The Seed of the Church

"O God, by whose providence the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church..." (from the collect for the Martyrs of Uganda)

Red is the liturgical color for celebrating the feasts of martyrs, and this week has a lot of red days. Yesterday, June 1, marked the feast of Justin, who was martyred in 165. Today we remember Blandina and her companions, martyred in Lyons in 177. Blandina's murder was particularly grisly: shown above she was "half-roasted" and then thrown half-alive to the bulls for refusing the renounce her faith.

Tomorrow, on June 3, Charles Lwanga and 31 other Roman Catholic and Anglican martyrs of Uganda are remembered. The collect for the day begins by noting that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." One cannot pray for these nineteenth-century martyrs without being mindful of the terrible persecutions that would face the twentieth-century Church under Idi Amin. I know two people whom I count as friends who lived through that time; they are among the most faithful people I have ever known in my life.

I would never suggest that faith in the suburbs is easy; it is not. We are all shaped by context, however, and the whining I sometimes hear from the House of Bishops to the pews and across ecumenical lines about the challenges of being a post-Christendom Church sometimes sound rather hollow and embarrassing when compared with the witness of Justin, Blandina, and Charles. In fact, that is what the word martyr means in Greek: to be a witness.

Walter Brueggemann's introduction to the Old Testament offers the metaphor of a courtroom where testimony and counter-testimony are presented. Witnesses are called to the stand. Each of us is called to bear witness to the truth within us.

In our context, bearing witness to that truth is very unlikely to get us killed. On the other hand, given that post-Constantinian context of North American Christianity--where it is very easy for the Church to mirror the dominant culture by offering an anemic spirituality of self-help, self-fulfillment, self-realization--speaking the truth about historic Christianity can be a risky business. It may lead us to stand with martyrs even closer to home, in places like El Salvador--places where speaking the truth may lead our religious beliefs and practices into the messy and dangerous world of international politics.

The martyrs inspire us, if we dare, to be witnesses to the communion of saints, to speak in the presence of the white-robed martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for Christ and the Church that bears His name. Their blood calls us to be accountable to the faith that is in us and to a more bold, courageous, and prophetic vision.

I don't think we need to go looking for trouble, and I don't think that Justin or Blandina or Charles did. But when trouble finds us, there is no doubt risk involved in being faithful.