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2002
17th February (am) - Walking With Giants - Augustine
ROMANS 13:8-14

It has been said of Augustine that he was a great sinner who became a great saint. Indeed he was a man who in his early life pursued wisdom, pleasure, advancement and riches, describing himself in these words: In my youth I wandered away, too far from your sustaining hand [God], and created of myself, a barren waste. (bkII.10) Indeed in another part of his 'Confessions', his autobiography, his dialogue with God, Augustine described how he and his companions bragged about their depravity, and gloried in their sin, seeking not just pleasure and enjoyment in their sin, but applause for it also. Augustine further described himself that in his sin, he shed no tears for his plight. There are many in such a predicament today.

Augustine was indeed a great sinner, but if we know anything at all about this man who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, it is probably the fact that Augustine was a great Christian, a leading Christian of his day. We probably know Augustine best as Augustine of Hippo, and this refers to the fact that Augustine was Bishop of Hippo in North Africa from 396 till his death in 430 AD.

Augustine was born on the 13th of November in 354 AD in a place called Thagaste, which is in what is now modern day Algeria. He was born to a pagan father, Patricius who became a Christian late in life, in fact the year before he died, and to a Christian mother, called Monica, who is probably the best known mother of a Christian in church history. Monica is an example par excellence of a Christian parent who persisted in prayer for a wayward child. Monica's primary concern for her son was that he would find Christ.

When Augustine was converted, he described his mother as being overjoyed and jubilant with triumph and glorifying God, for her tearful prayers and plaintive lamentations had been answered. There is something noble and challenging about a life of persistent prayer for a loved one who is not a Christian, a challenge to us to desire for our loved ones who are not Christians the only thing worth having in this life - life in Christ. How persistent are we in prayer for our loved ones - children, parents, friends - who do not know Christ?

But also, how overjoyed are we when someone we know does give their life to Christ? How jubilant are we in glorifying God for the work he has done in that person's life? There is a certain minister in county Down, who, one Sunday morning, a few weeks ago, told his congregation that the angels in heaven were rejoicing, because a woman in the congregation had given her life to the Lord Jesus Christ that very week.

Let us return to Augustine of Hippo. Augustine was converted to Christianity in 386, in his early thirties, after a career of teaching, and philosophizing, and a life of seeking pleasure, a life of inquiring into other belief systems, like Manichaeism, which was a distortion of true biblical belief. Augustine had lived with a common-law wife for ten years and with her had a son called Adeodatus in 372. I think it is fair to say that Augustine is as far removed from many of our experiences in life, as the centuries in which he lived his life are as removed from the centuries in which we are living our lives.

Prior to his conversion to Christ, Augustine gives us in his Confessions a chilling analysis if his life. Let me read it to you: ... from the nineteenth to the twenty-eighth year of my life, I was led astray myself and led others astray in my turn. We were alike deceivers and deceived in all our different aims and ambitions, both publicly when we expounded our so-called liberal ideas, and in private through our service to what we called religion. In public we were cocksure, in private superstitious, and everywhere void and empty.

The turning point in Augustine's life came when he encountered Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. Augustine said of him: In Milan I found your devoted servant the bishop Ambrose, who was known throughout the world as a man whom there were few to equal in goodness. At that time his gifted tongue never tired of dispensing the riches of your corn, the joy of your oil, and the sober intoxication of your wine. Unknown to me, it was you who led me to him, so that I might knowingly be led by him to you. (bkV.13) As Augustine sat under the teaching of this renowned Christian leader, Sunday by Sunday, he became convinced that it was possible to unravel the tangle woven by those who had deceived him and others by the lies they spoke against God's Word.

Over the next two years, Augustine was led to trust in Jesus Christ. He had come to learn that there is a world of difference between the joy of hope that comes from faith in Jesus Christ and the shallow happiness that he was looking for in the things of this world - fame, wealth and pleasure. The same truth applies to us today for there are many who seek a shallow happiness in the things of this world and do not know the joy and hope that comes from faith in Jesus Christ.

And yet Augustine kept putting off what he should have done immediately. He kept delaying his conversion to Christ and this caused him great anxiety. In my misery, said Augustine, I kept crying 'How long shall I go on saying "tomorrow, tomorrow"? Why not know? Why not make an end of my ugly sins at this moment?' (bkVIII.12) Many down the ages can identify with such a struggle. And maybe there are some here this morning, who keep putting off what they should do today - make an end of their ugly sins, have their guilt removed, be reconciled to God?

In August 386, at the age of 31, while Augustine wrestled with these issues, as he sat in the garden of his home in Milan, he was drawn to the Scriptures and to the book of Romans, chapter 13. We read it together earlier. The Apostle Paul is teaching the Romans about the excellence of love. He is also warning them that they are living in the end times, and the necessity to shun deeds of darkness and to clothe themselves with the armor of light, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Augustine was convinced, his conversion was complete, his mother was overjoyed, and Augustine went on to become of the great leaders of the early church, a powerful adversary of heretics and enemies of the church. He founded a monastery in Hippo, north Africa, and was bishop of Hippo from 396 till his death on the 28th August 430.

