A sermon preached at St. Mary’s by Graham Low on 4th September 2024

My PhD supervisor was a very able Polish man who was sent to this country for postgraduate research in the late 1930s, and to encourage people here to follow his country’s approaches to animal science. Because he was Jewish never returned to Poland and instead became very well known here as a scientist, though he was resented in some quarters. One could say he became an evangelist here. He was just one example of many gifted and independent-spirited people from overseas who have led remarkable lives here with skill and dedication, for which we give thanks.

Today we commemorate Birinus, who, like my supervisor, came from overseas to evangelise here. Birinus was an Italian benedictine monk. He arrived here in the year 634, at the instruction of Pope Honorius. Pope Gregory the Great had previously sent Augustine here in 596, but his mission failed to penetrate Wessex, so Birinus was consecrated as a missionary bishop by Asterius, bishop of Genoa, before coming here to “scatter the seeds of the holy faith in the remotest regions of England where no teacher had been before”. On arriving in Wessex he found the people so pagan that he evangelized there and did not attempt to leave.  

Interestingly, there is no record of Birinus paying any attention to the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the central ecclesiastical structures of the country he came to evangelise. He was known as the “Romish Bishop” and there was evidence that he was resented for his presence in Britain, and for his independent episcopal status.

A major reason for Birinus going no further north than Wessex was that the Midlands were ruled by the powerful and anti-Christian King Penda of Mercia. Meanwhile, in Wessex Birinus converted Cynegils, king of the west Saxons, and baptized him and his household. Later he was with Cynegils when Oswald, the Christian king of Northumbria, wished to have Cynegils’ daughter as his wife. Cynegils then gave Birinus the city of Dorcic, now Dorchester-on Thames, as an episcopal seat. It had been an important and comparatively large settlement since Roman times. He was bishop there for 15 years and founded many churches in the area, including one at Winchester, which eventually became the royal capital of Norman England. The only surviving church of his is thought to be at Wing in Bucks. He never returned to Italy, and was buried in Dorchester in about 650, but he was later moved to Winchester. His shrine at Dorchester has recently been restored, but whether it contains his actual relics is disputed. Birinus is remembered by name in two places: Berins Hill, in the Chilterns south of Dorchester, and the village of Berinsfield. The Abbey at Dorchester continues to be a focal point for pilgrimage.

Bede described Birinus as “a good and just man, who in carrying out his duties was guided rather by an inborn love of virtue than by what he had read in books”.

The account we have just heard about the early part of Jesus’ ministry of healing included the casting out of demons. The demons recognize Jesus’ divine power, but he does not allow them to speak, This is not just an expression of his power but it forbids them from giving a false impression of him. He knows that what makes him Christ is not merely his healing ministry but his acceptance of the way of the cross. Mark makes it clear that without that any expression of his messiahship would be valueless.

At daybreak crowds try to stop Jesus going on his way. He resists. And it becomes clear that his exorcisms have to be seen in the context of proclaiming the kingdom of God. His preliminary ministry has been about freeing the minds of people. This is about the way God’s relationship with the human race is a way of freeing us. The life of the kingdom is marked by being gradually freed from the burdens of our earthly lives. Jesus knows that he must reveal the life of the kingdom to other people, even if it leads to the cross for him. This is why he was sent by God.

In his way Birinus followed Jesus by living the way of the kingdom as he understood it. Like so many people before and after him he found that the closer he followed Christ, the more freedom he experienced. We too are invited to follow Christ more closely through this great sacrament of forgiveness and healing. And so may we also be drawn more and more closely into the freedom of God’s kingdom. Amen.