Happy St George’s Day
The text that the Church of England uses for St. George’s Day comes from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians chapter 6 beginning at verse 10.
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Reading this text today my thoughts leap immediately to the health workers and other key workers whom we will salute this evening. I imagine them putting on their personal protection equipment. I hope they have time to put it on carefully and deliberately. An act of carelessness can make you ill, spread the sickness to others and possibly cost you your life.
Do they pray as they put their equipment on? I imagine some do. Maybe they are praying for protection from the unseen enemy against which they struggle day in and day out. We can all pray this prayer for them.
I wonder if St George was familiar with this text? George lived in 4th century Palestine, then part of the Roman Empire. He was an officer in the Roman army. He was also a Christian.
I don’t know enough about the life of the church in 4th century Palestine to know if we can wonder if George would have read this text. I imagine if he had read it, it would have stuck in his mind. As a soldier he would have been used to putting on armour to protect him from the enemy. It would have been a powerful image for him therefore to imagine putting on the armour of God to enable him to stand firm when the evil day comes.
The evil day did come to George. The Roman Emperor proclaimed a persecution of the Christians. He would have commanded his soldiers to carry out the persecution. George refused the order. And so, he himself, was arrested, tortured and executed.
In those evil days, did he visualise the belt of truth around his waist? The breastplate of righteousness? The shield of faith? The sword of the Spirit? The helmet of salvation? Did he feel himself protected even as he gave up his life for his faith?
And did he ask himself all the while whether he was really doing the right thing? After all he was an officer in the Roman army. If he was really familiar with Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he might have known what it says a bit earlier in chapter 6. Paul writes there: ‘Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as you obey Christ.’ Did this mean that George had to obey the order to round up Christians? Other soldiers over the centuries have fallen back on this text and others like it. “I was only following orders.”
George didn’t follow orders. He disobeyed the rulers and authorities. He refused to renounce his true Lord, Jesus Christ. He refused to persecute his fellow believers. It cost him his earthly life.
So it is more than ironic what happened to the memory of St George.
St George has been adopted as the patron saint of Portugal, Catalonia, Malta, Georgia, Ethiopia and, course, England. In many of these countries St George is especially associated with battles. The battle cry of the Portuguese army remains to this day ‘Portugal and St. George!’
And then there’s Shakespeare. As Shakespeare weaved together a new set of national myths for protestant England he put these words into the mouth of Henry V at the siege of Harfleur.
“Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'”
And so St George was invoked to encourage Englishmen to slaughter their fellow Christians to further the dynastic ambitions of English kings in France.
How did it come to this?
England already had a patron saint before it adopted St George. He was our home-grown St Edward the Confessor. Edward was considered to be a holy man, an excellent scholar and a wise ruler. He founded Westminster Abbey.
But Edward was ditched in the 14th century in favour of a saint who had been a soldier rather than a holy man. England’s feudal rulers had conquered Wales, Ireland and Scotland. They were about to embark on what came to be known as the Hundred Years War. They needed a saint they could take with them into battle. They needed a saint whom they thought would provide theological cover for a killing spree.
Which St George most definitely is not. The defining moment of this soldier’s life was the day he refused to obey orders; refused to kill others, and went to his own death, following in the footsteps of his and our Lord Jesus Christ who said, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it’ (Luke 9:23-24).
Happy St. George’s Day.
Let us pray for all those today who put their own lives on the line to serve and save others.
We pray that their personal protection equipment will be up to scratch and put on properly.
We pray also for ourselves; that we will have the humility to acknowledge the truth; that we will have the courage to be holy and righteous in the sight of God this day; that we will be ready to proclaim the Gospel of peace to all whom we meet this day.
We give thanks for the gift of faith, the gift of the Spirit, the gift of the word of God, by which we hope to do these things. And we give thanks for the promise of salvation made to St. George, to us and to all the saints, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.