Lent 5/St Pat's

   Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today we all celebrate being Irish – after all, “Everyone’s Irish on March 17!” is advertised year-round (I have a photo of this slogan from a permanent fixture in the Guinness StoreHouse in Dublin). It’s a day that has come to mean a party – Irish Stew, beverage-flavoured confections (Bailey’s fudge, Guinness cupcakes, etc.), and talking with a fake brogue while wearing something (or everything!) green. It’s a day of parades and parties, of sports matches and Irish pride. And these celebrations happen all over the world – Montreal has a famous parade, Chicago dyes its river green, the green lights illuminate the Sydney Opera House and Paris’ Eiffel Tower and Pisa’s Leaning Tower and South Africa’s Table Mountain and Dubai’s Burj Al Arab (and MANY other structures!), Montserrat (and Newfoundland and Labrador) declare a public holiday, celebrations last throughout March in Japan and Switzerland. The day was even celebrated on the International Space Station by in 2011 when Catherine Coleman wore green and displayed her Irish flutes; we’re waiting for Cmdr Chris Hadfield to tweet how they’ll celebrate this year!

   The history available of the person of St. Patrick is quite interesting. Yes, he’s Ireland’s (primary) patronal saint, alongside Brigid and Columba. He was a slave in Ireland, escaped to England, and returned to the Emerald Isle as an ordained missionary, later being consecrated Bishop there. Tales have him using the shamrock to teach about the Trinity, credit him with the absence of snakes (despite evidence that there were not snakes in post-glacial Ireland, though possibly referring to the serpent symbolism of the native Druids). He is connected to two styles of crosses (pattée and saltire), his stick grew into a living ash tree, he spoke with ancient Irish ancestors to promote Christianity. A bell removed from his grave 60 years after his death has been enshrined and can still be seen in the National Museum of Ireland. Though never formally canonised by a Pope, he is known around the world as a saint, and numerous churches are named after him.

   It’s interesting to me to see so many people get so excited about this day, given that it is a religious feast day. It seems to me that people get excited about this day despite that fact that it is a religious feast. In asking some folks last year why they were celebrating St. Patrick, I got some ‘enlightening’ responses: “He got the snakes of the island, didn’t he?” and “he found a 4-leaf clover” and (a rather slurred) “who cares, it’s a party!” It seems to me that the average “Irish for a day!” party-goer really isn’t interested in the history so much as the present reality and the joy that they are getting from it.

   Perhaps this is a trend for us church-folks to take notice of – people aren’t necessarily keen to learn all the history of the church all at once, if at all. I think people who want to come to church are more interested in the ways that the church is active in the world now rather than focusing just on what happened in our history. Please know: I am by no means suggesting that we ignore our history and traditions. Rather I think that we should be aware of them as we engage with the world in contemporary and meaningful ways. I think we’re challenged to take the lessons that we have learned from our history and apply them into our modern culture. Lessons such as those from St. Patrick’s life: the growth of faith in the midst of negative circumstances, the commitment to evangelism despite adversity, the bravery to answer the call to ministry, the empowerment of others to exercise their own ministry.

   It seems a bit crazy, I know. It seems a bit illogical and irrational to think that we can shift out of how we’ve always done things into new ways of going out and proclaiming the good news. I seriously doubt that we would be able to go into a pub today and start preaching the Gospel in a way that would be heard, in a way that would effectively bring people to Christ. Not because the people in a pub aren’t ready to hear it, but because we’re not crazy enough to know how to speak it, how to proclaim it. If we are going to go out into the world and deliver a message, it has to be in a way that people are going to hear it. It has to have meaning not just to us but to the people we’re speaking to. Which means we may be challenged to go a little bit outside the box.

   Maybe people will come to hear of Christ in our words – there are great storytellers out there who are able to interact with folks and share stories in such a way that you can’t help but be intrigued, inspired, impressed. Think about the letters of Paul. THAT man is a storyteller! That man could write a letter that had so much meaning to the community that they saved it – he worked his ministry through his words, through the detailing of his own story and experiences and conversion to faith.

   Maybe people will come to know Christ by our actions – there are opportunities out there for us to love, in irrational and illogical ways. Ways like visiting the infirm, helping a stranger on the street, feeding the hungry. My friend Mike told me a story this week of an experience in the urban church he serves – they provide a free bag lunch to anyone who needs it on alternating Saturdays. They do so in the space of the church – guests are not just picking up a bag at the doorway, but invited into the warmth of the church proper; some take their bags from the chancel steps and go, others stay in the pews for a cup of coffee or bowl of soup. One guest recently told Mike that, after his residential school experience, he would never again set foot in a church. But since he saw that there was good happening in that church, he might come back. That’s the sharing of good news, through action. That’s the good news that Martha exhibited in today’s gospel when she served the people around the table. That’s the good news that Mary exhibited when she anointed Jesus’ feet. They were both crazy enough to ignore what societal norms would call for, and do what they found to be right to serve the Christ that they loved. They were both crazy enough to demonstrate the emotional, ridiculous, illogical love to someone who would benefit from it.

   That’s the type of love we’re challenged to today. There are still people around us who need to see, hear, or experience love. There are people around us who cannot even begin to believe that they are worthy of love – and there are people around us today who are just waiting for us to be crazy enough to move in a different direction from what we’ve always done into new ways of living out the Gospel. Maybe we’re called to be storytellers, maybe we’re called to be serving in the background, maybe we’re called to action to respond to the poor that are always with us. Whatever we do, however we do it, however crazy it may seem, if it’s based in the love of Christ then it IS the ministry of the chosen.

   So let’s go out there and be crazy. Let’s live in the spirit of St Patrick who endured despite adversity; in the confidence of Isaiah who declares God’s intention to do a new thing; in the service of and to our Lord whether it’s what we’re used to or not, whether it’s comfortable or not. Let’s go into the world like Patrick, or Paul, or Mary and Martha - willing to be irrational and emotional and illogical – because sometimes you have to be a little crazy to change the world.