Tag Archives: St Patrick

Porque tanto amó Dios a todos los pueblos, todas las herencias … “Juan 3: 14-21 First St Johns 15 de marzo 2015

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translation from Google Translate

Hacemos nuestro comienzo en el Nombre de Dios el Padre y en el nombre de Dios el Hijo y en el nombre de Dios el Espíritu Santo, y todos los que son hermanos y hermanas de Jesús dijo … AMEN !!

Usted puede haber oído me refiero a St Patricks como el “gran día santo”, si usted creció en el que crecí, sería fácil llegar a esa conclusión. Me fui a la misa del Día de San Patricio en Boston, una vez. Se llevó a cabo, por entonces, el cardenal Law. ¿Quieres hablar de “alto día santo”, eso fue todo. El servicio de adoración, por lo que fue durante la semana, fue muy vistoso y bien atendido. Esto fue en el asiento del cardenal en la Iglesia de la Santa Cruz, en Boston. Di lo que quieras acerca de la Iglesia Católica Romana, pero me fui de allí mucho sentimiento como si yo hubiera estado en la adoración.

Se cuenta la historia de alcalde James Michael Curley de Boston. Alcalde Curley era bastante el carácter, una especie de figura de Robin Hood en el momento, que era más o menos durante la depresión. No podía hacer 17 de marzo un día de fiesta para un santo cristiano, trató de encontrar un evento histórico para conmemorar. Golpeó en el hecho de que el 17 de marzo es cuando los británicos evacuaron Boston durante la guerra revolucionaria. Bueno, el hecho de que nuestros antepasados ​​Boston condujeron a los poderosos británicos de Boston no era algo que no sólo los viejos Yankees Boston nos encantaría conmemorar, sino también a la población estadounidense de origen irlandés también compraría en. Llámelo como lo haría, había una fiesta el 17 de marzo y todos sabemos lo que es realmente. Día de evacuación sigue siendo una fiesta reconocida en Middlesex y Suffolk, donde se encuentra en Boston. Y está debidamente celebrado.

El patrimonio es una cosa importante, que debe ser compartida y celebrada. Aquí tenemos al menos cuatro grupos diferentes en First St Johns Iglesia Luterana que son muy serios en la vida y que celebran su herencia y no hay nada malo en ello. En una sociedad que se ha vuelto tan astillada y tan alienados, considero que esas personas que recuerdan su patrimonio, comparten ese patrimonio con otros del mismo grupo, asegúrese de que sus hijos, nietos y otros parientes y recuerde que no se rinden a lo que se ha convertido en una sociedad cada vez más homogeneizado. Por mucho que se promueve la diversidad en la sociedad actual, lo que realmente está poniendo distancia herencias étnicas y religiosas, que quedará vinculado juntos bajo un patrimonio cada vez más secular y humanista. Muchos hablan de un buen juego sobre el patrimonio, la falta de conocimiento de la historia de América y étnica es llegar a ser escandalosa. Son demasiados los jóvenes ni siquiera pueden pensar en términos históricos, como si lo que vino antes que ellos no importa y sin embargo les ha hecho mucho de lo que son. Esta falta de anclaje en nuestra sociedad, a nuestra herencia cristiana y nuestra herencia familiar nos ha dejado con una sociedad que se separa cada vez más y alienada.

Cuando se bautizaron, que se convirtió en una persona nueva. En el bautismo usted ha “nacido de nuevo”, se le da la vida real, en Jesucristo, tú eres ese nuevo hombre o mujer. Debido a que usted ha nacido en un nuevo patrimonio. Usted puede ser de origen étnico alemán o irlandés o español, afroamericano, italiano, pero como dice la canción “… sólo en Cristo …” Compartimos una herencia que se remonta al comienzo en Jesús. Como Pablo escribió a los hermanos de Galacia: “No hay ni Judio ni griego, no hay esclavo ni libre; no hay varón ni mujer, porque todos vosotros sois uno en Cristo Jesús.” (Gálatas 3:28)

