Preached at Grace and Canadochly on March 17, 2019
Preaching text:
I want to do something a little different today, but something I think is appropriate. I spoke last week at great length about the dangers of taking the quick and easy way to spread the faith of Christianity, a path that the Church has often taken, is still tempted to take, and has led to the death and suffering of countless millions of people. It is our great sin and one we should not be eager to repeat if we truly wish to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
What I want to do today is tell the story of a man who got it right. A man whose commemorative festival just so happens to fall on today: Saint Patrick. Now most of us know little about the man other than his association with Ireland and the celebration of Irish heritage that usually involves raucous behavior and copious amounts of green beer. We Lutherans don’t really acknowledge him much at all, given that he’s a saint of the Catholic tradition who is not one of the original apostles or evangelists. That’s unfortunate, because he stands as a true paragon of the faith and man who should be a role-model to all of us, regardless of whether we are Catholic or Protestant.
Patrick was born in Roman Britain sometime in the late 4th-early 5th century. He was not born Irish, but a Briton, ancestors to the modern Welsh people. He was born into a Christian family but did not take religion seriously in his young life. Around age 16, the Irish came calling.
The Irish of this time were a violent savage marauding people similar to the later Vikings. They attacked Roman Britain frequently and. In one of their raids, they took young Patrick prisoner and hauled him back to Ireland as a slave. Patrick was commanded to tend sheep for his captor.
It was a brutal life. Cold, starving, and under frequent threat of punishment or even death, Patrick endured for six long years. Somewhere in the midst of that time, he gained some knowledge of the Irish religion, a druidic pagan faith that venerated a number of hero gods and goddesses and also had a healthy (and rather superstitious) respect for nature. But despite this, what truly deepened in him was his Christianity, believing God was giving him the strength to endure his captivity.
After those six years, he managed to escape and flee back to Britain. Thankful for his freedom, he entered the priesthood and was extensively trained. He then made the remarkable choice, in part influenced by a famous bishop of the time, to return to Ireland as a missionary.
Patrick was not initially welcomed by the Irish, but he persisted. Using his knowledge of their beliefs, he found ways to proclaim Christ that the Irish could understand. You honor courage and self-sacrifice? Let me tell you of Jesus, who faced down death itself for those he loved. You respect the natural world? Let me show you how God, the creator, is in every leaf and blade of grass. People responded to his respect and honor of their pagan ways and began to convert to Patrick’s somewhat unique interpretation of Christianity. As time went on, the vast majority of the island became Christian.
Patrick could have shown up with an army. He could have told the Irish chiefs “Convert or die.” He could have had his vengeance upon the people who enslaved him. He did none of these things, but instead forgave his captors and used their own pagan beliefs and superstitions to communicate the Gospel. The end result was the only bloodless conversion of a nation of people in Christian history.
Which is kind of sad when you think about it. There should have been far more than that.
After Patrick’s death, a whole slew of legends sprang up around him, as if he’d become one of the Irish hero gods himself. We’ve all heard how he chased the snakes out of Ireland. That’s not true, since there have never been snakes in Ireland. The story of him using the clover to describe the Trinity is also legendary, but is consistent with Patrick’s approach to religion and evangelism. He used what they knew to tell them of God.
So what’s the takeaway for us? As much as we might be loath to admit it, we are increasingly living in non-Christian times. The people we encounter on the streets and at our workplaces and schools have almost no knowledge of Jesus. And a good bit of what they do know is distorted by the work of charlatans and grifters who’ve corrupted the name of Christ for their own selfish ends. They are the modern pagans, not all that different than the Irish of Patrick’s day.
How can we reach them? We can talk to them of grace and love, but it often seems as though we speak a different language entirely than what they know. We must find their language, their legends, their beliefs, and work from there, as Patrick did. They know sports. They know pop culture. They know music. All of which we can use to show them Jesus.
That’s part of the reason you hear me pepper my sermons with pop culture references. I’m trying to speak the language of these times. I’m a great admirer of Patrick and I want to follow Jesus the way he did as best I can.
Again, we are confronted with a choice. How do we show Christ to the people we encounter? Do we honor, respect, and love them? Or are we standoffish, antagonistic, and arrogant in the superiority of our beliefs? Christians have done both these approaches over the generations. And while I wish I could say the latter doesn’t work, it has in the past, but I doubt Jesus would much approve. His way is love, service, and sacrifice. It is honor and respect, welcome and acceptance. Patrick knew this. He lived it. And so can we. Amen.
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