Revival and Renewal

[this is an excerpt from my sermon “A Song for Giving” at Village Church of Lincolnshire. Listen to the whole sermon here, and be sure to subscribe for more like this.]

We are in the season of Santa, that is, a time when the church has traditionally remembered St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas wasn’t an overweight wizard who invaded houses with gifts, but rather was an early church father who was known for being really fiesty. In fact, he is best known for punching the false teacher Arius in the face at a church council.

But, in this season as we remember the coming One and our closeness with him, my mind always goes to another saint, Saint Patrick. Saint Patrick is best known for bringing the gospel to Ireland (and maybe banishing all the snakes from the island?). He was a slave, brought to Ireland against his will, but through God’s providence he brought the gospel message into a dark and dangerous world.

St. Patrick comes to mind for me whenever I think of what it means to be “in Christ” because of his beautiful prayer, by which he reportedly began his day. Part of St. Patrick’s prayer reads: 

Christ shield me today 
Against poison, against burning, 
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance. 
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, 
Christ on my right, Christ on my left, 
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, 
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, 
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, 
Christ in the eye that sees me, 
Christ in the ear that hears me. 
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

That’s what is ours in Christ. We have Christ around us, Christ in us, Christ before us, Christ protecting us, Christ enabling us. 

Now, we may not be heading into the same kind of world as Patrick did, but this week many of us head to our own dark and dangerous places: the family room. While often such times conjure images of peace and tranquility in our minds, if we watch we can see how easy it is to slip back into old patterns of harshness, rivalry, anger, and bitterness. Old wounds sting around the dinner table. But what would it change if we recognized that Christ comes with us there?  

If we are in Christ, the old song of bitterness doesn’t have to be our song. We have another song we sing, a song for the ages, a song which Jesus sang with his dying breath and on that resurrection morning. This song tells us that if we are in Christ, we have the strength to live like Jesus did, because he is our strength. This song tells us that if we are in Christ, we have comfort from our past hurts and our present pains, because he is our hope. And this song tells us that if we are in Christ, we have a Father who loves us, an elder-brother Jesus who died for us, and a Spirit who indwells us, and so we have all the love, all the compassion, all the mercy we need. 

This week as we go into our family rooms, Christ goes there too. We take the fragrance of his love with us. 

So, wherever you go this week, whether it is the family room or the resort: love big, forgive often, remember grace. If Jesus gave all of himself for us, we can give ourselves away with abandon. Make this season a season of such closeness and grace that it melts away the coldness of the old songs we used to sing and replaces them with a gospel tune, which has as its refrain “Jesus is mine; everything is mine.” 

For, as Paul, that Christ-lover, reminds us, “I am sure that neither death nor life, [nor past hurts nor unspoken pain], nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

God’s grace to you this Christmas and always.