St Paul’s United Church Sunday March 19, 2006

Our Celtic Connection -Rev. David Mundy

Psalm 19 Exodus 20:1-18

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Some of you will recall that years ago an Anglican wrote a regular column for our United Church magazine, the Observer. His name is Herbert O’Driscoll and at that time he was active canon in the Anglican Church. He is a thoughtful, spiritual writer and very much appreciated by his United Church readers. He also has a wonderful “gift of the gab, ”as anyone who has heard him speak can tell you. It is probably because he was born and raised in Ireland. Storytelling, otherwise known as blarney, seems to be in the DNA of the Irish!

A decade ago I went to hear a series of lectures Herbert O’Driscoll offered in Toronto on the subject of Celtic spirituality. When we speak of the Celts we are usually referring to the Irish and the Scots, although the influence of Celtic Christianity spread to Wales and France and throughout Europe, by way of missionary journeys.

O’Driscoll began with a story from his childhood. A poor lad, he and a friend would sneak onto the nearby golf course to play what passed for a round with his one old golf club. In the middle of the course there was a grove of trees, which became the graveyard for many a golf ball. There was a great temptation for these boys to go into the trees in search of the valuable treasures, but they never did. In fact no one went into these trees because of their reputation. The word was that these trees dated back many centuries to the time before Christianity arrived in Ireland and this was a sacred grove, a place of worship for the Druids -- what we might call the pagan believers -- who predated the Christians on the Emerald Isle.

O’Driscoll told us this story as a reminder of the deep mystery which is attached to the faith of the Irish and others who are heirs to the legendary St. Patrick in Ireland and all those places where Celtic faith flourished. Even though there are many tales and legends about Patrick, the most notable involving snakes and shamrocks, he was a flesh and blood person. Patrick lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, and as a sixteen-year-old he was abducted and sold as a slave in Ireland. He escaped six years later but he returned after more than two decades away, this time as a monk who brought the good news of Jesus Christ to the Druid Irish. Patrick managed to incorporate aspects of the Druid tradition, including love of nature and reverence of the number three into his evangelical work. We are two days past this year’s commemoration and celebration of the patron saint of Ireland but it is worth considering our Celtic legacy and connection.

For a while the term Celtic seemed to show up everywhere in the Christian community, the way low-fat and low-carb invaded the diet scene. A conference a few years back on Celtic Christianity claimed that this tradition offers:

a rich worship tradition; fosters prayer in everyday language; is 'green' in its stewardship of the earth; affirms women and men equally; is committed to living in community; nurtures radical discipleship; is passionate about peace and justice; has no divide between sacred and secular; engages critically with contemporary culture; is rooted in mission not maintenance.

This is an impressive list, if it could deliver! It sounds as though someone is attempting to take every issue of the present and force the Celtic past to speak to them. We could be forgiven if we felt that this was just another trend or fad in modern-day Christianity. That would be unfortunate because there are some deep lessons to be learned from this stream of our heritage.

You may wonder what the connection could be between the promises or covenants of God, as we find them in bible, and the faith of the Irish. Well, isn’t there a story about an Irish rainbow with the promise of a pot of gold at one end? Of course it is a little deeper than that!

Actually, our passages this morning do remind us of the wild and mysterious God who is at work in our world. We think of the Ten Commandments as God’s instructions literally carved in stone. We could forget that they were received by Moses, the leader of God’s people, in what is called a theophany, a powerful, mysterious experience at the top of Mount Sinai, deep in the wilderness. On the mountaintop there were thunder and lightning and smoke and noise like sounding trumpets. Moses has to shout his conversation with God above the din. It was all so loud and overwhelming that it “scared the willies” out of the people encamped below, as we heard at the very end of the Ten Commandments passage today. It is out of this numinous wilderness experience that the great moral and ethical code of Judaism and Christianity emerges.

