This dragon sculpture may seem an odd adornment for a Church-based school, St. George's academy in Rhode Island. But St. George, whose feast day is April 23, was more than a legend, he was a real man and a martyr for the faith around AD 303 just before the time of Constantine. Legend has it that he saved a young lady (the king's daughter) and an entire village from a dragon of truly offensive breath. After subduing the dragon with his lance, George used the young woman's garter to fashion a leash and she led the beast humbly through the town. The people were in fear, but George used the attention he had captured to preach the gospel and lead hundreds to salvation. That's the legend. The more harrowing tale begins with the pressure George felt the town was under from the pagan influence of the Emperor. The Christians cowered in fear. George, however, to break the silence, boldly stood in the town square and loudly announced his faith. After suffering numerous tortures, none of which were effective against the man's courageous stand for the faith, he was beheaded. The fear created by the Emperor, I suspect, is the real dragon he slayed. His symbol is the red cross ... the same one found at the center of Great Britain's Union Jack flag. We may not have fire-breathing lizards menacing our communities, but we do have forceful, and fearful dragons cowing us and creating silence about our faith. We will not be beheaded, but we could be berated. To save our friendships, our jobs, our reputations, and our pride, we back away from openly acknowledging our faith. May the LORD give us the boldness of St. George to stand against the tide, and claim the identities given to us by our Savior. As Mennonites we do not formally observe saints' feast days. In some ways, it is too bad. We have a poorer knowledge of our history as Christians because of our fear of over-emphasizing the saints. However, George teaches us the importance of courage as we counter-culturally live our faith in an antagonistic world.
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Remember Joseph? Rembrandt did. Life was not fair to Joseph ... or was it life? At some point or another, every parent or leader of children hears it. "It's not fair!" Most adults will automatically and even a bit bitterly retreat into the truism, "Life is not fair." And it is true, but why is it true? Certainly bad things happen to people in ways that are completely undeserved. That is not fair. Random trouble comes everyone's way. But are we certain that when we retreat into the truism, "Life is not fair" we are not simply hiding behind a general truth to cover a more pliable problem? Certainly when we deliver our edict from on high to children, this timeless wisdom they will have to learn sooner or later, the child knows, deep down as an inexpressible fact, "Life may not be fair, but people should be." But it's not just a children's problem. People are prone to take advantage of a situtaion that will give them benefits not received by others. The unfairness of life is fueled by oportunism, our chance to get our own way, to do unto others before they do unto us, to do what the other guy would do if he were in our place. Is it not more the way of Christ to be more blessed by giving rather than hoarding blessings by receiving at the expense of another? May it be ever truer that when we acknowledge the unfairness of life that we are not simply making excuses for our own unfairness. May it be ever truer that we are not evading a responsibility we might be able to shoulder to enter into an unfair situation and transform it. When we say "Life is not fair" may the subtext never be, "therefore I need not be fair." It was for Joseph. When he finally emerged from prison, he did not stick it to his brothers because they stuck it to him ... perhaps that would have been fair to them, but not to their hungry families back home. Instead he showed generosity, forgiveness, and grace. That is the way of Jesus. Is it the much debated definition of Justice, to act fairly in unfair circumstances? |
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Timothy DarlingPastor, Norma Mennonite Church. Archives
March 2018
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