Life Chaos - Proper 7, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Kings 19: 1-4, (5-7), 8-15a

Psalm 42 & 43

Galatians 3: 23-29

Luke 8:26-39

I always imagine summer will be peaceful, a time of rest, recovery and idyllic family time.  Vacations, days at the pool, picnics...

And somehow life always delivers chaos...as if it is known that because there is more space in summer, I can somehow handle more crazy. Not.

In the lectionaries this week, Elijah discovers God not in the wind or thunder or earthquake but in the stillness.  I have to remember as life is spinning out of control that unless I take that deep breath, unless I ground myself, unless my feet get firmly planted in mountain pose while my diaphragm expands with a deep breath, God is elusive. And that probably has little to do with God, and more to do with me - with my attention, my focus, my presence in the everyday moments.

The demoniac story is always intriguing. Like something out of a cheesy horror movie, Jesus casts out a legion of demons, causes them to possess a herd of swine which then drown themselves in the sea. And in the afterglow, the man formerly possessed is sitting at Jesus's feet, taking it all in - no longer possessed by chaos, he listens, praises, grows.

In the crazy of the summer - in the fiscal year-end, in the divergent kid schedules, in the idyllic dreams not achieved, I pray for moments of peace. Even fleeting, I pray to find myself grounded in mountain pose, connected to the earth and to the God who created me, embraced and healed by the calming presence of Christ, awed by the sheer silence. 

Let it be so...