St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by the Very Reverend Rowan Smith in the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr on 26 April 2009

“ You are witnesses of these things.” Luke 35 v 48

In a recent address, the Archbishop, of York, Dr John Sentamu, gave at a literary conference in Oxford, he called for the feast of St George to become a public holiday in England, given that he is the patron saint of England. He also said that the English Flag, with the cross of St George “… symbolised the blood of Christ on the Cross” (Church Times 9 April 2009)

It was under that flag that the English set out to colonize the world and with it took the name of St George to churches around the globe – we are witness to that as is the cathedral in Jerusalem. What was sadly lost, as Archbishop Sentamu recognised was that the flag symbolised the blood of Christ on the cross. Today, as we celebrate our patron St George, it is to that cross that we look, which inspired St George, even if we do not have a coherent account of his life. As our worship leaflet today indicates:

“the Church's memory of St George is a collection of memories woven into one glorious, story of faithfulness and brave witness.”

There it is again: “you are witnesses of those things.”

The word which we translate as “witness” appears in the Greek New Testament as “you are Martyrs to these things” but now we have made the word Greek “scriptures” – to give us the word “martures” But when we speak of a martyr we think of a person who, for their faith, is prepared to give up her of his life. Certainly, to have been a Christian in the first three centuries of the Christian era was often a case of needing to place one's life at risk and the martyrs were those who the Church remembered in a special way as having remained faithful even to death. The first reading today, from the Acts, presents us with a Peter, transformed by the Holy Spirit, no longer afraid but empowered to speak of Jesus and the resurrection. He also goes on to say: “to this we are witnesses.” 3 v 15b

St George, whatever his history may have been was recognised as one who was not afraid to even defy the Emperor – there was a higher authority to whom he owed allegiance and he like St Peter bore witness to Jesus “… whom God raised from the dead.” Acts 3 v 15

Even though it was to colonise and to subdue that the colonial armies used the flag of St George, we today look to him as an encourager in our faith in the risen Lord Jesus and as we too are open to the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives today we too can say boldly: “To this we are witnesses.”

But what about George and the dragon? We need to look into ourselves today and identify these dragons which war against our true vocation as witnesses to Jesus Christ. St Paul in writing to the Christians at Corinth says:

“love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing…” 1 Corinthians 13 v 4bf. Because love is our meaning, our being.

You see our vocation is to be as Christ and we are reminded of this in the second lesson today:

“see what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” 1 John 3 v 1

That is indeed what we are, those who like Jesus bear the likeness of God in our world today by loving generously and given expression to that love by resisting every evil and every sin which destroys / disfigures our God's image in ourselves and in the other. The prayers which we offer at every Eucharist, the prayers which come from our own hearts – holding before God – the homeless, the unemployed, those made refugees by civil war; those stigmatised by HIV/AIDS or because of sexual orientation and also the drug and human traffickers; the arms dealers and the producers of drugs, all that seeks to prevent us as God's children from realising our true potential. All this we bring before the throne of God confident that like St George, God reigns supreme. The Risen Christ, who shares his wounds with his frightened disciples stands here today in our midst to invite us anew, like St George and all who in the past 161 years served him here in this place “You are witnesses of these things.”

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