‘The truth will set you free…sort of’

June 22, 2025  

Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-15, Luke 8:26-39

I chose to share from two of today’s readings with you. Because, although they are from completely different times and speak to completely different contexts, there was something in each one that spoke alongside of the other, with each one giving a similar view into the nature of our God.

In our reading from 1st Kings, we hear of wind, earthquake, and fire, followed by the sound of sheer silence. And then in Luke’s gospel we hear of a man who very much came from a conflicted place of wind, earthquake, and fire, who through grace was also able to find our Lord in the silence and the whisper. 

It seems that much of life in this moment is colored by conflict, discord, and division, and that so much of that which is out of our control, seems to be marching to a similar beat of rushing wind, cataclysmic earth shaking, and destructive fire and fury. Truly we are living through a noisy and confusing moment in time that seems to be much in need of the sheer silence of God’s presence. 

Our passage from Luke’s gospel is one of those fascinating human-interest stories in the bible. There are so many possible points of entry when one first reads through it. There is the strange fact that Jesus encounters a man who goes by the name of ‘Legion’, which in itself is a bold challenge to the Romans and their occupation, a very political challenge which a close reading of the gospels finds Jesus doing quite frequently. Or we might consider the whole idea of some poor farmer’s pigs suddenly hurtling over the edge of the cliffs into certain death and presumably complete loss on the rocky shores below…which is certainly a strange idea that somehow doesn’t feel right, or in keeping with the notion of a good and loving God. 

Or we could look at the reaction of the townspeople who came out and witnessed the destruction of the pigs and the seemingly complete transformation of a man who had previously been a constant threat and menace to the community. The passage tells us that they were very fearful after hearing about the strange events that had just taken place and that they begged Jesus to go away and to leave them alone. They were unsure of exactly what power had been unleashed among them, but they sensed it was at the hand of this strange man from Galilee.

But there is another aspect, another thing we may consider when trying both to understand the possible relationship between our two readings and in seeking to read this scripture passage into understanding for today. And that has to do with the man who was healed himself, the one who had just experienced an incredible transformative deliverance from a life that had been pure torment and horror up until the moment he met Jesus. On one level this man’s healing and return to health and wholeness is a complete story in its own right. The miraculous transformation from one moment to the next, in effect the creation of a whole new person in his right mind…one who was at peace and now able to stand up and give God the glory is a song that always needs to be sung.

However, there is another point that at least for me is the one we should focus on given current affairs. And that concerns what happened at the very end of Luke’s narrative, where this now ‘joy-filled proclaimer of God’s grace’ asked to follow along behind Jesus as he prepared to leave the region at the request of the townspeople. It seems it would be only natural that Jesus would welcome him into his traveling band of disciples.

However, instead of gladly inviting ‘Legion’ to come along, Jesus tells him to stay right there, to stay put in the region where he had spent his whole life as an uncontrollable terror and fearsome force. Jesus told him to stay among those who had always been terrified of him…to be a bearer of goodness and hope, and a testament to God’s grace right there in their midst.  Jesus did not allow the now fully healed man to leave behind all of his past, but rather called him to remain as a defining point of the goodness of God, a light shining for all those who had formerly loathed and feared him. Legion was asked to be the sound of a ‘sheer silence and calm’ in the midst of the wind-driven spirit of fear within his community.

And it is this decision by Jesus, to ask the man to remain behind, and to continue to witness in the darkness that seems to have the most possible impact for us in this moment, as we seek to serve our Lord earnestly and faithfully.

Years ago I read a small book that turned out to be an important and formative piece of my faith journey and understanding. The book, which has both religious supporters and detractors, was titled ‘Hind’s Feet on High Places’, and it was written by the author Hannah Hurnard. It is the life story or allegory of one who was known simply as ‘Much-Afraid’, and of her long and treacherous journey to the top of the ‘Mountain of the Lord’s Delight’. In her travels. she is forced to endure much in the way of howling winds and treacherous pathways, quaking the foundations of all she knew. In addition, she had to pass through tortuous fires of trial and testing before finally arriving at the place of full communion with our Lord and Savior. 

