“GO—DECLARE”!
Galatians 3:23-29 and Luke 8:26-39

Preached at StPLC, Wyoming, MN
June 20, 2010 – Father’s Day

Dear Friends in Christ, grace and peace to you in Jesus’ Name! Amen.


While one might think that the most important aspect of running a business or a corporation is accounting or some other financial part of the organization, one of the most highly valued areas of business management is actually public relations. Getting the word out about a company or even an individual, such as an actor or politician, is vital to its success. It can also be expensive. Many large public relations firms will charge annual rates ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 or more, even for small companies. Those rates speak to the value businesses, institutions and organizations place on good PR.

When Jesus had delivered a man from several demons in the country of the Gerasenes, the man wanted to follow Jesus wherever he went (v. 38). But instead, Jesus told him, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you" (v. 39). In essence, Jesus incorporated this delivered man into his public relations team!

When we come to Christ in faith, we also take on a public relations position in his service, relating his love and goodness to a fallen humanity. In light of this truth, the first question this text asks of us today is simply this? “Are we doing our job?” In other words, are we Making Christ Known to a sin-sick and weary world? And if not, why aren’t we?

Are you aware that Minnesotans are among the most litigious people in the United States? We Minnesotans sue for perceived wrongs at a very high rate. Often for frivolous reasons, just because some folks know that there is something called a “nuisance fee”, which many businesses will pay to avoid a costly and lengthy litigation regardless the merit of the charges being brought. Why do we do that? We know that the law is not the place to turn first in order to create a genuine, humane community.

On the other hand, the law has important functions in faith and society. Paul says the law can serve as a preliminary measure, a stopgap. In the Bible, God's first dealings with humanity weren’t through the law. As parents who first love their child and then, as the child grows, give rules to protect the child, so God dealt with our human race.

The people of the Old Testament knew God's instruction was for their well-being, much as a child snatched from beside a hot stove soon understands that his progress was stopped because of love. The word translated as "Law" in the Old Testament means "instruction." The Hebrews understood it as gracious and helpful.

When Paul writes of "law" in the New Testament, this sense of the purpose of the law has deteriorated. People (though not everyone) have missed its gracious purpose and begun interpreting it legalistically, obeying it only as a duty. At times people with a law-and-order mentality (like Paul's Pharisees) can be unloving as well as obnoxious. And most of us will respond to legalistic approaches defensively.

Paul speaks about his understanding of the law in his letter to the churches in Galatia (3:24-25). He pictures the law as an aid in our maturity, which comes after we know we're loved, and leads us to a measure of independence. Even though the law seemed to enslave humankind; that purpose of the law was only temporary. Now that role of the law is obsolete and you and I are God's children, His sons and daughters (v. 26). Christ's Spirit brings us to the loving person behind the law and to God's love as a renewed motivation for obeying.

Certainly evil has perverted the law and even made the law work against us, but from the beginning God's law was a gift. The law can help us but not free us. Its central purpose is to bring us to the maturity of Christ. As Paul says, "For Christ is the end (the goal) of the law" (Romans 10:4). The law can take us by the hand and lead us to Christ. Christ, however, is the way to God.

When we have received Christ's Spirit within us, the law's fence need not be around us. The person to whom the law has always been pointing leads us from the inside instead of coerces us from the outside.

This is what Jesus told the man freed of demons to declare – in his own home town, no less. Jesus wanted the man to tell the story of the great gift he had been given by God to the people who knew what his life had been like.

And that is what Jesus asks of each of us, too-- return to your home and not just share but declare with confidence all God has done for you. If you continually look for the hand of God at work in your life, you will be amazed at how He removes stumbling blocks and makes a way for you, His child, when there seems to be no way!

Throughout the Bible, God's blessings are understood as privileges offered to us as gifts. Today it is our great privilege to welcome two new members into this family of God. I encourage you, as you come to know each of them, ask Carol and Cheryl about their stories and then tell them your story of all that God has done for you. Every one of us has at least one God story to declare. And most of us long to be asked about our story.

I was newly ordained, driving a vehicle that I had purchased new before going to Seminary (and had thoroughly used up by the time I graduated and was Called to serve a local congregation). Having used no credit for over 5 years, my credit rating was very low just then. I couldn’t see any way that I could replace my dying vehicle. And yet, God through Christ, in the person of the Holy Spirit, gave me a distinctive shove , this was not just a nudge, it was a full-fledged shove, one Saturday morning to go out and look for a different car. I was so sure that I could not qualify for a loan that I went only very reluctantly. But I did obey and I found the perfect vehicle at Roseville Chrysler Plymouth, where the Spirit had told me to go.

With a very clear awareness that I would most likely be told that I didn’t qualify when I applied for a loan to purchase the vehicle, I walked into the financial manager’s office with fear and trepidation and was absolutely astounded by the first thing the loan officer asked me. He didn’t ask about my credit rating or the balance in my bank account or my current income level. The first statement from his mouth was: “Tell me about your Call to ordained ministry.”

He went on to tell me that he had been in training to become a Roman Catholic Priest but found the celibacy rule too difficult for him to abide by so he left the seminary and went into the financial end of business administration.

When I had told him the story of my Call, he said: “It is time somebody helped you and I’m going to do it. I couldn’t do what you have done but I can help you.”

It was a Saturday morning I will never forget. Before I could even get home the loan officer called and told me I could pick up the one year old car in a couple of hours, they just needed to put a new set of tires on it “to be sure you are safe on the road” he said.

I was totally stunned by the whole experience and will forever believe that that particular vehicle was truly, my inheritance from my heavenly father. Who else could have given such an unimaginable gift to me?

I tell you this story because it is true, it really happened to me 17 years ago. I also tell you this story out of obedience to Jesus the Christ who says to each of us: “Return to you home and tell how much God has done for you!” So too, Jesus says in the devotional reading for today found in a little book entitled “Jesus Calling”: “I speak to you continually. My nature is to communicate, though not always in words. I fling glorious sunsets across the sky, day after day; I speak in the faces and voices of loved ones. I caress you with a gentle breeze that refreshes and delights you. I speak softly in the depths of your spirit, where I have taken up residence.”

And so it is that my prayer for each of you and for myself today is that we will be a people who find Christ in each moment that we are given; that we will always have eyes that see and ears that hear and that we will ask His Spirit to sharpen our spiritual eyesight and hearing because Jesus rejoices each time one of us discover His presence.

Amen. So Let it Be!