Searching for a story to live by

Here's my reflection from today's Eucharist for St Martin-in-the-Fields:

‘He's a glamorous saint, says Dr Michael Carter, a historian at English Heritage, ‘… there … on his charger slaying a dragon.’ ‘His story, he continues, speaking, of course, of St George, ‘is something which crosses cultures and periods.’ St George ‘represents honour, bravery and he had royal and military associations.’ ‘There's so much in his legend that resonates with English values. He really is a patron of modern Britain in that he's quite diverse and international. It's down to the man, myth and mayhem that he became so popular.’

How to understand St George and how to celebrate St George’s Day? Michael Carter, in speaking about the man, the myth and the mayhem, reminds us that when we are dealing with a figure like St George we are wrestling with instances of overacceptance. Overacceptance involves fitting a story that has come your way - which often you didn’t invite or go looking for - into a larger story. For Christians that is ultimately the larger story of what God is doing with the world, but, as in the case of St George, it also includes, for example, the history of martyrdom within the Christian tradition and, in England, the story of what it means to be or become English and to be patriotic.

Sam Wells makes substantial use of the concept of overacceptance in his book on the place of improvisation in Christian life and ethical decision making. He says that, ‘Finding a way to live … is about identifying some kind of a story that traces together a series of otherwise inexplicable circumstances. Once you’ve done that, you then set about locating where you are in that story. And then you act your part in that story. You could pretty well summarise the human quest as simply as this: searching for a story to live by, discovering one’s place in that story, and living into that place in the story.’

When it comes to St George, as we’ve already reflected, there’s a whole set of interconnected and sometimes conflicting overarching stories, so we may need to take some time sorting through the different stories and trying to disentangle it order to find a story about our Patron Saint within which we may be happy to locate ourselves. For example, we might want to note that as well as being England’s Patron Saint, George is also the Patron Saint of Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Syria, Portugal and many cities – for example Genoa, Beirut, Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona, Moscow and Venice, among others. So, we might want to remember this Saint as an International Saint and explore the many different ways in which celebrations and ceremonies in his honour are held around the world, as well as here in England.

Another aspect of in his story is that St George is the patron of soldiers, armourers, farmers and sufferers of the plague and syphilis. During the Middle Ages, St George was regarded as one of the 'Fourteen Holy Helpers' - a group of saints people turned to for assistance in times of need, such as times of plague. That is an aspect of his story that may connect him to the story of lockdown in which we are currently living. That, and patronage of farmers - his name means ‘earth-worker’ – may help us find aspects of his story which are not to do with warfare and the military.

As well as exploring and disentangling the big stories of which St George has become a part, we can also return to the source, which, in his case, is the story of a Christian Roman soldier named Georgios, born in Cappadocia, Turkey around AD270, and martyred at Nicomedia, or Lydda, in modern day Israel, in the Roman province of Palestine in AD303, the beginning of the Diocletian persecution. Like many saints, St George was described as a martyr after he died for his Christian faith. It is believed that during the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian, he was executed for refusing to make a sacrifice in honour of the pagan gods.

This source story connects with one of the overaccepting, overarching stories that we mentioned earlier; the history of martyrdom within the Christian tradition. The Greek word "martus" signifies a "witness". It is in this sense that the term first appears in Christian literature; the Apostles were "witnesses" of all that they had observed in the public life of Christ. The Apostles, from the beginning as the story of St Stephen makes clear, faced grave dangers, until eventually almost all suffered death for their convictions. Thus, within the lifetime of the Apostles, the term martus came to be used in the sense of a witness who at any time might be called upon to deny what he testified to, under penalty of death. From this stage the transition was easy to the ordinary meaning of the term, as used ever since in Christian literature; a martyr, or witness of Christ, as one who suffers death rather than deny the faith.

There continue to be Christians who experience persecution or martyrdom today and we must pray for and support our brothers and sisters in the persecuted Church. It is, probably, unlikely that we will share with them in that experience, even so, we can still share with them in the other meaning of martus; that of being a witness who gives testimony. We are called, with the Apostles, Saints and Martyrs to be those who tell our stories of encountering Jesus to others. We don’t have to understand or be able to explain the key doctrines of the Christian faith. We don’t have to be able to tell people the two ways to live or have memorized the sinner’s prayer or have tracts to hand out in order to be witnesses to Jesus. All we need do is to tell our story; to say this is how Jesus made himself real to me and this is the difference that has made. That may even be the very best way to celebrate St George’s Day.

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T Bone Burnett - River Of Love.