Return to Your Home!

“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:39 ESV) The green of the Pentecost season reminds me of the green of summer of my youth and the many days I spent cutting grass in Iowa. While I am back to the Midwest to report on all God has done for us in Jesus as a congregation, the work and ministry of ILC continues through all of us as we keep on sharing with our loved ones all that God has done for us in Jesus! Today at International Lutheran Church, we celebrate the mission of the church and how God incorporates us in His mission to free all people into a new relationship with Him and with one another.

The Gospel lesson from Luke 8:26-39 today reminds us of this beautiful truth that God’s mission is not only experienced in our lives but also lived out through our lives. This makes the mission of God a very personal matter and one that transforms our very identity and sense of calling and purpose. Jesus’ journey across the lake to the Gerasenes and encounter with the demon possessed man helps us to see not only the power that Jesus has over the demonic forces of this world, but also His love and care for those trapped and bound by these forces. This encounter also demonstrates the principal that God’s mission and action in the world is ultimately to bring all people into a new and right relationship with God and with one another. While we don’t know the man’s name, those who possessed and held him in bondage were many. “Legion,” the title he used to refer to himself, was the name of a military organization of four to six thousand fighting men.

Thus, when Jesus frees the man, suddenly he is a completely different person and able to associate and engage with others. No longer driven to madness and uncontrollable behavior, Luke describes him as sitting quietly, dressed, and in his right mind. Perhaps we are surprised at Jesus’ reaction when the man wanted to follow after Jesus. Jesus directs him back home to tell his family all that God has done for him in Christ. Yet this is the beauty of the Gospel. The Good News of what God has done for us in Jesus is not only for us personally, but it is also meant to be shared with our own families, friends, and neighbors. Just as we are called into a new and healthy relationship with God through Jesus’ death and resurrection whereby Satan’s grip and control on our lives is completely destroyed, we are also called into a new relationship with one another through that same power of God’s forgiveness. In the words of Saint Paul in Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” We not only have a new relationship with God but also with others, especially our family members.

In other words, we have been made heirs and members of God’s own family which then transforms the way in which we interact with one another. God has freed us from our bondage to sin and the ultimate death and destruction that this bondage leads to. And so we have good news to share with many that they would be encouraged to know what God has done for them. And who better to share this good news with them than you and I?

As our family has an opportunity to share what God has done for us in Jesus with the families and individuals that make our ministry together possible, we also together with you live in the freedom that Christ has won for us so that all would experience His grace and mercy in their lives too. God bless and guide us all as we live in the freedom that Jesus has won for us so that all would be made heirs together with us of His grace.

Pastor Carl