All in the same boat

From Helen

There was once a man who claimed that he had real photographic evidence that Elvis was alive. He told a local newspaper, who in turn told a radio station, who in turn told a TV station and before you know it loads of media turned up to visit this man and see the photographic evidence that Elvis was alive. They all turned up and the man was asked to show the photograph, with bated breath the media waited and then the man showed the photo. He showed the photo and one reporter said, ‘ sir, this is a photo of you, where is the photographic proof that Elvis is alive.’ ‘well’ replied the man, ‘Elvis took the picture.’

Talk about uncertain identity. In our gospel reading (Luke 8:26-39) this morning we have heard about people not recognising who Jesus was. His identity was uncertain apart from to the man who was troubled. A man who was set free by Jesus from all that stopped him enjoying life.

The story we heard is an incredible story of a man whom society was afraid of. A man who was on the outside, who suddenly became like everyone else. He had been the only person who had recognised Jesus for who He was. The rest of the town hadn’t seen who Jesus was, they were the more normal people. 

The normal people didn’t recognise Jesus, but when Jesus did something amazing, when He set this man free from all that was restraining him the people were afraid, and they asked Jesus to leave. This makes hardly any sense, you would think that when someone was set free right before your eyes you would want to welcome them. But what were the people actually afraid of?

I wonder whether they were scared that as Jesus had got rid of everything that stopped the man from being who he really was, even though this was not a pleasant way for the man to be, then maybe Jesus would take away everything that they were. 

Maybe they were scared that Jesus would uncover something bad about them, that He would see them warts and all.

I wonder whether these people had built up a lovely life for themselves that meant they were comfortable as they were and didn’t want Jesus to change them. They thought they were perfect and in a good place, after all they had their very own frightening person to keep them safe !

It would be so easy in our lives to be quite comfortable and happy as we are and not to allow Jesus to change us, to challenge us. Last Sunday I spoke about who we are before God and how we accept Him. The next question is once we have accepted Him how will we allow Him to change us ?

In our epistle reading (Galatians 3:23-end) Paul was stressing once again that we are all equal. There were people in the community to whom he wrote who really thought they were better than everyone else. They saw themselves as true believers because they had been Jews first. Paul pointed out that actually they were no different to anyone else in the community. 

Each member of the Church to whom Paul was writing was equal they had all become one through baptism. They had a new identity, the old had gone with all the rules and now they were brand new.

Paul in the epistle was pointing out that we are all equal there is neither male, or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free we are all equal and the reason ? We are all children of God. 

To be a child of God, to be born again in baptism, to have a new life of following Jesus means that we are changed and we need to be different.

We are the people who have said yes, we are the people who need to be prepared to make a difference by being more like Jesus. Jesus came amongst us to set us free. Free from all that holds us back, free from our doubts and concerns, free just to enjoy the love of God for us. 

We are in the same boat as each other, in as much as we are all the same before God. We are stripped away of all that can stop us getting closer to God. The man in the gospel when he was stripped of all that had held him back was suddenly free. The people to whom the epistle to the Galatians was written, just like us, had been set free and united not by birth, race orgender but by the change that baptism had given them. 

We are the same in the eyes of God and we need to treat others just as if they were the same as us. We have an identity in Jesus we are able to turn to Him but sometimes we hold things back that we want to deal with ourselves. 

I have a habit of being stubborn and so trying to do everything for myself. This can often lead to disastrous consequences. In my faith I tend to pray for God to be in control but I still get impatient and try to make things happen myself. For me in my relationship with God I need to let go of my impatience and allow God to change me.  

We all have different aspects of our characters that can be hard to let go of. Maybe they are the things that stop us opening up to God. Maybe they are like a protection. 

The people in the gospel reading and those in the epistle who thought they were better than others had built up a type of protection that needed to be broken in order for them to be the people that they really should be. We are set free when we trust God, when we allow Him to change us. May we be ready to continually turn to God asking Him to change us and to set us free from all that would stop us from enjoying the love that He has for us. AMEN