How The World Would Be Different
Without Luke
Pastor Mathew Magera – 10/18/15 – Sermon 122
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
"Many
have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among
us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were
eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have
carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an
orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the
certainty of the things you have been taught."
Grace to you and peace from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
I like a good story. It's
one of the reasons I love being a pastor. I get to hear many stories. I get to
be a part of many stories as well. Some of the stories are funny. Some are
serious. Some are joyful, others sad. But I get to hear so many stories.
There are so many good
stories in the Bible. It really is full of everything from action to comedy to
sex to violence to drama. Every kind of genre is in here. We heard many of our
favorite stories from the Bible this past summer, your favorites. You picked
them. One of those stories was The Good Samaritan. That's a good story isn't
it? Such a good message. A man walking down the road gets robbed and beaten. A
priest and a Levite walk by on the other side of the road but a Samaritan, the
people despised by Jews, not only stops to help the man but then takes him to
an inn and takes care of him even leaving the innkeeper some money when he has
to leave for a few days. What a good story. Another good story, right around
there, is The Prodigal Son. You know, where the eldest of two sons takes the
portion of his inheritance early, goes off on his own, spends it all up, finds
himself on the streets with nowhere to go. After a while he gets the courage to
go back and confess to his father but as he is seen in the distance from his
home, his father runs out to him and hugs him and throws him a party before he
even has a chance to ask for forgiveness. Another great story!
Aren't these both great
stories in the Bible? The four Gospels tell us wonderful stories of the life of
Jesus and for the most part, many of the best stories in the Gospels are found
in all four Gospels, or at least three of them. There are, however, some
exceptions. These two stories I mentioned just now, they are not repeated in
any Gospel other than Luke. Had Luke not been written down and included in our
Scriptures the prodigal son would not have returned and the Good Samaritan
would never have walked down the road. All of these stories come to us from
Luke's Gospel and only there.
Luke gives us a special
perspective on the love of God revealed to us in the Bible that without it, we
would not have the messages behind these well-known stories. Luke gives us a
unique perspective on God's love for us. What would the world be like without
that perspective? What would our impression of God and each other be without
Luke's perspective? You would probably agree that the Bible without Luke would
be missing something pretty important. Of course, the Bible would still contain
God's love and the story of salvation through Jesus, but it just wouldn't be
the same. We would go through our lives without the perspective of these great
stories and feel just a bit emptier because of it.
Think about it this way.
What would our community be like without, say, this church's involvement in the
Jubilee? No Abelskivers, no parade float, no booth, no free Bibles. Just a
vacant building on west 2nd street. What would our community be like with no
candlelight Christmas Eve service? No carols, no candles, no silent night. Just
a darkened building and a snow-covered parking lot with no tire tracks. Trufant
would go on without the great witness of a loyal Jubilee participant and
community worship at Christmastime and would probably feel just a bit emptier
because of it.
Think about it this way.
What is the community missing without your witness? What is the community
missing without your invitation? What is the community missing without your
perspective? Our walk together as Christians without our personal witness is
like Trufant without our church involvement, it's like the Bible without Luke.
Our perspective is essential to the sharing of the Gospel message. Your
perspective matters. Your perspective is another book on the shelf for someone
to read about the love of God for them. Your perspective is to others like the
person or people in your life that shared the love of God with you for the
first time or many times. What would your life be like without those
instruments of God who shared that with you? And what are the lives of others
going to be like without your witness, without you being an instrument of God
for them for the sake of Jesus?
In Luke chapter one, Luke
admits there are many accounts of Jesus that are out there. Many people talk
and write about the miracles of Jesus just as they were handed down to Luke and
his colleagues. Luke heard the Gospel from someone else who heard it from
someone else who heard it from someone else. There were so many different
perspectives out there sharing the story and Luke realizes this. Yet, he says,
"With this in mind... I have decided to write an orderly account for
you." Luke, knowing there is so many different perspectives out there in
the world, uses that knowledge for his decision. He doesn't say that because of
all the accounts out there it is better for me to stay out of this one and let
the others tell the story. No, he says, with this in mind I am going to share
my story. Because other people are telling their stories, I want to tell mine
too! Luke shares his story BECAUSE other people are sharing their stories. And
aren't we glad he did?
