God's Liberating Love
- alisonwale
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
On Sunday, our Licensed Lay Minister gave the homily, reminding us that God has already broken the power of every force that isolates and dehumanizes us
READINGS (click for link):
When I started thinking about the events recounted in the Gospel reading, I found myself looking at how it spoke to us about what we should or should not do – I thought about how we should not be like the people of the Gerasene region, isolating the possessed man, abandoning him to his demons. But the more I explored I realised that the reading is not about what we can or can’t do, what we should or shouldn’t do. Rather it is a powerful reminder of how God’s power and love liberates, coming to us before we can do anything.
We see this in the reading from Kings as well. Elijah was paralysed by depression and fear: he felt he had done all he could, it was not enough. He was an utter failure. But an angel – be that in human form or not – came to him and gave him what he needed to continue. And it can be the same for us. We also can suffer despair that we are not worthy of God’s love, or that we are not doing what God requires of us. Or, outside of the church community, that we are a failure at work, that we don’t have friends. Whatever it is, we too can feel crippled and useless.
Whether by demonic oppression or depression and fear God's people experience despair that isolates. The good news is that God doesn’t wait for us to climb out—God comes to us in the tombs, in the wilderness, and under the broom tree.
And when God comes to us we are given what we need.
I remember when I was going through my treatment for cancer, a verse from Isaiah became my touchstone, if you like. I muttered it to myself whenever things were getting too much for me. “or I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you” One night, around three in the morning, when the neuropathy in my legs and feet was keeping me awake and I felt totally alone I said “OK then. Prove it” and I reached my right hand up into the empty air above me. And I felt a warmth and a slight pressure as though someone had taken my hand. It may easily have been a neurological experience, as the blood flowed downwards, I admit that, but it was what I needed at that moment as I lay despairing and in pain. God came to me.
God responds to our needs: we do not need to do anything to deserve it. The man, Legion, did nothing more than come face to face with Jesus to be liberated from the dehumanizing forces that had taken hold of him. There is no rebuke, there are no demands. Jesus comes and he sees what this man needs.
In the reading from Kings, God responds to Elijah’s needs, giving sustenance and rest. As one commentator says “Liberation doesn’t always look dramatic: sometimes it’s as quiet as a nap and a meal. But it's always God's initiative.” Sometimes it’s as quiet as the sensation of a hand being held…
In Galatians Paul also talks of things in society that have held people captive – the sense of never being good enough because – if we’re honest – keeping all those restrictive regulations about what should and should not be done under the Law almost sets you up for failure. Christ has broken the chains—not just of personal sin, but of systems that segregate us.
When we realise that we are loved and liberated, dignity is restored. We see ourselves as worthy, as human again. We see this as the man is found by the villagers, conversing with Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. Elijah is rested and ready for his work. Whatever had held them captive – be it for many years, or just for a short period of time – had been removed and equilibrium restored. God’s love had found them.
The man’s new clothes reflect his new identity: liberated and of right mind —just like our baptism clothes us in Christ. We have been found, and loved, and restored through our baptism. The healing of the man formerly known as Legion becomes a symbol of God's non-discriminating grace as written in Galatians: No longer are Jews and Gentiles considered to be different; the gulf between a slave or a free person is irrelevant; male and female are equal. Refugees and residents and citizens – all are worthy. All are liberated and loved by God’s love. There is no distinction.
The Australian pastor, Nathan Nettleton writes: Being clothed in Christ through baptism does not just impact on the way we view ourselves; it impacts on the way we see one another too. Paul says that having clothed ourselves in Christ, there is now no distinction between Jew and Gentile, between slave and free, or between male and female. You are all one in Christ; equal partners in Christ’s body. You could extend the list with any number of other paired categories: there is no distinction between black and white; rich and poor; gay and straight; educated and illiterate; married and single; ordained and lay. You are all one in Christ, equal partners in Christ’s body.
In all our dealings with one another, we begin from a position of profound respect and even reverence for one another as those who reveal something of the likeness of Christ to us, and as those who are profoundly equal to us before they are in any way different from us.
In other words, The church does not "make space" for the outcast; it recognizes they’ve always had a place in God's kingdom. But this is through nothing that WE can do. This is simply through allowing God’s love to flow through us.
So what does this mean?
Basically, Liberation isn’t just for our healing—it’s for the healing of others.
What did Jesus say when the man begged to follow him and to become a disciple? He said "Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you." Tell others what I have done, bring them the same liberation, the same dignity, the same love.
When Elijah was renewed by his encounter with God, he is sent back into his prophetic mission with the words “Go back the way you came…” Go back and tell the people of my love for them, my longing for them.
I recently posted something on the Christ Church Facebook page saying Christianity teaches something fundamentally different than every other religion. Every other religion says that if you change, you will be accepted. But Christianity says, “Because you have been accepted, therefore change.” Christianity doesn’t proclaim good advice, but good news. And that news transforms us from the inside out. We testify not as those who fixed ourselves, but as those rescued by grace
Our inclusion in Christ compels us to embody that same welcome to others. But this is not through our own strength, our own self-will. We are not called to be the hero of someone else’s story. We simply need to live as someone Christ has freed, and see others as God sees them—clothed in dignity, healed, and sent with purpose. We simply need to recognise that God’s liberating presence is already at work and that from the tombs of the Gerasenes to the wilderness under a broom tree, to the baptismal waters of Galatia, to the broken, hurting world in which we live —God breaks chains.
The good news is not that we must work harder to include the excluded, but rather that God has already broken the power of every force that isolates and dehumanizes us. Our mission is to live as liberated people who recognize God's image in every outcast and welcome them as Christ has welcomed us.
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