St. Luke the Evangelist: May Christians Be More About Healing and Reconciliation

 Today's Scripture Readings

Ecclesiasticus 38: 1-4, 6-10, 12-14 (NRSV)

Honor physicians for their services,

for the Lord created them;

for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,

and they are rewarded by the king.

The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,

and in the presence of the great they are admired.

The Lord created medicines out of the earth,

and the sensible will not despise them.

And he gave skill to human beings

that he might be glorified in his marvelous works.

By them the physician heals and takes away pain;

the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.

God's works will never be finished;

and from him health spreads over all the earth.

My child, when you are ill, do not delay,

but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.

Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly,

and cleanse your heart from all sin.

Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;

do not let him leave you, for you need him.

There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,

for they too pray to the Lord

that he grant them success in diagnosis

and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.

Psalm 147 (BCP., p. 804)


2 Timothy 4: 5-13 (NRSV)

As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

Luke 4: 14-21 (NRSV)

Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Blog Reflection

Today is one of those days through which there are so many messages going back and forth in the news, politics and the Church.  There is confusion, pain, the struggle for justice and equality, a fatigue from all of the campaigning, and a fair amount of anger.   Every one is experiencing the urgency of the moment to seeing what can be done to get on the path towards securing some kind of certainty for the future.  Yet, there is still great hope, with a sense of cautious optimism.

We commemorate a special holy day on this feast of St. Luke, the evangelist and physician.  He is considered the patron of the sick, doctors and hospitals.  He is also the patron of the Companions of St. Luke/Order of St. Benedict.   St. Luke is recognized for the focus of the Gospel attributed to him, by which the focus of Jesus is the ministry of healing and reconciliation.  We can certainly derive that from the Gospel reading chosen for today's feast.   Jesus proclaims the reading from the Prophet Isaiah "fulfilled in your hearing" after he reads it aloud from the scroll in his local synagogue.   Jesus views as his mission and purpose to bring good news to the poor, release the captives, give sight to those who are blind and to allow the oppressed to go free.  What Jesus read and accepted as his mission, is the work of all baptized Christians.   As we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, which is the Church, we vow in our Baptismal Covenant to "seek and serve in Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself" and "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being" with God's help (see The Book of Common Prayer, p.305).

The care of the sick in St. Benedict's monasteries was so important to him, that he devoted Chapter 36 to the sick in The Rule.  Benedict instructs that: "Care of the sick must rank above and before all else so that they may be served as Christ who said: "I was sick and you visited me" (Matt 25:36) and, "What you did for these the least of my people you did for me" (Matt 25:40)."

What role of healing and reconciliation, might Jesus be calling us to today?

The Episcopal Church is experiencing a time of great difficulty, because we have taken a position with the Holy Spirit with regards to the reception of LGBT people for ordination as Bishops, Priests and Deacons, creating marriage rites for same-sex couples, non-discrimination policies for transgender individuals, and the ordination of women.   Recently, the Board of Discipline along with the Presiding Bishop have written a Certificate of Abandonment for the Bishop and Diocese of South Carolina.   

Earlier today, the Second Circuit Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.  

What direction for healing and reconciliation might God be calling the Episcopal Church to, with regards to the inclusion of LGBT people, and those who do not agree?   What role might God be calling on LGBT and allied Christians to help the Diocese of South Carolina and it's Bishop recognize their role in healing and reconciliation?

The issues at hand are not without their challenges.  The challenges are as much with the pros as they are with the cons.  The individuals on both sides of the debate are just as passionate about their call to serve Jesus Christ and the Church.  How can everyone remain at the table and talk, allowing the Holy Spirit to do her work of healing and reconciliation?

Christians have an unfortunate history of using the Name of Jesus Christ, the Holy Bible, the Sacraments to drive wedges between people of diverse opinions and ways of living.   Just recently the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis told the mother of a gay son, that she could go to hell if she does not embrace the teaching of the Catholic church with regards to marriage equality.   Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings and Herbert Chilstrom, a former Presiding Bishop in the ELCA have responded to the Roman Archbishop's statements and push to pass an amendment that would limit the freedom of same-sex couples to marry the person she/he loves.

