Grace and Peace to you from our creator God, the maker of butterflies, bees, and beauty. 

Baptism River Community Church is a Pollinator Sanctuary, part of the NEMN Synods Eco-faith network. 

One of my newer ventures is getting out to hike the beautiful land we have here on the Superior Hiking Trail. 

Having this treasure so close by gives me a real sense of the magnificent glory of creation. 

Creation filled with the diversity of creatures both great and small. 

As I amble along the wooded paths I often feel very small, especially standing on the mountain tops along section 13, and south to Sawmill Dome. 

What a glory to be alive, to be here in this place. 

Often on the trail I go about a metamorphosis from feeling out of place; disconnected to the land and animals. 

During my hikes I begin to feel the earth below my feet, carefully scanning the rocks, and roots to stay upright. 

One of the miracles for me is the transformation to becoming part of where I am as I hike. 

As many of you know the trail is very difficult in spots, and you truly realize that Minnesota is not flat. 

From crossing small brooks, to the boardwalk over Sawmill Creek the land offers many gifts. 

One of my observations is the care given to maintain the trail and how clean it is.

I wonder how much of the impact we have also made on the land to create this trail. 

I believe that the hard work of those who maintain and hike the trail have a genuine love and respect for this treasure. 

Living this close and having the opportunity to grow with the land is what God intends and what Pollinator Sunday, today, is all about. 

I fear that without opportunities to explore and experience the wilderness we set ourselves up to lose the very gifts we have been given. 

What is the fine line between resource management and exploitation? 

In our reading from Isaiah we hear the lament of being left behind by a nation, by people who didn’t seem to care. 

Have you ever struggled with an attitude of competition that pits you against someone who is Holier than You? 

A better Christian? 

Luke’s gospel helps us see and feel what happens when we don’t measure up. 

Our reading follows the recent overnight lake excursion where Jesus calms the storm after his disciples felt they were going to die. 

They were left wondering about Jesus, “Who then is this, that commands even wind and water, and they obey him? 

Stepping from the boat after what appears to be a calm crossing in the country of the Garasenes. 

Away from the city, perhaps in the wilderness they are met by a man of the city. He had demons in him.

All of the demons Jesus comes across typically have three things in common, First, they cause self-destructive behavior in the victim. 

Second, the victim feels trapped in that condition. 

Third, the victim is separated from normal living in the family circle. 

Theologian Michael Rogness has a good take on “demons”; “If we define demons as those forces which capture us and prevent us from becoming what God intended us to be, we are surrounded by-yers- possessed by- as many demons as those whom Jesus encountered.” 

What do we learn about this man, his demons? 

We are told he is naked, “for a long time he had worn no clothes, he did not live in a house but in the tombs.” 

One can make many assumptions or guesses, but we can clearly see that this would be reason enough not to be part of the city from which he came from. 

The man shouts at the top of his lungs, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the most high God?” 

Eluding to his treatment he begs Jesus not to torment him, as if what he wasn’t experiencing wasn’t enough. 

Jesus recognized that this wasn't the man speaking but the demons within him. The demons recognized Jesus having full control over the man. A man trapped and unable to save himself, alone, living in the tombs, in death. We learn a bit more about the man and his community. 

“Many times the demons seized him and he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, driven by the demon into the wilds.”

The name given by the demons is “Legion” for many had entered him. A legion was typically a unit of the Roman Army numbering from 5-6 thousand soldiers. 

The demons knew what they were up against, begging Jesus not to throw them into the abyss. 

On the hillside was a large herd of pigs. Evidence that we are in Gentile territory as the Jewish people considered pigs unclean. 

Jesus sends the demons into the pigs, who rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. 

Imagine the scene, those poor pigs, those now even poorer swineherds. 

They just saw a miracle at the expense of losing their livestock. And ran off to tell the people in the city. 

The story takes us to the feet of Jesus, where we all sit as disciples. Here sits the man, at Jesus' feet, “clothed and in his right mind.” Imagine the sense of awe and wonder at what had just happened. No wonder that the man didn’t want to leave Jesus. 

What was going through his mind? 

What if the demons return, who is going to help me, how will I even know? Jesus returns dignity to the man and has him return to his community. A community that tried to help but eventually turned him away. The man whose self-destructive behavior was not who he was intended to be. A community that couldn’t control him, even with chains.

The man needed Jesus to free him and that’s exactly what Jesus did. Jesus who has the power of God to cast out demons. 

Jesus who teaches us as this example teaches us as disciples who are sent.” 

In a short time we see in Luke 10:17, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us.” 

Where do we begin to proclaim how much Jesus has done for us? 

Demons take many forms as the forces that capture us and prevent us from becoming what God intended for us. 

The Good News of Jesus is that we have a choice to be part of creation doing the good works of God’s love. 

God saves us through the faith that has kept us imprisoned by fear, doubt, and isolation. 

As a community, even in the small effort to be a Pollinator Sanctuary, we agree to support the lives of bees, butterflies, and bodies in need of healing. 

Like the delicate chrysalis that a butterfly grows from a larva, struggling to emerge from the cocoon that has chained it to the earth on a milkweed leaf, to the brilliant wings that emerge. 

We depend on our pollinators to spread the pollen that produces food for our bodies. 

The Good News is spread like pollen to produce the food for our soul, our whole being. 

God forgives self-destructive behavior and grows hope. 

God frees a trapped victim, loving them and sending them home to love.

God replants people back into the peaceful living, clothed in love with all they need. 

Imagine the freedom God gives us to live in a human community under the power of self-restraint. 

God’s own infinite power is shared with us to be co-creators and stewards of the future. 

Together we are free to speak the truth of God’s love against the demons that attempt to turn us away. 

A butterfly's beauty goes further than its utility. 

The sweet honey made by bees disappears when they no longer can survive because of what we have failed to do for the bees. 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the beholder is God. 

Rebelliousness to what God wants for us is the barrier that we need to tear down. 

“Whatever you do to the least of these, even the butterflies and the bees, you do to me.” 

Amen