Tomorrow is St. Luke\u2019s day. We know a little bit about Luke – he travelled with Paul on some of his journeys and Paul calls him the \u2018dear doctor\u2019. He also wrote a couple of the books in the bible\u2026 Luke, of course, and the Acts of the Apostles – the first hand story of the beginnings of the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems like Luke laid aside his medical work to\nfollow a different calling. I have to admit to being a bit judgmental when I\nhear for people who have trained as doctors giving it all up – like Tim\nKinnaird, who gave up paediatrics to open a Macaron shop in Norwich after\nwinning Masterchef. It\u2019s not for me to judge – and we did have one of his\ndelicious macarons when we were there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Luke is different. I think that for him, moving\nout from being a doctor of medicine to telling the story of Jesus and the first\nChristians is a natural development. He sees Jesus bringing people a wider\nhealing, a deeper healing. The word for to save in Greek – the language Luke\nused to write his gospel – is also the word for to heal. Both are to do with\nbeing made whole, being made new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s interesting to see the stories Luke includes in\nhis gospel that aren\u2019t in the other gospels. The story about Zacchaeus – the\nsmall and unpopular tax collector. Jesus sees him in the tree, invites himself\nfor a meal, and Zacchaeus then has a huge change of heart. He says he\u2019ll repay\neveryone he\u2019s swindled and give half his money to the poor. Jesus says \u2018Truly,\nsalvation has come to this house\u2019 – or should that be \u2018healing has come to this\nlife\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then there\u2019s the \u2018Good Samaritan\u2019 – the story Jesus\ntells about the man who is beaten up, left for dead, ignored by the important\nand religious people, and looked after by this \u2018foreigner\u2019 who tends his wounds\nand takes him to a place where he can recover. Luke has a particular awareness\nof those who pick up and gently care for those beaten up by life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other parable that only Luke includes is the\nparable of the two sons – the one who takes his father\u2019s money, goes off and\nwastes it all, comes crawling back home and is welcomed with open arms – and\nthe one whose lifestyle is beyond reproach but whose heart is hardened and in\njust as much need of healing. There is a healing which God offers us whenever\nwe turn back to him – having hurt ourselves or others through the bad choices\nwe have made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luke tells us that this wider and deeper healing is at\nthe heart of what Jesus came to do – he sets it out right at the beginning of\nhis ministry – bringing good news to the poor, healing the broken hearted,\noffering freedom and new vision\u2026 And then he describes how Jesus acts out this\ncalling in many encounters he has with people in need of many sorts of healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I get older, and have more of my life to look back\non, I have a sense that one way of looking at it is as a journey of healing.\nLife wounds us – especially when we are young, before we\u2019ve build up our\ndefence mechanisms. It may take all of our lives – and more – to heal the hurts\nof our childhood – even though our parents did their best. And then there is a\nfurther healing that we need – to free us from the very defence mechanisms\nwhich we have built up – to soften us again so that we can more fully give and\nreceive love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus still brings us with healing. This may be through\nsome special time of prayer, it may be through the day by day care that we\noffer to each other as a healing community made up of broken people and it may\nbe through our year by year inner journey into all the love and the life that\nGod has for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might like to think about the ways in which God\nhas been working his healing in your life\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loving Lord, we thank you for your gentle touch on our\nlives, and on our souls. Open us more and more deeply to your healing, your\nfreedom and your love\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We think of those we know who are in need of healing,\nof whatever sort\u2026 Lord, we know that you know them and love them. May they\nbecome more aware of that love, and may they find strength and peace and the\ndeepest healing\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lord, you call us to work with you in your\ntransforming love. May we be channels of your care – may we proclaim your good\nnews with our lives, and may your saving love be known and shown among us\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tomorrow is St. Luke\u2019s day. We know a little bit about Luke – he travelled with Paul on some of his journeys and Paul calls him the \u2018dear doctor\u2019. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}