So Mark Driscoll, a pastor from Seattle wrote this blog concerning St.
Patricks day. It was very insightful and so I wanted to pass it along
for all who do not know about the origin of this amazing holiday. Could
it be that we have lost the heart of what this day is supposed to be
about? for the direct link go to
http://theresurgence.com/2010/03/17/st-patrick-one-of-the-greatest-missionaries-who-ever-lived
for God
for People
for the Nations
for the Kingdom
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My family name was originally O’Driscoll until it was changed a few
generations ago by relatives hoping to more fully assimilate into
American culture after immigrating from Ireland. Though I was raised
Irish Catholic, I knew virtually nothing about Saint Patrick other than
the green beer, parades, shamrocks, leprechauns, and drunken Red Sox
fans that celebrated in his honor every March 17th. Technically, Saint
Patrick is not even a saint, as he was never canonized by the Roman
Catholic Church. Additionally, Patrick was not even Irish. Rather, he
was a Roman-Britain who spoke Latin and a bit of Welsh. Patrick was
born around 390 A.D. When he was roughly 16 years of age he was
captured by pirates and taken to Ireland on a ship where he was sold
into slavery. He spent the next six years alone in the wilderness as a
shepherd for his masters’ cattle and sheep.
Isolation
Patrick was a rebellious non-Christian teenager who had come from a
Christian family. His grandfather was a pastor, and his father was a
deacon. However, during his extended periods of isolation without any
human contact, Patrick began praying and was eventually born again into
a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. Patrick endured the years of
isolation in rain and snow by praying up to 100 prayers each day and
another 100 each night. In his early twenties God spoke to Patrick in a
dream, telling him to flee from his master for a ship that was waiting
for him. Amazingly, Patrick made the 200-mile journey on foot without
being caught or harmed to find a ship setting sail for his home, just
as God had promised. The sailors were out of food for the journey, and
after Patrick prayed a herd of pigs miraculously ran toward the ship,
providing a bountiful feast for the long voyage home.
God Speaks to Patrick
Upon returning home, Patrick enrolled in seminary and was eventually
commissioned as a pastor. Some years later God spoke to Patrick in a
dream, commanding him to return to Ireland to preach the gospel and
plant churches for the pagans who lived there. The Roman Catholic
Church had given up on converting such “barbarians� deemed beyond hope.
The Celtic peoples, of which the Irish were part, were an illiterate
bunch of drunken, fighting, perverted pagans who basically had sex with
anyone and worshiped anything. They were such a violent and lawless
people, numbering anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000, that they had no
city centers or national government and were spread out among some 150
warring clans. Their enemies were terrified of them because they were
known to show up for battles and partake in wild orgies before running
into battle naked and drunk while screaming as if they were
demon-possessed. One clan was so debased that it was customary for each
of their new kings to copulate with a white mare as part of his
inauguration.
Unique Missionary Strategy
In faith, the forty-something year-old Patrick sold all of his
possessions, including the land he had inherited from his father, to
fund his missionary journey to Ireland. He worked as an itinerant
preacher and paid large sums of money to various tribal chiefs to
ensure he could travel safely through their lands and preach the
gospel. His strategy was completely unique, and he functioned like a
missionary trying to relate to the Irish people and communicate the
gospel in their culture by using such things as three-leaf clovers to
explain the gospel. Upon entering a pagan clan, Patrick would seek to
first convert the tribal leaders and other people of influence. He
would then pray for the sick, cast demons out of the possessed, preach
the Bible, and use both musical and visual arts to compel people to put
their faith in Jesus. If enough converts were present he would build a
simple church that did not resemble ornate Roman architecture, baptize
the converts, and hand over the church to a convert he had trained to
be the pastor so that he could move on to repeat the process with
another clan. Patrick gave his life to the people who had enslaved him
until he died at 77 years of age. He had seen untold thousands of
people convert as between 30-40 of the 150 tribes had become
substantially Christian. He had trained 1000 pastors, planted 700
churches, and was the first noted person in history to take a strong
public stand against slavery.
Roman Opposition
Curiously, Patrick’s unorthodox ministry methods, which had brought so
much fruit among the Irish, also brought much opposition from the Roman
Catholic Church. Because Patrick was so far removed from Roman
civilization and church polity he was seen by some as an instigator of
unwelcome changes. This led to great conflicts between the Roman and
Celtic Christians. The Celtic Christians had their own calendar and
celebrated Easter a week earlier than their Roman counterparts.
Additionally, the Roman monks shaved only the hair on the top of their
head, whereas the Celtic monks shaved all of their hair except their
long locks which began around the bottom of their head as a funky monk
mullet. The Romans considered these and other variations by the Celtic
Christian leaders to be acts of insubordination. In the end, the Roman
Church should have learned from Patrick, who is one of the greatest
missionaries who has ever lived. Though Patrick’s pastors and churches
looked different in method, they were very orthodox in their theology
and radically committed to such things as Scripture and the Trinity.
Additionally, they were some of the most gifted Christian artists the
world has ever known, and their prayers and songs endure to this day
around the world, including at Mars Hill where we occasionally sing the
“Prayer of Saint Patrick” and the Celtic hymn “Be Thou My Vision.”
