Thought for the Week - 23rd April 2023

Dear Friends, 

Happy St George’s Day! I was interested to read this week on the English Heritage website the history of St George whose Feast Day we celebrate today, 23rd April. You are probably familiar with the mythical story of how the heroic knight slayed a fire-breathing dragon who had been terrorising the local villages demanding sacrifices thus releasing them from their bondage, but did you know that St George wasn’t English – he was born in Cappadocia (modern day Turkey) in the 3rd Century AD; and that he wasn’t a knight either – he was most likely to have been an officer in the Roman army. England also isn’t the only country that has St George as its patron saint – others include Venice, Genoa, Portugal, Ethiopia, and Catalonia. He was canonised by Pope Gelasius in 494AD who claimed he was one of those ‘whose names are justly revered by men but whose acts are known only to God’. When I think of the knights of old I’m reminded of a hymn that I first encountered at school, When a knight won his spurs in the stories of old, whose final verse says, ‘Let faith be my shield and let joy be my steed, ‘gainst the dragons of anger, the ogres of greed; and let me set free with the sword of my youth, from the castle of darkness, the power of the truth’. That draws me back to the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians when he speaks of the armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), and the picture there is of us all being dressed as knights or soldiers, ready for battle, the spiritual battle that we are engaged in as we are encouraged to be ‘strong in the Lord’, ‘stand firm’, and ‘pray in the Spirit’ as we seek to live out our lives following the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace,

Neil

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