Columba gives us model of zeal, patience

Every year on June 9 we commemorate St. Columba, Abbot of Iona and missionary, 597. Having served as a seminarian in a church named St. Columba’s, this day holds particular significance for me. Beyond that experience, the spirit in which Columba worked has captured and holds my attention. Columba knew the importance of balance in life, and lived out his ministry accordingly.

As the historian Bede tells us, “Columba led many to Christianity by his ‘preaching and example.’ He was much admired for his physical as well as spiritual prowess. He was a strict ascetic and remained physically vigorous and unflagging in his missionary and pastoral journeys throughout his seventy-six years of life.” (James Kiefer’s Christian Biographies)

While his example remains relevant for us, the two characteristics named in the collect for his day offer us guidance for all ministry and daily living. Those characteristics are “Zeal” and “Patience.”

The collect reads: “O God, who by the preaching of your blessed servant Columba caused the light of the Gospel to shine in Scotland: Grant, we pray, that, having his life and labors in remembrance, we may show our thankfulness to you by following the example of his zeal and patience; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”

Balance is essential for vital ministry. Holding together zeal and patience may be at the heart of our call and our challenge as well. We are called to be zealous, and we are called to be patient, leaving room for God to work, for breathing space in community.

I see both zeal and patience being lived out anew every spring as I watch Gloria take to the garden, zealously cultivating and planting, and then waiting for God to give the growth, for new creations to appear. Zeal and patience open us to Godly creations, upon the earth and in community.

Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, is taking a sabbatical leave this summer to be on retreat. One report noted he is doing so to be reflective and to let things settle, one could say to exercise patience amidst zealous voices calling for immediate resolution of our differences throughout the Anglican Communion. Seems a prudent thing to do, to allow time for things to settle, not only for Archbishops but for all of us.

For those of us who often go too fast, too far, too often in our personal pursuits and the demands placed on us, summer may be just the time to position ourselves for patience, to indulge in the lazy, hazy days that allow God to give the growth within us and around us. I commend it to you in this Pentecostal season of the Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.