November 1st marks what the church has called, “All Saints Day” since the year AD 609.
On this day we remember and celebrate the men and women of old who lived adventurous lives of faith.
Today, I believe that God is calling us into similar lives of adventure!
One Saint that stands out is Saint Brendan of Clonfert, often called “the Navigator,” “the Voyager,” or “the bold.” Brendan was baptized by one of St. Patrick’s disciples named Erc.
Author David Adam writes:"St. Brendan was born at the “edge of the world” in what is now County Kerry. His birthplace was near Tralee on the north side of the bay overlooking the Western Sea. There is no other landmass from there until you come to Labrador or Newfoundland. Brandon Mountain near his home overlooks the sea . .. It is not surprising that adventuring in the sea and sailing was in Brendan’s blood; he saw the ocean as a place to adventure and reach out into the unknown."
Saint Brendan is most remembered for his bold and adventurous journey to find a mythical and blessed island across the sea where it was always day and where Christian saints would dwell in blessed happiness and joy.
1400 years later, J.R.R. Tolkien heard the stories of St. Brendan, and in 1955, he published a poem titled, Imram, based on the legendary voyage of Saint Brendan.[12] The poem, contains many elements which show up later (in different forms) in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
There are fascinating connections between St. Brendan’s journey and Tolkien’s world, including magical stars (called Eärendil), legendary trees (like the White Tree of Gondor), and the most important being Brendan’s journey to the west to an undying land.
Tolkien writes about a hobbit named,
Bilbo Baggins
In The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo had just arrived home to his hobbit-hole from his self-described “eleventy-first” birthday party celebration. To his surprise, Bilbo finds Gandalf, the wizard, waiting for him there.
Bilbo tells Gandalf that he is leaving permanently. Saying, “I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday as I have told you before. Probably a permanent holiday: I don’t expect I should return.”[15] He continues saying, “I want to see mountains again, Gandalf – mountains; and then find somewhere I can rest.”
For Bilbo, the Mountains represented a place of transformation, of risk and adventure, trusting God to sustain you, lead you and help you discover wonderful beauty. Bilbo is longing for the adventures of the past we read about in the Hobbit.
The Hobbit is, in every sense, an adventure story.
I believe adventure is what happens when you are going after your destiny in faith.
The word, adventure dates from about 1300, from the Old French, aventuren, “to risk the loss of, “from adventurer (12th Cent.) “wander, travel; seek adventure; happen by chance,” from aventure.
For Brendan & Bilbo, they took risks and left their comfort zone because they had a spiritual vision inspired by beauty.
Bilbo hears the song of the dwarves called, “Far Over the Misty Mountains,” and his heart is stirred to experience the beauty it describes.
Brendan’s first hearing of a mystical island of the blessed saints from a fellow abbot named Barinthus, an abbot and spiritual confidant of St. Brendan. Brendan asked Barinthus to recount the wonders he had discovered across the sea.
This spiritual leader tells the stories, the testimonies of discovering the new world. These stories create even more hunger in Brendan to go forth. As spiritual fathers and mothers we must tell the stories of miracles, signs and wonders that we have seen and our stories of the adventurous faith, with the next generation.
St. Brendan & Bilbo Baggins have Restless Hearts for Adventure and the Eternal City.
Both St. Brendan and Bilbo Baggins highlight something about the deep nature of ourselves – namely that we are creatures designed for adventure and faith. As the writer of Ecclesiastes (3:11) has observed, “He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Vicar David Adam writes:
"Life is meant to be an adventure. When we cease to reach out and stretch ourselves something in us dies or we feel frustrated; for life to be lived to the full it has to be adventurous. I believe that God calls us to adventure, to extend ourselves, and to seek new horizons."
When we think about lives of faith and adventure, we must recall Abraham, whom the writer of Hebrews says,
"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Heb. 11:8-10).
At the end of their journeys,
- Abraham did become the father of nations, settling in the Promised land.
- Bilbo Baggins ends up sailing away from Middle Earth toward the undying lands in the West.
- Brendan is known to have an incredible journey west across the sea to a blessed land that we would call the New World.
But how do we know that these Celtic sea faring monks actually made it to what we now call America? There are Celtic carvings in New England that point to their landing here far before the Vikings or Christopher Columbus arrived.
The most definitive evidence to me are the cave carvings discovered a few decades ago in West Virginia in the ancient Ogem language that read:
“At the time of sunrise, a ray grazes the notch on the left side on Christmas Day. A Feast day of the Church, the first season of the (Christian) year. The season of the Blessed Advent of the Savior, Lord Christ. Behold, he is born of Mary, a woman.”
May we live inspired lives of faith punctuated by risk and adventure. Help us Lord to learn from the example of Brendan to listen for your voice and partner with you in exploring the new, the unfamiliar and uncharted!
The Prayer of Saint Brendan the Navigator
I have also dropped a podcast of this message with more supplemental and entertaining material. To listen to the podcast, click here.
Citations:
Book: by David Adam, A Desert in the Ocean: p. 18, 32-33)
Blog: An Unexpected Journal, by Ted W. Wright, Spring 2022
I look forward to seeing you next Sunday at our Worship Service in the Dome at 10:00 a.m.
You can also live stream our service on Facebook and YouTube at 10:00 a.m.