Debido a que es el “alto día santo”, menciono esto porque yo trato de hacer de San Patricio un poco especial. Sé que es la mitad de la Cuaresma y debe ser sombrío. Domingos, sin embargo, incluso en la Cuaresma, son aún los días de fiesta en el calendario de la iglesia. Es curioso cómo funciona y si te gustaría que te lo explique, lo haré, pero veo St Patricks como una manera de mantenerse un poco en contacto con la cultura que me crié en e incluso como un luterano fue incluido en . Tengo que admitir que, por ser de etnia / Yankee irlandés, me hace un bicho raro en la Iglesia Luterana. Aunque no es la única cosa que hace, pero no veo St Patricks como una manera de recordar no sólo nuestra identidad étnica, pero mucho más importante es que nuestra identidad en Jesús.

Una de las razones que me he sentido que era tan importante para recitar el Credo Niceno del Apóstol y con la palabra “católico” es poner de relieve que la Iglesia Luterana es en gran medida una iglesia universal. No debemos conceder que a cualquier otra iglesia. Lo universal y la Iglesia Luterana tiene miembros e iglesias en casi todos los países del mundo. Hay países donde el cristianismo es reprimida en serio, así que realmente no saben lo que es la iglesia o no está representado. La población de más rápido crecimiento Luterana en el mundo no está en los Estados Unidos o en Europa, está en …. África, de lejos. “… Hay más de 16 millones de luteranos en África? Para poner esto en perspectiva, eso es más luteranos que en toda América del Norte. A diferencia de la Iglesia en Europa y América del Norte, África, así como de Asia está experimentando un crecimiento fenomenal en la membresía. “Puesto en perspectiva, del Dr. Luther creció las iglesias del protestantismo moderno. Anglicanos, bautistas, metodistas, cristiano genuino protestante, con exclusión de las iglesias anabautistas, las iglesias son el resultado de lo que Martin Luther hizo hace 500 años. Todos somos verdaderamente hermanos y hermanas en Cristo. A menudo, más hermanos y hermanas que las personas que compartimos con los padres físicos.

Puedo usar el día del St Patricks de añadir un pequeño giro en la adoración, trato de hacerlo mejor, pero nunca parece venir alrededor. Pero tenemos un patrimonio compartido que va mucho más allá de lo países nuestros antepasados ​​nacieron en, tenemos un patrimonio que importa para la eternidad. Jesús murió por todos por igual, todos estamos igualmente salvos en Jesús, si usted fue bautizado la semana pasada o hace setenta años. Yo no más soy salvo porque soy de ascendencia irlandesa que usted es de ascendencia alemana o española, afroamericanos. En la resurrección eterna nuestro patrimonio es el único en el que murió para que nosotros pudiéramos ser salvos. Aquel que es el Señor de nuestra vida, en esta vida y en la vida eterna. “Porque tanto amó Dios al mundo que dio a su Hijo unigénito …” Mundo, ko, smoj en griego significa “… los habitantes de la tierra, los hombres, la raza humana” Todos somos hermanos y hermanas en la Católica, Luterana universales iglesia de Jesucristo.

La paz de Dios que sobrepasa todo entendimiento, guardará vuestros corazones y vuestros pensamientos en Cristo Jesús. Shalom y Amin.

For God so loved all peoples, all heritages John 3: 14-21 First St Johns Mar 15, 2015

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[For the audio version of this sermon please click on the above link]

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit, and all those who are brothers and sisters in Jesus said … AMEN!!

You may have heard me refer to St Patricks as the “high holy day”, if you grew up where I grew up, it would be easy to come to that conclusion. I went to the St Patrick’s Day mass in Boston, once. It was conducted, by then, Cardinal Law. You wanna talk “high holy day”, that was it. The worship service, for what was during the week, was very ornate and well attended. This was at the Cardinal’s seat at Holy Cross Church in Boston. Say what you will about the Roman Catholic Church, but I left there very much feeling as if I had been in worship.

