St George - quo vadis

The parish is celebrating St George this week. A Greek / Palestinian who ended up as part of the Roman army and was decapitated by Diocletian for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The patron saint of a number of countries, including most famously England. Not much is known of him but he is considered to have been a real person, perhaps not the person we think of in terms of dragon slayer etc. Even members of the Muslim faith recognise him as a martyr having had influence in Palestine where he was born. It's his forthrightness and his stand for the faith that is to be honoured. Indeed this was at the time a political statement as the emperor had declared that all Christians in the army had to sign up for emperor worship.

The fanciful St George - How fanciful are our political involvements?

The question for us is: how do we sign up for political defiance in the same manner as St George? A defiance that is actually at the pointy end of the debate and one that is likely to involve you in a lot of pain, nowadays, social and political. Perhaps we could start in the political field and question how well democracy is working and what if anything we as Christians should be doing about it. I have just finished a fascinating read on the brokenness of democracy by the political philosopher A. C. Grayling. The book is "Democracy and its Crisis". (If you want a scathing report on Brexit and Trump, this is it). In some respects Australia is doing quite well, however, his remarks are as equally true for here as elsewhere and it is something that we need to understand in our faith journey if we are going to be like St George. George knew the political system and that is something that we perhaps do not do so well in when it comes to picking our political involvement as Christians. In asking this I wonder whether we are actually looking at the issues that we should be looking at as Christians and how effective our efforts are if we do not understand our political systems particularly well. I must admit, I am as much a part of the great unwashed as everyone else, so I am pointing the finger at myself as much as anybody else.

Don't get me wrong I believe that we need to be a voice in the public square but we need to be effective. Christian politicians or at least those that are from supposedly "Christian" parties are in it for the politics and to push the agenda of their interpretation of scripture and not for the actual role of being a Christian, i.e. love of neighbour. Going back to Paisley in Ireland you can trace this all the way through. It is as if we have no understanding of how to get the faith view point across without seeming to be either other worldly or seen it all before, blah, blah, blah. There appears to be little relevance in the way of St George. Sadly we are part of the great masses with very little to stand out for. Perhaps it is time for us to reflect on people such as George to understand what it means to be an effective Christian voice within the politics of the world. Yes, George lost his life but as Christians we must be prepared to follow Christ who also lost his life as a result of injustice.

I don't think it takes anything out of the ordinary to be as remarkable as George. It just takes commitment, understanding and the ability to act appropriately. It may not be a big thing it may be small but if it is undertaken with knowledge, commitment and faith in Christ then we can make the injustices disappear. Perhaps the only thing we need to better understand is how we can love each other sufficiently that  we an listen and debate, not listen and castigate. Love means that we negotiate and compromise to bring God's presence closer to those who have no knowledge of God's presence. So by all means enter the political arena and follow George but make sure that you know where to go.