18-october-2015-st-luke-preached-by-antony-weiss

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A sermon preached by Mr Antony Weiss The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost – The Feast of St Luke, Evangelist

and Martyr Christ Church St Laurence – Sunday 18th October, 2015 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Ps 19:14 RSV). AMEN. A place of worship which will always remain very significant for me, as it does for a number of others in this Parish, is the Chapel at Sydney Church of England Grammar School, more familiarly known as Shore. Perhaps you have been to or will attend a wedding or baptism there. The Chapel’s foundation stone was laid on Shore’s 25th anniversary, 4th May 1914, and it was dedicated exactly twelve months to the day later, also by the then Archbishop of Sydney the Most Reverend John Charles Wright, seen by some as responsible for knocking AngloCatholicism in the Diocese of Sydney on the head. It was Archbishop Wright who banned the Chasuble from use “in any church or chapel or other place in the Diocese”.

The Shore Chapel was designed by a former Christ Church St Laurence pupil and parishioner, John Burcham Clamp who was born on 30 November 1869 just across the road from here at 743 George Street. Clamp was educated here at Christ Church St Laurence School, and won the Mort scholarship in 1882 as recorded on the Honour Boards in what is now our Parish Hall. A steadfast Anglican, Clamp was building surveyor for the Diocese of Sydney, and exercised considerable influence in ecclesiastical architecture including the aforementioned Shore Chapel, St Matthew’s Manly and the buildings to our north and south which now house respectively the Parish Hall and Rector and his family.

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All the stained glass windows in the Shore Chapel, with the exception of the Te Deum east window in the Sanctuary, are memorials to Old Boys killed in World War I. These magnificent windows were designed by Norman Carter who likewise designed a bold series of windows for the clerestory of St Andrew’s Cathedral depicting events in Australian history, including missionaries preaching to Aborigines.

Walking into the Chapel you would notice that it is Collegiate in style, with the pews facing each other. Just before the chancel steps and above what it the Senior Prefect’s Stall on the northern wall is a window in memory of Dr Brian Colden Antill Pockley, a forebear of our 9:00 o’clock parishioner, Mrs Hilary Vallance.

Brian Pockley was the first Australian Officer killed in the First World War in New Guinea on 11th September 1914, just five weeks after the British Empire had declared war on Germany, and seven months before the first Gallipoli landing.

Until the centenary of Pockley’s death a little over a year ago, little was recollected about him in the Australian national narrative.

Brian Pockley was himself a former Senior Prefect of Shore and excelled in every endeavour. He was Captain of Rugby Football, and in his last final at the School won the 100, 200, 440, 880 yards events, the hurdles, long jump and high jump.

He was a scholar of high standing, an oarsman, a Lieutenant in the Cadet Corps and Senior Prefect.

After completing his schooling, Pockley went straight on to the University of Sydney to read Medicine. Soon after graduating, the 24-year-old Captain Pockley, enlisted as a newly qualified army doctor with the hastily assembled Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, dispatched to seize German New Guinea.

Pockley had volunteered to join an advance party of 25 naval reservists whose target was a wireless station. As they advanced in what was to become the first Australian combat of the War, Able Seaman William “Billy” Williams, from

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Melbourne was shot in the stomach. Pockley went to treat him and, realising Williams needed to be evacuated, ordered another serviceman, Stoker Kember to carry him out. Pockley gave Kember his Red Cross brassard, for protection. A Red Cross armband was a clear sign to the enemy that Williams and Kember were non-combatants, thus unarmed enabling them to get through. Pockley’s gallant actions left him unarmed and unidentifiably as a protected medical officer. Brian Pockley was shot a few metres further along the road by a German sniper.

Williams and Pockley were later taken back to HMAS Berrima, but both died that afternoon.

