Keep the faith
Readings: John 3. 1-17
Whenever I’m celebrating the Patronal Feast of one of the churches in my care, the Saint’s Day of the Saint the church is dedicated to, I find that they’re a bit like birthdays. Like so many of our ancient churches we don’t know the exact date this place first echoed with the sound of praise and worship, and so the patronal for me fills that space, a chance to celebrate the life of the church and community in this place. And, like we often do on our birthdays, I find myself reflecting back, back on the year, and years, that have past. Maybe you find yourself doing the same today, reflecting on years that have past here. Or perhaps you find yourself doing that about your life.
And as we celebrate today we’re looking back, back today to the life of St David, a man who forever changed the course of this nation through his preaching and teaching. Who travelled the country setting up churches and monasteries to spread the Gospel which we heard today.
David was a man who looked back, looked back to the coming of a man, Jesus, the man who is God in the flesh. And when God stepped into our history, entered our world, he did not do so with judgement, or bringing fear and trembling in his wake. No, as we hear from his own lips in that Gospel reading today, he came motivated by love. Love for a world which is suffering and struggling. Which has been spoiled by human sin and selfishness.
In the brokenness of our world, and we see so much of it, particularly at the moment, but also in the brokenness of our own lives, God comes, comes with love, comes to put things right. And so this same Jesus came to die, to die our death, to take upon himself our sin and shame, and carry it down with him into death to leave it there, all out of love for our world, out of love for you. And this same Jesus was raised to life again, life without end, life into which we are invited.
God’s love for this world meant that he gave, gave so that we could receive his healing for our brokenness and his forgiveness for our sin and selfishness. God gave, so that we can receive life in his name, life without end. And this love of God is what drove St David forwards, drove him in his mission.
God’s love echoes in the life of David, who in love travelled this nation, proclaiming the love and forgiveness of God to his people, to this people which he loved. David is the only one of the Patron Saints of the UK to have come from and worked in the nation he is patron of. And it’s his love for his people, a love which meant he brought them to Jesus to know God’s love, that means he is so celebrated to this day. In David the love of God the world became expressed in a love for Wales, and the tribes which made it up.
And this love of God, which found expression in the life and love of David, left us a legacy which lasts until today. Not simply in the stones of our churches, but the shape of our nation. For those churches and monasteries which he set up were not simply places of worship, but of education, of healthcare, of aid for the vulnerable, support for the poor. In these places God’s love became tangible in the care and compassion shown to all who stumbled through the doors. And this legacy lives on, not simply championed by the church, but woven into the fabric of our society as the government took on education and healthcare and welfare for the people.
The era in which David lived is sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of the Saints in this land. It was a period between the 5th and 8th centuries which produced so many of the Saints of these shores. But there’s a danger with golden ages, and a danger to a nostalgic looking back. It becomes something you want to retrieve, get back to, recover, meaning you cannot move forwards. Perhaps you know that in your own life, perhaps in the life of this place, a golden age which is gone, but perhaps we can get back to.
It’s no bad thing to reflect on the past, to rejoice in what has happened, but we cannot get back there. We cannot rewind the clock. But perhaps this is for the best.
As I drove to and from the service at St Brides this morning the verges and hedgerows are bursting with daffodils. In the midst of the bleak weather and overcast skies they provide a wonderful splash of colour and brightness. And with them comes the first signs of spring, that the winter will soon be over, and the sun will return once again, please, hopefully.
Spring is coming, and with it new life and hope.
And this is what Jesus has given us, the promise of a new spring, of new life and hope. We cannot get back to what is past, but in Jesus the promise is of life and hope yet to come. In Jesus the best is not lost to some golden age, the best is still ahead of us. For in Jesus that love of God is working to make all things new. To take us and our world and change them forever. To put an end to all that causes pain and suffering, all that spoils things, and to bring healing, wholeness, and perfect life without end.
In the death and resurrection of Jesus we find that all that is wrong with our world, all that is wrong in us, is headed for death, to be ended forever, and yet also through him, perfect life is coming for those who have their faith and hope in him.
And so in our day, we’re not to simply look back longingly, wasn’t it great is Saint David’s Day, wouldn’t it be great to get back there. we’re to look forwards with true and certain hope, knowing that the day is coming when God will put all things right.
The most famous words of St David come from his final sermon: “Arglwyddi, brodyr, a chwiorydd, Byddwch lawen a chadwch eich ffyd a’ch credd, a gwnewch y petheu bychain a glywsoch ac y welsoch gennyf i. A mwynhau a gerdaf y fford yd aeth an tadeu idi”, which translates as, “Lords, brothers and sisters, Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. And as for me, I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.”
Last year we considered that instruction to be joyful, but this year we must learn afresh what it means to keep the faith. Keeping the faith is not simply turning up on a Sunday, nor can it be something private which we simply keep to ourselves. If God’s love for us meant that he gave, what is he calling us to give? If God’s love for us meant that he came amongst us, how might we go out to our community?
Jesus laid down his life so that we can know the forgiveness and healing of God, and as he was raised from the dead he invites us to share in that risen life, both now and forever. In knowing that love of God, how might that same love take shape in us, in love for those around us that we might share the hope we have in Jesus, and invite others to have that same life in his name? In us that love of God for the world must find expression in love for Hakin and Hubberston, in the meeting of need here, and in the sharing of faith here. For it is through us, and not through saints of old, that the forgiveness and healing of God is to be shared in our day.
Just as we look around us to those first signs of spring, the bright yellow of the daffodils, so the church is to be the first sign of that new creation, the new and eternal spring coming in Jesus. We are to be the buds of hope, the splash of colour in the grey of our world. Let us do so faithfully, joyfully, until at last Jesus calls our name, and we with David, walk the path our fathers have trod before us, and at last come home, to that world made perfect and new.
Amen.