Sermon for the 19th of October - Feast of Saint Luke
Lectionary Readings for the Sunday commemorating Luke the Evangelist
Psalm 147: 1-7
O praise the Lord, for it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God: yea, a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful. 2 The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: and gather together the out-casts of Israel. 3 He healeth those that are broken in heart: and giveth medicine to heal their sickness. 4 He telleth the number of the stars: and calleth them all by their names. 5 Great is our Lord, and great is his power: yea, and his wisdom is infinite. 6 The Lord setteth up the meek: and bringeth the ungodly down to the ground. 7 O sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving: sing praises upon the harp unto our God.
Acts 16: 6-12a
They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.
Luke 10: 1-9
The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” ’
Sermon for the Sunday commemorating Luke the Evangelist
Today we hold up the Gospel writer Luke for our particular attention, and for our celebration. Why?
What makes Luke's account of the life of Jesus special, different, worth remembering, important to take to heart?
Let me go down the list:
Only in Luke is found the first visit of the angel Gabriel, not to Mary but to Zechariah. Gabriel strikes this future father of John the Baptist dumb because he does not believe the good news Gabriel is bringing him. Only then do we have Luke's description of the same angel, Gabriel, in his visit to Mary, to announce to her the good news of Jesus's birth.
Once the angel has allowed Zechariah to speak again, Luke places these words in his mouth: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. We have come to call this The Benedictus. We say this within each day's liturgy of morning prayer.
It is the visit of Mary, after these twin annunciations, to her cousin Elizabeth, wife of the struck-dumb Zechariah, that prompts Luke's words for Mary which we have come to call The Magnificat. My soul magnifies the Lord......
We say these words within each day's liturgy of evening prayer.
Then John the Baptist is born, and his father is unmuted.
This double story, all that leads up to the irrupting-into-history of the birth of the Christ, Jesus the Saviour, is found only here, only in this, Lucan, Gospel.
All this happens, and it is only Chapter One.
Chapter Two is what we read, again and again, year after year, in all the nativity plays of the world, what we have come to call The Christmas Story. But the shepherds and the angels glorifying God over the manger are found only in Luke; Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth............
Then we have Luke's account of the circumcision, as every Jewish boy must have had in Jesus's time. This prompts The Song of Simeon, to whom Luke assigns this beautiful set of words:
Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.
We have come to call this the Nunc Dimitis; these are the words of Luke we say within each day's liturgy of night prayer, or compline, each day in the Church of England.
We are still only in Chapter Two!
Then Luke tells us of Jesus as a boy in the Temple, sitting at the feet of the elders and astonishing them by his wisdom, causing heartache to his parents who have missed him in their departure in the crowd---the only event told by any of the Gospel writers of Jesus's childhood or boyhood. This event is found only in Luke.
These are the events of Jesus's public ministry found only in Luke:
The Parable of the Good Samaritan--found only in Luke.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son---found only in Luke.
The Parable of the Lost Coin, the Unjust Steward, the Rich Man and Lazarus, the story of the ten lepers who were healed, the story of Zacchaeus in the tree, the weeping of the women over Jerusalem, the healing of the crippled woman on the Sabbath and the man with dropsy on the Sabbath. The teaching of Jesus about humility: not to take the place of honour at the marriage feast/but when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.
The Parable of the Rich Fool, who builds bigger and bigger barns for his goods, who says to his soul, take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.
In the Passion Narrative, Luke depicts Jesus realising his destiny as the road reaches Jerusalem. There are, in this final section, elements of the climax of this journey peculiar to Luke:
Only Luke has the interesting interaction between Pilate and Herod.
Of the so-called seven last sayings of Jesus on the Cross, only Luke has these three words that Jesus speaks: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
The exclamation: Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!
To the thief who asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his Kingdom, the reply by Jesus: Today you will be with me in Paradise.
All these aspects of the life of Jesus---all these we have from Luke's hand, not Matthew, Mark, or John. We would be so much the poorer without them!
Reading Luke critically, I must add that it was Luke who confused the episode of the woman who anointed Jesus's head with oil. Luke's account is different from Mark and Matthew's. He attaches the word, sinner, to the woman, and describes her as someone who wets Jesus's feet, not head, with her tears and wipes them with her hair, anointing them with oil. She later becomes confused again in the Gospel of John with Mary of Bethany, and later again with Mary Magdalene. Luke also elevated the figure of Peter to a stature that displaced that of Mary Magdalene. It is in John's Gospel that she is The Apostle to the Apostles, not in Luke's.
But Luke's Gospel enriches all the others, completes them, stands as a never-ending source of contemplation and wonder. He gives us a portrait of discipleship that calls us to attend, especially, to our use of possessions. And to our attitude toward the poor.
In his sequel to his Gospel, Book II, called The Acts of the Apostles, Luke narrates the growth of the Christian church as it emerged in those post-Resurrection years, showing the living community of faith that witnessed to the power of Christ's love to empower and to heal, to bind up broken wounds and to bring about reconciliation among the bitterest of enemies.
Luke's words are words for us today. His is a Gospel to be read and re-read, as a lifelong endeavor. May we continue to be inspired by these words, shaped by them, directed by them, to our own tasks of love, healing, and reconciliation.
God grant us this grace!
Amen.