Addressing the Powers

The person with unclean spirits in today’s Gospel reading (Luke 8:26-39) calls himself “Legion”. The text glosses the name with “for many demons had entered him”. However, “legion” isn’t just about many. It’s also about kind. Legion speaks of troops of invaders and conquerors, suppressing and repressing not just individuals, but whole populations. This story is not simply a story about one person’s possession. It resonates against the background of the whole political situation, not just of the Middle East, but of the “known world” at the time. Roman legions conquered and suppressed peoples creating a “Roman peace” which was not a peace at all for those who were conquered.

The Gospel reading then asks us to consider not simply the personal healing of individual lives in the presence of Jesus; but also the political situation. Who are the powerful people or groups in our society? What do they invade and conquer? And whom do they suppress? The answers will be different from those of the time of Jesus and of the writer of the Gospel of Luke; but they will be no less important.

In the face of the aftermath (and perhaps the ongoing nature) of the Global Financial Crisis, as we confront human-made disasters of the proportion of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, and aware of the powerful forces at work in transnational commercial and financial dealings, we must ask questions about how the “powers that be” in our time are working—for whom, with whom and against whom? And we must ask those questions against the background of the Gospel message of God’s love and Jesus’ compassion for the afflicted.

At the inauguration of The Uniting Church in Australia, a Statement to the Nation was issued. In part, it said:

…we affirm that the first allegiance of Christians is God, under whose judgment the policies and actions of all nations must pass. We realise that sometimes this allegiance may bring us into conflict with the rulers of our day. But our Uniting Church, as an institution within the nation, must constantly stress the universal values which must find expression in national policies if humanity is to survive.
We pledge ourselves to hope and work for a nation whose goals are not guided by self-interest alone, but by concern for the welfare of all persons everywhere — the family of the One God — the God made known in Jesus of Nazareth the One who gave His life for others.