It took 37 years of my life before I learned the true story of Patrick. How can that be? How were the atheists able to paganize every one of our Holy Days? We must take these days back from the pagans.
Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being a happy St. Patrick's Day. A pet peeve of mine, it's much stronger than a pet peeve, whatever is stronger than a pet peeve, that's what this is, great lament. I should stop saying it's a pet peeve, it's not even close to a pet peeve, it's a lament of mine, is that all of the holidays in our country have been paganized and secularized.
The word holiday itself is holy day. And now all these Christian holidays are not anymore. And this is a big problem. And it's a great opportunity for us now, though, in this cultural moment that we're in, and it's certainly, certainly a moment. We are turning away.
A lot of people are turning away from what we've been fed the last few decades, but they're going to be turning and looking for something new.
And this is our opportunity to provide them with something that is good. And I think the argument that this is who we used to be, this is where our country came from, here's the holy days we used to celebrate and how we used to celebrate them. I think that's a pretty easy sell actually. I think it's very important to do. So that's why I'd like to keep making this point. Almost all of our holidays are, we're Christian. Halloween was All Hallows' Eve. To hollow means
to make holy, to set apart for holy or religious use, to consecrate as a sacred. It was the day before All Saints' Day, November 1st, where we celebrated the great Christian martyrs who came before us. And now it's a goofy, pagan, dress-up as a superhero day. Christmas, of course, the birth of Jesus Christ. And now it's Santa in presence.
Easter was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's the thing that the entire Christian faith hangs on. We are to be most pitied if this didn't actually happen. But now it's Easter bunny and eggs. Ridiculous. Thanksgiving. The same thing. Thanksgiving was a day where the Puritans prayed to God, thank you, God, for bringing us here safely to this new world. And
this second mass exodus from from tyranny, where we can live our Christian faith to the fullest. That's Thanksgiving. We were told the story back at Thanksgiving, but literally, thank you God for it raining so that our crops can grow. And in our founding, and all the way through Abraham Lincoln and beyond, Thanksgiving was a day of fasting. It was a day of not eating. It's a day of fasting and prayer. And today, it's a day of gluttony and football.
Isn't that amazing? Now if you're talking to anybody about this, some people may think that people like these holidays as it is. And you may have atheist friends who don't want these to be Christian holidays. Okay, here's a good starting point if I may. Put on your anthropologist hat, your sociologist hat.
Get this person, I don't mean this in a manipulative way, just for the sake of conversation, get someone to admit and acknowledge that it's different. These used to be Christian holidays that we celebrated in the United States of America. This is what we used to do. This is what they used to mean. This is why we used to celebrate them.
And now we do it in a very different way. You have to acknowledge that. Now you can, we're not going to put any value judgment on it yet. They can say, yeah, we used to do it that way, but it's better now. Okay.
That's an opinion.
I think it's way worse now, but we'll worry about the judgment in a second. First just acknowledge that that's how it used to be. And now we're doing something very different. That's a very important starting point. Now we can add judgment to it and why I think this is very lamentable. Before I make that argument let's tell the story of St. Patrick. What is St. Patrick's Day? St. Patrick's Day are you wearing green?
Okay so it's a day to wear green okay and it's a day to drink green beer and That's not what St. Patrick's Day is. I went nearly my entire life, it was really until two, maybe three years ago, when I first learned the story of Patrick, the guy. At best, if you asked me what St. Patrick did, I would say he drove the snakes out of Ireland. But that's not true. He didn't do that. There were no snakes in Ireland. There are no snakes in Ireland.
But there's no snake. He never did anything with snakes. There's no snake. And someone would be like, well, it's an allegory. No, we don't have time for allegory. Tell the story.
What did he actually do? Because the story is way better than any allegory. So here's the deal. St. Patrick, he wasn't Irish. He was born in England in the 400s. His dad was a deacon.
His grandfather was a priest, but he was an atheist. He was then abducted from his village and thrown on a slave ship up to Ireland. Ireland at this time was totally backwards, so was England, but Ireland was was even worse. Everything was very spread out, a lot of fighting, a lot of battles. There were no governments. There was no order. It was just total chaos. And they worshipped the pagan gods, the sun and the moon and wind and stuff like that. Their religious leaders were the
Druids. So his name, he wasn't Padre, his name was Mewin. So Mewin gets taken as a slave. This is a real story. Have you ever heard this? I've never heard this until years ago. Mawin was taken as a slave to this foreign pagan land and he was sold to this guy named Milchu and he was there for six years. Six years as a slave, mostly as a shepherd to his master's sheep and he wrote when he was there
and in his book, he said, uh it's his journal. He said, I prayed frequently during the day. More and more, the love of God increased and my sense of awe before God increased. Faith grew, and my spirit was moved, so that in one day I would pray up to one hundred times, and at night perhaps the same." One day he decided to escape.
