ST Luke and Martyrs' Day
Luke
The First Lesson
Isaiah 52:7-10
How beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that
saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with
the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the
Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste
places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed
Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
ALMIGHTY God, who didst inspire thy servant Saint Luke the Physician, to set
forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of thy Son; Manifest in thy
Church the like power and love, to the healing of our bodies and our souls;
through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle
2 Timothy iv. 5.
WATCH thou in all things, endure afflictions, do
the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: for Demas hath
forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto
Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.
Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the
ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloke that I left at Troas
with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially
the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him
according to his works: of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly
withstood our words.
The Gospel
St. Luke x. 1.
THE Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent
them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself
would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the
labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would
send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth
as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no
man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this
house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not,
it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking
such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire.
ST Luke Day; 2 Timothy 4:5---
" Watch thou in all things , endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist..I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing....Only Luke is with me..."
" Let us resolutely drive out all unbelief,
and endeavor to get rid of doubts and fears.....there is no excuse for fear
where God is the foundation of our trust." Charles Spurgeon
A final refusal to recant her beliefs landed Anne
a conviction of heresy for denying the doctrine of transubstantiation and she
was sentenced to death. Unable to stand, she was carried on a chair to
Smithfield just outside the London Wall. She was fastened to the stake by a
chain wrapped around her waist to hold her up and then burned alive alongside
three fellow martyrs. These men were so greatly comforted by Anne’s “invincible
constancy” and persuasions that “they did set apart all kind of fear.” (
theaquilareport.com)
“But as concerning your mass, as it is now used
in our days, I do say and believe it to be the most abominable idol that is in
the world: for my God will not be eaten with teeth, neither yet dieth he again.
And upon these words that I base now spoken, will I suffer death.” 1 Anne Askew
(1521 – July 16, 1546)
ST Luke was such a fellow as well. Not only was
he a doctor, physician , he was a herald-healer of the soul. Have you ever
heard of the Gospel of ST Luke or the Acts of the Apostles? He wrote both! His
gospel tells of the childhood of Jesus, the home life of Jesus in Nazareth ,
has Mary's song of praise ( Magnificat), and the songs of Zacharias and the
angels. Where do we hear of the Prodigal Son and the widow offering her two
mites? Luke. It is a gospel of good news to all who will receive it. Luke was a
Gentile and his is a gospel of including all people whatever their background
or race by God's infinite love and grace.
Endure
afflictions the Apostle tells Timothy in II Timothy 4 Bible hub says the word
is kakopathéō (from 2556 /kakós,
"of a malicious disposition" and 3806 /páthos, "pain") –
properly, experiencing painful hardship (suffering) that seems to be a
"setback" but really isn't.
Secondly , Paul calls Luke in his letter to the
Colossians 4:14 , " the beloved physician". This was quite an
commendation. He was beloved by God and Paul calls him beloved. What will be
said about us? Are we resolute in our faith, trustworthy in doing the work of
sharing the good news, the gospel ? Can God count on us? Can people count on
us? Do we have resolute beliefs that come our faith in Christ and the Holy
Scriptures, or do we drift with the times and the feelings of the moment? Do we
look like the house built on rock or the house built on sand?
Lastly, A martyr is a witness. Mark Died in
Alexandria , Egypt , after being dragged by horses through the streets until he
was dead .
Luke Was hanged in Greece as a result of his
tremendous preaching to the lost.
John Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge
basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome . However, he was
miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the
prison island of Patmos . He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos .
The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in
modern Turkey . He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
Peter was crucified upside down on an x-shaped
cross. According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that
he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died.
October 16 was what we call in the
Anglican Calendar ," Martyr's Day". On that day , OCT 16 in England we
commemorate them:
The Commemoration
When Henry VIII of England died, he left three
heirs: his son Edward and his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Edward
succeeded to the throne and was a staunch Protestant (or at least his advisors
were). Under his rule, the church services, previously in Latin, were
translated into English, and other changes were made. When Edward died, the
throne passed to his sister Mary, who was firmly Roman Catholic in her beliefs.
She determined to return England to union with the Pope. With more diplomacy,
she might have succeeded. But she was headstrong and would take no advice. Her
mother had been Spanish, and she determined to marry the heir to the throne of
Spain, not realizing how much her people (of all religious persuasions) feared
that this would make England a province of the Spanish Empire. She insisted
that the best way to deal with heresy was to burn as many heretics as possible.
(It is worth noting that her husband was opposed to this.) In the course of a
five-year reign, she lost all the English holdings on the continent of Europe,
she lost the affection of her people, and she lost any chance of a peaceful
religious settlement in England. Of the nearly three hundred persons burned by
her orders, the most famous are the Oxford Martyrs, commemorated today.
Hugh Latimer was famous as a preacher. He was
Bishop of Worcester (pronounced WOOS-ter) in the time of King Henry, but
resigned in protest against the King's refusal to allow the Protestant reforms
that Latimer desired. Latimer's sermons speak little of doctrine; he preferred
to urge men to upright living and devoutness in prayer. But when Mary came to
the throne, he was arrested, tried for heresy, and burned together with his
friend Nicholas Ridley. His last words at the stake are well known: "Be of
good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall this day light such a
candle in England as I trust by God's grace shall never be put out."
Nicholas Ridley became an adherent of the
Protestant cause while a student at Cambridge. He was a friend of Archbishop
Cranmer and became private chaplain first to Cranmer and then to King Henry.
Under the reign of Edward, he became bishop of Rochester, and was part of the
committee that drew up the first English Book of Common Prayer. When Mary came
to the throne, he was arrested, tried, and burned with Latimer at Oxford on 16
October 1555.
Thomas Cranmer was Archbishop of Canterbury in
the days of Henry, and defended the position that Henry's marriage to Katharine
of Aragon (Spain) was null and void. When Edward came to the throne, Cranmer
was foremost in translating the worship of the Church into English (his friends
and enemies agree that he was an extraordinarily gifted translator) and
securing the use of the new forms of worship. When Mary came to the throne,
Cranmer was in a quandary. He had believed, with a fervor that many people
today will find hard to understand, that it is the duty of every Christian to
obey the monarch, and that "the powers that be are ordained of God"
(Romans 13). As long as the monarch was ordering things that Cranmer thought
good, it was easy for Cranmer to believe that the king was sent by God's
providence to guide the people in the path of true religion, and that
disobedience to the king was disobedience to God. Now Mary was Queen, and
commanding him to return to the Roman obedience. Cranmer five times wrote a
letter of submission to the Pope and to Roman Catholic doctrines, and four
times he tore it up. In the end, he submitted. However, Mary was unwilling to
believe that the submission was sincere, and he was ordered to be burned at
Oxford on 21 March 1556. At the very end, he repudiated his final letter of
submission, and announced that he died a Protestant. He said, "I have
sinned, in that I signed with my hand what I did not believe with my heart.
When the flames are lit, this hand shall be the first to burn." And when
the fire was lit around his feet, he leaned forward and held his right hand in
the fire until it was charred to a stump. Aside from this, he did not speak or
move, except that once he raised his left hand to wipe the sweat from his
forehead.
written by James Kiefer
Prayer
Keep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in
witness, after the examples of your servants, ST Luke, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas
Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer; that we may live in your fear, die in your favor,
and rest in your peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
" Watch thou in all things , endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist..I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing....Only Luke is with me..."
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