This one’s all about being yourself and not a freaking hypocrite. Aight?
John 14:15-21; 1 Peter 3:13-22; Psalm 66:8-20; Acts 17:22-31
I make no secret of the fact that I am very proud of my heritage. I’m especially proud to claim that I’m Polish and Irish, and to a lesser extent the German and French. Many of you already know that one of my favorite holidays all year is also one a few months distant, that of St. Patrick’s Day. Now you may already be wondering, “Pastor, it’s the end of May! Why in the world are you talking about St. Patrick’s Day?” Well the answer is simple: whenever I read our lesson from Acts involving Paul and the Areopagus, I think of St. Patrick.
See, in the lesson, Paul uses the Altar to an Unknown God to teach the people of Athens about Jesus. Similarly, St Patrick did a number of interesting things to teach the Irish about Jesus. But first, we need to understand a bit about St. Patrick. Patrick was a Scot (and we won’t hold that against him), born around 387 AD who was captured by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland when he was 16. He worked for six years as a cattle rancher, and it was during this time of slavery that he came to know the saving love of Christ.
After those six years, he managed to escape captivity and return home. When he got there, he had a very interesting experience. He says this about it: “I was in Britain with my parents, who received me as their son, and besought me to promise that, after the many afflictions I had endured, I would never leave them again. And then, truly, in the bosom of the night I saw a man as if coming from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, with numerous letters, one of which he gave me, and I read the beginning of the epistle, containing the Voice of the Irish. And while I was reading the beginning of the epistle I thought in my mind that I heard the voice of those who were near the wood Focluti, which is near the western sea. And they shouted thus: ‘We beseech thee, holy youth, to come and live amongst us.’ And I was greatly pained in my heart, and could not read very much more; and thus I was proved. Thank God, that after many years the Lord performed to them according to their entreaty.”
So Patrick has this vision of being a missionary to Ireland, and over time he became a priest and bishop, and then at the age of forty he headed over to Ireland. Now at this time the Irish were animists, they worshipped trees and stones and such, very druidic stuff. At one point, he found himself near Tara, and it was the time of a pagan festival. During this festival, no-one in the land could light a fire until the king had lit the royal fire. This festival happened to coincide with the Vigil of Easter, so on that night, Patrick lit a huge bonfire on a hill where everyone could see it. On Easter morning, he marched right up to the king and taught him that Jesus Christ, the light of the world, was crucified and rose, and the king believed and was baptized.
There are also two legends about Patrick, the historicity of which is debatable but the message is the same, of his utilization of Irish pagan symbols to teach about God. The first, involves the Celtic cross. It has been claimed that Patrick, known of the Irish people’s penchant for sun worship, superimposed a sun on the cross, in order to better teach them about God’s supremacy, implying that though the Irish worshipped the sun, God made the sun, so instead worship God.
The other legend involves the shamrock, the three-leafed clover. It claims that Patrick used this symbol, previously used as a symbol of the “Triple Goddess”, Morrigan, symbolizing rebirth and eternal life. Patrick used this same symbol to teach about the Trinity, and that eternal life come from faith in that Triune God.
Now, regardless of the historical truth of those legends, their message is in line with what Patrick did: using the culture of the people around him to teach God’s Truth. These days, this is called Celtic Evangelism, and the basics of this method are quite simple and can be summarized by saying, “Belong to the church then believe in Jesus.” This is contrasted to traditional forms of evangelism, where the statement is, “Believe in Jesus then belong to the church.”
This is likely quite a bit of a different idea than we’re used to. We always think that church is for Christians. And, in part, it is. But how are we going to build new relationships if we’re always spending time with church people? You see, for the Celtic evangelist, the most important thing is building relationships. The gospel is not “preached” as we typically understand preaching, but is instead lived out in our interactions. As Christians, we’re to live out our faith, and always be ready to say why we do things the way we do when asked, as Peter mentioned in reading from 1 Peter.
Of course this is also a challenge to the church. Far too often, Christian churches are more gossipy, angry, vengeful, and otherwise not-so-good-behaving than non-Christian organizations, and what kind of witness to the world is that? If we’re this hurtful toward our brothers and sisters in Christ, what kind of witness can we be?
Celtic evangelism requires a Christian to be authentic. If there’s any two words that are the key to this way of sharing the gospel, “relationship” and “authentic” are those. We can’t just be Sunday-morning Christians and expect people to take us seriously. It’s about striving to be more like Christ every day — and falling back on His grace and trusting the Spirit to grow us in the process. It’s not going to be easy, and who ever said the Christian life would be (Jesus sure didn’t), but, taking our cue from the Spirit, our whole life should point to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that others may know the forgiveness and joy that is in Him.