Feast of Saint Luke, Evangelist

Lectionary: 661

But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the  proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

I visited a Cherokee museum in North Carolina several years ago. I read about their creation stories of how the Smoky Mountains came to be. They were very colorful, and rather memorable. But I don't live in the mountains. I don't hunt with a blow gun, nor make baskets out of thin wooden ribbons. I know not a word of the Cherokee language. The stories meant nothing to me. I can't imagine how they might. They are not my stories; I only read about them in a museum.

In the last few years we have become aware of stories, especially of "competing narratives." No story is ever complete. There are always differing accounts and different interpretations of the same accounts. But we make decisions by the stories we accept.

Recently we were bombarded with different accounts of what happened between two high school students in the 1980's. One said she was sexually assaulted; the other said it never happened. The accounts were irreconcilable but the nation was forced to make sense of two credible testimonies. Most people made a choice, deciding which story to believe. Neither story will disappear. They have formed different camps. Both will persist for many years to come with enormous consequence for the nation as a whole.

Unlike the Cherokee stories, gospel stories speak to me because I belong to the believing Church. Not only was I born into it, I was initiated into it. (Many people are born into the church but never initiated. Others despise their initiation, preferring more popular stories that fit their preferred, cultural experience. The gospels mean nothing to them though they might retain some shreds of this or that parable.)

Today we celebrate the Evangelist who wrote the Gospel of Saint Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, approximately one third of the New Testament. Whenever we celebrate any of the Evangelists we should remark upon the astonishing similarity of their narratives. They tell many of the same stories; each of them has his own extra material, differing from the others; but all agree about Jesus of Nazareth, his identity and mission. He is Messiah, Lord and Savior. He was certainly a human being, born of a virgin; not an apparition or disembodied spirit. He was barbarously executed by crucifixion and his suffering was as real as any human has ever suffered. He was raised up again on the third day and revealed to his disciples as the Son of God.

Despite a very short career this Man inspired his disciples to organize and found a Church which has maintained its essential identity and mission despite much opposition, through innumerable historical epochs and in many radically different cultures. Confident that its mission remains intact, the  Church calls itself apostolic and evangelical. That feat could not be accomplished without the work of the Evangelists. Virtually all Christians agree these narratives were written under the inspiration of the One, Eternal God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Unlike other stories, we believe these Gospel stories connect us affectively and effectively to the Truth. Although we have chosen to believe these stories they are not simply "a matter of opinion." Where others disagree with the Gospel, they are unfortunately, tragically wrong. The consequences of disbelief can be devastating; they might destroy individuals, families, societies and life on earth. There are ample warnings in the writings of the Hebrew prophets of ecological catastrophe. 

But if there is a privilege in being Christian it comes with the realization, we are more chosen by the Gospel, than choosing it. If anything, it's my disbelief, sinister and seductive, that sabotages my membership in the Church and my effective witness. 

And so we return to the Gospels day after day, praying for understanding and guidance, for the humility of Saint Luke's virgin who could say with such confidence, "I am the servant of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word."