Second Sunday after Pentecost

​From Legion to Light: Pathways to Unity
Rev. Jennifer Masada - St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church - Kapa’au, Hawai'i
June 22, 2025 - Second  Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
1 Kings 19:1-4, 8-15a, Psalm 42 and 43, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 8:26-39
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Opening Prayer: O Holy One, meet us where we are as we clear away all that is not love. Help us know our oneness with you, with one another, and with all creation. 

There is a deep thirst inside each of us. A longing that stirs when life overwhelms, when we lament the state of the world or the state of our lives. The psalmist names it clearly: “As the deer longs for the waterbrooks, so longs my soul for you, O God.”

Such longing is our soul’s compass pointing the way. On a day like today, many of us are thinking about our country at war. Especially in times like these, our thoughts turn outward to the world. Like the psalmist, we feel the heaviness and deep lament because we cannot change what’s happening. Instead, perhaps we can turn our attention to our thirst for inner peace and unity. 

The psalmist invites us to listen inward, to attend to our soul’s thirst because we can’t help in the world until we help ourselves. We have much work to do to heal, reconcile, and clear away the demons that lurk from our own past troubles and future worries. 

The psalmist doesn't mask the pain—they let it rise: "My tears have been my food day and night." And still, in the midst of the pain, they say: “Put your trust in God; for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.”
The journey toward unity begins here—in honesty. Not with perfection, but with awareness. With allowing our inner waters to be stirred. As the psalmist suggests, listening to our thirst brings us to the waters of life, to God, to our heart center. 

Today’s gospel reminds us what happens when we lose our heart center. Through the wild tale in Luke 8 about a man possessed, we are shown that we can be inhabited by a legion of voices. In our increasingly chaotic world, systems of politics, money, and social status wield power and distract us from our soul's identity and purpose. Today, just as in Jesus' time, loud and relentless voices try to name us, shape us, and scatter our sense of self. 

When Jesus asks the man’s name, he replies, “Legion—for we are many.” So many voices fill this man – he no longer knows who he is. And yet, Jesus sees him. Not as a threat, not as broken beyond repair, but as beloved. Jesus speaks peace to the storm within.

This is what Christ does. He doesn’t demand we get ourselves together before showing up. He walks into our confusion, our sorrow, our chaos. He sees through the noise, willing to guide us one step at a time back to our heart center, back to our soul selves.

We all carry our own versions of Legion—overwhelming powers that pull our attention outward and keep us so busy, anxious, and reactive that we forget the sacred work of tending to our own soul. Voices that say, “You're not enough.” Wounds that fester quietly. Defenses we built long ago that now divide us from others. Layers of fear, pride, comparison, and grief that cloud our light.
And yet, beneath all of that, your soul is clear. Your soul radiates with Divine light. It is not something you must earn. It is something you already are. 

But for that light to shine freely, we must attend to the inner clearing. We must be willing to name what’s in the way, willing to let Christ touch the places we keep hidden, willing to let Spirit guide us to the healing waters of life.

As we were reminded last week (John 16:12), we’re not ready for it all at once. The deer’s journey to the flowing brook happens a step at a time! We can start small by simply returning to our heart center. My mentor Kate teaches a simple way:

• Take a deep breath in, and breathe out. 
• Imagine holding a bowl in front of your heart. Imagine the bowl IS your heart, ready to receive all that worries you: all the pain, all the voices that crowd your mind, and all the emotions that arise. Allow yourself to stop and spend some time with this. 
• Now imagine everything in your brain – all those thoughts and feelings – flowing like mercury, cascading from your head into the bowl. Let the bowl hold it all. 
• Notice that your hands are surrounded by the presence of Christ, the love of God, and the light of Spirit. Everything in the bowl turns into love — transformed by your heart, flooded with Divine light. 

You can return to your heart center any time, and it just takes a minute or two! This is just one of countless ways, including these suggestions:

• Take a break from the stream of headlines and commentary. Not because we don't care, but because we do, and care needs space to breathe.
• Begin the day with stillness rather than reaction. Even one deep breath, one moment of quiet, can return us to ourselves.
• Pay attention to the voices that live inside: Are they kind? Are they true? Are they yours?
• Allow tears to come when they need to. In Scripture, we see that longing and weeping are not weakness—they are sacred prayers that help us see the chaos inside ourselves and release it with compassion and love.
• Remember you are not required to save the world on your own. You are not Legion. You are not the noise of the world. You are one soul surrounded by people ready to do the inner work alongside you. You carry God's love and you are carried by it. Call on the Christ consciousness that lives in you and all creation.

When we allow the inner clearing to happen, we become what Paul describes in his letter to the Galatians: “In Christ, there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female—for all of you are one…”  In Christ, we become clear vessels. Beings of light. Carriers of peace.

Like the man filled with "Legion," we can recognize the voices that distort our true selves. Like the psalmist, we can name our soul’s deepest longing and begin our journey toward it. These stories speak to us still—calling us to clear the clutter, to name our longing, and to be met by the One who sees us clearly and calls us beloved.

Especially in times like these, our thoughts may turn outward to the world. In the midst of division, hatred, and war, may we listen to our souls. May our longings lead us back to our hearts. May we become the vessels of light we were created to be.
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E pule kakou - 
O Holy One, meet us where we are as we clear away all that is not love. Help us know our oneness with you, with one another, and with all creation. Amen.

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