St. Patrick

To-Do Lists

Posted on by Betsy

In the year A.D. 403 a 16-year-old Christian boy from Wales was abducted by pirates and taken to Ireland where he was enslaved for five years. Eventually he escaped from this exile and joined a monastery in southern France. There he changed his name to Patrick and intended to live out his life as a monk.

But at the age of 45, God called Patrick to return to Ireland and carry the gospel to his former oppressors. Patrick went and invested the remainder of his life in serving the Irish. During the next 31 years he baptized more than 120,000 people as Christians.

In Ireland they still say of Patrick that “he found Ireland all heathen and he left it all Christian.” The church made him a saint.

While he was in his Irish exile, St. Patrick prayed for his enemies. He prayed for the prosperity of the land where he was trapped. In that exile, St. Patrick evangelized a nation. In his exile, he GOT TO WORK.

Our passage today is a letter to the Hebrew exiles in Babylon written by the prophet Jeremiah, who remained in Jerusalem. They must have been excited to receive a letter from home in their strange and foreign land! I imagine they were hoping to catch up on all the news and maybe receive a word of encouragement about God’s imminent deliverance.

Instead, they got a to-do list.

Jeremiah 29  (New International Version)

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. It said:

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.

Wait, come again? We’re stuck here waiting for rescue and you want us to settle down? Build houses? Marry off our children?? 

To the estranged and hopeless diaspora, this letter must have come as quite a shock. Then it gets worse.

 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

So in the midst of their despair, Jeremiah instructs them to pray for their oppressor. To pray for their unwanted city. To pray for the people who are holding them captive. And in thus praying, they would also seek peace.

This abrupt message to the exiles is a good lesson for us today. Our communities live in exiles of their own making based on political divisions that have eroded our oneness. We don’t love our neighbors like we used to, based on the flags they fly and the bumper stickers they sport. Many are estranged from their extended families and even our water cooler chats at work are fraught with danger. What to do?

Build. 

Plan. 

Adapt. 

Pray. 

Seek peace in places that you aren’t expecting to find it.

Get to work!

At the appointed time, the exiles were returned to the comfort of their homes. At the appointed time, we too will be delivered from our political exiles. In the meantime, get to work on evangelizing like Patrick, planning like Jeremiah, and loving like Jesus.

Ospreys at Work by Michelle Robertson

Sole Soul Vision

Posted on by Betsy

A recent sermon series had me studying the history of the beautiful Irish hymn, Be Thou My Vision. Do you know the story?It begins in ancient Ireland with St. Patrick. When he was just sixteen years old, pirates kidnapped Patrick and sold him into slavery in Ireland. Thus he entered adulthood knowing the Gaelic language and Irish customs. He also became a Christian during this time. Years later, he managed to escape and return home to his family in England. While most would have stayed home forever, Patrick chose to go back to Ireland and become a missionary  It was during this second trip, around 433, that the inspiration for Be Thou My Vision began.

The king of Ireland was King Laoghaire. He was a great Celtic High King, renowned for his ferocity and brute strength. He resided on a hill called Tara. Every year at the time of the Beltaine Festival, which occurred at the spring equinox, King Laoghaire a fire ceremony for the druids and his subjects called the Feast of Tara. The highlight of the feast was when he lit a sacred fire at the top of the hill to honor the pagan sun god, and it was left burning for a number of days.

The Hill of Tara was a cultic center where people worshiped the Celtic god of the sun, Lugh. In pagan society, the sun was given exalted importance because it is the main source of light and warmth, and it makes the plants grow, providing sustenance. Consequently, pagan sun worship was deeply embedded in the fabric of the Celtic people.

The king strictly prohibited any other fires that could be seen from Tara during the entire duration of the festival.

But there was another hill in the same region about ten miles away called the Hill of Slane. When visibility was good, it was possible to see from one hill to the other. 

St. Patrick was not intimidated by the king’s pagan festival, and defiantly disregarded the king’s order. St. Patrick lit a Paschal (meaning Easter) fire and an Easter Candle during the Vigil Service on the night before Easter. The fire was left burning and could be seen clearly from the Hill of Tara. King Laoghaire was either impressed or intimidated by Patrick’s devotion and, despite his defiance, Patrick was permitted to continue his work as Ireland’s first Christian missionary.

St. Patrick made an emphatic statement: Jesus is the light of the world, and none other, not even a pagan sun god, could hold a candle to him.

John 8 (New International Version)

12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

We are called to have the same vision that Patrick had. To be a beacon of light on a hill, proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That is the vision for the church: to act with love, justice, and righteousness as we shine the light of Christ into a dark and hurting world (Jeremiah 9:23-24). 

I am thankful that my denomination has sought to be a headlight in some of the major social issues of our time rather than a brake-light. Evangelism and social action are the two sides of a whole Gospel. Without vision, we will lose both. The church has a vision to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world and to bring God’s steadfast love, justice, and righteousness to all of God’s children. This is a huge task. But a church that has a vision does not ask for tasks equal to its power. A church that has a vision asks for power equal to its tasks. And this is the task we have been assigned.

Vision in this context is not just about seeing God’s vision for our church and our own lives, but also being the vision that others can see, like Patrick’s Pascal fire on that hill. When we make God our sole vision…i.e. when we say, “Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art” … we reflect his light into a world that desperately needs him.

See the vision? Be the vision.

Be a Beacon of Light