What happens when God shows up? We get a glimpse in the story of Jesus’ confrontation with the demon-possessed man as recorded in Luke 8.26 – 39.

2,000 pigs run down a hillside and are drowned. A demon-possessed guy is sitting there “clothed and in his right mind.” The response? “The townspeople become frightened…gripped with fear.” And they ask Jesus to leave.

Then eyewitnesses to the miracle reported all that they had seen and how the demonized man was completely delivered from his torment. After hearing about such amazing power, the townspeople became frightened. Soon all the people of the region of the Gerasenes and the surrounding country begged Jesus to leave them, for they were gripped with fear. (Luke 8.36, 37, Passion Translation)

Transformation scares us! We seem to want to confine God to a benign presence in our harmless church services. Author Annie Dillard, about whom I don’t know much, speaks to this from time to time. Our pastor quoted her a couple weeks ago in the context of “Thy Kingdom come.” What might that look like? Annie writes:

On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ― Annie Dillard, “An Expedition to the Pole” from Teaching a Stone to Talk (1982)

When Jesus invaded planet earth, the battle between good and evil intensified, and it’s a battle that must be waged in God’s power.

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. (Matthew 2.16, ESV)

Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. (Revelation 12.17, ESV)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6.10 – 12, ESV)