So back to the stained glass window in the Shore Chapel. There is St Luke, ‘the Beloved Physician’ (Col 4:14), Evangelist and Martyr. The face depicting St Luke is that of Brian Pockley, holding the scroll of the Evangelist who is attending a wounded soldier in his capacity as a surgeon and servant. Both Brian Pockley, as illustrated as St Luke, and Luke himself, Martyr and Evangelist lived out and died Our Lord’s in the image and example of Christ’s exhortation ‘Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).’

So let us explore more about St Luke himself. What do we know about him? Very little in fact from Biblical sources.

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The third century Church Father, Eusebius of Caesarea, wrote in his surviving Ecclesiastical History that Luke, a non-eyewitness of Jesus, was from Antioch who wrote the Gospel and the Book of Acts:

But Luke, who was of Antiochian parentage and a physician by profession, and who was especially intimate with Paul and well acquainted with the rest of the apostles, has left us, in two inspired books... One of these books is the Gospel, which he testifies that he wrote as those who were from the beginning eye witnesses and ministers of the word delivered unto him, all of whom, as he says, he followed accurately from the first. The other book is the Acts of the Apostles which he composed not from the accounts of others, but from what he had seen himself. (Book III Ch 4) The fourth century church father St Jerome recorded Luke as the third Evangelist, was born in Antioch and that Luke was martyred at about the age of 84 having been hanged on an olive tree, by the idolatrous priests of Greece though there is no Biblical record of this.

Luke’s hometown, Antioch, was indeed a prominent early Christian centre and there is scholarly debate about whether Luke was of Jewish or Gentile heritage. It is more commonly acknowledged that Luke was himself not Jewish and that it was through the Evangelistic Ministry of St Paul in Antioch he became a first generation convert to Christianity.

As Fr John mentioned in his sermon this morning Luke was likely to have been amongst the 70 commissioned to bring forth the Good News of Salvation in Christ in Luke Chapter 10:1-2. This is also recorded in the writings of two other Early Church Fathers Origen and Epiphanus. If this were the case, it would then support the minority claim that Luke was indeed of Jewish background.

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We’ll have to leave that debate for now but it is worth noting that Luke, in the Book of Acts, uses the term Christian for the first time when recording the ministry of Barnabas and Saul at Antioch, “For a whole year they met with the church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians (Acts 11:26).”

It is amazing to see that Luke is only mentioned three times by name in the entire New Testament; this evening’s Second Lesson ‘Luke the beloved physician …’

(Col 4:14), then in this morning’s Epistle, ‘Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you; for he is very useful in serving me.’ (2 Timothy 4:11) and thirdly and in the final greetings and benediction in the Letter of Paul to Philemon, ‘Ep′aphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristar′chus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.’

Luke, evidently a highly educated erudite scholar and writer whose Gospel sources were Mark and Matthew improving on the Greek of Mark tightening and polishing the Gospel narrative as well as including other material which may not have previously been available to Mark. It is accepted that Luke wrote the Gospel in Rome about 27 years after Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection before he later composed the Acts of the Apostles.

Almost half of Luke’s Gospel consists of material only found in this Gospel account which was a combination of written and oral materials supplemented and penned by Luke himself. What we learn from his Gospel (and in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History) is that Luke does not include himself as an eyewitness to Jesus’ life rather he describes himself, clear from his opening verses of the Gospel attributed to him:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good

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to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you…that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed. (Luke 1:1-4).

The Scriptures tell us that Luke remained Paul’s constant companion for many years and it is traditionally held that the Luke escorted Paul on his second and third missionary journeys. In Acts, Luke records that Paul ‘….lived there [Rome] two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered.’ (Acts 28:30-31).

This is further emphasised in Acts 16-28, Luke employs the first person plural pronoun we when recounting the travels of Paul and his companions (Acts 16:10– 17; 20:5–15; 21:1–8; 27:1–28:16). Scholars call these portions of Acts the “we passages.”

We remember and give thanks St Luke, Evangelist and Martyr on the 18th October. May we like Luke and all the blessed Saints, Martyrs and all believers before us, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:15).” +In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

AMEN