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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaerther St. Patrick’s Day is this week. It is not a day that is a feast day on our church’s liturgical calendar. But that doesn’t mean the day doesn’t exist. Certainly St. Patrick’s Day has a character all its own apart from any relationship to a sacred remembrance of the gifts that God had given St. Patrick. There will be parades, odd colored drinks, and in Chicago the river will run green for a day. I encourage you this Thursday to remember St. Patrick. But not necessarily in a manner in keeping with a mind on the flesh but with a mind on the Spirit of life that has set you free. In general our church has a distinction between feast days, which is reserved for Biblical saints and events, and days of commemoration. Days of commemoration are meant to be days in which we remember and give thanks for the gifts of God at work among the people of God. St. Patrick is one of the best-known missionary saints. He was born to a Christian family, captured as a teenager by raiders, taken to Ireland, and forced to work as a slave. After six years he escaped and found his way to a monastery community in France. After being ordained a bishop, he went back to the people that had enslaved him. He spent the rest of his life spreading the good news of Jesus and organizing Christian communities. He was a strong defender of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in a time when it was not popular to do so. The image of a three leaf clover is often associated with St. Patrick because he is said to have used it as an illustration to describe the nature of God, one God in three persons. Patrick died around the year 466. In our church when we remember a saint, whether one of the Bible or one that is famous through his or her work in the church or simply a grandmother that we knew, we do so for a couple of purposes. One reason is to give thanks to God that our Lord works through people to bring his marvelous message of life and salvation to us. The second reason is see through these saints’ witness of the faith a manner in which we might live not according to our flesh but according to the spirit of life. In the eyes of Patrick he could look across the English Channel and see that the people that had stolen his life and enslaved him for several years were spiritually bankrupt. When he had run away and found sanctuary in a monastery in France he found a different community. He found a community that was established upon the idea of life and spreading that spirit of life. He did not seek revenge or judgment against those that had stolen his life. Nor did he harbor some disillusioned idea that essentially human nature is good. I know some people today believe that human nature is at the heart of it good. The moral problems of today that we experience as seen through bad business ethics, juvenile delinquency, broken marriages, are believed to be the result of bad parenting, inadequate education, or social injustice. The problem with this equation is that it does not compute. If the problems of today are the result of only issues we can change, we develop a false sense of hope in our own capability. On a personal level, we could look at our problems of self-worth, dependency, and depression and think I can change my way out of this. So then we try and try as we might but we cannot create a perfect self or a perfect society. The result of course could be to just say, “Oh well, humanity is a lost cause, might as well just deal with it.” I know have spoken to people that have tried to quit smoking and failed and said, “I’m gonna die one way or another I am just choosing my method instead of letting someone else do it for me.” Instead of giving up on humanity and saying, "Oh well…" God’s Word presents a different view of human nature. God’s Word sees the same view of St. Patrick looking across the English Channel. St. Patrick looked across and saw the people that had enslaved him and tried to ruin his life. Our God looks at us and sees the naked truth that we can't conceal; we are a broken, bankrupt people. The key to understanding St. Patrick and ourselves is to take that view of human nature and be humble enough to see ourselves in that same picture. Human nature is sinful to the core. We are sinners. We are guilty. Not just the guy across the way. Not just the bad mother you see on Fox News. Not just the terrorists that plot against us. The Law of God condemns our sinful nature to death. Being a Christian does not change that. The miracle of our Christian faith is not that we become able to do the right thing and say the right thing. St. Patrick could follow the same path of community he escaped in Ireland and seek to go back and get revenge, power, and control against those that controlled him. Instead through his faith in Christ he found victory on a different path. He brought community back to Ireland. A community based on the renewal, life, forgiveness that is found through God. That which is at the very core of our human nature, betrayal, jealously, fear, rage, self-importance, Jesus submits to. Jesus gives himself over to a spirit of death. God has done what the law could not do. Jesus submitted to the law and was held accountable for the entire world's sin. A way out for us would never be found through tackling the spirit of death, because it would only bring death to us. But Jesus submits to the spirit of death and proves death to be impotent. This is the miracle of the Christian faith. We trust in a God who became sin for us, and that very power of sin which has overpowered us was shown to be ultimately impotent in the face of God's power of life in the Spirit. In the resurrection of Jesus, the spirit of life was found victorious against death and its use of power over us. The miracle that God gives to us in Jesus Christ is his victory. We no longer are slaves to find our way out of suffering and pain by revenge and power. In Christ you don't need to live a life that uses the systems of death to gain power and leverage over and against others. Life in the spirit of life and peace brings the redemption of community. Community is no longer used in power to control and demand from. Community in the spirit is no longer a mechanism to put down and demean. Life in the spirit is a renewed life in community based in forgiveness rather than power and control. In Christ you live a life that is rooted not in overpowering, but empowering through the victory of Christ. This is essential to understand how St. Patrick could look back at Ireland and not give up nor exact revenge. There are two ways to live. One is according to the Spirit of the flesh, human nature fallen into sin that seeks victory through bringing a spirit of death to others. The other way is according to the Spirit of life and peace. This is the way of divine grace that ultimately leads to life. To give up and live in the constraints of human nature fallen into sin can never lead us away from death. You are alive through the one who said, "I am the resurrection and the life." You are alive, we are alive and together for the purposes of bringing this renewal and redemption to a world that is fruitlessly seeking victory in the spirit of power, control, demand. Through our faith in God we bring to this world a new spirit, a new way to live life, a new way to be a community. Live with me this week in Christ, in his spirit of life and peace, you will find yourself not weakened and susceptible to the ways of power and control. You will find in Christ victory, for death could not hold him, it does not have a hold over you. Soli Deo Gloria -->> Home |