LOVE is? NOT JEALOUS

Hello again, Dick Foth. It's Foth and Friends stories from the road. And I want to do this podcast in two parts. I'm really disconnected from each other, but one having to do with the calendar, March, and the other having to do with our continued look at the love chapter in Corinthians 1 Corinthians 13. What is love like? But let me just jump into that first part. The wind blowing pretty steadily out here. Outside my offices, I'm recording this this day. It was probably howling a bit more than that back in the fifth century when an Irish ship beat against the waves along the western coast of Great Britain. I'm reading some thoughts from a history book. On the far edge of the crumbling Roman Empire, Band of Irish Marauders crept into a secluded cove and raided the village of Band of M to Burnai. Among the plunder captured by the Band of Warriors, dispatched by Ireland's King Neal, among the hostages was a 16 year old boy named Sukat. Though brought to Ireland against his will, the teenager would go on to become Ireland's patron saint, Saint Patrick. It's the Saint Patrick's Day week. And he may have been a foreigner who arrived in Ireland the hold of a pagan king's slave ship, but he would become synonymous with the island itself. We don't know much about Patrick except that he was a young boy born into a well to do family around 386 AD and grew up along Great Britain's western coast, likely probably in Wales. And it was part of the Roman Empire at the time. His father apparently was a Christian deacon and a minor Roman official and his grandfather was a priest. The raid that took him away from his home in Wales at 16, not unusual for that time in history. In the early 400s and other times, the Irish were feared for the pirating, the raiding along the western coast of England Great Britain. And people were enslaved. The young men were taken to herd animals and the women were taken to serve the people that took them. And so it ended up that Patrick was in Ireland for six years, apparently in the north and county Antrim. And there he heard it sheep and learned some of the customs of the people. But his isolation, apparently encouraged his faith, his only companions, I guess were the flock of sheep. And this faith that he had, his faith came alive in this time. And amid that desolation, his prayer life blossomed, apparently. And he said at some points, he prayed up to a hundred times a day. And then he goes on in his own biography. It's called the Confessio. About six years into his captivity, an angel appeared in a dream and told him, you have fasted well, very soon you'll return to your native country. And the angel told him of a ship leaving Ireland and the young man walked across Ireland, a couple hundred miles of peat bogs and forests before arriving in a port possibly in the south toward Wexford. Found a cargo ship bound for the European continent. Long story short, he got back home. And his parents really wanted him to stay there. His parents begged him to never leave them again, but the religious visions returned because he had had these dreams and visions apparently while he was in Ireland. And one time he heard the voice of the Irish call out, we beg you holy boy to come and walk again among us. So after a period of training, he became a deacon around 418 and then in 432 AD, he was consecrated as a bishop and given the name patricious, which I think means father. And so many formalings, slave people of course would never go back to the place where they were, but he asked for an assignment as a missionary to Ireland. And when he returned to the pagan island, he tended to a different type of flock as you can appreciate. Patric's knowledge, his knowledge of Ireland and its language and customs facilitated his work in converting and baptizing druid priests, chieftains and aristocrats apparently by the thousands before he died on March 17, 461 AD. You know, it's interesting because when we think about Saint Patric's day or some people say Saint Patty's day, here is a person who became came to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland, although he's not officially a saint within the Roman Catholic system. But the official feast day in the Catholic Church of Saint Patrick is in Ireland is March 17 and that's why it's always celebrated on that day. If you live in Ireland, you get up and you go to church apparently and then you have a celebration later. Apart from that, it's celebrated by partying here in the States. And this started way back in George Washington's troop, who were Irish at the time, marched up Broadway on the 17th of March and ever since that time in the 1700s, they've been celebrating Saint Patrick's day here in this country. Especially if in New York, Boston, Chicago, Savannah, even in Denver, what they have in common is parties. So in Ireland, you have church first, then a party. It's amazing to hear the story of a young boy who could have essentially seen his life as a tragedy framed in that way. But in the midst of his pain and suffering, he is called back to that place and there were generations of people affected by him during those years. So that is the first part of the podcast. We'll just have a little music, I'll come back with the next part. So we're looking at love and the definition of love found in the first letter to the church in Greece in Corinth by the Apostle Paul. And this is how he started it. He said, love is patient, love is kind. And then we get to the third phrase and he tells us what love isn't. Love is not jealous. I have a friend Steve Moore, who for many years has been a speechwriter in Washington DC written for senators, been involved in the political community in lots of different ways. He has great insights into a lot of things biblical and he writes this, Jesus made it so clear that love is what makes a human a person in God's eyes. So God's love is what makes me who I am and my love for God and neighbor fulfills my God created purpose. So Paul does us all a tremendous service in 1 Corinthians 13 when he talks about this kind of love. Corinth as Steve puts it was the site for the empire wide public speaking Super Bowl. It was a town that appreciated skill and stringing words together in a powerful memorable way. And Paul could have entered with this paragraph this first paragraph and one hands down. Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous and on we go. So what love does not do is be jealous or envious. I was thinking about this and thinking can we describe qualities of folks with color and of course we do don't we. Red is angry or purple with rage or a coward is yellow or I'm in a black mood or a sad person has the blues. There's this English fellow named Shakespeare who's known to have made a connection between the color green and jealousy in his play a fellow. One character Iago warns another man a fellow be where my lord of jealousy is the green eyed monster which death mock the meat it feeds on. There are a couple of different ideas around jealousy or there's actually sort of a trilogy of words one is covet you know covetousness or to cover somebody else or somebody else's property. Covet means to desire intensely jealousy is I want what you have envy is I don't want you to have what you have. So it's sort of a slicing and dicing of this idea that there's something that somebody else has or in some other place and I either want that it could be a person it could be stuff it could be position. But jealousy is I want you have envy which is you know like a sibling I don't want you to have what you have. Whatever it is jealousy and envy and covetousness it's a bad deal that's not the road we want to go down jealousy and envy are these destructive emotions that can destroy any kind of relationship I mean when envy or jealousy creeps into a relationship it creates friction opens a gate to all kinds of things distrust and securities. Somebody has written it this way do not be jealous of others or resent persons based on their accomplishments or achievements God has ordained each of us with special gifts and we can make our contribution in this world in our own unique way. So here's the upside of it here's the way to approach things celebrate each other's accomplishments do not entertain toxic thoughts that can ruin your emotional and physical health. So when somebody achieves when somebody has something you don't have celebrate that be grateful for that this is how a writer of Proverbs says it Proverbs 14 30 this is a powerful line heart at peace gives life to the body but envy Roots the bones let me say that one again a heart at peace gives life to the body but envy Roots the bones will house that for a thought. So let's be grateful this Saint Patrick's week for who we have and what we have there's no room for jealousy gratitude kicks jealousy or envy or covetousness right in the teeth. Well that's it for now let's celebrate the life that we have and not be envious of somebody else's. I'll catch you later this dickboat signing off bye bye. you