I am visiting St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Pawtucket Rhode Island this weekend. They have asked me to transfer the observance of the Feast of St. Luke’s to this Sunday morning. As such this week’s sermon is out of sequence from the appointed lectionary.

The sermon for this week’s regularly appointed Gospel can be viewed here: “In whose image are we made, and what does it matter?”

But by focusing on the Feast of St. Luke, whom Paul names in Colossians as “the beloved physician” and reflecting in particular on the appointed lesson from the Book of Wisdom on the healing that doctors accomplish, I invite us all to expand the idea of healing and care to include not just a neighborhood doctor, but the neighborhood congregation as well.

And to do that, I lift up the food pantry ministry of this local St. Luke’s Church and recall the aphorism attributed to Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine…”.

You can view this week’s sermon directly at this link