faith and living in the hope of the resurrection from the dead and of being accepted before Him through Jesus Christ.
This is the kind of mercy with which the Lord seeks to bless us and in which He waits to be gracious to us.
“Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.”