Perhaps too much stock has been placed in the Celtic tradition, but there are a number of fascinating elements to Celtic Christianity. One is the emphasis on equality between men and women. We are most familiar with Patrick as a central figure of the tradition, but there are other important figures of whom we should be aware. One of them is St. Brigid, who as the name suggests, was a woman of great influence in the sixth century. Some scholars believe that Brigid was actually a bishop who ordained women at a time when the Roman church was dominated by men. Brigid serves as one of the earliest examples of a woman in significant leadership in the church and her convent was a place of learning and creativity and hospitality. There is a prayer attributed to Brigid which reminds of how important it is to welcome the stranger:

We saw a stranger yesterday,

we put food in the eating place,

drink in the drinking place,

music in the listening place,

and with the sacred name of the Triune God,

he blessed us and our house,

our cattle and our dear ones.

As the lark says in her song,

often, often goes Christ in the stranger’s guise.

I mention learning and creativity. In his delightful book called How the Irish Saved Civilization Thomas Cahill makes the argument that the Celtic Christians helped keep these important qualities alive when the Dark Ages descended on the rest of Europe. There are some great examples of art in the form of what are called illuminated manuscripts. Probably the best known is the Book of Kells, an illustrated bible which was buried in a farm field when the Vikings invaded, only to be dug up centuries later as a legacy from the Celtic Christian era. The scribes of the Celtic monasteries in Ireland and Scotland and the islands such as Iona would carefully copy the scriptures and they would be carried on their missionary journeys to France and Germany and Spain. Irish monks helped establish the monastery at Bobbio, in Italy, where St. Francis received some of his training.

Celtic Christians included prayer in every aspect of every day, so that their lives would be balanced between contemplation and action. There is a sense that Celtic Christianity is a matter of the heart, as well as the head and that it celebrates the artist as well as the scholar.

So how do we allow this Celtic connection to be more than a history lesson, and actually part of our living faith? It’s important to appreciate the importance of symbols and beauty within our life together as a means to learn our faith. The expression of our faith goes beyond words into our music and the visual images which awaken our senses.

In a time when our society appears to have less and less interest in organized religion we might pray that we are intentionally hospitable, and that we will make a place at the table where strangers can be nourished and welcomed. This past Thursday a group from Clarington Connections, the mental health drop-in here in Bowmanville sat down to a lovely roast beef dinner provided by the UCW and a couple of men helpers. According to Brigid’s prayer, Christ may have been amongst them.

As we are increasingly aware of the degradation of Planet Earth we can choose to be “earth-honouring,” not just for self-preservation but because God is the creator and redeemer. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we need to be bold in saying that care for the earth is a spiritual matter. The Celtic cross is familiar to most of us because of the circle which is at the heart of it. This represents the celestial sun and moon, and it is integrated with the cross of Calvary on which the son of God who was hung. The God of creation is also the God of salvation.

Our psalm today, Psalm 19, reminds us that there are two books which can be opened to us by God, if we are receptive. The psalm begins with the book of creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God . . . day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. “

The other book is the book of scripture, which includes the psalms beloved by the monks and sisters of Celtic monasteries and convents. So the psalm goes on the say that the law of the Lord, or the scriptures are perfect as well, “reviving the soul.”

A last thought today. The high crosses of Ireland and Scotland and the islands in between are often found out on promontories, exposed places, where they are battered by wind and sea spray. Why? These locations remind us that our God is not tame. God is wild and powerful and alive in our world. When we follow Christ in faith, we may end up in places we never really expected. Even though we may be unsure of our way, and even frightened, we will not be alone on our journey. This is not a time for the Christian Church to be timid and cautious, even though we may want to huddle away from the storm changing times. Celtic Christianity emerged at a time of spiritual crisis in Europe and helped to bring the flickering light of Christ into full flame again. We will be the ones who follow the untamed God in our day, and we can be inventive and creative and faithful.

Since Friday was St. Patrick’s Day it is appropriate to give Patrick the last word this morning.

I arise today, Through the strength of heaven: Light of the sun, radiance of the moon. Splendor of fire, speed of lightning, Swiftness of wind, depth of sea, Stability of earth and firmness of rock. I arise today, Through God's strength to pilot me: God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me.

Amen!