Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Can you answer this riddle?  What is like a 32 foot roll of wall paper and looks good news? Well it has to be the Gospel of Luke. Because, you see, the original would have been written on a scroll of papyrus. And due this text’s relative length, the resulting bundle would have been a bulky item indeed. Maybe this is why, Luke’s Gospel was not hugely used in the early church. However, a bit like tattoos, it has had very much a revival today. This isn’t too surprising for it is less enigmatic than Mark, less harsh in its pronouncements than Matthew and certainly less theoretical than John.

 

But there may be another reason for its current popularity. It is this. Luke’s is the most social minded, international even universal of all the gospels. And this chimes well with our interconnected, joined up and globally aware community that is 21st Century planet earth. As a result, it has a lot to say to God’s people within this spherical village.

 

Most notably, from very early on, Luke makes abundantly clear Christ’s concern for women, for tax collectors and for all who were marginalised in the ancient world. That’s why he included unique biblical material such as the prodigal son and the Good Samaritan. It these issues that to he develops in a narrative that starts with Christ’s impoverished birth and early ministry in the sticks of Galilee before his journey towards the seat of power - Jerusalem. It is there the world’s powers seem at first to gain the upper hand in Christ’s crucifixion but ultimately they lose the game after the resurrection. Since, to Luke, it was that act of God that created a new ruling caste – the followers of Jesus.  Indeed, as the Book of Acts which is Luke’s sequel tells us, it is this new elite empowered with the Spirit that brought real hope, promise and liberation to the poor in mind, body and soul.

 

And nowhere is this agenda of Luke made more transparent than in our first lesson this morning. For, in it, we hear Jesus standing up in his hick synagogue and reading of the glorious new world imagined by the Prophet Isaiah.

 

This is the passage he was refereeing to:

 

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

     because he has anointed me

     to preach good news to the poor.

  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

     and recovery of sight for the blind,

  to release the oppressed,

   to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."

 

 

 

For, by proclaiming this prophetic vision, he tells the people of God’s will to change the world. Then by rolling up the scroll, he suggests the old era has been rolled up and handed back to the old people of God. Only then, once all eyes were fastened on him, does he set out his stall. He says, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

 

Pretty Dramatic stuff, but that is not the only good news Luke reveals in this passage. For, after Christ’s reading, we hear that the crowd took him to the brow of the hill in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through them and went on his way.

 

 

In other words, Luke is unquestionably pointing out that any human malevolence towards this new reign of God will come to naught. That any attempt to stop the risen Christ changing the world to one without poverty and oppression just will not happen.  Moreover, he goes on to infer that those who also take up God’s cause too will not be thwarted no matter what obstructions are placed in there way. Or as Martin Luther King once said – I’ve been to the mountain top. And I’ve looked over and seen the promised land. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

 

Maybe you are familiar with David Heller's delightful little book, Dear God: Children's Letters to God.  

 

There are some wonderfully witty observations.

 

For example,

 Dear God, What do you think about all those films made about you around Christmas time? I think they're kind of corny, myself. Your buddy, Charles (aged 9)

 Dear God, What do you do with people that don't have much faith? There's a family on the next road like that. I don't want to get them in trouble, so I can't say who. See you in church. Alexis (aged 10)

 Dear God, Want to hear a joke? What is red, very long, and you hear it right before you go to sleep? Give up? A sermon. Your friend, Frank (aged 11)

Then there is this one from a youngster who sees all the misery in the world and wonders: "Dear God, I have doubts about you sometimes. Sometimes I really believe. Like when I was four and I hurt my arm and you healed it up fast. But my question is, if you could do this why don't you stop all the bad in the world? Like war. Like diseases. Like famine. Like drugs.. I'll try to believe more. Ian (aged 10)"

 

 

Well rather like young Ian there, when you survey the globe today it is not hard sometimes to be downhearted. It is not difficult to feel the vision of a godly change is slipping people’s minds. It can be felt that the gospel is no longer catalysing those striving to roll up the bad old times and open up the new. Moreover, it can be thought that Christians, who are desperate usher in God’s will, are being marginalised into terminal decline.

 

Yet when we look back at the long history of Jesus reshaping the world, we should not remain in the gloom. For there have been eras of hostility, disinterest and obstruction before.

 

 

And so today, we must think of ourselves as like those demoralised disciples just after the crucifixion.  We must recall too their doubts when a stranger told them that they were now required to change the world. And above all, we must bring to mind the fact that they did exactly that!

 

And it all started when Christ stood in their midst and said – - "Peace be with you."

 

So to that is exactly what he says to us now  – calm down – give me space – peace be with you.

 

Then as we bemoan our apparent loss of influence in a world so much in need of his vision, promise and its fruits, Jesus reiterates that no human force has prevailed against him. Indeed, he makes plain that his body the church has, over twenty centuries, remained unbroken.

 

So why should that change now?   

 

Then when we continue to argue, he shut us up with the proclamation:

 

"Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself!

 

 Put another way if he can leave the tomb behind what have we to worry about!

 

Lastly, when gain new heart in his live presence– he once more gives us our marching orders. These are the same ones as Luke’s records he passed on to his first disciples;  repentance and forgiveness are to be preached in my name to all nations, beginning at the seat of power.  You as my witnesses are to do these things. For then and only then, am I going to send you what my Father has promised. Now go and worship for you are indeed blessed; now go and worship for we are invincible; now go and worship for together we will be victorious.

 

 

A manager was complaining at his staff meeting the other day that he wasn't getting any respect. Later that morning he went to a local stationary shop and bought a sign that read:

"I'm the Boss!" He then taped it to his office door.  Later, when he returned from lunch, he found that someone had taped a note to the sign that said: "Your wife phoned - she wants her sign back!"

 

Well, in a way there are some things in this story like the Gospel of Luke and some things that aren’t. For on that day in the synagogue, Jesus put the world on notice. It was that he was now in charge and he was going to change the world to benefit those who need it most. But the people disputed it. So to prove that he had the real power, he reappeared as the risen Christ and turned doubt into triumph.  The result has been, ever since, no one has wanted that notice back. No one who meets him fails to give respect. In truth, no one ever disputes that God has said – He is the boss! Now, is that not news that is worth a long Luke?  

 

 

 

 

St Luke’s Gospel