Candle Messages: Hope
Revelation 21:1-8
November 28, 2010
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
When you’re faced with an obstacle, faced with something that completely gets in your way, how do you respond? When things don’t go your way and you don’t know what to do, what do you do? When your life goes into a difficult time, how do you respond? Do you react cynically or hopefully? Do you tend throw your hands up and say, “See, this is how things always go—I don’t get a break!” Or do you say, in some shape or form, “With God there is always a way”?
How we respond to difficulties determines, to a great extent, how well we see God working in our lives. Tim Zimmerman understood this belief. Zimmerman found that shifting from a cynical to a hopeful perspective can make all the difference in life. A number of years ago, Zimmerman had to work on Thanksgiving Day. He worked for the Maryland State Welfare office, manning the phones, and he was bummed. All morning long, all he could think of was the fact that all his family was together, they were going to be eating soon and watching football, and it bothered him.
Then a phone call came in from a Mrs. B, a woman who was having problems with her EBT card, a credit card issued by the welfare office that acted like food stamps. She said that she had been saving $10 on it from last month so that she could match it with her $10 from this month. She had been saving it so that she could get food for Thanksgiving to have a meal with her children. Now her children couldn’t make it, and she couldn’t access the $10 from the previous month. The store kept telling her that the card was invalid.
It took Zimmerman only a few minutes to figure out what the problem was. Mrs. B. hadn’t realized that the card was only a temporary card, and that it expired at the end of the month, so she had lost her $10. Zimmerman then asked her if she had any food in her apartment. Mrs. B. said, “Not really. I had been trying to save up for Thanksgiving.” Zimmerman, thinking that this was not right, told Mrs. B. that he wanted to make some phone calls to see if he can get her local grocery store to accept credit from the welfare office and deliver food to Mrs. B. He called the grocery store, but they said that they couldn’t take credit over the phone, even from the welfare office, and that they couldn’t deliver anyway because they were short-staffed.
Zimmerman felt overwhelmed at this point, not knowing what to do, but he had hope. He believed that he could find a way. He asked some of his coworkers to join him and to call around to supermarkets in the area. They couldn’t find any that were open. More coworkers joined them, but no matter how many places they called, none were open. Finally, Zimmerman thought to call the Chesapeake Beef Company. He knew the owners, and thought that they would surely be willing to help. Again there was no answer.
They decided to call the owners at home to see if they would be willing to help. The owners, Maria and Stan Wasiliski, answered and listened. Stan told Zimmerman that he couldn’t open the store, but that they had just finished their Thanksgiving dinner, and they had lots of food left over. Mrs. B.’s home was only fifteen miles away. What if they took food from their dinner to her? Their children could make cards, and it would give them a chance to give to others on Thanksgiving. The only thing they asked of Zimmerman was that he call Mrs. B. to let her know they were coming.
Again, there was a glitch. They didn’t actually have Mrs. B.’s phone number on file. They only had a name and an address, and her number was unlisted. So they called the operator, explaining the situation, and asking her to connect them. The operator said that she couldn’t, but that she would call Mrs. B. and ask her to call the welfare office. Finally, it all worked out after she called.
Later that day, Zimmerman received a call from Maria Wasiliski. She said, “It was wonderful. Mrs. B. was so touched by our coming there. She opened and read each card from our children, and afterwards she asked if she could have permission to hug each of them. She had tears in her eyes after each hug. Then she said to us, ‘You know, I’ve been a Christian my whole life, and I’ve prayed, but lately it’s been so hard. I’ve been wondering where God is in all my struggles. I was ready to let go of my faith. But today I really know that God is alive and here with me.’”
When we have hope, anything can happen. The people in the welfare office had hope. They looked for what can happen, rather than at what normally should happen. Instead of giving into cynicism, they gave into hope, and for us Christians, it’s hope that makes all the difference.
The fact is that it is very, very easy to let cynicism run our lives. It’s very, very easy to look at what’s wrong instead of what’s right, to focus on obstacles instead of on how to overcome them. We all do it. We all give in to cynicism. Have you ever found yourself saying to someone else, “Oh, the schools these days! Why can’t teachers care more about teaching than about money!” Or, “Kids these days! We were never like this! They’re all so whiney and helpless.” Or “You can’t get good service anywhere. No one cares about customer service. They’re all in it for themselves!” In fact, cynicism follows a formula: “Oh, the ____ these days! Back in my day, we _____________!”
