The Three C’s: David of Wales

Who was David of Wales, and what can we learn from his life? Let’s examine the 3 C’s that characterize his person and works.

Confidence in God

We know him as “Saint David,” whom we honor each year on his Feast Day (Mar. 1).

But he actually never wanted the public eye. Of royal birth, he, in the sixth century in Wales, wanted to be a monk and nothing more.

Amidst the huge Viking fights that had been going on through the rest of Great Britain, Wales was a holdout for Christianity. The Christian faith was flourishing there, even though in many other places in Britain, churches had been burned to the ground.

For David of Wales to be the kind of man he was, he had to have confidence in the supreme power of God over everything, that Jesus was who he said he was and who he displayed himself to be as the living Son of God. Otherwise David could never have endured the hardships he faced with the wonderful sense of graciousness, gentleness and poise that marked his life.

David decided to begin a monastery. But what he didn’t anticipate was that it would absolutely explode with growth. In fact, the town of St. David’s in Wales got its name because that’s where the first monastery was founded.

Soon, all of Wales was peppered with evangelists, people who had given their lives for the gospel of Christ and were traveling the countryside preaching the gospel. But David remained behind the scenes, teaching his monks to live a lifestyle of both austerity and joy.

Care for Man

This line from Proverbs describes the life of their monastery: “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it” (Prov. 15:16-17). Their monastery was marked by simplicity, but also by the great love and devotion they had for one another.

And in some ways, David’s entire ministry is described in 1 Thessalonians 2, where Paul uses both the analogy of a nursing mother and a caring father to describe how he dealt with this church. He could appeal to them amidst a lot of controversy because he loved them so dearly, and they knew it.

This is exactly the kind of way Jesus also approached people who were hungry to know him. Remember his words, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 2:7).

Jesus knew some people were profoundly longing, amid the corrupt leadership of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, to know something real, something that would minister spiritual truth and vitality into their lives. And it was to them that he, in essence, presented himself, as someone who came to serve, someone who was kind, someone who was careful and someone who cared.

Commitment to the Gospel

And amid that kindness, that gentleness, and that care, people’s hearts were won. Miracles happened. And they drew near to this new faith and vitality that they were finding in Jesus Christ.

That’s exactly the way David operated. He was known for his gentleness, his consideration, his kindness and carefulness. But it didn’t mean he didn’t have courage—quite the opposite, in fact. If you know God deals with you in that kind of care, that kind of tenderness, that kind of willingness to forgive, that commitment to be with you no matter what, then you have the same security in God as David. And that security gives you the capacity to be able to stand up, even amid very difficult situations as a public figure, and to speak clearly and truthfully with no sense of pushiness or needing to be heard.

In fact, love impels you to speak. So that even your public words are marked by love and care and graciousness. Because you actually love your hearers, even if you disagree with them.

That, you see, was David. Paul again states it well: “For you yourselves know, brethren, that our visit to you was not in vain; but though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the face of great opposition” (1 Thess. 2:1-2).

You have to be secure to talk like that.

Are you?

 

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(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on February 28, 2017, at St. David’s-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Cocoa Beach, Florida.)

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.