Today commemorates St. Luke, Evangelist, the author of the Gospel and the book of Acts. Traditionally, he is identified with the physician Luke who accompanied St. Paul. Much of the pattern of the church year is due to Luke’s writings. The festivals of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity of John the Baptist, Christmas, the Presentation, Ascension and Pentecost are all dependent on narratives Luke relates. His writings also give us some of the earliest Christian songs, the Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis plus the opening of the great angelic hymn Glory to God in the Highest.

For all his great contribution to the Christian faith, we know little about the man Luke. He writes the best Greek in the New Testament suggesting he was well educated, but we don’t know how he became a Christian nor what ultimately happened to him. That seems a shame with a man who was so interested in telling the story of Jesus and the early Christian Church. Maybe it’s not a bad thing that we don’t know who the person Luke was. I suspect he didn’t think he was all that important. He just wanted to share the stories about Jesus and the early Church.

I was taught that persons reading lessons in worship services should try to make themselves transparent. A reader shouldn’t call attention to themselves, but rather let the message of the scripture shine through. That’s good advice for the Christian life in general. We ought to live the story of Christ so that others can see him and not us.

Read Luke 1:1-4 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne