St. Patrick’s Day was two days ago. Somehow, one day for Patrick is never enough. Its not because I am of Irish descent that I feel this way. Its not because the Celtic prayers stir me in a profound way. Its not because Irish dancing seems to have a power beyond itself, or the power the Celtic saints seemed to walk in is so compelling. Its because Patrick made the main thing the main thing. The main thing is mission. It is finding where God is at work in the world and joining in with that. Some time ago I copied a blog post without copying the author. What the writer wrote was this:
The church’s mission has often been hindered by two things: a shruken view of mission itself,and an implicit belief that reular church life is “about” something other than mission, with mission as a spare time activity for a few specially called people.
Patrick did not beleive that. He seemed to believe that mission is the center, and life of the church. For that reason he serves as an example to us all.
