2/1/15. ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY … WHAT WILL BE REMEMBERED?

BLOG 2/1/15. ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY … WHAT WILL BE REMEMBERED?

Our culture engages in a whole lot of hoopla on Super Bowl Sunday, as if it had any real significance other than economic advantage to its sponsors and entertainment for bored masses. What will be remembered of it ten, twenty, or thirty years from now? Not much.

But in a totally other frame of reference, if one is a Roman Catholic, and into its ‘saints days’ then one will be aware that today is the Feast of St. Brigid of Ireland, and has been observed for centuries by those who care about significant Christian folk who have been recognized by the church for their exemplary lives and ministries. I became fascinated by these ‘saint’s days’ (easily found on Google) when my own secretary and indispensable administrator was a very devout Roman Catholic, who would go to mass during her lunch hour, and frequently bring me back the missallettes with the weekly liturgies, and this included reference to their saints, most of whom I had never heard.

That, in turn, provoked me to buy a whole volume on Roman Catholic saints, with their histories. Being a good Protestant kid, this was all new territory to me, … but then being also a missiologist (a student of Christian missions) it caused me to realize how many obscure followers of Jesus did absolutely wonderful deeds of mercy, of faithful communication of the faith, of self-sacrificing humanitarian ministries, and even miracles. Such folk were, of course, Roman Catholic, but then that was the only church they knew. They weren’t into ecclesiastical haggling, and they were probably not even theologically all that well informed, … but they were faithful with what they knew of the life and ministry of Jesus, and of his call to leave all and follow him.

So, even though probably only a teensy-tiny fraction of the folk obsessed with Super Bowl know of St. Brigid, or even care, … somehow she has been remembered since the 7th century, and folk have offered up prayers of thanksgiving for her life and contribution to the church’s ministries of charity in her native Ireland. Her father was an Irish tribal chieftain, and her mother a slave, both of whom came to faith and were baptized by St. Patrick, as was Brigid. Along the way she formed an order of women and engaged in lives of service, charity, mercy, and piety. But she is remembered … all these nearly two millennia later.

For me, a lesson is that we live out our lives of faith in Jesus, and of our obedience to him, not is some other place or time, but where we are with all of the often grim realities, or distressing resistance, or sophisticated contempt at the message of Jesus Christ. But such lives are the presence of the light, and of God’s love for the world, and of his making all things new through Jesus Christ.

A decade from now only a very few will probably recall much about the fame of today’s Super Bowl players, but there are those, like Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who take their place in the most abominable scenes of human suffering and poverty … and are remembered as hugely significant, even as they ministered in some obscurity. By the way, it is fascinating to me that the Hindu government of India declared a day honoring Mother Theresa upon her death—that says something, doesn’t it?

Not to take anything away from the Patriots or Seahawks, but I think I will remember a young lady in a very distant time and a very pagan culture, who gave herself to ministries of charity and mercy, and who had to have been highly disciplined to do so in such a time.

So here’s to St.Brigid of Ireland—still remembered nearly two millennia later. Wow!

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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