{"id":23570,"date":"2016-03-17T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=23570"},"modified":"2016-03-16T19:07:39","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T23:07:39","slug":"an-object-lesson-for-st-patricks-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/03\/an-object-lesson-for-st-patricks-day\/","title":{"rendered":"An object lesson for St. Patrick’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Today is St. Patrick\u2019s Day, a time to commemorate the former slave who escaped his masters, only to come back later to bring Christianity to the whole nation of Ireland. \u00a0By extension, it is a time to honor all missionaries.<\/p>\n

St. Patrick, who lived in the 400s A.D., the time of the early church, was impressive for lots of reasons. \u00a0He is the author of the remarkable meditation\/poem\/hymn\u00a0St. Patrick\u2019s Breastplate<\/a>. \u00a0It includes these lines, calling on Christ to be present with him in every dimension of his life:<\/p>\n

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
\nChrist behind me, Christ before me,
\nChrist beside me, Christ to win me,
\nChrist to comfort and restore me.
\nChrist beneath me, Christ above me,
\nChrist in quiet, Christ in danger,
\nChrist in hearts of all that love me,<\/p>\n

\nChrist in mouth of friend and stranger.\n

Applying so many\u00a0prepositions to Christ reminds me of an object lesson that a Danish pastor offered at the conference I spoke at recently.<\/p>\n

He was observing that Scripture speaks of Christ being \u201cin\u201d us (e.g., Romans 8:10). \u00a0It also speaks of our being \u201cin\u201d him (e.g., Romans 8:1). \u00a0How can He be\u00a0inside of us, when we are also inside of him?<\/p>\n

The pastor\u00a0took a large glass bowl filled with water. \u00a0He then put into the bowl an empty plastic bottle, which then filled with water from the bowl.<\/p>\n

The water was inside the bottle, and the bottle was inside the water. \u00a0It was suspended, laved in water from all sides.<\/p>\n

Sort of like Christ in St. Patrick\u2019s poem.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is St. Patrick\u2019s Day, a time to commemorate the former slave who escaped his masters, only to come back later to bring Christianity to the whole nation of Ireland. \u00a0By extension, it is a time to honor all missionaries. St. Patrick, who lived in the 400s A.D., the time of the early church, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,21,25,28],"tags":[4342,3396,4400,2078,4399,2079],"class_list":["post-23570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christ","category-holidays","category-language","category-literature","tag-christ","tag-denmark","tag-object-lessons","tag-st-patrick","tag-st-patricks-breastplate","tag-st-patricks-day"],"yoast_head":"\nAn object lesson for St. Patrick's Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today is St. Patrick's Day, a time to commemorate the former slave who escaped his masters, only to come back later to bring Christianity to the whole\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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