Luke 10:1-9
2 Timothy 4:15-17
Isaiah 35:3-6
It seems fitting that today, the day on which we hold our AGM, we should celebrate the feast of St Luke.
Luke – that great evangelist who accompanied St Paul on many of his ministerial travels and then wrote his own gospel and an account acts of the apostles. These two works constitute the largest piece of writing in the NT. Both works are dedicated to a man called Theophilus who may have been a wealthy and influential Christian. Luke himself was probably a gentile by birth, well educated, an historian with an outstanding command of written Greek.
The first thing people probably think of when asked about St Luke is that he was a physician, a doctor. We see this reflected throughout the gospel as Luke recalls Jesus’ healing miracles not just of the body but of the whole person.
For example, we have Jairus’ daughter, the women with haemorrhages, Luke 8 40-56 and the man with the unclean spirit, Luke 4:31-37.
The second thing people might think of when they consider Luke’s gospel is his concern for the poor. He writes more about this than any of the other gospels – and his particular focus on the outsider and the outcast.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of god” he recalls Jesus in the sermon on the plain.
Only Luke with his concern the poor records the miracle of the raising of the widow’s son, Luke 7: 11-17 highlighting the poverty a widow can face.
The third thing people might know about the gospel of Luke is that, of all the gospel writers, he is most concerned to root the story of Jesus in history.
Evident by the sheer number of difficult to pronounce names (of people and places) in Luke’s gospel – he talks about who’s who, he mentions the names of the places Jesus went, and the names of all the Roman Governors, and the High Priests. Luke wanted to establish that Jesus wasn’t a myth – an idea, he was a real person, and everything in the gospels actually happened.
He begins with the details of his birth including stories which bringing us the wonderful words of the Magnificat and the Nunc demits that we treasure in our liturgy.
Today as we hold our AGM, we give thanks for the life of our church, we reflect on the ministry of the last year and we pray for the challenges of the future.
In the gospel this morning we read an account of Jesus sending out the seventy to proclaim the gospel. In his humanity he understands the difficulties they will face, as he understands ours, so he sends them out in pairs with specific instructions to ease their task.
In the epistle Paul describes his struggle to Timothy but assures him of the Lord’s presence.
“But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.”
In the OT, the prophet Isaiah offers further reassurance of God’s salvation to the people of the exile, but this also speaks to us today.
“Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the feeble needs
say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear,
your God will come,
he will come to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind 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.”
Whatever challenges we face, our ancestors also knew what it was to struggle, but they did so knowing the presence and love of God, as we still do today.