“There is Power in the Blood”
June 19, 2025
Dear Families of Grace Members, Neighbors & Early Learning Center Families,
In today’s Gospel from Luke 8:26, we meet a man who called himself Legion but that is not his true name. Legion is simply descriptive of the emotional and spiritual disruption and dis-integration that was filling this man’s life. This man is lost to himself. He has no center. He no longer understands who he is. He is without an identity. He is alienated from his own life. All this leaves him vulnerable, naked, exposed, and unclothed. He no longer lives in a house in the city, but in the tombs. He is in essence dead to himself.
Who of us does not know what this man is going through? Each of us could tell about a time when our life was shattered and left in 1000’s of pieces that we just could nott put back together again. Dreams and hopes destroyed. A marriage or relationship ended. The death of a loved one. Questions about our own faith and beliefs. It is a place and time of separation, loneliness, and isolation. But, here is the Good News. Even in those times of brokenness, these are the places to which Christ comes. Jesus comes to the Legion of our lives. He did that for the man in this week’s Gospel, and he does that for each of us. That is why we come to worship each week to find Jesus and seek him as our guide, teacher, and Savior.
When the man saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?’” Within that very question that this man asks are recognition and non-recognition. The man knows Jesus is nothing like him …that is the non- recognition. Yet, something within that man knows he is like Jesus. That’s the recognition part. God within this man was never completely lost or destroyed. Yes, in spite of all the bad stuff that has been going on within him, this man was and still is a man created in God’s image. This man may have been taken over by Legion but Jesus himself is still present under the layers of dirt that has contaminated him.
No matter what bad stuff has been, or, or will be going on in our lives, Jesus stands before us as the mirror, the image, the truth-teller of who we really are. He reveals the original beauty of our creation in spite of those moments when we have lost our identity or our life has been distorted, and shattered.
So, whenever or if ever you wake up in the morning feeling you are a prisoner to your own life, know this. There is NOTHING that you will ever encounter in life or death that can separate you from the love of God or the power of Jesus to restore your life to love, to forgive, to heal, and carry you through those times. In Christ, all your chains are broken, nakedness is clothed, tombs are vacated, and demons are powerless. There is power in the blood of the lamb - that is the gospel truth.
As we begin to recognize that truth and God’s Spirit in our lives today, consider accepting this invitation to “come home to Grace Church” this Pentecost Season. Be part of this congregation that is filled with prayer, fun, laughter, and the love of Jesus! Experience the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament. All come at Jesus’ invitation – young and old, the assured and the doubting, the wise and the foolish, and the in-between. All are welcome here! Come to the Feast!
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Grace Lutheran Church
254 Curtiss Parkway
The Reverend David O. Guss, Ph.D.
Miami Springs FL 33166
Pastor – Grace Lutheran Church
305-888-2871