Frankly, I think the primary problem of our country is our cynicism. All people do is complain about politicians, about liberals and conservatives, about the people in power and replacing them with new people (who we’ll complain about once they get into power). People on the right complain that the country’s going to hell in a hand basket because liberals are running it. Then those on the left complain that if the conservatives get power, they will ruin this country. Those on the right are cynical about those on the left, thinking they are socialists, and those on the left are cynical about those on the right, thinking they are fascists. It’s as though we’ve become so cynical that we think the country can’t actually survive actual democracy. We’re so cynical about democracy that we have no hope in democracy even though we believe in democracy. I guess, though, for Republicans and Democrats, democracy only works when one party rules,… although at that point don’t we become fascist? It’s ironic. We’ve become so cynical that we think that only one party rule can save democracy.
The Christian way is a way that refuses to give in to cynicism about anything. The Christian way always remembers that God’s light shines most in the darkness, and that there’s always hope. Reflect on the Bible stories. The Bible is filled with light in the darkness stories. For example, Joseph was sold into slavery, and then imprisoned, but he rose to greatness, managing to save his family that was suffering from hunger during the great 7 years of drought. Moses was a murderer living in exile in the desert, but he was brought out of exile to lead the Israelites out of the darkness of slavery. The Jews were enslaved twice—in Egypt and in Babylon—but God restored them. The message of the prophets was always that even though bad things were going to happen, God was going to be good to them and bless them if they had faith. The birth of Jesus is a story of hope. And the cross is the ultimate Christian hope story. When Jesus died on the cross, all hope was gone. But people didn’t see what God was actually doing. When Christ was resurrected it showed that God was bringing light to even the darkest times. Our whole faith is built upon having hope when things seem hopeless.
Hope means always having faith, even when it seems like there is no reason for it. It’s being realistic about the way things are, but also believing that if we are patient, God will respond to our prayer. Hope means knowing that behind the scenes God is doing stuff to make things better, but we don’t know what. It means believing that even though things seem bleak, God is doing something unexpected to make things right.
Let me give you a metaphor for what I’m talking about. A few years ago a father in Scotland called his son in London several days before Christmas Eve. He sounded so sad and angry. He said to his son, "I hate to ruin your day but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing. Forty-five years of misery is enough!"
"Dad, what are you talking about?'" the son screamed. “How can you get divorced now after a lifetime together?”
"We can't stand the sight of each other any longer", he said. "We're sick of each other and I'm sick of talking about this. You call your sister in Leeds and tell her. I don’t have the stomach for it.”
Frantically, the son called his sister, who exploded on the phone, saying, "Like hell they're getting divorced! I'll take care of this.”
She called Scotland immediately and screamed at her father, "You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing. DO YOU HEAR ME?" She then hung up.
The old man hung up his phone, turned to his wife, and said. "Done! They're coming for Christmas. And they're paying their own way."
Not to use too cynical a joke, but this is the way God works, too. God does things that we think mean God is acting one way, but in the end we find out that God was doing something completely different. We lose hope because we can’t see what God is doing behind the scenes. But if we are willing to hope, we will discover that what God is doing is so much more than we ever expect.
Advent is a celebration of hope, of believing that good things can come out of bad, that in the darkest times a spark of light is always present. It celebrates that if you hold fast to God, have faith, and be patient, good things are going to happen.
Amen.
Parable Wisdom: 3. Humbly Exalted
Luke 18:9-14
November 21, 2010
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Do you have a favorite commercial? I do. And right now my favorite commercial is the one about the most Interesting man in the world. You know those commercials for Dos Equis beer? The main character in the commercials is an older man, surrounded by younger women, who is declared to be “the most interesting man in the world.” You see scenes from earlier in his life when he did amazing things. For example, in one scene an Eskimo is ice fishing, in the process of cutting out a hole in the ice. As he removes a circular cutaway of ice, out of the water emerges the most interesting man, holding three large fish. Then, in another scene you see the most interesting man halfway rapelling down a cliff on the side of a mountain, in order to nurse young eagle chicks with a dropper of milk. Then you see him lying in bed, suturing his own nasty wound, while smiling and carrying on a conversation with women and the doctor. Then you see him sitting with a queen, with both laughing after he has played a prank on her. He is declared, “the most interesting man in the world, a man whose mother has a tattoo on her shoulder that says, ‘son.’”
I love those commercials so much that when I see them on television. I often call my wife in to watch. But I’ve been wondering this week: what if they created a commercial starring “the most humble man in the world?” Would anyone be interested? Who would watch? I don’t think many of us would, but I know that God would. And I suspect that God would call in all the angels, and say, “Hey, guys,… that commercial is on again! Come and see!”
