Hearing Voices

Luke 8:26-39

Indigenous Day of Prayer, June 22, 2025

Holy Trinity Cathedral

“Hearing Voices”

Today we have the scripture stories of two individuals alone in the wilderness.  One is being pursued by those who seek to silence him.  One is beset by demons.  Both are hearing voices.  The good news is that both become able to distinguish the difference between the voice of God and the voices that seek to extinguish their identity.  The experiences of Elijah and the Gerasene matter to us now because we are in a mental health crisis.  In part, it has been brought about by generations of trauma upon those whose voices have not been listened to.  Part of reconciliation and healing is for the Church to listen and discern God speaking through the pain of others.  This is one way to walk a right path together for indigenous peoples and settlers.

The first story is of the prophet Elijah.  He has dared speak truth to power.  Now he is running for his life into the wilderness.  Nobody is left who listens to the word of God he is compelled to preach, and so he is ready to die in the desert rather than be killed by the ruler he has denounced.

The second story is of the Gerasene man who has been shunned by his neighbours and sent out into the wasteland away from society.  They don’t understand his strange ways or his needs.  Back then he would not have been considered mentally ill but possessed by demons.  The demons are real to him.  It doesn’t matter if others could see them or not.  This was his lived reality; he is tormented and powerless to break their power over his life. 

Both of these individuals have needs that are not being met.  Simply physical things like food, water, clothing, and shelter.  Emotionally, they endured the shame, anxiety, and grief of being cut-off from community and the Creator.  And on a spiritual level, both struggle to maintain their identity, to be seen and cared for, to be marked as beloved.  But God comes  and speaks to these souls in need.

The presence of God is not in words alone.  The prophet had heard the commands of a messenger to eat and drink what was provided to him and journey to the holy mountain. But for Elijah, the Lord is revealed in the sound of sheer silence, after wind and earthquake and fire.  In contrast, the man living alone among the dead in the Gerasene country struggles to hear God’s voice over all the others crowding in his head.  At first, he fears an encounter with the Lord.  “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me!” he cries.  Then he tells Jesus his name is “Legion”.  At this point in his illness, he has lost sense of his identity and self.  His fragmentation and trauma end when Jesus commands all that is not truly him to come out.  The action of the unclean (to Jews) pigs plunging into a lake and drowning all that is unholy is a strange and unsettling image, but one that signifies the man’s restoration to “right mind”.   God hears and acts in response to his true needs. 

I pray that our beloved Church will show wisdom in distinguishing the voice of God from all the other voices in our world.  Too often in our history we have privileged some as speaking for God and shut down others, even those of prophets and followers of Christ.  We acknowledge that the ways in which we have imposed certain values and behaviours have been hurtful.  In seeking to erase the culture, language, kinship and leadership structures of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples through a colonial mindset, our society has done great damage.  Generations of people have struggled with trauma of separation.  We are witnesses to the effects on mental and spiritual wellness.  Addiction, illness, poverty, estrangement from culture and family, the loss of language and traditions: all these are real demons today.  And yet, the Holy Spirit gives us the resilience to break through with healing power.

Together, let us listen for the voice of God.  In creation, in each other, and in the community of faith that is the Church.  Let us help to raise up the ones who have not been heard and hear the stories they tell.  Reconciliation and restoration begin with truth-telling and acknowledgement.  Let us name the powers and the wrongs that need to be changed.  Racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, privilege: all that keep others from their true identities as the beloved of God.  This is not easy work.  It brings us into the pain of others.  And it is not work that others can do for us.  But as God was there for Elijah and the man from Gerasene, God will be there for us.  Ame