Now, each one of us has a
perspective on the Gospel. Every Christian has a perspective. That's several
billion perspectives, folks. When Luke was preaching it was not nearly that
many. We give excuses saying there are so many people out there helping their
church, giving offerings, teaching Sunday school, serving on council, serving
at Barrie's house, I better just leave that to those people. Don't say that.
Ever. Do not say it. Your perspective matters. Your involvement matters. God
gave you breath today because your perspective matters and it matters to
someone in this world who will hear the Word of God spoken by the Holy Spirit
through you. Yes, through you. Don't let the multiple stories of the Gospel be
a crutch to you thinking there are too many perspectives out there. Let the
multiple stories of the Gospel be a motivation to you. Let the multiple stories
of the Gospel encourage you to be the next perspective. Be like Luke and decide
because of these other accounts I want to share mine too. You have something to
say. You might say it through your hands. You might say it in teaching. You
might say it in helping at a food pantry. You might say it reading on Sunday
morning. You might say it through leading music. You might say it through
quilting, or be hospitable. Whatever your language of service is, God wants
your perspective. Because God wants you enough that he sent his son to die for
us so that we might look at that event and think to ourselves, wow! Feel that.
What a story!
When I was in youth group 15
years ago or so, we would have this event each year right around this time. It
was called Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat. What we would do was we would get
pillow cases and split up into smaller groups and spread out across the
neighborhood near the church and we would go door to door, trick-or-treating to
get non-perishable food items to send to our food pantry. One year in
particular I remember going out into the neighborhood and some people would be
generous, others felt a bit obligated to give since we were there, and others
questioned our intentions. Apparently some people questioned the intentions
enough that the police were called about one of our other groups somewhere in
the neighborhood. Our youth director found us when driving by and said we
needed to head back to church because the police were stopping us. I remember
hearing it, but I also remember wanting to keep going, at least on our way back
to church since, ya know, we had to pass by those houses anyway. Of course, my
friends and I are like, "Awesome, the police are after us, let's go!"
I mean we were doing something good for the community, what could go wrong?
Yeah, what a great thing to think, right? So, we continue on our way back to
church going door-to-door as we go, avoiding the police until we're finally
spotted and told to go back to church. Nobody got arrested, nobody got in
trouble, but when we got back to church we remembered that all of us forgot to
bring the leaflets from church that explain the event and to confirm that this
event was not a scam. But, what a story. What a witness.
You have stories like that.
I might have even heard some of them. You have a perspective on the love of God
that needs to be heard. So, share it! What would the world be like without your
perspective? I hope we never need to consider that question. Share that
perspective always. And if you get arrested and put in jail, now there's a
whole new group of people you can share with. And they'd be stuck with you. Not
that I hope you get put in jail, that's not the point. The point is and always
will be that your perspective matters. You have something important to say about
the love of God and you have a unique way of sharing that perspective and God
put us here to do it. Luke looked at the world and said, I'll do it too. And
look what we gained from his perspective. He saw the love of God in Jesus
Christ and decided to share it not because he needed to. There was certainly
enough Christianity going around that he didn't need to write down his account,
but because he wanted to. He knew the love and forgiveness that Jesus offered
to him through the cross and the resurrection and he wanted the world to hear
his perspective. And through the Holy Spirit, he gave us what we now call the
Gospel according to Luke. What does your account of the Gospel look like?
What's your perspective? I guarantee there's a story in there someone needs to
hear. Share the Gospel, add your book to the shelf, so that like Luke's Gospel
to Theophilus, others might know the certainty of the love of God and
experience the power of forgiveness in Jesus’ name. That’s the good news. And,
that’s a great story. Amen.