What would the most humble man in the world be like? I know of a few, and they are unique and special. For example, I met John in Oregon two springs ago. The pastor I worked with as an associate pastor right after seminary, Jack Hodges, retired several years ago after a distinguished career, culminating in being the executive presbyter of Cascades Presbytery. He just didn’t have it in him to sit around, so he decided to become a part-time pastor of a dying, inner-city, Portland church. I think that when he got there they had about 30 members, and within two years he had grown it to about 48 members. John was a member of that church. Every Sunday morning he got up to make coffee for the members of the church. Jack introduced me and said, “Graham, this is John. He makes the best coffee in any church in the world. He is a great man.” John smiled as he heard Jack say this. As we walked away, Jack said to me, “John really is a wonderful man. He’s had a hard life, yet he is always cheerful, and always willing to do anything to help. It doesn’t matter how small the job is. He does everything with a smile. He gets up early every Sunday morning, and it’s important to him to come to church and make coffee for everyone. He takes really great pleasure in doing it.” John is one of the most humble men in the world.
Another “most humble man in the world” is Darold Holliday. Like John, Darold has not had an easy life. He barely knows his parents, two people where were far too busy living the lives of drug addicts on the streets of Pittsburgh to raise their child. Darold was sent to his grandparents, who loved him dearly. Yet his grandfather died when he was seven, and his grandmother when he was twelve. He then was raised by elderly neighbors. He was diagnosed with Type I diabetes as a child. The condition meant that he has had to take insulin injections most of his life. The combination of the disease and the insulin shots destroyed his pancreas and kidneys. He has had to have transplants for all of them. Eventually, the pancreas was rejected, and even now he is fights the rejection of his kidney. Despite his physical struggles, nothing has kept him from bearing fruit. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons he volunteers with kindergartners and first-graders at Lemington Elementary School in Pittsburgh. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings he volunteers at the Arsenal Middle School. He also works with teens and youth in the afternoon recreation program sponsored by East End Cooperative Ministries. And he volunteers in the youth program of his own church, Good Shepherd Baptist Church. In addition, he is part of Ameri-Corps, the national volunteer agency. Despite all of his struggles, he has made serving God and caring for others a priority in his life. As a result, East End Cooperative Ministries (a conglomeration of over 45 Pittsburgh congregations that run a homeless shelter, programs to help the homeless reintegrate into life, tutoring programs for at-risk children, health clinics, and more) awarded him Volunteer of the Year in 2003. He is one of those “most humble men in the world.”
The fact is that these humble people don’t garner that much attention because humility as a virtue goes against so much of what we value in modern American life. Other virtues work better, virtues like faithfulness, generosity, and self-control. They work because they contribute to the American life of working hard, making money, and achieving success. Humility, gets the short shrift because it’s not a virtue that produces things we care about in our culture, where power, popularity, and wealth mean everything. Think about it. Nobody becomes popular or powerful by being humble. No one typically gains great wealth through being humble. No one garners great attention by being humble. But what you do gain is immeasurable from God’s perspective
The interesting thing about our passage is that it actually goes against the common beliefs about what saves us. If I were to quote Romans 3 and say that we are justified by ____ through ____, would you be able to fill in the blanks? Most Christians would be able, saying “by grace through faith.” According to our passage, it’s not grace or faith that leads to salvation but humility. To recognize it you have to understand that the words “justification,” “righteousness,” and “salvation are basically interchangeable. This parable tells us that the tax collector goes home justified, the tax collector goes home “saved.” And it’s humility that saves him.
So this morning I want to dig a bit deeper into what it means to be humble, and I want to make you work on thinking about how humble you are. I’m going to ask you to read the following quotes, and reflect on them. Ask the question, what do these teachings tell me about humility and how I can become more humble in my life.
From Thomas Kelly’s, A Testament of Devotion, we hear, “Humility does not rest, in final count, upon bafflement and discouragement and self-disgust at our shabby lives, a brow-beaten, dog-slinking attitude. It rests upon the disclosure of the consummate wonder of God, upon finding that only God counts, that all our own self-originated intentions are works of straw. And so in lowly humility we must stick close to the Root and count our own powers as nothing except that they are enslaved in His power.”
And from the 14th Century Roman Catholic writer, Thomas รก Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ, we hear, “Everyone naturally wishes to have knowledge, but what good is great learning unless it is accompanied by a feeling of deep awe and profound reverence toward God? Indeed, a humble farmer who serves God is better than a proud philosopher, who neglecting himself, contemplates the course of the heavens. The person who truly knows himself seems common in his own eyes...
