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October 18, 2007 - St. Luke the Evangelist's Day
Rosemary Braxton, Lay Preaching Student

Isaiah: 52:7

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’”. (Isa: 52:7)

What a lovely scripture for the day our calendar year honors St. Luke the Evangelist, the writer of two new testament books: the gospel that bears his name and The Book of Acts. In each manuscript our messenger introduces us to an all-inclusive God with compassion for the broken hearted, the sick, the mistreated and the bereaved.

Luke is the lone messenger who conveys the birth and childhood stories of Jesus; his Gospel is the blue print for our Anglican Church year. We begin our year with the advent of Christ’s birth, followed by the wisdom and gifts of the magi; and we conclude our year with the glorious ascension of Christ by adhering to the story line in the gospel of Luke. Luke’s message shows the concern of Christ for all humanity. But of special note is his ground breaking attitude toward the ministry of women. His accounts are particularly noteworthy since Luke lived in a culture that did not honor women; unfortunately many cultures remain in this category today.

The inequality of women and the elimination of violence against women and girls remains a priority of the United Nations. Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM in her International Women’s Day message on March 8, 2007 said and I quote, “… In the 12 years since the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, the signs of progress are many. There is global recognition that gender equality is central to human development and human security. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is now seen as a gender issue as well as a health issue; rape has been recognized as a weapon of war and a crime against humanity. Women’s human rights …are now on every major agenda, national, regional and international,” unquote.

In 1990 the World Summit for Children placed the survival of the girl child on the international agenda; today we see the consequences of a culture that failed to heed its warnings. In 2007 gender preference is laying the foundation for a bachelor society in main land China with 117 boy babies born to every 100 girl babies. In today’s gospel we find Jesus in a synagogue reading from Isaiah saying “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

The imbalance of women in China speaks to many of the issues our Lord addressed. The brokenhearted parent forced to sacrifice a girl child to rear a boy, an entire culture in need of deliverance from gender preference. Our age is an age of contradictions. Since its inception in 1901 thirty-three women have become Nobel Laureates. In 2004 Wangari Maathai of Kenya was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her contributions to sustainable development, democracy and peace in her native land. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree on a continent that holds many challenges for women in their pursuit of equality.

But Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Prize because in 1976 she introduced the idea of planting trees with the people; an idea that has blessed a continent. She later used her tree-planting platform to develop a broad-based grassroots organization of women’s groups to conserve the Kenyan environment thereby improving her country’s quality of life. Through the greenbelt movement she has empowered Kenyan women to plant more than 20 million trees on farms, school grounds and church compounds. In 1986 she established a Pan African Green Belt Network. Wangari like Lydia is internationally acclaimed.

We learn of Lydia in the Book of Acts. She was a merchant who made and sold expensive purple cloth to the wealthy of her culture. This income afforded her a large home in which the early Christian church in Philippi met. Lydia was the pastor of this spiritually mature church. The Philippians called into service bishops, deacons and elders. They are the only church that is not rebuked in Pauline letters or in the Book of Revelation.

Like Lydia and Wangari another woman understood her times and acted appropriately; she is mentioned in the 7th chapter of Luke. Beginning in the 37th verse we hear the story of a woman (who had committed many sins) anointing the feet of Jesus with an alabaster jar of ointment, while her weeping tears washed his feet and her hair dried them. Understanding the times she prepared our Lord and savior for his burial and subsequent ascension.

Every member of society regardless of race, gender or economic status is important. However, justice for black and white women is still good news on the rugged spines of Russia’s Ural Mountains, and on the magnificent 19,000 foot elevation, of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. For in these areas and in many others around our globe, women are still used as beasts of burden.

But what of our lives, do we make the less fortunate in our society beasts of burden? Are minorities over represented in menial jobs and underrepresented as executives in Fortune 500 businesses? As disciples do our footsteps echo our Bible heritage? Do we bring good news to our sphere of influence? We may not launch a Pan American green belt initiative, but do we bring a spiritual maturity to our environment? Are our footsteps lovely on the streets of Sacramento or wherever we sojourn? Are we known for being fair on the job, for ministering to the sick, the hungry the bereaved and the broken hearted? Do our very lives portray peace? Does our presence announce good news of happiness? In the quiet chambers of our hearts does our God reign? Amen.