I think the Gospel attributed to St. Luke gives us an image of Jesus as allowing to go free those who are oppressed.  As part of the ministry of God, through Jesus for healing and reconciliation, we have a picture of a compassionate Holy One, who through grace comes to those who are sick with despair and a feeling of separation and isolation.  Jesus welcomes each with the love of our Creator to graft all of us into the vine that is Christ, so that we who can do nothing without him, may experience the healing and reconciliation that can only come from God.  Jesus does not use the Name of God to exclude, to act in violence or prejudice.  He comes as the perfect revelation of God, to welcome, receive, soothe and restore all who are oppressed and experiencing injustice to their right place as one created, redeemed and loved by God.  To call each of us to play our part in the ministry of hospitality, healing and reconciliation, by seeing in each person, Christ present: coming to us, sick, wounded, lonely, excluded and in need of God's mercy.  As Jesus has made us part of the Body of Christ, he empowers us by the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Church, to help graft others onto the Body of Christ so that God's ministry can gain more people and become the greatest vehicle of diversity and compassion, that the world could ever see and know.

Is Jesus calling us to use his Name to be more about the work of healing and reconciliation?

How are we answering that call?


Prayers

Almighty God, who inspired your servant Luke the physician
to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of your
Son: Graciously continue in your Church this love and power
to heal, to the praise and glory of your Name; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for St. Luke, Book of Common Prayer, p. 244).

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and
follow us, that we may continually be given to good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23, Book of Common Prayer, p. 234).

Gracious Father, we pray for they holy Catholic Church. Fill it
with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake
of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, p. 816).

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the
people of this land], that barriers which divide us may
crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our
divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice, Book of Common Prayer, p. 823).     

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Let us Love God in Whomever God is Found

Today's Scripture Readings

Isaiah 35: 4-7a (NRSV)

Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

"Be strong, do not fear!

Here is your God.

He will come with vengeance,

with terrible recompense.

He will come and save you."

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

then the lame shall leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

the burning sand shall become a pool,

and the thirsty ground springs of water.

Psalm 146 (BCP., p. 803)


James 2:1-17  (NRSV)

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Mark 7:24-37 (NRSV)

Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go-- the demon has left your daughter." So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

Blog Reflection

My very favorite Benedictine Prayer was written by St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109).

O Lord my God,
Teach my heart this day where and how to see you,
where and how to find you.
You have made me and remade me,
and you have bestowed upon me
all the good things I possess,
and I still do not know you.
I have not yet done that for which I was made
Teach me to seek you,
for I cannot seek you unless you teach me,
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire.
let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
let me love you when I find you. Amen
(Taken from Saint Benedict's Prayer Book for Beginners, Ampleforth Abbey Press, p. 118).

I really think words to that prayer is what our Scripture readings are about.   We have all been given so much that is good from God.  Yet, we have not even begun to do what it is that we are made to do.  We need God to teach us how to search for God.

"The person who prays for the presence of God is, ironically, already in the presence of God.  The person who seeks God has already found God to some extent.  "We are already counted as God's own," the Rule [of St. Benedict] reminds us.  Benedict knows this and clearly wants us to know it as well.  A dull, mundane life stays a dull, mundane life, no matter how intent we become on developing spiritually.  No amount of churchgoing will change that.  What attention to the spiritual life does change is our appreciation for the presence of God in our dull, mundane lives.  We come to realize that we did not find God; god finally got our attention.  The spiritual life is a grace with which we must cooperate, not a prize to be captured or a trophy to be won" (Sr. Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century, p.6,7).