“If you want to learn something that will really help you, learn to see yourself as God sees you and not as you see yourself in the distorted mirror of your own self-importance. This is the greatest and most useful lesson we can learn: to know ourselves for what we truly are, to admit freely our weaknesses and failings, and to hold a humble opinion of ourselves because of them. Not to dwell on ourselves and always to think well and highly of others is great wisdom and perfection.”
As we close, reflect on this simple question. What would you need to do to become humbler in your life?
Amen.
The Celtic Way
November 14, 2010
John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Colossians 1:15-20
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
I don’t’ know if you are aware of this, but for a lot of years Bruce Smith, our music and youth director, has had a crusade. He has wanted to rename our church. And he has reasons for that. You see, Calvin Presbyterian Church wasn’t always called Calvin Presbyterian Church. Until February 22, 1959, our name was Harmony-Zelienople Presbyterian Church. In the late 1950s two Presbyterian denominations merged, one that our church was a part of, and another that Park Presbyterian Church was part of. The Presbytery didn’t think that it was right for our church to have the name “Harmony-Zelienople” in it, so it told the church to rename itself. According to Bruce and others, our name wasn’t chosen by the congregation, but by the presbytery. So in February of 1959, we were renamed Calvin Presbyterian Church.
I don’t know how much energy I have for taking up the fight to rename our church, but if I have a vote in the issue, I would rename us Celtic Presbyterian Church. Why? Because I think that the name “Celtic” really describes not only my approach to Christian faith, but also the approach that I know most of our members and staff have. Just speaking personally, I’ve found it interesting that over the years I’ve been thoroughly Celtic in my Christianity, but I only came to realize the fact in the past few months. For years I’ve filled my home, my office, and even adorned myself with Celtic symbols, and listened to a ton of Celtic music, but I’ve never known why the Celtic approach to faith and life have been so important to me. And it’s not just me. Look around Calvin Church. We have Celtic symbols everywhere, from the cross at the front of our church, to our church logo, to the Celtic crosses adoring the walls of our sanctuary, to the pictures of Celtic crosses from Ireland and Scotland that you can find in our office hallway and conference room. So much of who and what we are is Celtic. A lot may have to do with the fact that Presbyterians have a Scottish, and thus Celtic heritage, but more has to do with our perspective on Christian faith.
I’m not alone in having a love of all things Celtic. Many of us do, without even knowing it. For example, look at how prevalent Celtic symbols are in jewelry. Many people love Celtic crosses and knotworks (the intertwined threads that you see in so much of jewelry). Celtic art, with its flourishes intertwined with scenes of nature, if very popular. Many love Celtic music. In fact, where would PBS be without Celtic Woman, Celtic Thunder, the Celtic Tenors, Riverdance, and more. There’s even a worldwide love of Celtic brews such as Guinness, Harp, Irish Whiskey, and Scotch.
What it is about the Celtic way that has captured so many people? I’ve wondered what it was that captured me. It’s only been in the past few months that I finally figured it out. I figured it out because I’ve been studying Celtic faith and spirituality for the past six months.
So what is Celtic Christianity? It is a theology and spirituality that formed in the British Isles out of their love of nature. The Celtic people have always had a love of nature, and have always had a sense of their being something spiritual about nature. They had a deep connection with nature before Christianity came to Ireland and Scotland, and that love made its way into their understanding of Christianity. The Celtic Christians believed very much in being scriptural—in basing their faith in the Bible—but they also believed that God could be discovered through nature. They believed that Scripture taught our minds about God, but the nature taught our hearts to see God. They believed that we can experience God in the stories of the Bible, but also in a beautiful sunset, the wind blowing over grains of wheat, and in the rain that makes everything grow.
As a result of this love of nature, and of sensing God’s presence in nature, they gravitated toward Bible passages that also expressed God’s presence in nature. For example, the passages that we read for today talk of Jesus as being the actual power of Creation, and how everything came into being in and through him. They recognized the love of nature in Jesus as he went off into the wilderness for forty days and nights, being led by the Holy Spirit. They recognized the love of nature in many of Jesus’ parables, where he used sowing seeds, sheep, fish, and other aspects of nature to describe the ways of God. They saw Christ’s love of nature in the fact that when he needed to be with the Father he went off to a lonely place to pray, and on the night he was arrested he went into a garden to pray. They also really emphasized John’s gospel, which is the one that most connects God with nature. You see, in John’s gospel Jesus uses phrases such as “I am the vine and you are the branches,” as well as making use of images from shepherding and fishing. And John also emphasizes how Christ is God’s incarnation in the world.
