St. Luke the Evangelist

Sunday, 18 October 2009
The Rev’d Lloyd Prator

New York City

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist , which is usually transferred to an Monday when it occurs on a Sunday, but because we are having the major healing liturgy at the 11:00 eucharist and it seemed a good day to remember Luke.

Luke is considered something of the patron saint of healing and of physicians, but that is probably not based on much good evidence that he was a physician or was particularly focused upon healing. Efforts to link him with medicine have sometimes been pretty strained: One writer pointed out that of all the evangelists, only he has Jesus heal the ear of the roman solider whose ear was cut off by Peter. Luke has a lot of healing stories in the gospel narrative, many of his miracles are concerned with healing,--but then again a lot of the miracles in all four gospels are concerned with healing.

But, because healing is an important aspect of Christian life and the church’s practice of pastoral care, the connection of Luke with healing has endured. And it is a good connection. And one that we celebrate today.

The readings help us to think about Luke in some interesting ways. The first reading consists of a series of sayings from the Apocrypha, the book of Ecclesiasticus, about healing coming from God through the hands of the physician. Medicines come from the earth, the pharmacist mixes them and eases pain as health is spread over the earth. We are urged to pray for physicians that the Lord may grant them success in diagnosis and in healing for the sake of preserving life.

The second reading attempts to pick up a small detail about the life of Luke, about whom we don’t know very much. The writer of second timothy, who may be St. Paul the Apostles, is writing to his friend Timothy at a time when things are pretty low for him. He is being poured out like a libation; the time of his death is coming. His friends have deserted him in his hour of need. Demas became too worldly for the faith, Crescens went off on a vacation to Galatia, Titus went to Dalmatia, and only Luke was with him. So, when all else had given up on him, Luke was the steadfast friend whose love and care was remarkable to the writer.

The gospel portrays a story of Jesus beginning his ministry, a story unique to Luke’s gospel, in which Jesus goes to him home synagogue, and took his turn as lay reader and preacher.

So Luke may have been a physician, he certainly was a good friend, and he was a careful collector of sayings about Jesus in order than details otherwise missing might be preserved.

Hospitals are frequently named for Luke, as is the Episcopal Hospital here in Manhattan.

So, today, the reading put together a number of things a bout Luke the Evangelist. And, in fact, that is a good dynamic, because in order to understand what the church teaches, it is necessary to put together a number of things from a number of directions.

So, lets do that. Christian healing comes from physicians, from what they can do to fix our bodies. It also comes from the Church and from God, in the way that God can heal the spirit. It also comes from the mind, because how we think and how we reason affects how we understand the world around us and are available for God’s healing power.

Comes from Body, Mind, and Spirit. Working together. If you are facing serious illness, consider, we are urged by the church, to these dimension of health working together: Healing of the body, healing of the spirit, healing of the mind.

Healing of body has advanced in ways almost miraculous in the past generation or two. There are things that people can have done now which were only vague possibilities a few decades ago. I had spinal surgery about 13 years ago, and remember as a small child suffering from back pain, that the doctor once said, “One day there will be a surgery to fix this, but it is not here yet.” Fortunately, in 1996, when I needed it, it was available and I had it and it mad such a difference. My mother suffered from what I believe were damaged rotator cuffs in her shoulders, but there was nothing to do—she just suffered. Years later when her son came along with the same problem, it could be—and was, fixed.

The possibilities of stem cell research are immense and so very hopeful, now that the political and moral issues have been addressed.

Healing of the spirit is an important part of healing. Every now and again, some medical journal will report that having one’s religious life in order contributes to the work of physicians, --those who pray and have faith seem to recover better, it seems. Healing of the spirit can be a way of helping a sick person for whom there is no possibility of bodily healing. Sometimes one is healed by coming to accept forthcoming death. Losing the fear of death and preparing for a new life beyond this life can be the final step; the ultimate healing for it is eternal.

Healing of mind has made strong advances in recent years. Good psychiatrists often insist that their patients have frequent physicals in order that the possibility of physical illness may be addressed along with mental illness. The wealth of medications now available to ease the pain of depression or anxiety are certainly among modern examples of medicines created from the earth, as Ecclesiasticus put it.

The unity of body, soul and spirit remind us that human beings are essentially a unity, a single being with several dimensions. Each of the dimensions of healing cooperate to make

Healing is about things coming together. The story of Luke the Evangelist is the story of a number of gifts of an extraordinary man which together form a story which we do well to emulate and recall, whether we find ourselves healthy or in need of care, cure, and hope.