March 24, 2019                          Mark 5:1-20                        Rev. Erin Counihan

First of all, Heather MacArthur has an app on her phone of Bible cartoon stories, and you really, really need to ask her to show you the cartoon pigs from this story rushing over the mountain’s edge.

Now then, whenever I read this story, I think of this person- someone’s son, someone’s childhood friend, someone’s cousin, someone’s dear one, who was overcome by this “demon”, by this “legion”, by something so terrible they were so afraid of him and for him that the entire town cast him out, chained him up, and left him to live alone in illness and pain. “For safety” I’m sure.

And I always wonder…. Who now are we sending away, chaining up, casting out, holding off in a distance, for their safety and ours, of course…. Someone’s baby, someone’s sibling, someone’s childhood friend….

And how would Jesus find them?

Prayer: God, find them, unbind them, welcome them. And help us to do the same. Amen.