By the way, the Celts aren’t the only ones in Christianity to emphasize how nature reveals God’s presence. St. Francis also had a love of nature, living most of his adult life in the woods and fields. The Rhineland mystics of Germany used nature images to express their love of God, as did the great Christian mystic Meister Eckhardt. The Desert Fathers and Mothers of the fourth and fifth centuries lived in the deserts of Egypt, doing so in order to more fully experience God, which they found difficult in the cities.
The Celts did not believe that nature was God, nor that we should worship nature. Instead, they recognized that God created all of nature, and that God’s presence could be experienced through our connection with nature. You can see their awareness of God in nature through their prayers, such as this famous prayer, attributed to St. Patrick, called St. Patrick’s Breastplate:
We arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.
You can also discover this love of nature reflected in Celtic symbols. Do you know what the circle in the Celtic cross stands for? Often it is said that it stands for the Holy Spirit, or the fact that God is the alpha and the omega, or that with God there is not beginning or no end. But the most simple meaning is that the Celtic cross integrated the sign of the circle, which for the Celts stood for the sun, which they believed was the root of all life. The Celtic cross has a symbol of nature in it. Also, listen to Celtic music and hymns, and see how nature is reflected in it. For example, listen to the words of “Morning Has Broken,” “When Morning Gilds the Skies,” “Let All Things Now Living,” and “Be Thou My Vision.” All of them reflect the fact that while God isn’t nature, God can be sensed and embraced through nature.
The fact is that the Celtic way of faith has had a hard time of it in Christianity. Much of Christian faith developed in urban areas, rather than in rural areas (even though much of Jesus’ teachings took place in rural, rather than urban, areas). Because much of Christian thought throughout the centuries developed in urban areas, where people often have a distrust and fear of nature, the Celtic way has sometimes been seen as a threat. You can see how this threat created a rift in Christianity in the battles between two Christians of history—one infamous and one famous. Back in the fifth century there was a battle for the soul of Christianity between an urban and a Celtic faith. These were the battles between Pelagius and Augustine, and Augustine won. Since then the writings of Pelagius have mostly been lost. And a heresy was attributed to Pelagius, called pelagianism, which is the doctrine that we must work our way into heaven through good deeds. I agree that this perspective is a heresy, and that it goes completely against Christ’s teachings. But there is a lingering question of whether Pelagius ever really taught this belief. The only witness we have to this is Augustine. The writings we do have from Pelagius say no such thing, and in fact seem to suggest that Pelagius believed that our salvation was only due to grace.
Pelagius was originally from northern Britain. His father, it is believed, had been a Druid priest, which is a faith that worships nature. So you can see how love of nature came into Pelagius’ beliefs. Pelagius taught a theology that emphasized God’s grace and goodness in the world. He taught that we should emphasize God’s goodness in the world because God created everything and declared it good, including humans. He believed that sin was a power in the world, and that it was a darkness that could dominate God’s goodness in us, but that it does not have the power to overcome it. For Pelagius, the focus of faith should be on following Christ so that grace can grow and sin be diminished. But the starting point was always grace, not sin. Ultimately, for Pelagius the key is that we are created in the image of God, so it’s that image in us that should be emphasized, not sin.
Augustine had a very different point of view, one that reflects his background. He was born of a Christian mother and a pagan father, and early on Augustine followed the path of his father. He eventually became a Manichean, which was a popular faith throughout the Roman Empire. The Manichean faith believed that there was a division in life between good and evil, the spiritual and the material, and heaven and earth. It taught that we live in a thoroughly corrupt world, and that only heaven was good. All of us are corrupt since we live in the world. The only redemption came if we could learn secrets that raised our minds and spirits toward divinity, even if we remain in corrupt bodies.
Augustine eventually left that Manichean faith to become Christian, and he rose to become a very powerful bishop in the early church (a church that had become powerful since its being declared the faith of the Empire seventy years earlier). He may have become a Christian, but he brought with him a Manichean theology. He still saw divisions between good and evil everywhere, and he is the one who most emphasized the Fall of Humanity because of Original Sin. He believed that while God declared all of life good, our sin caused a fall that made us and the world totally depraved and sinful. For Augustine, there is absolutely nothing good about us except God’s grace within us. For him, sin has the power to completely overwhelm us and drive us away from God. He believed that coming to Christ could overcome our sin, but that sin was the power of the material world. He even went so far to say that it was because of sin that there is death in the world, both human and animal (and perhaps even in plants). Our original sin brought death into the world.
Augustine saw Pelagius’ beliefs as a threat. Throughout his adult life he waged a battle against Pelagius, brining him up on charges of heresy. There were many trials against Pelagius, and in almost every case Pelagius was declared holy and admirable by different popes. Late in life Augustine got his way, and Pelagius was declared a heretic, as was pelagianism. And if Pelagius taught that our good deeds save us, I agree with Augustine. But, as I said before, we have no writings from Pelagius that state this anywhere. Instead, what we do have shows the writings of a man who was very much rooted in the gospels, especially John’s gospel. Ironically, throughout his life, Augustine even declared his admiration for Pelagius, calling him a holy man.
Even though Augustine’s theology and understanding of the Gospel won in Rome, it never quite got stamped out in Britain, Ireland, and Scotland. You can see the power of the Celtic faith first in the world of St. Patrick. St. Patrick was an Angle (the root word of English) who was captured as a teen to become a slave of the pre-Christian Celts for nine years. Patrick lived out in nature for nine years, and was heavily influenced by the Celtic vision of life. After he escaped, he became a priest, and brought Christianity to the Celts, a Christianity that was already thoroughly Celtic. After he died, some disciples of his movement, in the 500s, went to Scotland and converted it to a Celtic Christianity. The leader of that group was an Irishman named St. Columba. One of St. Columba’s Scottish disciples, St. Aidan, took this Celtic form of Christianity into northern England, bringing Christianity back to England, where it had been abandoned once the Roman army left, and the Saxons began invading England. So an Englishman converted Ireland, an Irishman converted Scotland, and a Scot reconverted England.
You can see the influence of Celtic faith still in the British Isles. You can see it in the British love of gardens and nature, of the many parks you find in the large cities of Scotland, Ireland, and England. And you see the influence in the writings of many great British writers, including C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. The Augustinian vision of Christianity has been very powerful, influencing great Christians such as Luther, Calvin, and others, but they have not stamped out the alternative vision that the Celtic way of faith presents, a way that I know I ascribe to.
As an ending to this sermon, I want you to do something to emulate the way we ended this sermon in worship. We ended this sermon with a slideshow of nature, accompanied by a beautiful rendition of “Be Thou My Vision,” sung by guest musicians, Sandi and Jerry Rectenwald. Obviously I can’t recreate that in writing, but I can give you an assignment. Today, take a walk out in nature. Look at the skies, look at the trees, look at the grass. I don’t care what season you are in. Look around, and see if you can sense God’s presence. If you can, you’ll know that you are Celtic.
Amen.
John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Colossians 1:15-20
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
I don’t’ know if you are aware of this, but for a lot of years Bruce Smith, our music and youth director, has had a crusade. He has wanted to rename our church. And he has reasons for that. You see, Calvin Presbyterian Church wasn’t always called Calvin Presbyterian Church. Until February 22, 1959, our name was Harmony-Zelienople Presbyterian Church. In the late 1950s two Presbyterian denominations merged, one that our church was a part of, and another that Park Presbyterian Church was part of. The Presbytery didn’t think that it was right for our church to have the name “Harmony-Zelienople” in it, so it told the church to rename itself. According to Bruce and others, our name wasn’t chosen by the congregation, but by the presbytery. So in February of 1959, we were renamed Calvin Presbyterian Church.
I don’t know how much energy I have for taking up the fight to rename our church, but if I have a vote in the issue, I would rename us Celtic Presbyterian Church. Why? Because I think that the name “Celtic” really describes not only my approach to Christian faith, but also the approach that I know most of our members and staff have. Just speaking personally, I’ve found it interesting that over the years I’ve been thoroughly Celtic in my Christianity, but I only came to realize the fact in the past few months. For years I’ve filled my home, my office, and even adorned myself with Celtic symbols, and listened to a ton of Celtic music, but I’ve never known why the Celtic approach to faith and life have been so important to me. And it’s not just me. Look around Calvin Church. We have Celtic symbols everywhere, from the cross at the front of our church, to our church logo, to the Celtic crosses adoring the walls of our sanctuary, to the pictures of Celtic crosses from Ireland and Scotland that you can find in our office hallway and conference room. So much of who and what we are is Celtic. A lot may have to do with the fact that Presbyterians have a Scottish, and thus Celtic heritage, but more has to do with our perspective on Christian faith.
