SOLDIER FOR GOD

Solemnity of St. George, Martyr

25 April, AD 2010

TEXT:  St. John 15:1f and II Timothy 2:8f

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

“Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”  (II Timothy 2:10)

Today we remember and celebrate the witness of him for whom this Parish is named, St. George the Martyr, patron of England.  He is not only venerated in England and by this Parish as a Martyr for the Christian Faith, but is also on the kalendars of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches.  He is known as the universal Martyr and many countries, also have long venerated his martyrdom and patronage.

To be a universal saint, very little is known with certainty about St. George’s life.  But what we do know, we derive from the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea, an early Church historian.  St. George was born between AD 275 – 285 to wealthy parents in the region of Cappadocia and when he was old enough, he joined the army of the Emperor Diocletian as a soldier.  Because of his talent and family connections, St. George quickly rose through the ranks and became a tribune or Colonel.  When Diocletian unleashed his massacre of Christians around AD 303, St. George loudly and boldly proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ and tore down the Emperor’s edict wherever it was posted.  Because Diocletian and George’s father, Gerontius were friends, Diocletian, at first, tried to talk sense into George and tried to make him recant his Faith by offering him land, wealth, and slaves if he would only make sacrifice to the pagan gods of Rome.  George never accepted any of those things; and in front of his fellow soldiers and the Empress, made such a witness for Jesus Christ that he converted his comrades and even the Empress, herself to Christianity.  For this he was seized, tortured on a wheel of swords, from which they had to revive him three times so they could torture him further, and then was beheaded at Nicomedia on April 23rd, 303.  The veneration of St. George was quickly established in that region and by the end of the fifth century, his cult had reached the Western Roman Empire.  In AD 494, Pope Gelasius I canonized George as a saint and his fame spread even more quickly.  By the time of the Crusades, because of the military and martyrdom connection, St. George’s fame had become wide-spread.  An Apparition of St. George appeared to the English King, Richard I, the Lionhearted, at the Battle of Antioch and led his army to victory against the Saracens.  The soldiers adopted the cross that they had seen in the apparition – a red cross on a white field and took it home with them to England.  The Council of Oxford in 1222 established St. George’s Day as a national day in the Church kalendar and by the year 1415, Archbishop Chichele of Canterbury gave St. George’s Day its national prominence and ordered it to be observed like Christmas Day and placed England under St. George’s patronage.  Today, St. George is also the Patron of the Boy Scouts and the Order of the Garter.  

Well, what kind of witness to the faith does St. George make for us today?  This can be seen directly in the words that St. Paul wrote to Timothy in the second chapter of the second epistle that bears Timothy’s name.  Our reading begins at the eighth verse, but just a few verses before, St. Paul writes to Timothy, “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.  Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him.  Remember Jesus Christ . . . as preached in my gospel.  Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.  (II Timothy 2:1-4, 8, 10)  As a soldier, St. George strove for those characteristics in a secular sense.  As a Christian soldier, St. George had a new King, the King of Souls, Jesus Christ.  And in his witness to the Gospel, he became, as Jesus teaches in the Gospel, this morning, a branch on the Vine – connected inexorably to His Saviour, even to the point of martyrdom, which connects St. George to all of us here this morning who are also branches of the True Vine, Jesus Christ.

In his legend, St. George killed a hideous dragon which came to represent in Christian interpretation, the conquest of Jesus Christ, His King, over sin, Satan, and death.  Thank God, we don’t have dragons like that any more!  In an early 20th century poem by Jan Struther, she writes, “ . . . giants have fled, and the knights are no more and the dragons are dead.”  To which we respond, would that they were!  There remain dragons all around us still today, maybe not with green scales or breathing fire, but they still do exist!  There are huge dragons which stalk our planet leaving chaos and devastation in their path.  Poverty, hunger, debt, warfare, disease to name but a few.  And there are also smaller, but in some ways even deadlier dragons that attack our souls, which we personally have to conquer; fear, hatred, guilt, envy.  These are the dragons by which St. George’s valour and love of God and faith in Jesus Christ we are taught to vanquish as members of the True Vine and compose part of the fruit we are called to bear as Christians in this time and in this place.  For St. George was a man who abandoned one army for another; one secular Emperor for the Eternal King.  He gave up the rank of tribune to enlist as a soldier for Jesus Christ and, eager to engage the enemy, he first stripped himself of worldly desires and lusts and then, free and unencumbered, bearing the shield of faith in Jesus Christ, he plunged into the thick of battle, an ardent soldier for the True King and Saviour of his soul.  As faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ, we are called by our King to engage those forces within and without that try to compromise the Gospel and conquer them by the Cross of Jesus Christ; whose true nourishment comes to us through His Body and Blood, just as nourishment comes to the branches from the stock of the Tree.  And because of that connectedness, we bear the Cross of Jesus Christ on our own body; the cross of Baptism which gives us the ability to fight and have the victory in Jesus’ Name!  Therefore, as St. Paul said to Timothy in his first epistle, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”  (I Timothy 6:12)  Ours is to have the courage and bravery like St. George, to step out in faith and in the Name of Jesus Christ to be loyal to Him and to His Church.  He who has set his hand and name on this Parish, who has sustained us in the course of our history, and leads us ever onward to victory has given us all that we need to be successful in the work that our Saviour, Christ, has called us to do.  Jesus has vanquished death and Hell by His Resurrection at Easter and has made us heirs of Salvation unto everlasting life.  What more, then, do we have to fear?  With courage, bravery, and loyalty, let us follow God through the witness of our Patron, St. George out into the world and unto the very gates of Heaven!  Let us pray.

ALMIGHTY God, who didst give to thy servant George boldness to confess the Name of Our Saviour Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this Faith:  Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of the same Our Lord Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God for ever and ever.  Amen.

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end.  Amen.

SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+