Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friends,

This morning’s reading from Luke has me imagining Jesus as the one in the room who can sense what’s really going on. What’s the problem under the outburst? Where are the tears coming from? What is the truth that chatter is trying to cover up? This is a relief, in my experience, in being seen and known for who one is underneath the mask. In this story Jesus is relieving the community of a demon, telling the truth about it, removing it, and inviting them into a new way of living. The adjustment to living with truth out in the open is its own challenge at first, but it is freeing! “Be silent, and come out of him!” Jesus says - he has power that in a full and present way in that room, a way that we so often do not. In one breath he speaks truth, banishes the demon, and brings the beginning of healing. He left us, though, with the Holy Spirit, and wise theologians and practicioners of this faith remind us that there is power in the name of Jesus. Though we don’t move through the world like Jesus did, we are empowered as the Church, the Body of Christ, to tell the truth, to invite healing, to believe in another way, to show another way, and to walk with those who need a companion in new freedom.

In Christ, whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine,

Mtr Taylor