I’m not alone in having a love of all things Celtic. Many of us do, without even knowing it. For example, look at how prevalent Celtic symbols are in jewelry. Many people love Celtic crosses and knotworks (the intertwined threads that you see in so much of jewelry). Celtic art, with its flourishes intertwined with scenes of nature, if very popular. Many love Celtic music. In fact, where would PBS be without Celtic Woman, Celtic Thunder, the Celtic Tenors, Riverdance, and more. There’s even a worldwide love of Celtic brews such as Guinness, Harp, Irish Whiskey, and Scotch.
What it is about the Celtic way that has captured so many people? I’ve wondered what it was that captured me. It’s only been in the past few months that I finally figured it out. I figured it out because I’ve been studying Celtic faith and spirituality for the past six months.
So what is Celtic Christianity? It is a theology and spirituality that formed in the British Isles out of their love of nature. The Celtic people have always had a love of nature, and have always had a sense of their being something spiritual about nature. They had a deep connection with nature before Christianity came to Ireland and Scotland, and that love made its way into their understanding of Christianity. The Celtic Christians believed very much in being scriptural—in basing their faith in the Bible—but they also believed that God could be discovered through nature. They believed that Scripture taught our minds about God, but the nature taught our hearts to see God. They believed that we can experience God in the stories of the Bible, but also in a beautiful sunset, the wind blowing over grains of wheat, and in the rain that makes everything grow.
As a result of this love of nature, and of sensing God’s presence in nature, they gravitated toward Bible passages that also expressed God’s presence in nature. For example, the passages that we read for today talk of Jesus as being the actual power of Creation, and how everything came into being in and through him. They recognized the love of nature in Jesus as he went off into the wilderness for forty days and nights, being led by the Holy Spirit. They recognized the love of nature in many of Jesus’ parables, where he used sowing seeds, sheep, fish, and other aspects of nature to describe the ways of God. They saw Christ’s love of nature in the fact that when he needed to be with the Father he went off to a lonely place to pray, and on the night he was arrested he went into a garden to pray. They also really emphasized John’s gospel, which is the one that most connects God with nature. You see, in John’s gospel Jesus uses phrases such as “I am the vine and you are the branches,” as well as making use of images from shepherding and fishing. And John also emphasizes how Christ is God’s incarnation in the world.
By the way, the Celts aren’t the only ones in Christianity to emphasize how nature reveals God’s presence. St. Francis also had a love of nature, living most of his adult life in the woods and fields. The Rhineland mystics of Germany used nature images to express their love of God, as did the great Christian mystic Meister Eckhardt. The Desert Fathers and Mothers of the fourth and fifth centuries lived in the deserts of Egypt, doing so in order to more fully experience God, which they found difficult in the cities.
The Celts did not believe that nature was God, nor that we should worship nature. Instead, they recognized that God created all of nature, and that God’s presence could be experienced through our connection with nature. You can see their awareness of God in nature through their prayers, such as this famous prayer, attributed to St. Patrick, called St. Patrick’s Breastplate:
We arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.
You can also discover this love of nature reflected in Celtic symbols. Do you know what the circle in the Celtic cross stands for? Often it is said that it stands for the Holy Spirit, or the fact that God is the alpha and the omega, or that with God there is not beginning or no end. But the most simple meaning is that the Celtic cross integrated the sign of the circle, which for the Celts stood for the sun, which they believed was the root of all life. The Celtic cross has a symbol of nature in it. Also, listen to Celtic music and hymns, and see how nature is reflected in it. For example, listen to the words of “Morning Has Broken,” “When Morning Gilds the Skies,” “Let All Things Now Living,” and “Be Thou My Vision.” All of them reflect the fact that while God isn’t nature, God can be sensed and embraced through nature.
The fact is that the Celtic way of faith has had a hard time of it in Christianity. Much of Christian faith developed in urban areas, rather than in rural areas (even though much of Jesus’ teachings took place in rural, rather than urban, areas). Because much of Christian thought throughout the centuries developed in urban areas, where people often have a distrust and fear of nature, the Celtic way has sometimes been seen as a threat. You can see how this threat created a rift in Christianity in the battles between two Christians of history—one infamous and one famous. Back in the fifth century there was a battle for the soul of Christianity between an urban and a Celtic faith. These were the battles between Pelagius and Augustine, and Augustine won. Since then the writings of Pelagius have mostly been lost. And a heresy was attributed to Pelagius, called pelagianism, which is the doctrine that we must work our way into heaven through good deeds. I agree that this perspective is a heresy, and that it goes completely against Christ’s teachings. But there is a lingering question of whether Pelagius ever really taught this belief. The only witness we have to this is Augustine. The writings we do have from Pelagius say no such thing, and in fact seem to suggest that Pelagius believed that our salvation was only due to grace.