The story is told of Mayor James Michael Curley of Boston. Mayor Curley was quite the character, sort of a Robin Hood figure at the time, which was pretty much during the depression. He couldn’t make March 17 a holiday for a Christian Saint, he tried to find an historical event to commemorate. He hit upon the fact that March 17 is when the British evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War. Well the fact that our Boston ancestors drove the mighty British out of Boston wasn’t something that not only the old Boston Yankees would happily commemorate, but also the Irish-American population would also buy into. Call it what you would, there was a holiday on March 17 and we all know what it’s really about. Evacuation Day is still a recognized holiday in Middlesex and Suffolk counties where Boston is located in. And it is duly celebrated.

Heritage is an important thing, it should be shared and celebrated. Right here we have at least four different groups in First St Johns Lutheran Church that are very serious in the living and celebrating of their heritage and there is nothing wrong with that. In a society that has become so splintered and so alienated, I submit that those people who remember their heritage, share that heritage with others of the same group, make sure that their children, grandchildren and other relatives remember that and don’t surrender to what has become an increasingly homogenized society. As much as diversity is promoted in today’s society, it really is putting away ethnic and religious heritages, to be bound together under an increasingly secular and humanist heritage. Many talk a good game about heritage, the lack of knowledge of American and ethnic history is getting to be scandalous. Too many young people can’t even think in historical terms, as if what came before them doesn’t matter and yet has very much made them what they are. This lack of anchoring in our society, to our Christian heritage and our family heritage has left us with a society that is increasingly detached and alienated.

When you were baptized, you became a new person. In Baptism you are “born again”, you are given real life, in Jesus Christ, you are that new man or woman. Because of that you are born into a new heritage. You may be of German ethnicity or Irish or Spanish, African-American, Italian, but as the song says “…in Christ alone…” We share a heritage that goes back to the beginning in Jesus. As Paul wrote to the Galatian brothers: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

Because it is the “high holy day”, I bring this up because I do try to make St Patricks a little special. I know it’s the middle of Lent and should be somber. Sundays, though, even in Lent, are still festival days on the church calendar. It’s odd how it works out and if you would like me to explain it, I will, but I see St Patricks as a way to kind of stay in touch with the culture that I was brought up in and even as a Lutheran was included in. I have to admit, being of Irish/Yankee ethnicity, makes me an oddball in the Lutheran Church. Although it’s not the only thing that does, but I see St Patricks as a way to remember not just our ethnic identity, but so much more importantly our identity in Jesus.

One reason that I have felt it was so important to recite the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds with the word “catholic” is to emphasize that the Lutheran Church is very much a universal church. We should not concede that to any other church. We are universal and the Lutheran Church has members and churches in almost every country in the world. There are countries where Christianity is seriously repressed, so we really don’t know what church is or isn’t represented. The fastest growing Lutheran population in the world is not in the United States or Europe, it’s in …. Africa, by far. “…there are over 16 million Lutherans in Africa?  To put that in perspective, that’s more Lutherans than in all of North America. Unlike the Church in Europe and North America, Africa as well as Asia is seeing phenomenal growth in membership.” Put in perspective, from Dr Luther grew the churches of modern Protestantism. [1] Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, genuine Protestant Christian, excluding Anabaptist churches, churches are the result of what Martin Luther did 500 years ago. We are all truly brothers and sisters in Christ. Often more brothers and sisters than the people that we share physical parents with.

