Weekly THIS AND THAT for February 21, 2010: Dining in God's Kingdom

This and That:
Dining in God’s Kingdom


I talked with a young man recently who had attended a Mass at the parish and heard my homily. He was rather upset and was calling because in my remarks I had said that, “All can be saved, including Muslims, Jews, and atheists.” Very surprised, he had learned differently as a child that only Christians could be saved. I shared quotes from the Second Vatican Council that supported my statement, but he was seemingly undone by the “revelation.” St. Luke in his Gospel is the Evangelist for going beyond the pale and including all in salvation. That non-Jews could be saved was unheard of at the time he was writing his Gospel.

This past Friday began our Lenten Family Friday Series on Luke’s Gospel entitled “Who Matters to God?” The quick response is “Everybody matters!” Over the six weeks, Sister Mary Therese, Dr. Jack, and I will each be doing two presentations on that theme. The first week’s was “Dining in God’s Kingdom.”

Background on St. Luke

Luke, who also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, was a 3rd generation Christian looking back on the traditions that he had inherited. He was not an eyewitness to the events of Jesus’ ministry and was dependent upon others who had already taken the testimony of such witnesses and put it in narrative form. Nor was Luke a Jew. By profession he was a doctor. It has been said that, “A priest sees people at their best; a lawyer sees them at their worst; and a doctor sees them as they are.” Luke saw men and women and loved them all! Not very familiar with Palestine or with Jewish customs, Luke was nevertheless an educated person and well versed in Greek literature. He most probably came from a prosperous urban family.
When you read his Gospel, it is clear that Luke wrote mainly for Gentiles, that is, non-Jews. There is nothing in the Gospel that a Gentile could not grasp and understand. His purpose in writing is to provide assurance for the instruction that Christians are giving, to show that what the Church preaches is rooted in the ministry of Jesus and the preaching of the first Apostles. He calls his work a narrative account, not a history. In the Acts of the Apostles he shows that God’s salvation moved beyond Jerusalem and the pious of Israel into the whole world. This wonderful Gospel shows how God’s promises to Israel have been fulfilled in Jesus and how the salvation promised to Israel and accomplished by Jesus has been extended to the Gentiles.

Shifts in Luke’s Gospel

Given that background on Luke the following are some of the shifts in it.
➢ God’s divine plan was accomplished during the period of Jesus, who through the events of his life fulfilled the Old Testament prophesies and this salvation is now extended to all humanity in the period of the Church.
➢ He is concerned with presenting Christianity as a legitimate form of worship in the Roman world, a religion that is capable of meeting the spiritual needs of a world empire like that of Rome.
➢ Christianity is the logical development and proper fulfillment of Judaism and is therefore deserving of the same toleration and freedom traditionally accorded Judaism by Rome.
➢ Luke accordingly shifts the early Christian emphasis away from the expectation of an imminent return of Jesus to the day-to-day concerns of the Christian community living in the world.
➢ Luke calls upon the Christian disciple to identify with the master, Jesus, who is caring and tender toward the poor and lowly, the outcast, the sinner, and the afflicted, indeed toward all those who recognize their dependence on God.
➢ His Gospel provides an account of Jesus’ life and teaching for a universal mission.
➢ Luke’s desire to show that the Church belongs to the larger world of the Roman Empire is evident in references to Roman emperors and events, e.g. he links the birth of Jesus to Caesar Augustus.
➢ Luke is a gifted storyteller. He switches from the third-person report into dialogue between the characters. This makes him more engaging to his listener.
➢ God is not waiting for people to come crawling back, begging forgiveness. Instead, God is out looking for people to help like the shepherd and the lost sheep, the woman and the lost coin, or the wayward son’s father, who goes running out of the house and immediately orders a large celebration.
➢ In Acts of the Apostles Luke will show us that God directed the Disciples to take the Gospel to all the people of the earth.

How His Gospel Differs from Other Gospels
➢ News is given to a group of shepherds in the field and the message is from angels: “Good news of great joy for all the people.”
➢ Simeon: Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit rested on him. He prophesies that Jesus will be a light and salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike. Jesus will be a new beginning for the whole of humanity. Luke was convinced that Jesus came for the whole of humanity. He had seen for himself how God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus was manifest and at work in people of all races, cultures, and nationalities.
➢ From the very beginning of his Gospel Luke explains that Jesus had the whole world in his view. He does not trace Jesus’ genealogy back only to Abraham as Matthew did in his family tree but to Adam, the ancestors of all mankind.
➢ He stresses the same universality in the Acts of the Apostles when writing about Jesus’ ascension into heaven. When Disciples ask him, “Lord, is this the time that you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” he answers by sending them “to the ends of the earth.”
➢ There are times when people around Jesus have difficulty with his global approach, when we welcomes sinners, Samaritans, lepers, the homeless, and disabled people.
➢ The episode with Dismis, the repentant criminal, shows that even in death Jesus extends salvation and forgiveness to others.
➢ The Infancy stories awaken the joyful expectation that Israel’s Messianic King has arrived to bring salvation. Through him, God’s peace and blessings will come to both Jews and Gentiles. Yet, as the story unfolds, this glorious promise will not be fulfilled. Persistent rejection, first of Jesus and then of the Disciples’ mission, leaves Israel excluded from the day of Salvation that had dawned with the coming of Jesus.
➢ Jesus’ ministry reached out to all sorts of people, even to those who had never before had a chance at salvation. Zacchaeus is an example of the sinful tax collector. Samaritans, traditional enemies of the Jews, turn out to be examples of Jesus’ teaching. Samaritan leper, sinful woman, Mary is permitted to sit and listen without condemning Martha’s to serving her guests
➢ The 3rd Gospel is the best life of Christ ever written
➢ Gives Hebrew words in their Greek equivalents. Never uses the Jewish term “Rabbi” for Jesus, but “Master”
➢ No question about it, he’s writing for people like us.

After the above instruction on Luke, all were asked, “What gave Luke his unique perspective? “Where are we coming from in our openness to others?” and “How can we change our perspective to more like Luke’s?” Through a simple exercise and a period of mediation those attending confronted these important questions and then had time to reflect and share their responses with others.

In conclusion, we can say that today people sometimes think that Christianity and its Gospels belong to North American and European culture. They wonder whether Christians can spread the message to people in other cultures without destroying those cultures. We need to remember that the story of Jesus originated in a Semitic culture. Luke and other early Christians were already engaged in intercultural dialogue when they retold the story of Jesus for the Greek-speaking, non-Jewish converts of the cities in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. In Luke, above all, barriers are broken down and Jesus is for Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner alike. He is the savior of the whole world! The Kingdom of God is shut to no one: Samaritan, Gentiles, the Poor, outcasts, or sinners. All four Evangelists quote from Isaiah 40 when they give the message of John the Baptist, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God,” but it is only Luke who continues the quotation to its triumphant conclusion, “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Luke of all the gospel writers sees no limits to the love of God.
Do you? And if you do not, what can you do to extend it to others? Join us next week for: “What’ Lost Can Always Be Found.”

Fondly,
Father Nicholas