K Karpen: "In Our Right Mind?" (Sermon for June 22, 2025)

"They found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." Luke 8:35

Jesus is always going out of his way to seek people that others go out of their way to avoid. This week's scripture is a great example of that.

Why does Jesus cross the Sea of Galilee? To get to the other side, certainly. But he goes all that way to encounter a homeless, naked, demon-tormented person everyone else has given up on. To set him free, and restore him to his right mind.

These days, when it seems like there are demons of cruelty, hatred, inhumanity, and indifference possessing the country, I try to consider that the people who are doing barbaric and inhuman things are still people. Still human. And still capable of redemption and change.

I pray that our country might return to its right mind.

K