Sermon, Feast of St. Luke (tr. from 10/18)

Today we are celebrating the Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist.  His feast day is actually October 18, but since nobody is going to come to church on Thursday, and in good Anglican tradition and following the rules of the Prayer Book (which state that a patronal feast day may be transferred to a Sunday except in Advent, Lent and Easter), I made the executive decision to transfer the day to today.  And, as you have already guessed, when we transfer the feast, we transfer the Collect, lessons and color of the day as well.

I don’t know if this congregation has ever celebrated the feast day of our patron saint; I do know we didn’t do it last year because it sort of snuck up on me.  But we should be celebrating St. Luke every year.  After all, we get, or used to get, celebrations on our own birthdays.  Why not give the same honor to our namesake?

So today we remember St. Luke.  As with most disciples and evangelists, we don’t know a whole lot about Luke; but we do know more about him than most others.  Luke was the beloved physician mentioned by Paul.  We are fairly certain that this was the same Luke who wrote the gospel bearing his name, as well as being the author of the Acts of the Apostles.  He didn’t know Jesus, but was inspired through the testimony of others.  He wrote in Greek to reach the Gentiles.  The Luke-Acts series reads more like a chronicle of events than the other three gospels, and in that chronicle there are 6 miracles and 18 parables that are unique to his gospel.

But I really don’t want to talk about why we should commemorate Luke on or about October 18, give a history lesson on Luke, or discuss apocryphal stories about where he died and where his relics reside.  Instead, I want to tell you a story.

Several years ago I was serving two small parishes in Montana.  I didn’t know it then, but I was coming to the end of my tenure there.  Around this time we were looking at merging the two congregations into one.  One of the discussions we were having was whether or not to make a name change to reflect the newly combined congregation.  In my search for new names, I happened to come across a piece about whether or not church names had any impact on the congregation itself.

As I recall, the author looked at several congregations and their personalities to see if that were the case.  Was St. Augustine’s more prone to an academic style of being with theologically deep sermons and a high quality of adult education?  Was St. Michael and All Angels more prone to feistiness, and an attitude of taking on or doing battle with the world?  Did All Saints see themselves as current saints of God, sharing time and space with the saints and martyrs of old? 

In some cases, the congregations did take on the ethos of their namesake.  They placed a high value on education, they had a high sense of social justice, and they lived out their calling to be saints of God.  In other cases, the congregations were just congregations with names like you would expect to see on any Episcopal church.

This reminds me of parents who give their children “important” names, or names they think will impact their life.  Roger might sound manly enough to be an astronaut, a baseball player, a quarterback or a naval commander.  Mary might conjure up images of a self-assured young woman who is faithful and equal to men.

One of the more famous names came from a parent who wanted to ensure the boy would be able to take care of himself in a cruel world.  He said,

            Son, this world’s rough

            And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough

            And I knew I wouldn’t be there to help you along

            And it’s the name that helped to make you strong

From the Shel Silverstein song, “A Boy named Sue.”

On the other end of the spectrum, I’m not quite sure where Frank Zappa was going with Moon Unit.

Anyway . . . what’s in a name?  If we believe, as so many people in the past have, that names have power and meaning, what does it mean for us to be the people of St. Luke’s?  As a congregation that owes our name to a beloved physician, are we doing things that help to heal people?  I could argue that opening up our parish hall to AA, NA, OA and Al-Anon helps to pave the way to healing.  I could also argue that our new initiative of collecting money for the Family Advocacy program at Ft. Vannoy School during our monthly potlucks helps to bring health to children who live chronically unhealthy lives.

As a congregation that owes our name to a chronicler, what are we doing that chronicles salvation history in our own lives?  People have argued that Luke’s gospel is the most beautiful of the four.  That beautiful salvation history shows up in the beautiful liturgy of the church.  It shows up when we realize that Luke set out to write a careful and orderly account of the truth of things, and that we also partake of holy things decently and in order.  It shows up when the adult ed class between services discusses what the many facets of God means to them.  It shows up when we discuss the theological implications of movies such as Toy Story, Pale Rider and others.

As we continue in the life of this congregation, maybe we should pay more attention to the importance of names.  As we continue in the life of this congregation, maybe we should intentionally ask ourselves, “What qualities of Luke do we, or can we, emulate?”  And as we continue in the life of this congregation, maybe we can ask ourselves, “WWLD – What Would Luke Do” as we discern what new ministry to pursue.

May we continue to be a place of love and healing in the best tradition of St. Luke.   

Amen.