Patronal Festival 2023
Today is our Patronal
Festival. Like a lot of the words we hear and say or sing in a church context, Patronal
isn’t a word you’d be likely to encounter in casual conversation in the
supermarket. It comes from the word Patron, of course, which in turn comes from
the Latin Pater, a father. in the ancient Roman world, where this
language of patronage developed, patrons weren’t necessarily actual fathers.
They could be anyone who took you under their wing - who encouraged and
supported you, who took notice of you, looked out for your interests and
promoted you. It was a formal relationship, with set obligations on both sides,
and a vital part of how their society was organised. Having a powerful patron
was vital to success.
The patrons we celebrate
today in church aren’t wealthy business people or politicians, though; they are
saints. Today is the feast of St Peter and St Paul, to whom this church is
dedicated. When a church was first built, and its people chose a dedication for
it, they were consciously putting it and its people under the protection – the
patronage - of those saints, declaring a particular relationship to them,
looking to them for inspiration and guidance. They hoped, too, that they might be
“friends in high places”, speaking for them before the throne of God. I’m not
sure that courtly imagery works so well for us these day: perhaps thinking of
Peter and Paul as companions on the journey is more helpful. We don’t pray to the saints, still less
worship them, we pray to God, but I like to think of the saints as people who pray
with and for us, just as a living friend might do, offering us company and
encouragement.
The Creed talks about the “communion
of saints” reminding us that being a Christian isn’t meant to be a solitary endeavour.
It’s something we do together – with our church community, with our brothers
and sisters across the world, and with those who have gone before us,
who have shone with the light of Christ. Sometimes when I pray, it’s just me
and God, and that’s fine, but sometimes its good to picture myself surrounded
by that great team of well-wishers. It’s like turning up to a party and finding
that there are friends there you didn’t know were coming, or having a buddy go
along with you for moral support when you are doing something difficult. The
saints remind us that being a Christian isn’t a solitary thing. We are called
to discover and explore it together, helping each other along the way.
Our readings today, which
feature Peter and Paul, illustrate that. They aren’t portrayed as heroes,
rugged individualists, but people who needed others, and to whom community was
important.
St Paul is one of the giants
of Christian history. He left a legacy that that changed its course, through
the letters he wrote to the churches he founded around the Mediterranean. But
at the beginning of the reading we heard today, no one would have predicted
that. When we first meet him he is going by his Hebrew name, Saul; it was
common for people to use more than one name, in different situations, so that
they fitted into whatever the local culture was, just as immigrants today
sometimes Anglicise their names if they feel it will make it easier for others
to pronounce them. He was Saul to his Hebrew friends, but Paul to the Gentile
Romans and Greeks. When we first meet him, he is hell-bent on rooting out anyone
who followed the way of Jesus, who he saw as a troublemaker, who’d got his just
deserts when he’d been crucified for his radical interpretation of the Jewish
faith, an interpretation Paul thought was completely wrong. But on the way to
Damascus, Paul heard the voice of that same Jesus speaking from the right hand
of God, evidently favoured, not condemned, and suddenly his world was turned
upside down. Blinded by the light, he could no longer see the way ahead –
spiritually and emotionally as well as literally, and had to be led into the
city. Left to his own devices he might simply despaired, but God didn’t leave
him to his own devices; he sent Ananias, a local Christian, to him. Ananias
knew of Paul’s reputation. He knew he’d had Christians imprisoned elsewhere. He
has to have wondered whether he was simply walking into a trap. But he went anyway, and thank God he did, because
if he hadn’t perhaps we wouldn’t be here today; it was Paul’s ministry which
enabled the Christian message to spread westwards into Europe, and eventually
to these damp islands at the edge of what was then the known world.
Paul’s ministry, from the
very earliest moment was one which was rooted in community, recognising that we
needed one another, just as he had needed Ananias, and that shines through in his letters. He describes
the church as a body, with every part essential to the whole. He speaks of the
primary importance of our love for one another, which reflects the love of God
for each of us.
St Peter, too, doesn’t get
where he needs to be on his own in the story we heard today. Jesus has been
raised from the dead, but now what? It’s all too much for Peter – the
roller-coaster of his denial of Jesus, Jesus’ death, and then, just when Peter
thought it was all over, his resurrection - so he goes back to what he knows,
or thinks he knows: fishing. Except that even that goes wrong. He and his
friends fish all night but catch nothing. Fortunately, a stranger calls out
from the beach that he should cast his nets on the other side of the boat, and
he does, and catches a catch like he’s never caught before. But it takes one of
his friends, “the disciple Jesus loved” as he’s described here, probably the
apostle John, to point out what Peter has missed. “It is the Lord!”, he says. Peter jumps into
the water and swims towards him, into a new life and a new commitment as a
leader in the church.
Peter and Paul; our Patron
saints – two giants in the Christian story, but could only become so because of
the communities they were part of, because of the other saints around them, the
people who might seem like bit part players, but whose contribution made all
the difference.
That’s what distinguishes
saints from superheroes. Saints don’t have superpowers; they’ree just people
who are open to the call of God, whether it is to something apparently great or
something that seems insignificant at the time. Today as we celebrate our
Patronal Festival, we remember Peter and Paul, but we also remember those who
were so vital in their story, Ananias, who bravely welcomed Paul, and the
unnamed disciple who saw Jesus and pointed him out to Peter, and all the others
who made up the communities they were part of, encouraging and helping them
along the way. Their stories hold up a mirror to our own, inviting us to play
our own part in that great communion of saints through whom the light of Christ
shines in the world, yesterday, today and forever.
Amen
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