The problem we face as human beings is that through our up bringing in some cases, our education and influences we make up for ourselves what God is like.  One of the most hideous mistakes of Western art that have depicted scenes of Jesus, the Holy Family, or any other Biblical figures, is that many of them have given us an image of them as European Caucasian people.  On may crucifixes, Jesus is this strong, well muscled, Caucasian man with long (sometimes dark blond) hair and a smooth haired beard and a moustache, with a piece of cloth around his waist.   When in fact, Jesus would have been a dark colored, middle eastern looking man, with rather wiry like hair, a course beard, still quite strong and of course, he was Jewish.  Because of our imagination of what Jesus must have looked like, and how Anglicized he has become, the idea of Jesus being a poor, middle eastern guy is not something many of us like to think about.

We are all asked today, to love God in whomever God is found.  Our readings are about seeing God in those who are very different than ourselves. The reading from James cautions us about violating the law of God by presuming that because someone is poor, smelly and exhibits behaviors that we might find repulsive, that we are think of and/or treat them less important than someone who is wealthy, clean and powerful.  When we fail to receive people who are different, or make decisions about where they should or should not be either in the Church or society, we are failing to live up to the meaning of "loving your neighbor as yourself."

In our Gospel today, we even see Jesus, confronted by the reality of his own humanity having to face within himself the attitudes of his own culture.  Yet, because of the incredible faith of the woman who continued to plead with him to help her daughter, Jesus reveals his relationship with God and does the right thing.  Later, he gives the man who cannot hear, the ability to hear and so reminds us all to allow God to unplug those ears of our hearts so that we may hear the words of God who loves us so deeply, help us to better know and love God in others and ourselves.

As we enter into these 57 days until the 2012 elections we will be bombarded with advertisements and emails about which candidates can best address the problems we have.  We will have many difficult messages to understand, as each party and person, very passionate about getting our vote tells us why she/he/they are the best to address many of our issues.  Many of us will also have ballot referendums to vote on that will affect people in our communities, or even our very selves and families.  What tends to happen in these electoral campaigns that is so disturbing, is the cash that will be spent on promoting a party or a candidate that is not spent on actually helping the poor, the lonely, the disenfranchised, the immigrant and so on.  The candidates themselves, as well as their campaigns make peoples basic human rights part their playing cards to help them appeal to the voters that they are trying to attract.  But, do they actually have what is in the best interest of upholding the dignity of every human person, as their actual aim?  Or, are they just trying to get a vote, and well, later on, it just was a campaign promise.  It really meant nothing more.

Meanwhile, other campaigns will be launching ads full of fear, with horrible things to say about particular parties, issues or candidates.  Such is the case with ballot referendums that will limit the freedom to marry to straight couples only.  They will suggest that same-sex couples want to get married so that we can molest children, redefine marriage relationships and change what is taught in our schools.  Sadly, many will take messages like this very seriously, and deny LGBT people the freedom of marriage equality.   Because they think of Jesus as a non-sexual, non-romantic kind of guy that just prayed and preached hell to liberals, LGBT people and women who have abortions.  Yet, it is very possible to see Jesus as the Erotic-Christ who touched humankind through the incarnation, healed the sick by lovingly laying his hands on them, washing the feet of his disciples, and allowing Thomas to touch the nail marks in his hands and the wounds in his side after the resurrection. 

If we as Christians and as people of good will are going to make our church and local communities a better place, we must be willing to allow ourselves to get beyond our ignorance and prejudice so that we may become a more welcoming and inclusive people.   To do this, we will need to ask for the grace of God, to help us to find God by loving God, and then love God when we find God in others.  At times it will mean putting the needs of others ahead of our own.  Even if it makes us just a bit uncomfortable.  This is not something we can just do.  We need the unmerited grace of God.  It is never too late, nor inappropriate to ask God for this grace.

Whom might God be calling us to love today?

How might God be moving us to love that other person(s)?

How are we doing things in such a way that distorts the message of God's inclusive love of all people?

What truths are we willing to speak, what actions are we ready to take with God's help to strive for peace and justice for all people, and uphold the dignity of every human being?

The answer is probably just a prayer away.

Amen.


Prayers

Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as
you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength,
so you never forsake those who make their boast of your
mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen. (Proper 18, Book of Common Prayer, p. 223).


O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, p. 815).