Are you Irish? Do you have some Irish blood flowing through your veins?  Today is St. Patrick’s Day. Today people wear green, they drink green beer, and it is another day for the secular world to belittle the thoughts, actions, and ministry of another Saint. So, what does St. Patrick stand for?  Why was he elevated to Sainthood?

St. Patrick is a patron saint – he is a saint who in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family or person. St. Patrick was also a missionary in Ireland during the second half of the 5^th century.  After being held as a slave in Ireland, he escaped only to be returned to the country. Upon returning, he used the knowledge of Irish language and culture that he gained during his first captivity and brought Christianity and monasticism to Ireland in the form of more than 300 churches and over 100,000 Irish baptized.

March 17 is popularly known as St. Patrick’s Day because it is believed that he died on this date and, and as such is the date celebrated as his Feast Day. For most of Christianity’s first thousand years, canonizations were done on the diocesan or regional level. Relatively soon after the death of someone the church considered very holy, the local expression of the church affirmed that they could be liturgically celebrated as saints. As a result, St. Patrick has never been formally canonized by a Pope; nevertheless, various Christian churches declare that he is a Saint in Heaven (he is in the List of Saints). The Lutheran church does not venerate saints like some churches (e.g. the Catholic, Episcopal or Orthodox), but we still recognize the importance of particular people who had profound impact on the church, the community, and the world. Some Saints that you might want to read more about include but are not limited to:

Saint Augustine, Saint Anselm, Saint Athenasius, and Saint Joseph.

Pastor Dave

Thus says the Lord,  who makes a way in the sea,  a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse,  army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise,  they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:16-19)

The Lord says, “I am doing a new thing”.  This has been the most remarkable thing about our G-d throughout history – G-d has always looked to do the “new” and the “unexpected”. G-d used the flood to wash away the old, and give Noah and his family a new lease on life. G-d used slavery for the Israelites to achieve freedom. G-d called murderers (like Moses) and adulterers (like David) and double-crossers (like Joseph’s brothers) to be leaders and models for our living today. G-d allowed the Temple to be destroyed and the people to be taken into captivity so that they could return and make things new.

Why do we try to hold on to the old so much that we squeeze the living life out of it which distracts us from the new? This has been the battle within the church for a millennia. We do not want things to change, yet the mantra that G-d told the people from the beginning was that nothing remains the same – things are always changing.

If we look just at our worship experience in the Lutheran church, we must accept the truth that there have been multiple changes — some very subtle, and others rather jarring. And yet, with this truth right in front of us, many in the Lutheran church want to keep what we do in worship the same — and will go to their deathbeds trying to hold onto the old and stop the possibility of any and all new things. And yet, just like hair styles have changed, so has our responses to G-d’s love, mercy and Grace. 

If the pandemic has taught us one thing it is this: change is either going to come slowly, or it will try to knock us over – but change is coming. So, we should get used to change – some for the better and some for the worse. G-d is doing a new thing in your life and the life of the church — and sometimes we just need to hang on for the ride.

Pastor Dave