Sermon: Lifting Jars of Shame

I saw a video on Facebook this week, and I wanted to share it’s ideas with you, feeling a tie-in with our scripture reading. Let me jump right in:

In the video, the presenter, Johann Hari, has watched loved ones struggle to manage their addictions. He started to wonder why we treat addicts the way we do -- and if there might be a better way. What really causes addiction -- to everything from illegal drugs to smart-phones? And how can we overcome it? Here is what he had to say:

“Almost everyting we think we know about addiction is wrong," he said. "The idea of addiciton we’ve all got in our heads, that story, comes partly from a series of experiments done in the early 1900s. You get a rat and you put it in a cage, and you give it two water bottles. One is just water and the other is water laced with an addictive substance, such as nicotine or a very addictive drug. The rat will almost always prefer the drugged water and almost always kill itself quite quickly. In the 1970s, a researcher from Vancouver came along and he looks at this experiment and he noticed something. He said, “Ah, you’ve put a rat in an empty cage. It’s got nothing to do except use these drugs. Let’s try something a bit different.” So Professor Alexander built a cage that he called “Rat Park,” which is basically heaven for rats, right? They’ve got loads of cheese, they’ve got loads of coloured balls, they’ve got loads of tunnels. Crucially, they’ve got loads of friends. And they’ve got both the water bottles, the normal water and the drugged water. But here’s the fascinating thing: in Rat Park, they don’t like the drugged water. They almost never use it. None of them ever use it compulsively. None of them ever overdose. They went from 100% overdose when they were isolated, to 0% overdose when they have happy and connected lives.”*

The video asks, “What if addiction isn’t about your chemical hooks? What if addiction is about your cage?”

* * *

So many of us have been touched by addictions in our lives, in our circles and on our city streets, and of course, my life is no exception. Family members, spouses, friends, ourselves… from homeless people to hollywood celebrities and everyone in between… for those living with an addiction or caring about a person who has an addiction, the struggle is real. With real impacts on relationships and on people’s lives.

I guess that’s why I had so much compassion reading the story about Legion, from our scripture reading today. The man was possessed by a legion of demons that finds him living in destitute conditions: without clothes, living not “in a house but in a tomb” among the dead… as if buried alive. Living in darkness and isolation and fear. “An abyss,” he calls it. Shackled and caged. And desperate to be free.

We do not know what or who was shackling Legion, and I’m not suggesting that he was an addicted to anything. But I see parallels in Legion’s life, and in the lives with all of us who are struggling with their shackles. I thought we could find some wisdom here, together.

* * *

The story of Legion comes amidst a series of healing stories in Luke. Jesus was on a preaching tour, going “through cities and villages, …bringing the good news of the kingdom of God” to the people. This is a healing story too. Not of a physical healing, but an inner/outward healing. Bringing Legion into the light of wholeness.

Sometimes in scripture, Jesus gives a lesson and shortly thereafter an example of that lesson is provided. Just before our scripture story about Legion, Jesus was teaching this:

“No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor anything secret that will not become known and come to light. Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be give; and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away.”

* * *

Why would one put a lamp under a jar? In Jesus time light would have come from fire, not from electricity, and the jar would have been made of clay, not of glass. So putting a light under a jar would not only trap the light, but it would put out the fire. Placed in isolation, the flame is snuffed out.

ON SHAME

Shame has a power like that. Shame makes us hide our lights under jars, hide things under the bed, sweep them under the rug, push them to the back of the closet, anything but air them out where they can been seen in the light of day. Shame is, oh-so isolating.

Sometimes we can seem physically free, but we are not free in our innermost beings. We can be held in self-defeating shame, trapped in a land of the dead, rather than walking with dignity in the land of the living. This is shame we learn, a story our culture has taught us about how to feel and how to respond when we or those we love are hooked into something we can not seem to be free of on our own.

But Legion was ready. He heard Jesus was sailing across the sea of Galilee, headed his way. He was present on that shore the moment that Jesus arrived. Luke says,

As Jesus stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him.

As Jesus stepped on land. One foot in the boat, one foot on land and Legion, naked, homeless, but with a faith in this healer Jesus, Legion broke out of his shackles and made sure he was there to meet him.

When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”

Imagine your most admired respected person who you hold in the highest esteem, and whose life you would love to emulate. I know alot of you are probably thinking of Celine Dion, right now. And for Legion it was Jesus. And how could he not take the opportunity to be there. He broke through the shackles. He didn’t worry about having nothing, not even clothes for his back. He broke through the isolation. He broke through the shame. He did everything to be there. But when he spoke, he did everything to push him away:

What have you to do with me God?

And Jesus asked, “So… what’s your name?”

And so began Legion’s healing. With a name. With friendship. With faith, and hope, and presence. Jesus decided to get to know the person under the shame. He lifted the jar and let the light shine, he removed the shame. He let Legion’s light shine. He took the time to get to know him, to see him, to shoot the breeze, to know the story behind the story. Jesus saw the humanity within it all.

* * *

Can you imagine a world that removed the clay jars of shame that isolate people living with addictions? Can you imagine a church that said, you don’t have to be a rat in an empty white cage… we will be your Rat Park. We will be your community. We’ll share our cheese, we’ll play with colourful balls and have good times scurrying through tunnels. We can’t take away the reality that there are two bottles: one with water and one laced with drugged water. We can’t change that. But maybe together, just maybe, we can be in the kind of community that is more life-giving than any other way.

That is what is so transformative about God’s way and about being people of faith. We are not Jesus — that position has already been filled. And we may not be addiction counsellors or social workers, equipped with the skills and teams needed to help people living with addictions one on one. But we can model being a caring community. We can lift jars of shame. We can name people as loved and worthy and welcome, no matter where they are on their healing journey or what they are healing from. And that is so powerful.

I read an article from The Guardian newspaper that talked about the radically loving approach the country of Portugal has taken to address their drug problem over the last few years:

“There was a point when you could not find a single Portuguese family that wasn’t affected. Every family had their addict, or addicts. This was universal in a way that the society felt: ‘We have to do something.’” **

Portugal’s policy rests on three pillars: one, that there’s no such thing as a soft or hard drug, only healthy and unhealthy relationships with drugs; two, that an individual’s unhealthy relationship with drugs often conceals frayed relationships with loved ones, with the world around them, and with themselves; and three, that the eradication of all drugs is an impossible goal. “The national policy is to treat each individual differently,” the writer added “The secret is for us to be present.” That is The Love on Drugs, rather than A War on Drugs.

What’s amazing about this approach, is that they lift the shame. Drugs in Portugal are no longer as a shameful criminal issue. Rather, a public health issue. Addiction is understood in its human context. In how addiction lives in unhealthy systems, rather than personal moral failing.

“So… what’s your name?”

It takes us a while, doesn’t it. It has taken a long time for our society to see through the eyes of Christ. To look with love, not war. To let lights breathe and shine, rather than stuff problems under clay pots in shame. It’s taken us a long, long time to realize that any creature in isolation is a vulnerable creature.

Jesus gives us permission to question and to challenge those ways. To question the ruling way, the regular social way. We are invited, we are asked to live in Christ’s way.

Amen.

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This sermon was written for Wesley United Church, Montreal, for Sunday, June 23rd, 2019.

Scripture: Isaiah 65:1-9 and Psalm 22:19-28; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39

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FOOTNOTES:

* “Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong,” by Johann Hari on TED Global London. Source: https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

** Portugals Radical Drugs Policy, in The Guardian. Source. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it