And it is there, right there in the loving embrace of our Lord, that she is given the most unexpected and most difficult words of instruction…there on the Mountaintop of our Lord’s Delight, there on the ‘High Places’, Much-Afraid, who has now been renamed ‘Grace-and-Glory, is told that in fact she cannot remain there…but rather must return to the valley below. She must now go back down into the trial and into the wind, into the roar of the earthquake and fire, on our Lord’s behalf…and to do so in order to be there for our Lord. After completely spending herself in the pursuit of full communion with God, and in fact finding it…she is told she must turn around and to go back…go back and to tell others the story of the wondrous mountain so far away…in effect, to do exactly what ‘Legion’ was asked to do.

And I bring out this point because I fear that so often we hear alluring tales of ‘mountaintop dwelling places’…places where one can stay fully free from the noise and trials of life…places where one does not have to worry about the injustice and strife that the world serves up as its daily portion…places instead where we can dwell alongside other like-minded individuals completely free from such ‘worldly’ concerns.

And, while some of these offers of ‘false safe-lodging places’ come from alternative philosophies, unfortunately, some of the most convincing salesmen of this false story, of a life that can be free from the pressures and struggles of life as it is lived all around us speak or preach from within certain interpretations of our own Christian faith.

Indeed, in spite of what other interpretations may offer, today’s scriptures make it very clear to me that we are not called to dwell on self-made mountain-tops that any of these popular faith practices may offer.  For in truth, any claim offering a life living ‘above it all, above the stress or fray of  life’ is itself merely a distraction that merely leads one to believe it is possible to avoid the hard, and often messy work of love and compassion. Holy love and compassion that can only truthfully be shared down there in the trenches, within the wind, earthquake, and fire of human struggle and weakness.

Which is not at all to say that the real and blessed mountain of our Lord’s presence and full embrace is a place we will never experience, for surely any moment spent in the presence of our Lord can seem like a mountain-top moment…but rather, to assert that those special experiences in the embrace of our Lord are meant to be times of refreshment and encouragement, places where we may drink deeply of the ever flowing streams of God’s grace, places where we can drink deeply of the fountains of joy and peace that know no end, and which defy understanding…times of momentary respite and communion…

…before we too are once again sent out, sent back into the valleys and the darkness below in order to engage the forces of injustice and hopelessness plaguing so many of our sisters and brothers…sent forth as messengers of hope, bringing light into the hearts of humankind.

‘Legion’…one who had lived a life filled with horror, unable to break free into hope or joyous life whatsoever…one who, after going to the mountaintop with Jesus became such a witness of profound change and contrast, not only for those who knew him in his previous state, but for himself as well, who now for the first time was able to sit peaceful and calm before the Lord…the wind, earthquake, and fire within him fully gone away…now resting in the sheer silence of the presence of our Lord, begging to be able to stay there in his presence…to follow and to leave behind his old life of trial and turmoil…hoping to be fully and finally delivered and set free from the struggle that life was and so often still is…

But Jesus said ‘no’, instead telling him to stay put, to stay in the middle of the ‘fray of life’ as it moved all about him…to stand there and proclaim the goodness of our God.

The truth truly will set you free…it always will…but it will not allow you to stop your labor for the Lord…in fact, the truth of God’s love is a call and command to continue laboring with all you have, and with all you are. The truth will set you free from bondage to the ways of the world, as it commands you to work solely for our Lord of Love, guided by the Holy Spirit within the ridges and valleys of the world.

Seek God’s whisper in the silence…the silence that follows the crashing turmoil of wind, quake, and fire. For  it is in the silence, that we are best able to hear the words of our Lord…words that will renew, encourage, strengthen..and then direct us to the task of loving one another just as God loves us…without condition, without hesitation, and without any thought but for the present moment’s need…

…come let us dwell in the presence of our God in the very midst of the wind, quake, and fire of life all around us…for that is where new life and lasting hope is born…

…amen