Patrick is a challenge to Consumer Christianity
Bishop Harold writes…
It always amazes me that Patrick chose to return to Ireland, to win this land for Jesus Christ. It amazes me in the same way as missionaries who return to countries where they have been persecuted for their faith. After all, Patrick’s first experience of Ireland must have been a deeply traumatic one. He was enslaved at 16 years of age, removed from a secure background, and worked to the bone until he managed to escape! And yet his sense of God’s call was such that he actually decided to return to the ‘lion’s den’ which was the Ireland of his day, because of his love for God and his love for the Irish people who treated him so badly. That’s character! That’s forgiveness! That’s what they call ‘muscular Christianity’!
How different it is to the rather cheap form of faith many of us are enticed by. We choose our place, our career and our style of worship to suit our comfort zones. The question is not so much ‘What does God want?’ as ‘What will it do for me?’ We sometimes even try to spiritualize it all, to make it feel good for us. The truth is that following Jesus Christ means suffering, determination, forgiveness and a cross, all of which our human instincts would rather avoid.
St Paul puts it in these stark words in Romans 5:
We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint us.
‘Character’ is our theme at Saul and Down Cathedral this St Patrick’s Day. We are celebrating on Monday 18 March, and you are welcome to come and explore this theme with us, and be built up in the way of Christ, even if it’s wet and St Patrick doesn’t turn up the right side of the stone! That builds character too!
+HaroldDown & Dromore