Psalm 31: 11-12

To every one of my oppressors

I am contemptible, loathsome to my neighbors

to my friends a thing of fear.

Those who see me in the street

hurry past me;

I am forgotten, as good as dead in their hearts,

something discarded

John 20: 11-18

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. The said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?' Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.' Jesus said to her, 'Mary!' She turned and said to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbouni!' (Which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, 'Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Mary Magdalene went and announced to other disciples, 'I have seen the Lord'; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Mark 5: 1-20

They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, 'What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.' For he had said to him, 'Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!' Then Jesus asked him, 'What is your name?' He replied, 'My name is Legion; for we are many.' He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him 'Send us into the swine; let us enter them.' So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake. The swinherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, 'Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.' And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

Sermon Text

If you go down the Jefferson Street stairs and open the door and look across the street you will see a lovely stone home with tiled turrets and a spacious porch. It now serves as the group home for women with serious mental illness. The home is run by an agency called New Options for Women. Two of the residents of the N.O.W. home, Delores and Jean, sporadically worship with us, breakfast with us downstairs before Sunday school, or practice with the choir. I'm proud to say that Hanover is living up to its motto of being "a good neighbor."

Anyone who reads about Jesus, about the way that he healed people with mental illness, and welcomed them as worthy, productive disciples, would naturally expect his followers to welcome them, too. But unfortunately, through much of Christian history, that has not been so. Christians have often marginalized and stigmatized the mentally ill. By ostracizing people with mental illness they have given tacit consent to the ancient notion that their odd behaviors are the work of evil spirits. It is high time that Christians open their own minds and let in the light, the light of knowledge and the light of compassion, so that they can better understand mental illness, and be kind to those plagued by it, as Jesus was.

Our scripture readings this morning opened with a passage from Psalm 31 a passage that could well serve as a lament written by one who suffers from mental illness:

To every one of my oppressors

I am contemptible, loathsome to my neighbors

to my friends a thing of fear.

Those who see me in the street

hurry past me;

I am forgotten, as good as dead in their hearts,

something discarded.

Jesus was not afraid of people with mental illness. And he did not discard them. He helped them to wholeness, and then challenged them to go out and tell about God's powerful, healing mercy, which they had received. An apostle is one who is sent out to share good news, the gospel. Before Jesus commissioned his twelve disciples to go out and preach the gospel, he sent out a woman and a man who had been mentally ill but were restored to wholeness. Who were they? A Jewess, Mary of the little fishing village of Magdala, better known as Mary Magdalene, and a gentile man who once called himself "Legion," when he lived in a graveyard in the region of the Gerasenes.

Scripture tells us that Mary Magdalene was once possessed by seven evil spirits, seven demons. That was an ancient way of explaining behaviors that we attribute nowadays to illnesses of the brain. The ancients attributed them instead to evil spirits that took possession of a person. Luke 8: 2 notes that due to the healing ministry of Jesus, seven demons had gone out of Mary, and she then became one of his closest disciples. Our reading this morning from the Gospel of John indicates that she was the first disciple to see Jesus alive after his burial. This makes her a first apostle, because Jesus sent her out to share the good news of his resurrection with the men folk.

We tend to think that the ministry of apostles began after the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentecost. But is that so? If we define an apostle as one who is sent out to share the good news about Jesus, then the gentile called Legion was also a first apostle. Note that he suffered mental illness too. Today we might label his illness "multiple personality disorder." Jesus cast out his multiple personalities, his demons, and then he told him to go home and tell his friends how much the Lord had done for him.

I stress again: Mary of Magdalene and the man once called Legion suffered mental illness, but then, by the spiritual power which Jesus exercised, they were restored to their right minds; and not just that, they were immediately employed, made first apostles! My, how differently Jesus treated suffering people whom the church has mostly isolated and stigmatized, because of its ignorance and callousness. May God forgive us, and train us to a better way, the compassionate and wise way of Jesus.

You may wonder why I should choose to preach about this topic on Mothers' Day. Well, I could say that some mothers have children who suffer from mental illness, and some children have mothers who suffer from mental illness, and all that would be true, but that's not why I chose today to bring this up. Here's my reason for the timing: In two weeks I will be meeting with eleven other Presbyterians at our national headquarters in Louisville to begin a three year study into how our denomination can better minister to and with persons with serious mental illness. That task force of scholars and laypersons and pastors will need your prayer. Please pray for us as we begin our work. And when I return, please continue praying for me in this special ministry. I will need your assistance in experimenting here at Hanover. How can we make this church an even more welcoming place for people with serious mental illness? I don't have the answers. I need to find them out with you. We are well situated to conduct this experiment, right across the street from the New Options for Women home. But there are people even within our membership who have suffered or are presently living with serious mental illness, such as severe depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and dementia.

I myself suffered a period of deep depression in the late 80s. It was like falling into a pit, an experience that several psalmists describe with just that language. I was too low even to pray then. I went to counseling school to claw my way out. I know how painful and dangerous mental illness can be. I also know that one can be cured of it, or if not completely cured, at least one can learn to cope with biological conditions whose symptoms can be managed, as in other illnesses. When one is in the throws of mental illness escape may seem impossible, but it most certainly is not. After a sufferer takes hold of a lifeline of hope, he or she can begin to climb out. As the first apostles, Mary Magdalene and the man once called Legion demonstrated, a sufferer of mental illness can eventually lead not only a saner life, but a very productive one too. It's a lot easier to climb out of the pit of mental illness if one has help, if people understand and don't pull back from your suffering. May God train us in how to be that lifeline.