Thank you, gracious God, for Luke and his witness,
and grant that we follow faithfully in becoming a church that looks and acts
like Jesus. Amen.
Today, we celebrate our patron, St. Luke. Why this Parish ended up with the name “Luke,” we’re not entirely sure. When we were established in 1753, that’s the name given by the Colonial Assembly, but there’s no further explanation. In the 270 years since then, we have been a part of the fabric of this community of Salisbury, a leader in mission, a refuge for those facing the storms of life, and a place where people have come and seen the love of God in Jesus Christ. For this legacy and for St. Luke, whose witness has guided and inspired our ministry, we give thanks to God and we pray for the continued guidance and grace of the Spirit.
The
word “patron” is related to the word for “father.” A patron is one who supports
and sponsors the work of others. A patron generally sets a direction for
specific commissions. So the patron both enables and directs. Well, we are blessed
to have Luke as our patron, as his witness is inspiring and his example is
illustrative for us.
Luke
was born early in the first century, likely between the years 1 and 16. He was
born and raised in Antioch, a Greek speaking part of the Roman Empire in what
we would today call Syria. This means that most scholars think that Luke was a
Gentile convert to Christianity – he was not Jewish first. He was a traveling companion
of St. Paul and seems to be one of his closest and most reliable partners in
ministry. Together, they went to Macedonia, Philippi, and Rome. He died
sometime between 84 and 100, likely in Greece and it’s unclear if he died due
to martyrdom or natural causes. That a bit of his biography. For the rest of
the sermon, I want to name four things that Luke is remembered for and reflect
on how his witness is something that helps us to follow, look, and act like the
one that Luke sought to follow, look, and act like: Jesus.
First,
as we heard in today’s Collect, Luke is remembered as a physician. Some scholars
believe that Luke was enslaved, which sounds odd to us today. But it was
typical at that time to have a slave be trained as a physician so that the
household would always have medical care available. In a time before hospitals and
clinics, this makes more sense. It also helps us to understand why St. Paul,
who we know had some health issues, was so keen to have Luke at his side.
It’s
not often that we hear from the book of Sirach, or sometimes it’s called
Ecclesiasticus. It is read though on the Feast of St. Luke as the section we
hear extols the gift of healing that God has given to physicians and
pharmacists. Sirach reminds us that “God’s works will never be finished, and from
God health spreads over all the earth.” I’m thankful for the ministry of
physicians, and we remember that these healing arts are not human achievements,
but rather divine gifts. The care and healing that we receive from dentists,
nurses, and therapists come from God and flow through those practitioners, such
as Luke.
We
all though know that there are limits to modern medicine. Dementia is one of
the cruelest diseases there is, and there’s little we can do about that. Not
every cancer can be eradicated, and as we’ve all lived through recently, we
know that viruses can adapt faster than we can. And while God does desire to
bring healing to our bodies, God is concerned also with healing our spirits, relationships,
politics, economy, and society. In Luke’s telling of the Gospel, the inaugural
sermon given by Jesus is what we heard read this morning and tells us something
about the healing that Jesus brings.
Quoting
from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus proclaims that he has come to bring good news to
the poor, release to the captive, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed,
and God’s favor to all. That’s quite the mission statement – to essentially
make all things well. And then Jesus goes even further and says “In your
hearing, this has all been accomplished.” Jesus is claiming that in him, all
healing is found. In Jesus, there is enough peace to mediate our conflicts.
There is enough mercy to assuage our guilt. There is enough love to soften our
hardened hearts. There is enough in common to put aside our divisions. There is
enough life to overcome even death.
This
healing grace of Jesus is what enables beloved community to thrive, and beloved
community is something that we, at St. Luke’s, have heard God summon us into.
Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I
will give you rest.” If nothing else, St. Luke’s Parish is here to be a place for
people to safely put down their burdens and find rest in Jesus. One of the things
that I’m most proud of is that whoever you are, I don’t have any hesitation to
say you’d be welcomed here. Male, female, or neither; gay or straight; between
jobs or a business owner; married or single; black or white; elder or younger;
conservative or liberal; all are welcomed and embraced here because we don’t
claim or try to be a church that has it all figured out. We all have burdens;
we all need healing. That’s what allows us to pursue beloved community. We don’t
pursue perfection or success, but rather love. And there’s always a seat at Love’s
table. When we’re all together, it’s amazing what Love can do through us. Whether
it’s our fellowship with one another, the Physician’s Closet, the partnerships
of our Foundation and Mission Committee, or our work around racial healing, we
pray that we might continually be given to ministries of healing so that beloved
community will flourish among us.
Luke
is also remembered as an Evangelist, as he authored one of the four gospels and
the book of Acts. Most people think that St. Paul is the most prolific New
Testament author, but that’s not even close to true. Luke and Acts are nearly
60% longer than the seven letters that are accepted as genuinely written by St.
