I love Celtic Christianity. The prayers, the poetry, the music. It calls to me, awakens me, and stirs my soul. Last week, I blogged about St. Patrick and his call to those outside the church [the barbarian]. And I discussed how this was also Jesus’ call and I would propose the call of the church today in response to the Missio Dei or mission of God. There is a lot to be said about the way Celtic Christianity emerged, but today I want to simply emphasize the idea that "the church" consisted of monastic communities that embedded themselves in the neighborhood. And the way that they shared the gospel with the “barbarian” tribes was by going to them, setting up camp and living in proximity. They would befriend the Irish Celtic, engage them in conversation, listen, learn and build on the stories of the people there. Eventually, as people came to know Christ, they would plant an indigenous church right there in their neighborhood.
 
I think it’s significant to note that Patrick wasn’t doing church as usual. This was a whole new way of being the church. Patrick wasn't following the typical model of the Roman Christian Church; and thankfully, he was removed far enough from the empire to experiment. For the Roman way wouldn’t have worked at all in the Irish Celtic context. There were no towns in which they could set up the usual parish. Instead there was rural sprawl with only cattle trails and small settlements and tribes spread throughout the countryside. And so Patrick did not construct a large church building and wait for the people to come to him. Imagine the folly of such an endeavor! No, St. Patrick and his missionary teams went to the people and lived among them. Likewise, is it not also folly for the American church today to construct large buildings and expect the people to come to them? For the Missio Dei calls us like Christ to GO and to LIVE AMONG the people in an incarnational way.

[Jesus] became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. [John 1:14 MSG]

St. Patrick had one thing that is most likely the greatest single thing we can learn from him. He understood the people. He had been given the gift in his years as a slave to understand the culture, the context, the language and the stories of the Irish Celts.
 
There is no shortcut to understanding the people. When you understand the people, you often know what to say and to do and how. When the people know that the Christians understand them, they infer that maybe Christianity’s High God understands them too. [George G. Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism]
 
Patrick created indigenous expressions that emerged from listening, learning and living with the people. How do we also listen to the stories of our place in such a way that we can then interpret the gospel in the language and the context of our neighbors? And I think we have to get over our fear of the “other” - including other narratives and beliefs. I think we’ve been taught in our Christian silos and ghettos to fear any story, belief or paradigm other than our own. And while we hold to the truth of our triune God, often God reveals himself in and through the stories and narratives within culture.

​We see this in Acts where Paul preached at Mars Hill, explaining Jesus through their own story of the unknown god. St. Patrick and his team also did this. They knew well the Irish’s fascination with the number 3 and rhetoric triads, which then opened up a way to understand the Trinity. They knew the Irish’s love for heroes and legends that made way for them to understand the story of Jesus and the grand narrative of God. They knew the Irish’s love for nature and nature’s creatures that made way for God to be revealed in the natural world. And so there was continuity of story. God was already at work here and Patrick and his teams would live among the people, with the people and build upon what God had already revealed. And so what are the narratives of our own culture today? And how can we listen well enough and long enough to begin to live out the gospel in a way that is truly good news to our neighbors?
 
Go to the people.
Live among them.
Learn from them.
Love them.
Start with what they know.
Build on what they have. 
​[-ancient Chinese poem]

​by Jessica Ketola

Good news is only good news if it truly is good news. You and me, we may not be rocket scientists or published theologians, but I think we get this simple truth. Good news must be good news. Like actual, bona fide, pinch-me, too-good-to-be-true good news.
 
The problem today is this phrase, good news, has come to mean something else entirely. For many, the gospel actually sounds more like bad news. An angry, punitive god who can’t tolerate sin and demands a sacrifice to satisfy a moral code. Ugghh. No one wants this god. Resembling the ancient mythological gods of wrath more than the God that I know. For at the margins, the gospel is represented by the crazy prophet guy at the street fair holding a big sign and yelling at the crowds to repent or burn in hell. At yet all the more alarming, today mainstream “evangelicalism” conjures up images of judgmental, naïve, mean-spirited people who don’t care about the plight of the poor, who are out of touch and perhaps a little out of their minds. For many young people today, this is a deal breaker, only serving to ensure the final nail in the coffin of the traditional church as their stomachs churn and they flee for their lives and their consciences.
 
You see, they know. They know that this is supposed to be good news for everyone. There are many false gospels today. Jesus told us to be on the look out for them. And for me, the litmus test is this. Is it really good news to my neighbors? To all my neighbors. Rich, poor, old, young, those who live in their big houses, those who don’t have a home, those who are addicted to screens and those who need their daily fix of methadone. Does it embody the heart and compassion of Jesus? Is it truly good news?
 
For God is good, always has been and always will be. From beginning to end. Our story begins as the Spirit first breathed life into a good and beautiful creation and the first image bearers and declared that it was very, very good. When Jesus entered the beautiful broken story of humanity, coming as one of us, the angels brought good news of great joy that would be for all people. When Jesus walked the earth, he declared in his inauguration speech that he had come to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to set the captives free and to bring freedom to those who were imprisoned. And when his followers were startled out of their minds to find that Jesus who had suffered and died a brutal death was in fact very much alive, it was a kind of good news in which the world was now a different place. Heaven had come and God’s restoration project had begun to renew all of humanity and creation to the goodness for which it was created.