Tonight is the Eve of St. Patrick, which means that tomorrow is St. Patrick’s official feast day but, as many of you know, we are allowed to celebrate him the evening before. Don’t ask me why I don’t write the rules. Incidentally, as a bit of trivia, this is what a Christmas Eve service actually is. It is the celebration of Christmas Day, the night before. There really is no such thing as a Christmas Eve service only a Christmas Day service celebrated the evening before, if that makes sense. But back to Patrick and the story of how he brought Christianity to Ireland so that we could one day drink green beer and temporarily pretend to be interested in leprechauns.
As someone who has had to preach a lot of sermons on saints I have noticed something when researching their lives, especially when it is a saint from long ago. And the thing that I have noticed is that modern scholarship has taken all of the fun out of their stories and we are left with some very generic, boring biographies that usually read something like this; [Insert saints name here] was born probably around the early/mid/late part of [insert century here], they probably traveled to [insert place here] and did some works of evangelism. But all of the good stuff, like the story of St. Denis walking around carrying his decapitated head while preaching a sermon is removed.
So the official version of Patrick these days is that he was born in the mid or late 5th century in England. He was kidnapped by Irish Pirates when he was 16. He was a slave in Ireland working as a shepherd before he escaped and returned to England. Years later he went back as an evangelist and converted some people and set up some church infrastructure. The official version has no mention of him explaining the trinity using the shamrock, which killjoy scholars now suggest is a possible 18th century invention. We also hear nothing of him chasing all of the snakes into the sea after they attacked him during a forty-day fast. I have sort of mixed feelings about these more pedestrian tales that we are now forced to read about the great saints. Certainly I do believe we should focus on what is true. However, I have to say that banishing legends makes for a somewhat dull existence. Because there is something about these great stories that charge our imagination and make life more exciting and endearing. I mean there is a reason that J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy has outsold Charles H. Wilber’s How to Grow World Record Tomatoes. I am certain that the latter contains more true stories but come on. And so as to the question of what do we focus on the legends or the true story as modern scholars see it. Well I think I will be Anglican and split the difference focusing on a piece that has ties to both legend and things that the fun-police scholars say can be verified. And that thing is that somehow Patrick convinced a large number of Irish Pagans to become Christian. The shamrock may have been an invention but somehow Patrick explained the Christian faith to the Irish in not only a way that made sense but also in a way that made them want to convert.
The Ireland that Patrick went to would have been tribal and violent. And in both legend and modern scholarship we know that Patrick did his work without an army or any other forms of intimidation. He would have had to rely on his own skill and of course his trust in God. And in this I think there might be some lessons for us as we face the pagan hoards of modern day America, be they at Starbucks, the dog park or the drive thru at Arby’s and seek to turn them to Christianity.
The initial lesson we learn from Patrick and the starting point for his ministry is forgiveness. Remember in his background he was kidnapped and enslaved in Ireland. In our modern grievance Olympics I think kidnapped and enslaved would rank up there pretty high, maybe even getting you a gold. Your parents probably would not even have to Pay $500,000 to get you into a decent school. No one would have blamed Patrick for never setting foot in Ireland again, but not only did he return but he felt such love for them that he desired that they be brought into the Christian faith. That action has much to teach us. I would argue that truly transformational people are the ones who are able to forgive. Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned for 27 years in South Africa stated, “When a deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive.” The fact of the matter is all of us have been slighted or treated badly at some point in our past. Yes, some much worse than others, but whatever the wrong we humans are very good at weaponizing our grievances to get what we want. But at some point Patrick forgave those people who had forcefully taken him from his homeland and made him to work without compensation. Forgiveness is an incredibly powerful tool, but strangely we have been convinced that it is only in not forgiving that we have any power. If you want a stupid illustration I have one for you. Back when The Simpsons was funny there was an episode where Homer decided to try and steal a soda out of a vending machine by pushing his arm up through the slot. His hand gets stuck and the paramedics have to be called in to help. They conclude that there is nothing they can do except to amputate his arm. As they are about to cut off his arm one of the paramedics asks, “Homer are you just holding onto the can?” To which Homer responds, “Your point being.” Holding onto grievance can be like this. It may feel like we are accomplishing something but really all we are doing is living in a way that forces us to disfigure ourselves, to alter our minds and bodies so that we may live in a state of non forgiveness. Without forgiveness Patrick would never have been known as the patron saint of Ireland.
The other thing I want to briefly discuss is the way in which Patrick evangelized. We have some legends about what exactly happened, but everyone agrees that he converted a lot of people. And so what was the secret to his success? I think that a great clue comes in the opening sentence of his autobiography, known as Confessions. It opens with him saying, “My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers.” It echoes the line of another great evangelist St. Paul who stated in 1st Timothy, “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners.” And if you were cynical you could say that this was false humility, that they were saying this so that others would contradict them and tell them how truly wonderful they were, but I am not so sure (and I am a very cynical person). The reason I find it to be genuine is because of the results. The work of egomaniacs, while sometimes successful, is usually short lived. Just look at the average lifespan of a cult or a wide receiver. That which is founded on the worship of a human cannot last long because we ultimately disappoint. But the one who is humble is able to get out of the way and allow people to see God – not our version of him, but the actual God of the universe.
St. Patrick in many ways is more of a brand name these days than an actual saint who lived and died in service of the Gospel. That is too bad because I think he has a lot to teach us. He lived in troubled times and did something about it. Not through bombast and contempt but rather through love, compassion and humility. The legends are of course awesome, but the real person was rather incredible too. He planted the seeds of Christianity that still live in Ireland and with God’s help will continue until the day we see the new heaven and the new earth.