By all appearances, it was not going well for Paul. It was AD 68 and he is imprisoned in Rome. He just lost his first legal hearing and knows the end of his life is at hand. He is going to be martyred. Paul knew that the time of his departure had come, but he was not in despair. He had fought the good fight and finished the race. Paul had kept the faith handed over to him by Jesus Christ. So he looked forward to the “crown of righteousness,” which the Lord would award to him by grace. So he writes to Timothy, his beloved child, and encourages him to “follow the pattern of the sound words” (2 Tim. 1:13) he had learned from Paul in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. In his second letter to him, Paul exhorts Timothy to remain faithful and work diligently in the proclamation of the Gospel. He also warns Timothy that in these last days “there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:1-6). As such, Timothy must be prepared to preach the Word of God, to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2), even though the people will “not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Paul knew what he was talking about.

Three of his closest associates have deserted him. Demas, in love with this present world, has abandoned Paul. It seems that Demas found it inconvenient to stay with the prisoner Paul and preferred to be somewhere else. So he leaves Paul in the midst of his trial. Crescens and Titus have also left Rome. Even worse, Alexander the Coppersmith did great harm to Paul, strongly opposing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Still, it appears Alexander remained in the Church and so Timothy should be careful. Paul’s warnings to Timothy about people falling away are born out of truth and experience. Even those who appeared to be devoted followers of Christ, the Way, fled Paul when persecution and hardship came to bear. Just as our Lord was abandoned at the hour of his suffering, so was Paul. Well, almost. Luke remained with him.

Today the Church honors St. Luke, the Evangelist. Early Christian testimony introduces Luke as “a native of Antioch, by profession a physician. He had become a disciple of the apostle Paul and later followed Paul until his [Paul's] martyrdom. Having served the Lord continuously, unmarried and without children, filled with the Holy Spirit he died at the age of 84 years” (Anti-Marcionite Prologue to Luke). From the book of Acts, we know that Luke was frequently Paul’s companion on his missionary journeys and faced many and great dangers. St. Paul also mentions Luke in his letters of Philemon and Colossians. St. Luke was faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and faithful to the Apostle Paul, even to the very end. While St. Paul waited in a Roman prison for his beheading, St. Luke alone was there. It is most likely that in that prison, St. Paul continued to instruct Luke in the teachings of Jesus Christ; in the fulfillment of the prophecies in Jesus Christ; and in the mystery of Christ’s Church. Based on all accounts of their ministry together, I am sure they shared in the daily offices of prayer together as well as the Breaking of Bread, the Holy Communion. Perhaps St. Luke was even there to witness the martyrdom of St. Paul, the moment his head was severed by a Roman sword and received that crown of righteousness reserved for him by Christ His savior. Perhaps.

We know for certain, however, that St. Luke was faithful to St. Paul. Even more, St. Luke was faithful to the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Luke, like Paul, persevered in the faith. He took what he learned from St. Paul, from other faithful accounts, and from what he himself witnessed to write the Gospel that bears his name as well as the book of Acts. In his earthly life, St. Luke was an Evangelist, a proclaimer of salvation from sin, death, and hell that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, the God-man, who took on flesh to die on the cross and rise on the third day for our redemption. Today St. Luke remains an Evangelist for his account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his compilation of Acts both proclaim Jesus Christ throughout the world, just as they have for nearly 2,000 years.

As such, we are the beneficiaries of St. Luke’s faithful labors. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, Luke persevered in the proclamation of the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God that came from his pen through the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit continues to fill our ears and form our Christian faith. Luke heeded the exhortation of Paul to Timothy and followed the sound pattern of words, preserving the true teaching of Jesus Christ in the midst of opposition, difficulty, and hardship. Like St. Paul, St. Luke fought the good fight and finished the race. He remained faithful to the end and received his crown of righteousness. Today we are thankful for the grace of Christ in the life of St. Luke. It should be an encouragement to each of us. It should be instructive for us as well.

Like St. Luke and those who have gone before us in the faith, we are called to persevere in the proclamation and hearing of the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ. We do not want to be like Demas, Crescens, or Titus, who abandoned the Gospel in times of trial and suffering. We do not want to be like Alexander the Coppersmith who opposed the message of Jesus Christ and hurt the work of the Church. He was one of those people mentioned by St. Paul, who will “not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” As baptized Christians, we can no longer live as “lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” In Christ, we are new creations, called to a new life of faith, hope, and love. In Holy Baptism, Jesus Christ promised us a crown of righteousness to go with the robe of righteousness that covered all our sins, so let us, like St. Luke, persevere in faith in the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our own experience of life in this decaying, insane world teaches us that this is not easy. It is difficult for our flesh remains diseased by sin and disordered by death. Temptations abound. We are tempted to replace the Word of God, which reproves, rebukes, and exhorts, with a word of man, which tells us what we want to hear and allows us to believe whatever works for us. We are tempted to overlook the true teachings of our Lord Jesus out of convenience, or indifference. We are tempted to replace the free grace of Christ with our own imagined good works and righteousness, as if they would be sufficient to merit eternal life. We are tempted to pay little attention to our Christian lives, choosing to live according to the passions of our flesh. We are tempted to love this world and its empty promises rather than the Kingdom of Heaven. It just seems so much easier to ignore our Lord’s call to daily repentance and faith. Just consider how easy it is for us to replace gathering for the Divine Service with work and play. We desert our Lord’s gifts for a little sleep, Starbuck’s Coffee, and the Tulsa World. We abandon the Church’s festal gathering with Christ, angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven for football games, golf balls, emails, or catching up on work. Our Christian faith does not place us at risk for prison, persecution, or death, yet we are still tempted to abandon the Holy Gospel out of boredom, distraction, disorder, and arrogance.

So we prayed this morning in the appointed Collect: “Almighty God, our Father, Your blessed Son called Luke the physician to be an evangelist and physician of the soul. Grant that the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments may put to flight the diseases of our souls that with willing hearts we may ever love and serve You.” By training, St. Luke was a physician, a healer of the body. By the grace of Christ, St. Luke was an Evangelist, a healer of the soul through the proclamation of the Word of the Gospel. Our diseased souls are healed by the Word of Christ. This Word of Christ is the powerful medicine that destroys our sin and death. Consider how so many people are clamoring after their H1N1 Swine Flu vaccination to preserve their body and life. How much more should we be clamoring after God’s vaccination, antidote, medicine to overcome our sin and death and preserve both body and soul unto eternal life? When we recognize the illness of our sin, we rush to Christ in faith and know we are healed by His Word. Look to this Word of Christ in Holy Baptism, where Luther reminds you that “there is brought, free of charge, to every person’s door… a treasure and medicine that swallows up death and keeps all people alive” (LC). Return daily to your Holy Baptism and know that Christ has destroyed our death and promised us a resurrection to life everlasting. Listen to this Word of Christ in Holy Communion, where the precious, living body and blood of Jesus Christ are the medicine of eternal life, healing, forgiving, nourishing, and strengthening us now and forever. The healing medicine of Word and Sacraments heal the diseases of our souls, namely our sin and death, and renew us constantly to live in love and service to Christ and His Kingdom. Through these gifts, Christ will keep us to the end and will deliver us from death to join with St. Luke and all the heavenly host. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ sustain us in this good fight and strengthen us to finish the race that we too may receive our crown of righteousness. May the Holy Spirit grant us faith to remain always with Christ alone in the same manner that Luke stayed with Paul. +INJ+