Paul. The opening verses of Luke and Acts, which really are better thought of
as a two-act play rather than two separate books with John sandwiched between
them, says “Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the
events that have been fulfilled among us, I too decided, after investigating
everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, so
that you may know the truth.” The word that Luke uses for “truth” is asphelia
– where we get our word “asphalt.”
This
Good News of what the Father, Son, and Spirit are up to is to be the solid
foundation, the cornerstone, of our lives. This story of grace, mercy, hope,
and love is solid, secure, and something we can stand on. At St. Luke’s Parish,
a core part of our identity is our intentional worship. When we say “intentional”
we both mean that worship is planned out because we want our words and actions
to form and support us in our faith, and because we worship for the purpose of
being transformed into the beloved community that God would have us become. We
worship with the intention of being transformed by God.
We
gather in worship to be immersed in the story of God’s call to love God, our
neighbors, and ourselves, we gather to grow as members of the Body of Christ,
we gather to be fed from the richness of God’s grace, we gather to be assured
that we are known, loved, and redeemed. Intentional worship is the beating
heart of what has made this Parish who we are. For 270 years, intentional worship
has gathered us, strengthened us, and sent us out in mission. And, we pray that
270 years from now, being rooted in the story of Jesus that St. Luke tells, this
Parish will still be grounded in intentional worship.
One
of the most significant things that this Parish has done in recent memory was
the commissioning and installation of seven icons in the Church and three in
the Chapel. These icons express our commitment to being a living tradition and
one that is committed to beloved community. And it’s quite fitting that we undertook
that project because our patron, Luke, is remembered as the first iconographer
and is the patron saint of artists.
There
are a lot of ways to explain what an icon is. But icons are not portraits or
paintings, rather they have been called prayers written with colors and lines.
Icons are windows that allow us to see more deeply into the mysteries and
realities of the Divine. Some have said that icons are the books of theology
and Biblical commentaries in the Orthodox tradition. For us, these icons make
manifest the witness of the saints to God’s abundant grace and of our calling
into beloved community.
We
heard St. Paul in First Thessalonians commending the faithful by saying “For
the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among
you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and
to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead- Jesus.” In other
words, the people functioned as icons that allowed other to see the grace and
power of Jesus.
I
wonder, when people look at us, what images do they see? What does our witness
say about our beliefs? How does our involvement in the community make room for
the Spirit to act? What might people think about Jesus knowing that we are his
followers? What sort of icon is our Parish?
Our
deepest belief is the abundant grace of God. Everything flows out of our sense
that we are loved not because we have earned it, but because God is love. And
there is an abundance of this grace – we don’t have to compete with one another
over anything because God has given us a gracious plenty. Our prayer is that we
become an icon of God’s abundant grace in our community.
Lastly,
St. Luke is remembered as an apostle. The word “apostle” means “one who is sent
out.” St. Luke was sent out on a mission to make known the Good News, to
proclaim the difference that Christ makes in our lives, in our sins, in our
fears, and in our deaths. Ultimately, as a Parish, this is why we exist. Rotary
provides good civic engagement. You can get good fellowship over at Koco Java. Rowan
Helping Ministries does good service in our community. Great art can be found
at the Symphony or Waterworks. You can audit classes at Hood Seminary or Rowan-Cabarrus
Community College if you want to learn more about something. If we think that
any of these things – fellowship, mission, education, community engagement, the
arts – are our mission, then we have grossly misunderstood our identity.
Our
purpose in gathering, the reason why we ask you to give your money here, the motive
for asking you to volunteer is that so we can become attuned to the difference
that Christ makes and be a part of that difference in the world. That’s why we
have it right at the top of our identity statement – come and see the difference
Christ makes. That’s why we exist, and that’s a mission not given to any other
group. The Church is a place of hope, of humility, of wonder, of mercy, of
unity without uniformity, of sacred encounters, and these things are all
enabled by the difference that Christ makes. Jesus assures us that our sins do
not define us, that our deaths are not final, that love is the grain of the universe.
Like St. Luke, our mission is to repeat that same old song of God’s grace, to
point to the icon of God’s love in Jesus, to go as the Spirit moves us into
action. We are an apostolic faith, meaning that Christianity is not about coming
to church, it is about being sent by God on a mission of proclaiming the Good
News. Coming to church is important because it equips us for that mission, but
our mission is not about coming, but rather going as St. Luke went and showed
people the Good News of the difference Christ makes.
St. Luke was an instrument of God’s healing, an evangelist of the truth of God’s love, an icon of God’s abundant grace, and an apostle sent to bring others to know the riches of faith. We thank God that we are the recipients of this Good News and pray that might grow further in becoming a Parish that is marked by the difference Christ makes. Amen.