I may use St Patricks Day to add a little twist into worship, I try to do it better, but it never seems to come about. But we have a shared heritage that far transcends what countries our ancestors were born in, we have a heritage that matters for eternity. Jesus died for all of us equally, we are all equally saved in Jesus, whether you were baptized last week, or seventy years ago. I am no more saved because I’m of Irish descent than you are of German descent, or Spanish, African American. In the eternal resurrection our heritage is solely in He who died so that we could be saved. He who is the Lord of our life, in this life and in the life eternal. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…” World, ko,smoj in Greek means “…the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human race”[2] We are all brothers and sisters in the Holy Catholic, universal Lutheran church of Jesus Christ.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

[1] See more at: http://www.messiahlacrescent.org/2010/09/lutherans-in-africa/#sthash.x7ApeFjD.dpuf

[2] BibleWorks

Patrick’s method of evangelizing the Irish reblogged from David Mathis

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Remember Saint Patrick

March 17, 2014

Remember Saint Patrick

Saint Paddy’s Day is for the pagans.

You might say it that way, and then carefully wash your Christian hands of all the carousing and empty revelry that makes all things Irish into an excuse for a godless spring party. But you might say the same thing, and mean it not as a call to circle the wagons, but to charge the hill.

Deep beneath much of what the day has become is the inspiring mission of Patrick pioneering the gospel among an unreached people, despite the frowning face of the church establishment. Saint Patrick’s Day, in its truest meaning, is not about avoiding the lost, but bringing them good news. It turns out Saint Paddy’s Day really is for the pagans.

The Gospel to the Irish

The March 17 feast day (first declared in the early 17th century) remembers Patrick as the one who led the fifth-century Christian mission to Ireland. Unlike Britain, the Emerald Isle lay beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire. The Irish were considered uncivilized barbarians, and many thought their illiteracy and volatile emotions put them outside the reach of the gospel.

But Patrick knew better. In a strange and beautiful providence, he had spent six years among them as a captive, learned their language, and developed a heart for them. Like Joseph sold into slavery to one day save Egypt and his brothers, God sent Patrick into slavery to ready Ireland for a coming salvation.

The Surprising Turn

Patrick was born in the late fourth century — many speculate around 385 — in what is now northeast England. He was born among the Celtic “Britons,” to a Romanized family of Christians. His father was a deacon, and his grandfather a priest. But his parents’ faith didn’t find a place in his heart in his rearing. In his youth, according to George Hunter, “he lived toward the wild side” (The Celtic Way of Evangelism, 13).

But God soon arrested him with severe mercy. Kidnapped at age sixteen by Irish raiders, he was taken back to the island, where he served as a slave for six years under a tribal chief, who was also a druid. While in bondage in Ireland, God unshackled his mind and opened his eyes to the gospel of his childhood.

“God sent Patrick into slavery to ready Ireland for a coming salvation.”

And so, as a captive, “he came to understand the Irish Celtic people, and their language and culture, with a kind of intuitive profundity that is usually possible only, as in Patrick’s case, from the ‘underside’” (14). When he eventually escaped from slavery in his early twenties, he was a changed man, now a Christian from the heart. He studied for vocational ministry, and led a parish in Britain for nearly twenty years.

Reclaiming Retirement

That could have been the end of the story. But at age 48 — “already past a man’s life expectancy in the fifth century” (15) — Patrick had a dream, which proved to be his own Macedonian Call (Acts 16:9). An Irish accent pled, “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.”

Having known the language and the customs from his captivity, and having long strategized about how the gospel might come to the Irish, he now answered the call to return to the place of his pain with the message of joy. The slave returned to his captors with good news of true freedom.

Back in Saint Patrick’s Day

But this would be no ordinary mission. The Irish Celtics were “barbarians.” They may have had a few Christians among them, but as a people, they were unreached, with no thriving church or gospel movement.

“Patrick, the former slave, returned to his Irish captors with good news of true freedom.”

Patrick would take a different and controversial approach to the prevailing missionary efforts of the fifth-century church. Instead of essentially Romanizing the people, by seeking to “civilize” them with respect to Roman customs, he wanted to see the gospel penetrate to the bottom of the Irish culture and produce an indigenous movement. He didn’t mean to colonize them, but truly evangelize them.

