Saint Luke the Evangelist

(transferred from October 18)

The Collect of the Day
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 and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.


The Psalm
147


The Readings
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 38:1-4, 6-10, 12-14    +    2 Timothy 4:5-13    +    Luke 4:14-21

Do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
~ 2 Tim. 4:5


Luke, the traditional author of the Gospel that bears his name and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, is supposed also to have been a physician by trade (according to an attribution by Paul in his closing remarks to the Colossians). The collect and readings for this day emphasize this two-fold nature of Luke's identity: "beloved physician" and evangelist (lit., "preacher of the good news").

It's not difficult to hold together these two vocations--the one seeks to heal the body, which is a part of the other, a proclamation of total healing. The gospel is good news because it announces the healing and wholeness God intends for us. This is how Jesus, quoting Isaiah, announces the inauguration of his ministry in Luke's Gospel:
"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."

This holistic vision is at the center of the good news of Jesus Christ. We may have a tendency to set the physical and the spiritual in opposition to each other, but the gospel allows for no neglect--to prioritize either one to the detriment of the other misses the totality of the healing that God offers. Our definition of evangelism is often too narrow. Evangelism is nothing less than the proclamation of God's healing of the world in and through Christ.

Such all-encompassing good news is sorely needed today in our bifurcated and suffering world. And it demands all kinds of messengers. It is not only "professional" evangelists, or clergy, who are called to proclaim the gospel. It is not only doctors and nurses who are called to a ministry of healing. Paul was a tent-maker. Peter was a fisherman. All the saints, by virtue of our baptism, are called to do the work of an evangelist and to carry out our ministries fully.

 

Closing Prayers
Jesus, thank you for the healing you bring to our world. Help us to see you at work around us and within us. Help us to engage in our work in such a way that it may be a vehicle for proclaiming in varied and wonderful ways the good news of your salvation. Amen.

And in this time of pandemic, here is a prayer For Doctors and Nurses, page 460 of the BCP:

Sanctify, O Lord, those whom you have called to the study and practice of the arts of healing, and to the prevention of disease and pain. Strengthen them by your life-giving Spirit, that by their ministries the health of the community may be promoted and your creation glorified; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

An icon of St. Luke, depicting him writing his Gospel,
with some implements of his trade as physician on a nearby table.