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As students of St. John’s College's Great Books Program, our second year focused a great deal on the Bible and theology.
In my seminar that year, two of my classmates, we’ll call them Mr. George and Mr. Andrews, were very confrontational when it came to these religious texts. It made it a little difficult to have a real conversation about them. At the same time, they were the ones brave enough to ask “Can we talk about the Resurrection?” and were quick to admit during the theological writings of Anselm of Canterbury that they had no idea had to respond, one way or another, to his proof for God.
Towards the end of the year, we had a bit of a shift to Francis Bacon, who helped develop the scientific method. Bacon has a lot to say about God, which brought Mr. George and Mr. Andrews back to their confrontational tones. At this point one of our tutors, we’ll call him Mr. Smith, stepped in.
Now Mr. Smith had his own qualms about religion. Unfortunately for him, he had been part of monastic order that was very oppressive, perhaps even to the point of being cultish. Mr. Smith was forced to leave this order for his own mental health, and he left his faith behind too.
However, when it came to our discussion of Bacon, Mr. Smith took our classmates to task. He pointed out that all the early scientific minds were deeply religious, and their task was to learn about the world more so that they could understand God and come closer to God.
Many of us struggle to see the connection between God and the sciences, but it does exist, and there have been witnesses to that connection in this world for a long time. But we don’t just see a connection between God and the sciences. We see a connection between God and God’s presence with all that we do in this world, for each and every one of us.
Seeing God in the most unlikely places and witnessing God in our work and tasks outside this church is what it means for us to be a parish named for St. Luke, marked as both a physician and an evangelist.
It might be difficult at first for us to see the connection between Luke’s profession and faith. Yet the writer of Sirach clearly didn’t see any problems doing so. In Sirach, we hear how physicians were made by God to show forth God’s healing in the world. Physicians aren’t just people for us to respect; they are a way in which we see God working directly in this world.
The role of God in healing is seen all the more in our Gospel from Luke this morning. There Jesus reads one of the messianic passages from Isaiah. There we hear that the Messiah not only has come to give good news to the poor or to set captives free, but that the Messiah has also come to give healing, even to the blind.
Jesus ends this reading by telling the crowd that in their listening, they have heard the fulfillment of this Scripture. The Messiah has indeed come and is standing before them. Like a physician, Jesus is also there to grant God’s healing to them as well.
For Luke, the role of physician wouldn’t have been different from the role to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. The two were very much linked. Both provide healing in this world. Both do the work God has given us to do.
It is so easy for us to forget that the role of science and medicine can actually help bring us closer to God. As Mr. Smith told us at St. John’s, that was the goal of the people who engineered the scientific method. We often forget that our roles in the world, our work in the community and in our homes, are meant to bring us closer to God too.
To be a church named after St. Luke, we have to remember that our work, whatever it may be, is also meant to serve God in this world. Our work is meant to proclaim God to others. Our work is meant to bring ourselves and others closer to God. Our work as Christians doesn’t begin when you walk in these doors or end when you journey out of them. We are called to serve God with all that we have and all that we are at all times.
If you struggle to find God in your life outside of this church, then that is what we are here for. God’s work is very much one of healing, and part of that healing is helping one another see where God is present in our lives, even when we are unaware. If you need help figuring out how you can serve God with all of your being, talk to us. Talk to your siblings in Christ. Talk to your neighbors in this church. Talk to me. We want to help you see how everything you do can be used to better serve God in this world.
Most of all, remember that we are all called to serve God at all times and in all that we do. That is true whether we think our work outside these walls really does serve God or not. God can take our work, even in the most unlikely of things, and use it for healing in this world just as God can be found even in the most unlikely places if we only take the time to listen and be healed by our Lord.