Understanding the People

Hunter tells the story in the first chapter of his book on Celtic evangelism.

The fact that Patrick understood the people and their language, their issues, and their ways, serves as the most strategically significant single insight that was to drive the wider expansion of Celtic Christianity, and stands as perhaps our greatest single learning from this movement. There is no shortcut to understanding the people. When you understand the people, you will often know what to say and do, and how. When the people know that the Christians understand them, they infer that maybe the High God understands them too. (19–20)

Patrick knew the Irish well enough to engage them as they were, and build authentic gospel bridges into their society. He wanted to see the gospel grow in Irish soil, rather than pave it over with a Roman road.

Ministering with a Team

Essential to Patrick’s strategy was that he not fly solo. Just as Jesus sent out his disciples together (Luke 10:1), and Paul and Barnabas went out together (Acts 13:3), so Patrick assembled a close-knit team that would tackle the work together, in the same location, speaking the gospel and making disciples, before moving on together to the next tribe. It was, what Hunter calls, a “group approach to apostolic ministry.”

We have no detailed record of Patrick’s ministry teams and strategies, but according to Hunter, “from a handful of ancient sources, we can piece together [an] outline of a typical approach, which undoubtedly varied from one time and setting to another.”

“Patrick wanted to see the gospel grow in Irish soil, rather than pave it over with a Roman road.”

Patrick’s teams would have about a dozen members. They would approach a tribe’s leadership and seek conversion, or at least their clearance, and set up camp nearby. The team “would meet the people, engage them in conversation and in ministry, and look for people who appeared receptive” (21). In due course, “One band member or another would probably join with each responsive person to reach out to relatives and friends” (22).

They would minister weeks and months among them, eventually pursuing baptisms and the founding of a church. They would leave behind a team member or two to provide leadership for the fledgling church and move, with a convert or two, to the next tribe. With such an approach, the church which grew up among the people would be “astonishingly indigenous” (22).

Priority Time with Pagans

While Patrick’s pioneering approach is increasingly celebrated today — and is a model, in some respects, of the kind of mission needed in our increasingly post-Christian society — most of his contemporaries weren’t impressed. “The British leaders were offended and angered that Patrick was spending priority time with ‘pagans,’ ‘sinners,’ and ‘barbarians’” (24).

But Patrick knew such an approach had good precedent. The one who saved him while a nominal Christian and an Irish captive was once called a “friend of tax collectors and sinners,” and said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). The stakes were high, but he knew it was worth the risk.

Something Worth Remembering

Instead of acquiescing to the religious establishment, Patrick took the gospel to the uncouth, and ventured all for the unreached Irish. Instead of coasting toward a cushy retirement, he gave nearly three decades to the nation-transforming evangelization of Ireland. Patrick truly was for the pagans.

According to tradition, Patrick died March 17. Many think the year was 461, but we don’t know for certain. While today’s trite celebrations may leave much to be forgotten, for those who love Jesus and the advance of his gospel, Patrick has left us some remarkable things to remember. And to learn from.

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“Patrick took the gospel to the uncouth, and ventured all for the unreached Irish.”

How the Irish were born again, an example for us

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How the Irish were born again

March 16, 2014 First St Johns Church, York, Pa

A Celtic Benediction: “The vitality of God be mine this day, the vitality of the God of life. The passion of Christ be mine this day, the passion of the Christ of love. The wakefulness of the Spirit be mine this day, the wakefulness of the Spirit of new birth. The vitality and passion and new birth of God be mine that I may be fully alive this day.”1 We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father…who have a new vitality, a new passion and have been born into new life in Christ said … AMEN.

