Today is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday”, because that’s the focus of our readings. Tomorrow is St George’s Day, patron of England (also the birth and death date of William Shakespeare, of course). Let’s begin with St George.
Only Wales out of the home countries has a patron saint actually born in that country; since St Patrick was probably also born in Wales, that means that half what you might call the “home patron saints” can be claimed by Wales. Scotland play it safe by having one of the apostles as their saint, though they do share St Andrew with a few other countries, including Russia; meanwhile, England have St George, who some people say never really existed. I’m not one of them, I’m quite sure St George was a real person; but he almost certainly didn’t do the one thing we all remember him for. Sorry, but the story of George and the dragon is not in fact true.
So who was George? He was probably a soldier in the Roman army, born in Palestine in the third century AD to Christian parents of fairly noble lineage. Like many young men of his class, George joined the army and became an officer, serving perhaps in the Emperor’s royal guard. That emperor was Diocletian, and at the beginning of the fourth century he launched a fierce persecution of Christians, aimed particularly at rooting them out from the army. Christian soldiers were happy to swear allegiance to the emperor as an earthly monarch, but there was no way they’d agree to worship the emperor as a god, nor would they make sacrifices to the gods of Rome. But that’s what Diocletian required of them, to prove their loyalty to the empire and to him.
So George was martyred in 304, in Lydda, which was probably the city of his birth. We don’t know much about his life or his death for certain, but George was very quickly honoured in churches throughout the east as “the Great Martyr”. Within a few years, Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome, had begun his rise to the throne; and at some point in his reign a new church was built in Lydda in memory of George.
We know of churches dedicated to St George in England as far back as Saxon times; but it was soldiers returning from the crusades who made George popular. King Edward III made George the patron of the Order of the Garter, and that confirmed his position as England’s patron saint, in place of Edward the Confessor.
But what about that dragon? The story of George and the dragon also dates from Medieval times, long after the lifetime of George himself. George is generally depicted wearing a suit of armour, and his cult perhaps became confused with that of Michael the Archangel, also wearing armour, whose defeat of the great dragon is detailed in the book of Revelation. Other people think that because George came from Lydda, his story took on some features of the slaying of a great sea monster by Perseus, a Greek myth associated with Lydda. Those who wrote histories of the saints rarely let the truth get in the way of a good story, and the story of George and the dragon was told as an example of knightly chivalry and courtliness - so important in those days.
Dragons apart, though, George seems to have been courageously devoted to Christ; his devotion never wavered, not even in the face of death, and that made a huge impression on the Christian community that had known him well; and the cult of George spread across the whole region. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep.” We can remember George as one who took those words so completely to heart that his own life and death bore faithful witness to the sacrifice of Christ.
Not all Christians faced persecution with the same courage and fortitude. A burning issue for the early Church was what should be done with those who’d fallen away from the faith in times of persecution, but then wanted to come back. Should they be welcomed back, or had they ruled themselves out for ever? How genuine was their repentance? Could they ever be trusted again? What should the Church require of them, to prove they were truly penitent?
Now this was nothing less than a debate about the very nature of the Church itself. Was the Church a company of the faithful, so that those who proved themselves unworthy were excluded? Or was it a school for sinners, all of whose members had fallen short in some way or other, so that all were in need of the grace of God?
In our reading today, Jesus says, “I know my own, and my own know me.” That sounds a bit exclusive, though he did go on to speak about other sheep not of this fold whom he’d also be bringing in. But Jesus does also tell the story of the shepherd who goes and seeks out the sheep that’s lost. All heaven rejoices when even one sinner is returned to the fold, he said. So the mainstream of the Church has been that there’s a place for everyone here, and no-one should be excluded. Sheep in the days of Jesus followed their shepherd, recognising him and listening for his call; and Church is the place where the sheep can learn the ways of their Good Shepherd, and can learn to recognise his voice.
The great martyr George was honoured and remembered precisely because he did more than most of us could manage, and because his courage and faith didn’t fail when ours might well have done. In his death he became a beacon light for others, but there’s room in the flock for strays and failures too, so long as we’re truly doing our best to know God better and to devote our lives to him. “How many times must I forgive? As many as seven?” asked Peter once; Jesus replied, “Not seven, but seventy times seven” (by which he meant a number beyond reckoning). And that’s what God is like. However many times the lost sheep gets lost, the Shepherd will still search for it, will still want it back in the flock.
The persistent love of Jesus assures us that we’re known and treasured as his; and he sets an example for us to follow. It’s within the flock that we learn about the Shepherd, about his love, his protection, his guidance. How? By teaching, guiding and leading each other; by taking responsibility for one another; by ministering Christ the Good Shepherd to one another, with patience and encouragement, and with love and care, that reflect his.
No comments:
Post a Comment