Legion - 6.22.25 The Rev. Lisa DaSilva, Ph.D.

Second Sunday after Pentecost

Old Testament: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a

¹Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ²Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” ³Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. ⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” [⁵Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” ⁶He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”] ⁸He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

⁹At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”¹⁰He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” ¹¹He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake;¹²and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. ¹³When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁴He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” ¹⁵Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.”

Psalm: Psalm 42 and 43

¹ As the deer longs for the water-brooks, *
        so longs my soul for you, O God.
² My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; *
        when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
³ My tears have been my food day and night, *
        while all day long they say to me,
        “Where now is your God?”
⁴ I pour out my soul when I think on these things: *
        how I went with the multitude and led them into the
                              house of God,
⁵ With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, *
        among those who keep holy-day.
⁶ Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
        and why are you so disquieted within me?
⁷ Put your trust in God; *
        for I will yet give thanks to him,
        who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
⁸ My soul is heavy within me; *
        therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
        and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.
⁹ One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts; *
        all your rapids and floods have gone over me.
¹⁰ The Lord grants his loving-kindness in the daytime; *
        in the night season his song is with me,
        a prayer to the God of my life.
¹¹ I will say to the God of my strength,
   “Why have you forgotten me? *
        and why do I go so heavily while the enemy
                              oppresses me?”
¹² While my bones are being broken, *
        my enemies mock me to my face;
¹³ All day long they mock me *
        and say to me, “Where now is your God?”
¹⁴ Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
        and why are you so disquieted within me?
¹⁵ Put your trust in God; *
        for I will yet give thanks to him,
        who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

¹ Give judgment for me, O God,
   and defend my cause against an ungodly people; *
        deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked.
² For you are the God of my strength;
  why have you put me from you? *
        and why do I go so heavily while the enemy
                               oppresses me?
³ Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, *
        and bring me to your holy hill
        and to your dwelling;
⁴ That I may go to the altar of God,
   to the God of my joy and gladness; *
        and on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God.
⁵ Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
        and why are you so disquieted within me?
⁶ Put your trust in God; *
        for I will yet give thanks to him,
        who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Old Testament: Isaiah 65:1-9

¹I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that did not call on my name. ²I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; ³a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and offering incense on bricks; ⁴who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels; ⁵who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all day long. ⁶See, it is written before me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their laps⁷their iniquities and their ancestors’ iniquities together, says the Lord; because they offered incense on the mountains and reviled me on the hills, I will measure into their laps full payment for their actions.

⁸Thus says the Lord: As the wine is found in the cluster, and they say, “Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,” so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all. ⁹I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah inheritors of my mountains; my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall settle there.

Psalm: Psalm 22:18-27

¹⁸ Be not far away, O Lord; *
        you are my strength; hasten to help me.
¹⁹ Save me from the sword, *
        my life from the power of the dog.
²⁰ Save me from the lion’s mouth, *
        my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.
²¹ I will declare your Name to my brethren; *
        in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
²² Praise the Lord, you that fear him; *
        stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
        all you of Jacob’s line, give glory.
²³ For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
    neither does he hide his face from them; *
         but when they cry to him he hears them.
²⁴ My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
        I will perform my vows in the presence of those who
                           worship him.
²⁵ The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
    and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *
        “May your heart live for ever!”
²⁶ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to
                              the Lord, *
        and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.
²⁷ For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
        he rules over the nations.

Epistle: Galatians 3:23-29

²³Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There 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. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Gospel: Luke 8:26-39

²⁶Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— ²⁹for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) ³⁰Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. ³¹They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. ³²Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. ³⁴When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country.³⁵Then 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.³⁶Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. ³⁷Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. ³⁸The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.