November 11
Earlier today, as I was observing Remembrance Day in my own way, I discovered that November 11 is also date of the feast of St. Martin of Tours.
You can be forgiven if you are ignorant of St. Martin of Tours, that is if you are a protestant. Although I think more should be taught about the early saints and martyrs of the Christian faith, which is what my ultimate point will be.
But returning to St. Marin of Tours, it is very interesting, possibly even prophetic that the feast of St. Martin of Tours and Remembrance Day are both on November 11. This saint is famous for being willing to go into battle unarmed and wearing only a cross as his armour. He was a soldier in the Roman army who embraced Christianity after a vision in which Jesus thanked him for literally clothing [Jesus] as he sat on the side of the road posing as a beggar a day or so earlier. Upon his conversion he came to the conviction of that he could no longer take a life and so he offered to go into battle unarmed with only a cross around his neck to protect him; fortunately for him a peace treaty was signed before he had to make good on his offer.
His conversion brought about a radical change and a teaching that many could possibly use to learn today. We are called to be a peculiar people, radically and significantly different from those we associate with in the mainstream, or pagan culture. My concern, in fact it is becoming a conviction, is that our churches stand for virtually nothing today, and what they do stand for I fear they ought not to. There are great things that can be done using the economies of scale of a congregation but it seems to me most exist for the sake of existing and are having no impact on the society.
Part of this is because we are ignorant of those who have gone before us and what they stood and died for. The stories of the saints are the stories of people who did great things and the biblical ideas and conclusions that motivated them, something that I think we ought to discuss more often as we grow in and examine our own faith in more detail. Unless of course Tertullian was wrong and the blood of the martyrs was not the seed of the church.
What are the ideas, the convictions that those who went before us were willing to die for? As Protestants we know about the reformers, but what about those who kept the faith from the very beginning and up to the reformation? Why is more not taught about them and the theology they clung to that caused them to suffer for their faith?
You can be forgiven if you are ignorant of St. Martin of Tours, that is if you are a protestant. Although I think more should be taught about the early saints and martyrs of the Christian faith, which is what my ultimate point will be.
But returning to St. Marin of Tours, it is very interesting, possibly even prophetic that the feast of St. Martin of Tours and Remembrance Day are both on November 11. This saint is famous for being willing to go into battle unarmed and wearing only a cross as his armour. He was a soldier in the Roman army who embraced Christianity after a vision in which Jesus thanked him for literally clothing [Jesus] as he sat on the side of the road posing as a beggar a day or so earlier. Upon his conversion he came to the conviction of that he could no longer take a life and so he offered to go into battle unarmed with only a cross around his neck to protect him; fortunately for him a peace treaty was signed before he had to make good on his offer.
His conversion brought about a radical change and a teaching that many could possibly use to learn today. We are called to be a peculiar people, radically and significantly different from those we associate with in the mainstream, or pagan culture. My concern, in fact it is becoming a conviction, is that our churches stand for virtually nothing today, and what they do stand for I fear they ought not to. There are great things that can be done using the economies of scale of a congregation but it seems to me most exist for the sake of existing and are having no impact on the society.
Part of this is because we are ignorant of those who have gone before us and what they stood and died for. The stories of the saints are the stories of people who did great things and the biblical ideas and conclusions that motivated them, something that I think we ought to discuss more often as we grow in and examine our own faith in more detail. Unless of course Tertullian was wrong and the blood of the martyrs was not the seed of the church.
What are the ideas, the convictions that those who went before us were willing to die for? As Protestants we know about the reformers, but what about those who kept the faith from the very beginning and up to the reformation? Why is more not taught about them and the theology they clung to that caused them to suffer for their faith?
posted by rene the rugrat at 3:50 PM
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