Our first dog was a beautiful little Pomeranian named Turtle. We called her Turtle, because when she was a puppy, her paws would all splay out to the side when she laid on her belly. And, while she was a beautiful dog, her personality was not as “pretty.” One, she was a tomboy through and through, if that’s a thing a girl dog can be. And she was a neurotic mess, which is definitely a thing a dog can be.

So, to help her and us live happy lives together, Nate and I paid close attention to the Dog Whisperer. Remember that show? His whole thing was about having a calm and assertive presence with your dog, so that your anxious dog can chill out and know that they aren’t in charge. The world is a big, scary place, particularly if you’re just a Pomeranian. It wasn’t a healthy thing for her to think she was in charge. So, I worked on my calm assertive presence, and it worked. The better I was, the better she was. And the opposite was true, as well. The worse I was, the worse she was.  

I understand the Dog Whisperer has since had a fall from grace under sad circumstances, but his general approach worked for us. And I always thought it had applications far beyond dogs. I’m sure we’ve all noticed the quality of our presence, the level of grounded, level-headed energy we bring into situations can really change that situation, right? The quality of our presence and our grounded-ness in knowing who we all are in Christ can change everything, if we take the time to remember and bring that awareness into our relationships.

In our gospel story today, Jesus squares off against Legion, an unknown number of demons tormenting a man coming together under one name. This story sounds like a horror film, does it not? Our hero bravely goes into a graveyard to challenge an army of demons who have taken hold of an innocent man. These are demons so strong they cannot be contained by shackles or anything humans could devise to control them. What will happen next?! If this were a typical American movie, our hero would have gone prepared with perhaps holy water that turns to acid on contact with evil or special anti-demon bullets. I’m not sure what spectacular visuals Hollywood writers would come up with, but I don’t think it would have been this story where Jesus calmly goes in with nothing, politely asks the demon’s name, and then honors the demons’ request to not be banished into the abyss without any dramatics on his part while freeing this man to return to his community, proclaiming God’s glory.  

Jesus didn’t bring anything dramatic to this event. It was just Jesus’ presence, his very being that made all this happen. It may not make for compelling cinema, but it does make a dramatic change in situations and events.

In the 8^th chapter of Luke, this story of Jesus restoring this man and banishing the demons comes between the story of Jesus calming the storm and the story of Jesus restoring the life of Jairus’ daughter. So, this is the second in a series of stories showing Jesus’ power over aspects of life in which humans are typically powerless. The sea was a symbol of the chaos of the world in ancient times, which Jesus calms with his word. Then there’s Legion and then finally death itself. And Jesus does nothing fancy in any of these situations, except be himself. In other words, he had a calm and assertive presence that calmed the sea, controlled demons while taking pity on them, and overcame death.

So, it begs the question, why do humans, and Christians in particular, respond to life’s challenges with such stress and difficulty. Now, I’m open to the possibility that it’s only me who responds to life with stress, resistance, sometimes dread and worry, and general angst. But somehow I think not and I wonder if we all have something to learn from Jesus, aka the human whisperer, about how to navigate life’s seemingly unnavigable moments.

There are certainly times in our lives and times in our world that seem like there are no good options. We feel stuck or imprisoned by the situations we are in. And often, we are indeed powerless. This powerlessness, however, is exacerbated by the confused idea that we must make outside circumstances good so that our internal circumstances, our internal realities can also be good and joyful. We think we must muscle our world into obedience and then we can be at one with God. Jesus does not have this same confusion.

Now, I know this is asking a lot of humans to remain grounded, calm, and clear in our identity in Christ in the midst of the world’s challenges. I fail at this every day, it seems. And I don’t believe we should feel bad about our angst and flailing, but neither should we remain stuck there. I don’t think God wants us to believe more in the power of the demons, storms, and death than in God and the goodness of life and Creation.

The promise is that in Christ, we are all free of the “rules” of the world, according to Paul. We are free of the rules that declare might makes right, the rules that say you must fit into the constraints of society or be deemed worthless, the rules that say bombs, war, and domination are indeed the solution, or the rules that say sadly some people, like the man in the graveyard, are beyond redemption.

In Christ, we are freed from these rules so that we can see and live in the expansiveness of our shared humanity. And in that shared humanity, we all are heirs to the promises of God. All of us. All people around the world.

In that expansiveness lies the joy of God, the joy that is not dependent on outside circumstances that need to be just so for us to be joyful. Howard Thurman, an African American theologian born in Florida in 1899 wrote this about living in the joy of God.

“There are some who are dependent upon the mood of others for their happiness…. There are some whose joy is dependent upon circumstances…. There are some who must win their joy against high odds, squeeze it out of the arid ground of their living or wrest it from the stubborn sadness of circumstance…. There are still others who find their joy deep in the heart of their religious experience. It is not related to, dependent upon, or derived from, any circumstances or conditions in the midst of which they must live. It is a joy independent of all vicissitudes. There is a strange quality of awe in their joy, that is but a reflection of the deep calm water of the spirit out of which it comes. It is primarily a discovery of the soul, when God makes known [God’s] presence, where there are no words, no outward song, only the Divine Movement. This is the joy that the world cannot give. This is the joy that keeps watch against all the emissaries of sadness of mind and weariness of soul. This is the joy that comforts and is the companion, as we walk even through the valley of the shadow of death.”

This, I believe, begins to describe Jesus’ way of being, the calm assertive presence of our human whisperer. There is a way that we can get caught up in our own hysterias. We can know that we absolutely should be in personal crisis, should be enraged, and should be deeply aggrieved only to have that spell broken by someone with a calm, assertive presence who shows us a way forward, a way to love, a way to continue to rejoice in the goodness of life without denying all the challenges. In this clarity of soul is where our power lies. Our seas can be calmed, our calamities resolved, and our connection to community and family restored. Jesus did all these things in these stories without Hollywood dramatics, but through his calm and assertive presence of knowing himself as he was, as one with God.

The invitation and even commandment in the gospels is that we too become human whisperers through Christ’s presence in us. It is a change in our way of being, like I worked at changing with my dog Turtle. I had to become the one with the calm assertive presence for the sake of my beloved, yet neurotic dog.

The call for Christians is perhaps to become the ones with the calm, loving yet assertive presence in the world, who refuse to be baited into battle, but continue to love, continue to be grounded in the joy of Christ, and the peace that defies all understanding.

We are not the source of joy, but neither is the world with all its ups and downs. God is the source and when we are grounded in God, our joy and peace can be the calm our worlds need to settle down and trust that God, and all that is, is good and is leading us to redemption and healing, every step of the way.

AMEN