October 20, 2020

October 18^th is always a very special day in the church when we celebrate the ministry of St. Luke, The Evangelist. Not only is he celebrated for his writing of The Gospel according to St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, but he was also a companion of St. Paul on his Missionary Journeys, famously seen by Paul, as described in Acts 16:9

During the night Paul had a vision; there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’

We know this was Luke, as the narrative in the book changes from “they” to “we” immediately after the vision. Luke became part of the missionary team and took part in Paul’s Second and Third Missionary Journeys and accompanied him to Rome, where he stayed during Paul’s captivity. St. Luke was unmarried, wrote his Gospel in Greece, and died at the age of 84 in Boeotia.

Luke’s Gospel is written in Greek and its outstanding characteristic is its insistence on the life, death and teachings of Christ as a message of UNIVERSAL SALVATION addressed to all, not only the Jews – hence, it is by far my favourite Gospel. Passages which are only found in his Gospel stress Jesus’s kindness and human understanding, e.g., the Parable of The Prodigal Son (15:11-32), his words to the women of Jerusalem (23:27-31), the promise to the thief while on the Cross (23:43), his care for outcasts and an austere devotion to poverty (6:20 and 16:19-31 – the Parable of Dives and Lazarus). There are also a remarkable number of references to women we don’t find in the other Gospels, e.g., Elizabeth (1:5-66), the widow of Nain (7:11-17), and the woman in the crowd who blessed Christ’s mother (11:27), while it is Mary, not Joseph, who plays the principal part in the Birth of Jesus. Traditionally, it is thought that Mary was a prime source for his Gospel and, as Reverend Jennifer Schick arrives as our priest, let us give thanks to God for the role of women in Christ’s life and the Church and, with Luke, celebrate their contribution down the centuries and in the present day.

St. Luke is the patron of doctors and artists because he was a doctor of medicine by profession and an artist of note whose most famous painting is that of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. He is believed to have died on this day and his relics were translated in 356 to Constantinople (Istanbul), where they lie in the Church of the Apostles.

Our prayer for today is the Collect for St. Luke’s Day:

Almighty God, you called Luke the physician, whose praise is in the gospel,  to be an evangelist and physician of the soul: by the grace of the Spirit, and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel, give your Church the same love and power to heal; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. 

Thursday, October 15

There is something comforting about the Lord’s prayer. It is probably one of the most prayed prayers in the whole world. Just for fun I googled “Lord’s Prayer.” I didn’t find out any Canadian facts, but I found out that in the U.K. there are five versions in use. Anglicans account for three of these, a Roman Catholic committee produced another one and a fifth is traditional and used in Scotland. I also stumbled upon an article written about Benjamin Franklin. In the 1700s he purposed changed to the prayer. As I have never heard this version before, I am guessing it was not widely accepted.

The Lord’s Prayer is part of the Sermon on the Mount and is preceded by some teachings on prayer. Jesus wants to ensure that his followers have the right attitude when they pray and that the prayers come from the heart. The words are less important than how you pray. If we are merely saying the words out of habit than it becomes easy to let our minds think of other things while we are praying, which is the exact opposite to what God wants us to do.

Jesus never expected us to simply say the words of this prayer only but to also use it as a model for the other prayers we pray.

• Our Father – This phrase conveys the concept of God’s warm, personal and authorative position in our lives. Like a loving father God wants us to call on him.
• Hallowed be thy name – Even though God wants us to call him Father, he is still God and is to be respected and honoured.
• Thy kingdom come; thy will be done – By saying this we are seeking God’s plan for us. This is not always easy. We are surrendering our will to Gods.
• On earth as it is in heaven – This acknowledges that there is a better way then we are doing it. We are acknowledging that the world is not as should be and there is a better world coming.
• Give us this day our daily bread – We are not praying to win the lottery but for enough to live from day to day. Remember when the Israelites were wandering around in the desert with Moses, God provided for their needs on a daily basis.
• And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil – We are asking God for help to do the right thing and protect us from the evils of the world.
• For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever – This is not actually part of the prayer but is actually a doxology. A doxology is a liturgical form of praise to God.
• Amen – This word has Hebrew origin meaning “so be it” and is commonly used after a prayer, creed or other formal statement. It is spoken to express solemn agreement.

Prayer is a special way of talking to God and the best way to develop a relationship with him.

PRAYER:

Heavenly Father:
May all revere thee and become thy dutiful children and subjects.
May thy laws be obeyed on earth as perfectly as they are in heaven.
Provide for us this day as thou hast hitherto daily done.
Forgive us our trespasses and enable us likewise to forgive those that offend us.
Keep us out of temptation and deliver us from evil.
AMEN

By Ben Franklin

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

I am enjoying being a grandparent! Debbie and I have five grandchildren, four girls and the most recent edition – now a one-year old boy who bears my two middle names, Lawrence Patrick.  All of them live too far away in terms of easy travelling, but via telephone, Zoom or Facetime we manage to keep in regular contact. Our oldest two granddaughters are becoming quite the conversationalists. Recently one of them recently asked, “So what did you do today Grandpa?” I can imagine the following response and ensuing interchange:

“Well, I have been working on writing about the Beatitudes.”