He traveled two hundred miles to the coast. He found a ship ready to sail, and they said, no, we're not gonna let you on this ship. You're a slave. But he begged them, and they finally agreed, and ultimately he made it back home, back to England, and he found his mom and his dad again,
and dedicated his life to God, and right there became a priest. And then one night he had a dream, and in his dream he heard, holy boy, please return to us. We need you. And he decided to return to Ireland, to return to the place where he
was taken to be a slave, return to the people who enslaved him and preach the gospel. Think about that. It was a long time ago, so it's hard to get there and there's nothing to say that he couldn't be taken a slave again. And how are you even gonna do this? How are you going to preach Jesus to people worshipping the Sun God and the Moon God and the Druids? How are you ever going to do that? But he did and he spread Christianity throughout Ireland. He
changed his name to Patrick when he became a priest. So there you go, that's St. Patrick. Have you ever heard that before? I've never heard that, not until like two or three years ago. So do it, I mean, do this nicely. No one wants to know it all. So don't be like, hey, do you even know why you're wearing green? Or what do you even, like that. Be like, hey, do you know, do you even, have you ever heard the story of St. Patrick's
Day before? Like I've never heard it until I heard it on the radio today. Do that to someone and tell them the story. It's a very simple story. He was British, he was English, taken as a slave to this place called Ireland, escaped, and then the Holy Spirit told him to go back to Ireland and spread the gospel.
It's an incredible story.
It's an incredible story.
It's a wonderful thing to celebrate. That's why it's a holy day. That's the point of holidays. Here's something we should emulate. This is something that reminds us who we used to be and who we still should be.
And now we're like, here's my green socks. I have a couple quotes here from Mawin. He said, I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly worthless in the eyes of many. I so value the Christians who came before us who understand the true depth of their Because the more you understand how undeserving you are of salvation, the more grateful you
are for the Savior. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. So did I before I was a Christian. This is what Jesus was talking about. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and blessed are
those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Mourn what? Mourn their sin. We did a whole series a while ago, we should do it again, on Servant on the Mount and the Beatitudes. But here is Mawin Patrick, who understands this very deeply. I pray to God to give me perseverance
and to deign that I be a faithful witness to him to the end of my life for my God. He said, I know for certain that before I was humbled, I was like a stone lying in deep mire. And He that is mighty came and in His mercy raised me up, and indeed lifted me high up and placed me on top of the wall. And from there I ought to shout out in gratitude to the Lord for His great favors in this world and forever that the mind of man cannot measure."
This is a perfect one for the week that we spend a good amount of time talking about dying. And we talked about COVID, remember we talked about the five year anniversary of COVID and the big lessons from COVID. And my biggest lesson was that people are scared of death.
And here's what Patrick said about that. He said, for daily, I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises. How about that? I expect to be murdered, but I fear nothing because of the promises of heaven.
For I have cast myself into the hands of Almighty God, who reigns everywhere." I am certain—this is why holidays matter—I am certain that if for the last fifty years St. Patrick's Day was more than a day to drink green beer, celebrate Patrick and to praise God like he did and to understand the state of our own sin and where we actually deserve to go versus what Jesus has done
to us instead and if we understand like Patrick did that I fear nothing because we cast ourselves into the hands of Almighty God who reigns everywhere I guarantee you of course we would be a totally different country right now for the better and specifically regarding COVID, we would have acted completely differently. We would have feared nothing because we trust God who reigns everywhere and at all times and under all things, which is what Martin Luther understood in that episode we shared
from a couple of days ago. I got this email. Let's see if I can pull it up here quickly. It's another situation where I could just pause the recording. We're not live, but someone sent me a note of Andrew Jackson. Here it is.
This is from Charles. Slater just finished listening to your podcast about COVID. Thank you, Charles. Stonewall Jackson, in general, how is it that you can keep so cool and appear so utterly insensible to danger, when such a storm of shell and bullets has rained about you when your hand was hit?" Here's what Stonewall Jackson said,
"'Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter what may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave." Stonewall was right about that. In Job, it says, a person's days are determined. You have decreased the number of his months and have set limits that
he cannot exceed. Give you two more quotes from Patrick. God watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me and consoled me as a father would his son.
It's beautiful.
Final quote we'll share here today. I came to the people of Ireland to preach the gospel and to suffer insult from the unbelievers, bearing the reproach of my going abroad and many persecutions, even unto bonds, and to give my free birth to the benefit of others."
Wow.
And to give my free birth to the benefit of others. Amazing. Just yesterday in church, the preacher was talking about Philippians 2. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Look each of you not, look not only to his own interest but also to the interest of others.
So treat others more significant than yourselves. And here's Patrick saying, to give my free birth for the benefit of others. Beautiful. So again, what if this is what we all knew St. Patrick's Day to be about? What a different country we'd be, what a different family we would have and a different mindset we would all have as well.
So let's get back to it. Let's not just lament what we've been missing, but let's take it back. Let's take this and all the holy days back. So my challenge to you is to talk to someone today about the story of Patrick. Tell them that he was born in the 400s, was taken as a slave to this backwards place called Ireland, escaped, went back to his mom and dad, became a Christian, and the Holy Spirit called him to go back to Ireland, the place that enslaved him, and spread the gospel. And he did exactly that. Let us all be as brave and trust in God as Patrick was. Let us all be as brave and trust in God as Patrick was. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.
