Kirby Gleason, Licensed Lay Preacher
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:5-13
Today is the Feast day of St. Luke.
To be honest, I don’t really know what that means. The evangelical tradition I was raised in didn’t honor saints in this way. I mean, sure, I was taught to think Luke was a big deal…after all he wrote the Gospel of Luke, but I have no idea what it means to be a saint and what a feast day is supposed to be. But, our church is named after St. Luke, so he is important to us, and today is his Feast day When I volunteered to preach today, I was excited to do some research and learn a little about who St. Luke was and why he is important. I’d like to share with you a little of what I learned about him.
Now, as with any ancient history, but especially with religious ancient history, there is not full consensus about some of the things I found. Most of the sources I checked said things like “Most scholars believe…” or “still other scholars have this opposing viewpoint”, so you may have heard different things.
Many believe Luke was born in the Syrian city of Antioch to a Greek family. There is some disagreement, but many believe him to be a gentile, which, if true, would make him the only non-Jewish person to have written any book in the New Testament. I wonder how that affected his life. Was he often feeling like an “other”?
Luke was an educated man. After all, we know him as “The Physician”. His writing is erudite and sophisticated, with conscious and intentional allusions to Classical Greek authors such as Homer, Aesop, and Plato. This tells us that Luke was likely educated in a very Hellenistic curriculum. His writing is thought to be more historically accurate, even from secular perspectives. Whereas some of Jesus’s disciples were fishermen and tax collectors, Luke had much more of a formal education. He is the author of the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.
Luke is also the patron saint of Artists. He is believed to have been a prolific painter, and is thought to have painted the very first icon of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child. He is also thought to have painted portraits of Peter and Paul, and produced an illustrated gospel. It seems fitting that our saint is an artist, after all, we are a community of artists.
So here we have St Luke – the Evangelist (as an author of one of the 4 gospels—Matthew, Mark, and John are also “the Evangelist”), St Luke the Physician (a medical doctor), St Luke the Historian (an educated intellectual), and St. Luke the Artist (the original iconographer). Wow! A hero! A saint indeed!
And, while I look at all these things, I’m impressed, and amazed! But, I honestly have a hard time seeing myself in these things. I’m no medical doctor. I barely follow my own doctor’s directions for me to live a healthy life. I’m in no way telling someone else how to be healthy! And, while I have been privileged with some education, I’m not an intellectual. I haven’t written any books or read any classics recently. I watch far too much meaningless TV and read too few books. And I’m no artist! I’ve never been good nor taken the time to practice drawing or painting or sculpture. My fingers lack the dexterity to knit, and I play no instruments. So what am I to learn from the life of St Luke?
I looked to our lectionary readings for today, and I think I found my answer in just 5 words from Paul’s letter to Timothy. Paul is wrapping up his letter and is sending greetings to others and asking for some favors. He wants books and supplies sent, and even a favorite cloak. He asks people to come visit him, because he has work for them to do. Keep in mind that it is thought that Paul is in prison while he is writing this letter. He writes “Only Luke is with me”.
Here’s Paul, in prison, lonely and worried about all the work that needs to be done, and his friend Luke drops everything to come be with him. Luke leaves his medical practice, his books, his easel and palette, and goes and hangs with his friend in prison.
There’s something meaningful and holy about companionship. About just being there for someone. Sure, there are tasks to be done and acts of service, but I think the most meaningful is just being there. Just being with.
Author A.A. Milne illustrates this in a Winnie the Pooh story. It goes like this:
“It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn’t heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore’s stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore.
“Hello Eeyore,” said Pooh.
“Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet,” said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice.
“We just thought we’d check in on you,” said Piglet, “because we hadn’t heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay.”
Eeyore was silent for a moment. “Am I okay?” he asked, eventually. “Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That’s what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven’t bothered you. Because you wouldn’t want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now.”
Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.
Eeyore looked at them in surprise. “What are you doing?”
“We’re sitting here with you,” said Pooh, “because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.”
“Oh,” said Eeyore. “Oh.” And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.
Because Pooh and Piglet were There.
No more; no less.
“Only Luke is With Me” Paul tells us – no more and no less.
Father Gregory Boyle, a Catholic priest who ministers in prisons, also talks about this…he calls it kinship. Father Boyle also founded Homeboy Industries, an organization that offers jobs and services to those recently released from incarceration. In his book Tattoos on the Heart, he talks about how often he baptizes people in prison, and when he does, he gives them his card and tells them to come see him when they get out. One young man, a gregarious and funny guy, did just that. When he showed up they exchanged some jokes and collapsed together in uproarious laughter. Father Boyle writes: “The two of us collapsed in laughter, and suddenly, there’s kinship so quickly. Not service provider and service recipient. No daylight to separate—just “us”. Exactly what God had in mind. Often we strike the high moral distance that separates “us” from “them”, and yet it is God’s dream come true when we recognize there is no daylight between us. Kinship – not serving the other, but being one with the other. Jesus was not “a man for others”, he was one with them.”
Just being “with” another (no more, no less) is holy. And this “being with” is the most important thing. Luke must have known that. And this action is something I can do. Something we can do. “Being with” does not require a medical degree, or the ability to push a brush…it’s just “being with”.
In the poem Rev. Sara read earlier, Dr. Angelou proclaims that nobody can make it alone. If that’s true, then, by God, maybe we can make it together. And that starts by “being with”.
As we celebrate and remember St Luke today, I’d like to humbly suggest a new honorific: St. Luke the Companion, and may we be inspired to seek ways to just be with.
No more, No less.
Amen.
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