ST. ANSKAR AND THE POWER OF PERSERVERANCE

By James Wilson

             Anskar was a 9^th Century priest and bishop with a tremendous burden to bring Viking peoples into the Kingdom of God.  He was a man who saw visions over his lifetime and a formative one featured an angel telling him God wanted him to evangelize the Scandinavians and return home in glorious martyrdom.  Readers wondering how one returns home after being martyred should know the term’s meaning is “witness” and does not require death to activate it.  Anskar’s witness was to the power of perseverance in the Name of his King.

            Bishops in that day knew little of the pomp associated with the office in our day.  They were simply seen as overseers (literally) facilitating the work of planting and growing churches and Christians in a region by putting their personal backs to the wheel.  They got a lot more of the actual work of the Kingdom done and had to attend far fewer meetings, a still common state in remote and third world regions today and all too rare in modernized areas.  Anskar entered Scandinavia with a few friends and began introducing this violent and superstitious people to his best Friend – the God of  peace which passes understanding.  Many thought him crazy to devote his life to going where he and what he represented were clearly not wanted.

            Peacekeepers are obsessed with maintaining status quo, avoiding loss at all costs, but there was no peace to lose in 9^th Century Denmark and Sweden.  Peacemakers are strong yet loving men and women who bring a gift so precious and lifegiving they are willing to risk everything to deliver it.  Abraham Lincoln was such a dedicated peacemaker he fought a four-years’ war to set the slaves and the nation free.  Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were so obsessed with peacekeeping they lost the Vietnam War and 60,000 American lives – not forgetting the million-plus Vietnamese who were sacrificed on the altar of “not losing.”  Anskar succeeded in planting two churches and a school in two decades of missionary work.  He spent much of his time training and sending those who came to Christ in his churches, and as much more negotiating peace between rival warlords and petty kings in the neighborhood.  The peace was an end in itself, but also a necessary pre-condition for facilitating the mission work.  Anskar was armed with his indomitable spirit and the Spirit of the Living God Who kept him supplied with visions to follow and words to obey.  Over the years he ended a civil war and averted a violent pagan reaction to his own work without bloodshed, but still had only two or so churches and a school to show for it.  At the end of his service he returned to Germany, deeply discouraged but still persevering in a God who claims His words never fall to the ground empty.

            It took a century for the fruit to come into the bin.  Missionaries raised and inspired under the ministries of Anskar and his disciples branched out and brought the Gospel to all of Denmark and Sweden, adding Norway and Finland into the mix.  Because of this man’s dedication – by choice, and whether circumstances were encouraging or not – Northern Europe came to Christ and the 10^th Century Euro visitors to America came as servants of Christ rather than of Odin.  Granted, some of these converts imagined God’s role in their lives was to endorse rather than convert their aggressive ventures, but that is God’s problem, not the messenger’s.  Anskar never knew how effective he was – until he stood before the Throne of Heaven – but he is still today regarded as the patron saint of Scandinavia.

            Like Anskar, we live in deepening darkness.  War is all around. Men routinely call evil good and good evil, whether it is a dictatorial president forcing us into a healthcare swamp or families calling for retribution against good Samaritans who saved lives by taking out their relatives who were attacking others.  Christians are hated over the world simply for being Christians.  Unlike Anskar, we live in a time of abundant signs of God’s grace – from healing cancers and growing stunted limbs to producing food where none would grow to softening the heart of a hard-nosed judge.  Anskar’s indomitable spirit is a gift from God and the Holy Spirit is a gift of that same God.  We have only to take that God at His word (Is. 62:6-7) that when we call on Him we should give ourselves no rest and Himself no rest until He establishes His Kingdom in our midst.  Anskar’s legacy of perseverance is ours if we want it.