Cead Mille Failte a hundred thousand welcomes, it is truly right and salutary that we should remember the Saints, and of course today who else but St Brendan? ah mean St Bridgett? ahhh ok St Patrick, there got it. So many of the saints we know and don’t know were led to dedicate their lives to bring God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ into places that were spiritually dark. Our Old Testament lesson today is about Father Abraham, Yahweh tells Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s “house”, the Hebrew word tyIB; meaning not just a house, our world today is so transient, I’ve lived in 14 different houses in my life, they were buildings to live in. In the Hebrew it usually has the meaning of the paternal household, probably a place that’s been lived in by the same family for generations. A place that could almost be a family museum, a place where there would be many nuclear families, all dependent on each other, a very familiar place. Unlike us today, we need a bigger place, we need a smaller place, most people would live, raise their families, be with generations of the same family and die at this place. Yahweh, picked Abraham up and moved him out of his family home to start a long journey, that would take him many places and finally put him in the land that Yahweh had promised. This was a land that was unknown to Abraham, a land where they had many different “gods” and practices and Abraham is bringing a new God to them that he himself is new to. York was a new place to Margie and me, still relatively Christian, certainly American, but a place where I was driving by GPS for at least the first year we were here. Much more welcoming a place then Abraham or Patrick encountered.

Greg Tobin writes: “The Apostle of Ireland was not a native of that land, but a Roman Briton, born and educated in the westernmost sector of Britain and Wales. His great-grandfather was Odissus, a deacon; his grandfather, Potitus, was a presbyter, or priest; his father, Calpornius, was a deacon, as well as a decurion, or local magistrate responsible for the collection of taxes. Patrick’s mother … was Concessa, possibly a niece of St Martin of Tours. The family was well-enough off by any standard, for they lived at a villa, or estate… He says in the Letter that in later life, whether figuratively or literally, ‘[I] traded my noble birthright.’”2 Tobin points out also that this was one of the greatest periods of the Christian church, since this was about the same era of Pope Celestine, Pope Leo the Great, St Augustine and St Jerome, also one of the most challenging, because Pelagius who raised many heretical teachings lived at this time. Like Abraham, Patrick claims to have received a divine call. Patrick was kidnapped as a result of an Irish raid in Britain and after years in slavery escaped and returned to his home. He claims his escape was facilitated by angelic direction. From there though he studied at Auxerre in Gaul where he was ordained a deacon, with “…the goal of being appointed bishop to the Irish Christians”. He returned to Britain and had another dream, some have claimed it was an angelic vision: “…whose name was Victoricus, coming it seemed from Ireland, with countless letters. ..I read the first words of the letter, which were: “The Voice of the Irish”. And as I read aloud the beginning of the letter I imagined that at the same moment I heard their voices – … and thus did they cry out as one: ‘We ask you, holy boy, come back and walk among us once more.”3