“What’s a bee-ati-tood?”

“It’s about a story that Jesus told to his close friends and other people who were listening to him teach one day.”

“Okay, but what IS a bee-ati-tood?”

“It is a very old word that means to be really, really happy. Jesus was teaching people who listened to him that they would become really happy if they lived in a certain way.”

“Oh, … do you want to come outside with me? I’ll take my tablet and show you my new rocks.”

Well, so much for on-line catechesis! Today, I would like to share three things about the Beatitudes, the first of three elements of the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew’s gospel.

1. The Beatitudes have been defined as being among the first teachings of Jesus’s ministry regarding the lives and dispositions of His followers (The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms). Scriptural references to the beatitudes are found in two of the Gospels (Matthew 5:3-11 and Luke 6:20-22). Jesus’ sermon begins with a description of those who would be blessed by God. For instance, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). The Beatitudes are but one component of the famous Sermon on the Mount. In chapters six and seven, Matthew’s gospel gives more specifics of how to be a Christian – including Concerning Prayer – The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) and The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12).

Pastor and author Charles Swindoll (1981) wrote that each of the Beatitudes represents a character trait that identifies true servanthood in Christ. He noted that for each of the eight-character traits, there is a corresponding promise made by God. For example. “Blessed are the pure in heart – (trait), for they will see God.”- (promise). Swindoll goes on to say that when all eight of these qualities are mixed together, we as followers of Christ will come to lead a different lifestyle than we now live and in doing so may please God. The Beatitudes are also not some form of multiple-choice listing from which we can pick-and-choose as we see fit.

2. Jonathan Pennington (2017) wrote that the Beatitudes represent God’s wisdom – where Jesus is inviting us through faith to re-orient our values, vision, and habits into a life in God’s kingdom both now and in the future age. He stated that no one can perfectly perform the vision captured in the Sermon on the Mount – except Jesus. Yet, the Beatitudes are still relevant to our 21^st century lives. He noted that by faith and through grace, Jesus invites us into a practical life of discipleship. This is on both an individual and collective basis.

Pennington cautions us, however, that these initial teachings of Jesus are not all that you and I need to know. He states that the “end game” of the Gospel story is the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah and it is through His faithfulness that a new covenant is realized between God and humanity. In this we are made alive – all of this by grace. And now standing in God’s amazing grace, we as individual believers respond to Jesus’s invitation in the Beatitudes and the remaining parts of the Sermon to true servanthood – with a commitment of ourselves to God in Christ and living our lives in full accordance to His will.

Each of the eight Beatitudes describes the new community in Jesus from a different perspective; the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who desire righteousness and justice, the merciful, those pure in heart, the peacemakers and those persecuted for His sake. These Beatitudes also anticipate specific behavioral standards for our community.

3. In a 2017 review of N.T. Wright’s book, Simply Jesus and a companion audio lecture series to the text, Rich Lewis wrote,

“In lecture ten, Wright discusses the Beatitudes. I particularly enjoyed his take on the Beatitudes. I think you will too. The kingdom of heaven is not a place called heaven. Heaven is used as a reverent way to talk about God. The kingdom of heaven means God is king. Jesus taught his followers to pray that God will become king on earth as He is in heaven. God’s sovereignty is to come to birth on earth. Jesus launched the kingdom of God. It will happen now! And his followers get to be part of it. Even today we get to be part of it. Jesus told them and even us now to be the people of God in a whole new way. They and us today can be the people of God because Jesus is here and will lead the way. … Will you be part of the movement?”

Prayer

You have said that the poor in spirit are blessed.

Yet we pretend to be powerful and pursue the lie of self-sufficiency. Give us humble hearts and help us depend on your grace and goodness for every moment.

O humble God, we need you.

You have said that those who mourn are blessed.

Yet we would often rather numb ourselves through movies and media than open ourselves to the reality of grief in the world and in our hearts. Help us look up from our phones toward you and give us strength to be present in pain.

O comforting God, we need you.

You have said that the meek are blessed.

Yet we follow the call of advertisements and corporate ladders, pursuing the treasures of this world. Help us steward our earthly blessings well and find our true treasure in you.

O generous God, we need you.

You have said that those who desire righteousness and justice are blessed.

Yet we are so easily lulled into the comfort of complacency. Fill us with your Spirit that we might flee from sin and fight for your justice.

O holy God, we need you.

You have said that the merciful are blessed.

Yet we harbor anger and resentment in our hearts. Heal our bitterness, teach us to forgive, and help us work toward restoration in our lives and world.

O merciful God, we need you.

You have said that the pure in heart are blessed.

Yet we go about our days with mixed motives, sometimes of service and sometimes of selfishness. Purify our hearts and help us to be people of integrity and honesty.

O present God, we need you.

You have said that the peacemakers are blessed,

Yet we live in a polarized world where it is easier to take sides than build bridges. Give us ears to humbly listen and tongues seasoned with grace that we might carry your non-anxious presence through the world.

O Father God, we need you.

You have said that the persecuted are blessed,

Yet we enjoy our places of privilege in our families, our city, and this world. Give us humble hearts ready to forsake our comforts and seek those on the margins.

O blessed God, we need you.

Amen.

• by Drew Dixon (2018)