(Just as an aside, the month of August is not named after Augustine, but rather the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus.)

What may we learn from walking with this giant of the Christian church? A number of things come to mind:

Firstly, we can and should identify with Augustine's imperfections as a human being. He saw, in hindsight his sinfulness, his empty and void life, his plight as a sinner. Without Christ, these things remain, no matter what century we live in. We still live in a world that seeks pleasure beauty and truth, not in Christ, but in other things, and Augustine's confession is a powerful testimony to the meaninglessness of trying to chase the wind. In fact Augustine's life is really a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes, where the teacher in Ecclesiastes, reflects on life and the pursuit of fame, pleasure, wisdom and wealth, and concludes that these things are a chasing after the wind, they do not satisfy.

Singer John Mellancamp, sings of a man who wanted love with no involvement, so he chased the wind for that was all his silly life required. And the days of vanity went on forever and he saw his days burn up like paper in fire. Chase after the wrong things, and you eventually discover that your life is meaningless, it burns up like paper in fire. Rock group U2 on their most recent album sing of all that has got to be left behind in this present world:

Leave it behind ... You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion ... All that you make
All that you build ... All that you break
All that you measure ... All that you steal

Augustine's life teaches us that there are things that we have to let go off, if we are to live a life worth living, because there is no room on the mantle piece beside Jesus Christ. There is no room on the mantle piece beside Jesus Christ for selfish ambition, for worldly success, for the pursuit of fame, of pleasure, of wealth.

Secondly, Augustine's life should also encourage us, because just as Ambrose was used by God to bring Augustine to faith and trust in Christ, so we should not lose heart, for our life and witness can also have an impact on others, that God can use even us, to draw others onto himself. (And indeed we should be encouraged this morning, for Hazel testified wonderfully to the influence Christians in this place has had on her life)

Thirdly, we are challenged to demonstrate greater and more persistent concern for loved ones who are not Christians. Augustine's mother, Monica, prayed for many years for her son, before he finally came to faith in Jesus Christ. It is not about seeing loved ones just coming to church. Rather our concerns should be that we desire them to come to Christ, and therefore to pray accordingly.

Fourthly we should never underestimate the power of God's word to touch people's lives. The Apostle Paul declared that he was not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of every one who believes. (Rom.16) Augustine found great challenge and conviction in this passage we read together from the book of Romans. Augustine said after his conversion, that he placed no hope in this world, but rather his life stood firmly on the rule of faith. Augustine further recognized that it was God who drew him to himself, it was God who converted Augustine to himself. As Augustine himself said: I will love you, Lord, and thank you, and praise your name, because you have forgiven me such great sins and such wicked deeds. I acknowledge that it was by your grace and mercy that you melted away my sins like ice.

We should never lose sight of the power of God's word to touch a person's life. We should never lose sight of the fact that Christ will return, as Paul reminds the Romans in these verses and therefore the need to be prepared, to be people living in the light of Christ's return. There is an urgency about these verses of Scripture which still applies today.

And therefore the call in these verses remains the same today. What was it Paul said: ... clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. In other words, get right with God. The impact of this one verse on Augustine's life was powerful. It changed his life. It can change your life also. Augustine, for many years walked in darkness. The light of Christ eventually shone into his heart and life, and subsequently through his life into the life of the early church and beyond.

His other great work is called 'City of God'. It took thirteen years to write, It was written after the fall of the city of Rome, which was affectionately known as the eternal city. The city of Rome was sacked in 410 after a thousand years in which no foreign invader had penetrated its walls. Christianity was blamed for this and Augustine wrote 'City of God' to refute such an accusation and to define the Christian answer to the religious, philosophical and political problems of the world and its government. Oh that we would see the Christian answer to the religious, political and social problems of our corner of the world and its government.

Augustine's life ought to be a challenge to us. In the search for pleasure, we find no greater joy than the joy that is found in Christ. In the search for wisdom, we discover that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In the search for wealth, we learn, that treasure in heaven is far greater than all the wealth of the world. In the search for fame, we discover that when we trust in Christ, we will live for ever, for our names appear in the Lamb's book of life. The Christian appears in the 'Who's who?' of eternity.

I conclude with two reflections from Augustine himself:

In reflecting on his life, Augustine once wrote:

I was eager for fame and wealth and marriage, but you only derided these ambitions. They caused me to suffer the most galling difficulties, but the less you allowed me to find pleasure in anything that was not of yourself, the greater, I know, was your goodness to me.

And right at the beginning of his confessions, Augustine summed up his life when he said:

Can any praise be worthy of the Lord's majesty? How magnificent his strength! How incredible his wisdom! Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about him the mark of death, the sign of his own sin, to remind him that you thwart the proud. But still, since he is a part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.

Our hearts find no peace until they rest in you, O God. Is your heart at peace?

AMEN!