There was probably a small number of Christians in Ireland, but Ireland was dominated by pagan worship, mostly Druidic and it seems that worship included human sacrifice. It was an evil form of worship. Tobin writes: “Patrick was appointed to succeed Palladius as bishop to the Christians in Ireland in 432. In Ireland he eventually converted the High King, the Ard Righ, … and triumphed in many confrontations with druidic priests.”4 Like Elijah’s confrontation with the priests of Baal another confrontation of the remnant of God against the pervasiveness of paganism.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but we are the remnant in what is becoming a very pagan society. I don’t say that to insult, that is what it is and a lot of people who are involved in that will tell you they are pagans. You may have lived in this area all your life, you may not have had any vivid kind of guidance such as a dream or an angel, but in your lifetime, society has moved from being very Christian. So even though you might never have moved, the local culture has and as strange as Philistine to Abraham or Ireland to Patrick, your contemporary society could be as alien to you. Too often though we approach the contemporary culture as if it were like York of years past. Our expectations are that everyone knows and everyone acts he same. We expect everyone to be a certain way for them to be part of the church. George Hunter writes: “The perspective of the ancient Roman Christian leaders (and that would have included Patrick) can be baldly stated in two sentences: (1) Roman Christian leaders assumed that a population had to be civilized “enough” already to be Christianized, that is, that some degree of civilization was a prerequisite to Christianization. (2) Once a sufficiently civilized population became Christian, they were expected in time to read and speak Latin, to adopt other Roman customs, and to do church ‘the Roman way.’” How about if I insisted everyone read Greek in order to be a good Lutheran. The problem is this, because we’ve had a particular understanding through our lives, we think everyone has that same perspective. I can tell you I had to change my life when I became a Christian, it was a challenge, and as the husband and father, I had to disciple my wife and children, as all Christian men should. We live too safely, remember the movie Jaws, the grizzled old sailor, when he realized what kind of shark they were dealing with? He said: “Looks like we’re going to need a bigger boat.” That seems to be our solution, we need a bigger boat/whatever that may be. The boat may be going down, but we feel that we have enough of a life preserver to feel safe and if other people can’t get with our life preserver, too bad for them. We have to put the best face on what other people do. What a new person in church does/doesn’t do is hardly ever disrespect, just unfamiliarity, no one wants to upset anyone, but if there’s no reason to do what they’ve always done differently they will continue to act the same way. Much the same thing can be said about long time Christians. Hunter notes that our idea of evangelism/discipling is one on one, often kind of confrontational, “this is why you need to be a Christian what’s wrong with you?”. I find myself doing a milder version of that a lot. “…Celtic Christians usually evangelized as a team – by relating to the people of a settlement; identifying with the people; engaging in friendship, conversation, ministry and witness… the Celts believed in the importance of the team. A group of people can pray and think together. They inspire and encourage each other. The single entrepreneur, the Lone Ranger is too easily prey to self doubt and loss of vision.”5This is something that we have had to relearn and return to in contemporary Christianity. It is all about the group, the Body of Christ. Jesus is our primary example, using every opportunity as they traveled around Israel to teach His disciples what He expected them to teach their disciples, what it is to be in the presence of Jesus.

When a woman gives birth, it’s a process, a baby takes time to development, so it is with the Holy Spirit, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born of the Spirit, Jesus refers to “the wind blows where it may”, the Greek word pneu/ma which means wind and spirit. We refer to the study of the Holy Spirit as pneumatology, and so Jesus is referring to the Holy Spirit with Nicodemus. Jesus is saying that it is what Jesus will do, He will be the atonement, the sacrifice for the sins of the world, and that it will be the Holy Spirit who will chose those who will be born again, that they will be born again in the Spirit and because of that we know that we are born into the Kingdom, sons and daughters of the Father. You probably notice that this is in terms of a small group, not just the acts of Jesus‘ sacrifice, but the acts of the Spirit to bring rebirth and the acts of the Father who adopts us as His children through His Son Jesus.

We can chose then to continue to follow the failed model that dates back to the Roman Church which expected people to change and adapt on their own, or we can chose the model that St Patrick established, being in relationship, being part of a group, helping to show people Christ instead of trying to hound them into the Kingdom. Something I have to work on, but I can’t do that as an individual, it requires a group and that is what we are establishing here as Christ’s disciples. It’s not just me that people interact with, it’s not just those who are “supposed” to … It’s everyone, and you, and I, have no idea how the Holy Spirit will use what we do for someone to be born in the Spirit. So we do the ordinary things of life with those we meet, as a disciple of Christ, with those the Spirit brings here or another area of your life and you model to them what a Christian disciple is, don’t get upset with what they do or don’t do, just as Patrick did for the pagans of 5th century Ireland. Take some time now and think about who you can include in what group to disciple someone in Christ, pray study and journal over it.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

1J Philip Newell Celtic Benediction p 53

2Greg Tobin The Wisdom of St Patrick pp 21-22

3George G Hunter III The Celtic Way of Evangelism p 17

4Tobin p 25

5George Hunter p 47