God's dream

God’s Dream

A Sermon delivered by Desmond Tutu at the Chapel of King's College, London (Sunday 22 February 2004):

In St. John's Gospel our Lord says the highest title he can give his disciples is to call them friends. Therefore what he says to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection stands out prominently. And he's talking about people, one of whom betrayed him, another denied him not once but twice, and they all deserted him, like craven cowards and were now skulking behind closed doors.

We would have understood perfectly had he been thoroughly miffed with them and spoken dismissively and even derisively of them. Well, what happens? It would have been startling to have called them his disciples after what they had done. And quite mind-boggling even to have called them friends. Well, he decided to knock us over with a feather.

Just listen to what he says to Mary Magdalene: "Go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father. To my God and your God."

Now that really is quite unbelievable. This craven despicable lot - my brothers indeed! But clearly Jesus meant this to be taken seriously. That we, his followers, belong in one family - God's family. Is there anything else in the bible that seems to support this assertion?

This Jesus came - not to an ideal world - but came to a world that was polarised, fractured, divided. Divided into hostile and often alienated groupings. There were the much hated occupying Romans, resented by the subject natives, and Jews did not share a cup with the Samaritans. The Jewish community of His day was stratified, fragmented. There were the Sadducees and Pharisees, the zealots and the collaborating tax collectors. There were the rich, the poor, male, female, young, old - and there was a sharp divide between Jew and Gentile, represented by a wall of partition in the temple precincts to go beyond which spelt death for the Gentile unbeliever.

And people saw a veritable miracle happening before their very eyes with the advent of the new community of the followers of Jesus. They saw those who were formerly alienated and hostile flocking into this new fellowship. And they marvelled and remarked "How these Christians love one another."

It would have been revolutionary for a slave to have been accepted as the equal of his former master. But no, they were not just equals - no, they were brothers. They were sisters in one family. An equal you can acknowledge once and forever after ignore. You can't do that with your sister or brother.

You don't choose who your relative will be. Sometimes we wish we could, given just how difficult some of them can be. Well, we don't always know what they think of us! No - we don't choose our family members. They are God's gift to us, as we are to them.

Do you recall when Saul went to Damascus to arrest Christians there and was blinded? And the Lord asked Ananias to go to Saul's lodgings to pray for him to have his sight restored. Do you recall Ananias quite flabbergasted telling the omniscient Lord "Lord, do you know this man? He has been harassing your people and came here to arrest us. No, Lord, you can't be serious." Well Ananias went, and when he arrived said about this persecutor of the Christian community "Brother Saul".

Yes, I believe the words of the Lord to Mary Magdalene to be his most radical utterance. We are family - all of us. We belong in God's family. There are no outsiders. All are insiders.

When Jesus spoke of being lifted up on the cross he said "I, if I be lifted up will draw.." - he didn't say "I will draw some" - he said "I, if I be lifted up will draw ALL - draw all to me to hold them" all of us drawn into the divine embrace that excludes no-one - black, yellow, white, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, male, female, young, old, gay, lesbian, so-called straight - yes it IS radical. All, all, ALL belong - Arafat, Sharon, Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, George Bush, Tony Blair, Palestinian, Israeli, Jew, Arab, Protestant, Catholic - all, ALL, all belong in this family.

And in a healthy family the rule is from each according to their ability, for each according to their need. And so if we are serious about being family we would not spend obscene amounts on budgets of death and destruction, when we know a small fraction of those budgets would enable our sisters and brothers - members of our family - God's family, God's children - EVERYWHERE - they would have enough to eat, clean water to drink, adequate health care, education.

Go and tell my brothers. Go and tell my family. We are all, all family God's family. The human family.

The Gospel of Luke

Sources Luke May Have Used In The Course Of Writing His Gospel

Luke was not an eyewitness who had seen and heard for himself the things that Jesus had said and done. Luke stated in the prologue of his gospel (Luke 1:1-4) that many before him had undertaken to compile an account of the things regarding Jesus that had been accomplished among them. Luke wrote that having investigated everything most carefully himself from the beginning, he, too, had set out to compile those things of Jesus in consecutive order for Theophilus. Luke relied on eyewitnesses and written sources for the information he included in his gospel. He consulted the documents previously compiled. He interviewed the eyewitnesses who could tell him first hand about Jesus' teachings and activities.
Above all the ultimate, true source behind Luke's gospel was the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of truth who taught his inspired penmen all things and brought to remembrance all that Jesus had said (John 14:16,17,26). The Spirit's inspiration of his penman does not rule out the writer's use of material at his disposal to document under the Spirit's guidance what he was writing. In using those materials the Spirit's guidance would have led the writer to leave out any chaff of error and to preserve only the wheat of what was the truth.
Paul was a source for Luke's gospel. As stated in the section about Luke the writer, Luke was a companion and assistant of the apostle Paul, who had seen Jesus and had been instructed by Jesus. Luke thus learned from Paul the gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul preached in his missionary endeavors.
Mark was another potential source of information for Luke. Luke associated with the gospel writer Mark. Luke first met Mark in the church of Antioch, where Luke was a member and where Barnabas and Paul had brought Mark in A.D. 44 to assist them (cf. Acts 12:25).  Luke was also with Mark, as well as with Paul, in Rome during Paul's first imprisonment there and when Paul wrote his prison epistles, (cf. Colossians 4:10,14; Philemon 24). Luke and Mark were again together with Paul in Rome during Paul's second Roman imprisonment before his martyrdom (cf. 2 Timothy 4:10,11). Mark had heard and learned the gospel that Peter had preached (cf. An Overview Of The Gospel Of Mark). It is thought that since Luke was in Rome with Mark during both of Paul's Roman imprisonments, and since Mark wrote his gospel in Rome in the mid A.D. 60's, Luke is likely to have obtained a copy of Mark's gospel very soon after it was written and followed it in the course of writing his own gospel.
Peter himself, whose preaching was the basis of Mark's gospel, may have been a source of information for Luke in preparing his gospel. Luke's whereabouts between Paul's first and second Roman imprisonments in A.D. 61 to 62 and in A.D. 67 is unknown. If Luke remained in Rome for those five years or so, he is likely to have had contact with Peter. Peter was in Rome and there wrote his first letter around A.D. 62 to 64 and his second letter around A.D. 66 to 67. Assuming Luke remained in Rome during those years, he had the opportunity to hear from Peter the gospel of Jesus that Peter preached.
Luke traveled with Paul to carry the collection of the Gentile churches to the poor Christians in Jerusalem. While there Luke met James the brother of the Lord Jesus and the elders of the church, (cf. Acts 21:18). He would also have had the opportunity to interview the apostles who were in Jerusalem, plus the many other Christians who had witnessed Jesus' teachings, miracles, suffering, death, and resurrection. There were many such Christians, for Paul noted in 1 Corinthians 15:6 that Jesus had appeared after his resurrection to more than five hundred such disciples at one time, many of whom were still living. Luke also spent the two years of Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea near Galilee and Judea. It would have been a simple matter for him to travel those areas where Jesus had conducted his ministry and talk with the eyewitnesses.

I found those facts so interesting (If you click on Luke this will take you to the website) I have not got much more time tonight as I need to get on with some work. Have a blessed evening or day depending which side of the planet you live!
Picture: Luke, 1360–64 Attributed to Master Theodoric, Prague