Pelagius was originally from northern Britain. His father, it is believed, had been a Druid priest, which is a faith that worships nature. So you can see how love of nature came into Pelagius’ beliefs. Pelagius taught a theology that emphasized God’s grace and goodness in the world. He taught that we should emphasize God’s goodness in the world because God created everything and declared it good, including humans. He believed that sin was a power in the world, and that it was a darkness that could dominate God’s goodness in us, but that it does not have the power to overcome it. For Pelagius, the focus of faith should be on following Christ so that grace can grow and sin be diminished. But the starting point was always grace, not sin. Ultimately, for Pelagius the key is that we are created in the image of God, so it’s that image in us that should be emphasized, not sin.
Augustine had a very different point of view, one that reflects his background. He was born of a Christian mother and a pagan father, and early on Augustine followed the path of his father. He eventually became a Manichean, which was a popular faith throughout the Roman Empire. The Manichean faith believed that there was a division in life between good and evil, the spiritual and the material, and heaven and earth. It taught that we live in a thoroughly corrupt world, and that only heaven was good. All of us are corrupt since we live in the world. The only redemption came if we could learn secrets that raised our minds and spirits toward divinity, even if we remain in corrupt bodies.
Augustine eventually left that Manichean faith to become Christian, and he rose to become a very powerful bishop in the early church (a church that had become powerful since its being declared the faith of the Empire seventy years earlier). He may have become a Christian, but he brought with him a Manichean theology. He still saw divisions between good and evil everywhere, and he is the one who most emphasized the Fall of Humanity because of Original Sin. He believed that while God declared all of life good, our sin caused a fall that made us and the world totally depraved and sinful. For Augustine, there is absolutely nothing good about us except God’s grace within us. For him, sin has the power to completely overwhelm us and drive us away from God. He believed that coming to Christ could overcome our sin, but that sin was the power of the material world. He even went so far to say that it was because of sin that there is death in the world, both human and animal (and perhaps even in plants). Our original sin brought death into the world.
Augustine saw Pelagius’ beliefs as a threat. Throughout his adult life he waged a battle against Pelagius, brining him up on charges of heresy. There were many trials against Pelagius, and in almost every case Pelagius was declared holy and admirable by different popes. Late in life Augustine got his way, and Pelagius was declared a heretic, as was pelagianism. And if Pelagius taught that our good deeds save us, I agree with Augustine. But, as I said before, we have no writings from Pelagius that state this anywhere. Instead, what we do have shows the writings of a man who was very much rooted in the gospels, especially John’s gospel. Ironically, throughout his life, Augustine even declared his admiration for Pelagius, calling him a holy man.
Even though Augustine’s theology and understanding of the Gospel won in Rome, it never quite got stamped out in Britain, Ireland, and Scotland. You can see the power of the Celtic faith first in the world of St. Patrick. St. Patrick was an Angle (the root word of English) who was captured as a teen to become a slave of the pre-Christian Celts for nine years. Patrick lived out in nature for nine years, and was heavily influenced by the Celtic vision of life. After he escaped, he became a priest, and brought Christianity to the Celts, a Christianity that was already thoroughly Celtic. After he died, some disciples of his movement, in the 500s, went to Scotland and converted it to a Celtic Christianity. The leader of that group was an Irishman named St. Columba. One of St. Columba’s Scottish disciples, St. Aidan, took this Celtic form of Christianity into northern England, bringing Christianity back to England, where it had been abandoned once the Roman army left, and the Saxons began invading England. So an Englishman converted Ireland, an Irishman converted Scotland, and a Scot reconverted England.
You can see the influence of Celtic faith still in the British Isles. You can see it in the British love of gardens and nature, of the many parks you find in the large cities of Scotland, Ireland, and England. And you see the influence in the writings of many great British writers, including C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. The Augustinian vision of Christianity has been very powerful, influencing great Christians such as Luther, Calvin, and others, but they have not stamped out the alternative vision that the Celtic way of faith presents, a way that I know I ascribe to.
As an ending to this sermon, I want you to do something to emulate the way we ended this sermon in worship. We ended this sermon with a slideshow of nature, accompanied by a beautiful rendition of “Be Thou My Vision,” sung by guest musicians, Sandi and Jerry Rectenwald. Obviously I can’t recreate that in writing, but I can give you an assignment. Today, take a walk out in nature. Look at the skies, look at the trees, look at the grass. I don’t care what season you are in. Look around, and see if you can sense God’s presence. If you can, you’ll know that you are Celtic.
Amen.
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