Living among the tombs
“I want to be alone”
These famous words are attributed to the Swedish actress Greta Garbo. She said later in a 1955 magazine article that her actual words were, “I only want to be let alone”. Be that as it may a cache of her letters sold at auction in 2019 revealed an intensely lonely woman. In one letter to a dear friend while in Sweden she said, “I go nowhere and I see no-one” and she pleads for her old friend to rescue her.
Sometimes we enjoy the solitude that loneliness brings and we even need it to recharge our batteries. For many people, however, loneliness is a most unwanted gift or should I say state. According to the website, “Campaign against Loneliness”,in 2022 almost 50% of adults in the UK expressed feeling loneliness of varying degrees and nearly four million experienced chronic loneliness. The campaign group identifies different types of loneliness including:
- Emotional loneliness – ‘the absence of meaningful relationships’
- Social loneliness – a ‘perceived deficit in the quality of social connections’
- Existential loneliness – a ‘feeling of fundamental separateness from others and the wider world’
Whatever the type of loneliness a key factor is the sense of isolation. Isolation hems us in like a dark, cold and suffocating blanket. We feel utterly cut off. We may still talk and smile to other people. We may even look as if we are successful, but for whatever reason inside the loneliness is quietly killing us. Many of us to quote the philosopher Henry Thoreau, “lead lives of quiet desperation”.
The gospels tell us the story of an encounter between Jesus and a man who is simply called the “Gerasene demoniac” due to the fact that he was possessed by many demons. Leaving aside whether we believe in demons or not , it is the bible’s description of him that haunts me. In the story we are told that he lived among the tombs ands that “Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones”. What a dreadfully pitiful description. Rejected by his community and filled with self loathing he turned in on himself and physically abused himself. Even today self inflicted pain is often the method people use to cope with the isolation of loneliness and rejection.
Yet the gospel story also shows that Jesus went on to free this poor man from his agony. He cast out the demons that tormented him and gave him a fresh start. I am not saying for a second that all lonely people are demon possessed, but loneliness and isolation bring their own emotional agony. To these people Jesus makes a promise should they wish to accept it: “Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the age”. He offers emotional healing by this promise and an end to isolation. Here at Thaxted Baptist Church we know that we are meant to be the channel of Christ’s healing love and we take the call to love the stranger very seriously. Why don’t you come and test if that’s true. All are welcome.