St. Paul’s United Sunday, October 2, 2011
World Wide Communion Sunday
Simply Francesco – Rev. David Mundy
Psalm 19 Luke 6:20-31
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the morning of September 26,
1997, so fourteen years ago this past week, two powerful earthquakes shook the
Umbria region of Italy in rapid succession. There was widespread damage to
buildings, including historical structures that dated back centuries.
The city of Assisi was hard hit,
including its most famous church, the Basilica of San Francesco, or St. Francis
as we know him. The severe damage to the basilica was a tragedy in a number of
ways. It is nearly eight hundred years old and a United Nations world heritage
site. Francis died in 1226 at age forty five and only two years later he was
canonized – declared a saint by the pope. The magnificent church was begun that
same year and contains priceless wall paintings or frescoes by the leading
painters of his day. Some of those paintings on ancient plaster came crashing
down in the quake.
The Italian government vowed to
restore the basilica as quickly as possible and it did. Two years and millions
of dollars later it was reopened to the public. There was bitterness about the
cost and the speed of restoration amongst the citizens of Assisi. Many of them
had lost their homes in the earthquake and there wasn’t the same government
commitment to rebuilding their houses.
We have to wonder what the patron
saint of the cathedral, Giovanni Francesco di Biordone,
would make of the cathedral itself and the millions spent to repair a building
while others struggled to find a home.
St. Francis was one of the most
remarkable Christians of his age or of any era for that matter. We might not
know much about St. Francis but we have probably all heard of him, even if it’s
just because we have a nice little birdbath in the backyard which he is
holding. St. Francis is the patron saint of birds and animals so he has found his
way into gardens everywhere, at least in concrete.
After worship today we will have a Blessing
of the Animals service on the lawn and the reason we do so today is because
it is the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Francis which is October 4th. While Protestant churches don’t make much of
a fuss about saints, the example of Francesco of Assisi’s radical and simple
approach to being a Christian, as well as his love and respect for God’s
created order have stood the test of time. So why not honour him in worship as
well?
Our gospel today was Luke’s version
of the blessing of Jesus we often call the Beatitudes and you may have noticed
that they are much more gritty and hard-hitting than the version from Matthew
we usually read. In Luke there are both beatitudes or blessings, and woes or
curses.
Matthew says: blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and “blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Luke says “blessed are the poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God, and blessed are you who are hungry now, for
you will be blessed.”
Do you see the difference, even
though the words are similar?
And then Luke says “woe to you
who are rich, for you have received consolation” and “woe to you who are full
now, for you will be hungry.”
No wonder we nearly always read from
Matthew! But St. Francis took the message of Luke’s blessings and curses to
heart and devoted himself to living the gospel.
Francesco certainly did not begin
life with aspirations to sainthood. He came from a wealthy family and as a
young man he renounced his privileged lifestyle. Some of you may remember the
Franco Zeffirelli film called Brother Sun, Sister
Moon and the most famous scene from that film in which Francesco goes into
the town square and strips off his clothes to make a statement about his new
commitment to poverty in Christ’s name.
Francis had no intention of starting
a new religious order either – he was a layperson himself -- but very quickly
he attracted others who were intrigued by his radical approach. He was not an organized guy, but the pope of
his time insisted that he has some sort of Rule for this new Franciscan order
and so he developed a simple set of instructions. Here are some excerpts:
I counsel, warn, and exhort my
brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ that when they go out into the world they
shall not be quarrelsome or contentious, nor judge others. But they shall be
gentle, peaceable, and kind, mild and humble, and virtuous in speech, as is
becoming to all . . . I strictly forbid all the brothers to accept money or
property either in person or through another . . .
The brothers shall have nothing of
their own, neither house, nor land, nor anything, but as pilgrims and strangers
in this world, serving the Lord in poverty and humility, let them confidently
go asking alms. Nor let them be ashamed of this, for the Lord made himself poor for us in this world.
It’s hard to imagine that this would
be attractive to anyone but it was, not only for men, but for a group of women
who followed the Rule under the guidance of Clare of Assisi, the founder of the
Poor Clares order.
There are many stories of Francesco
some of which may be questionable and others which are clearly legends. For
instance, he is often cited as the author of the prayer set to music as the
lovely hymn we sang earlier, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace and scholars
suggest that it is unlikely he wrote it, and that in fact it is only about
a hundred years old.
In another story Francis was praying
when God spoke to him: "O Francis, if you want to know my will, you
must hate and despise all that which hitherto your body has loved and desired
to possess . . . ” Later that day he was riding
his horse along the road and he came upon a leper, and as with most people of
the time he had a terrible fear of these afflicted folk who lived in isolation.
But Francesco dismounted and as he gave the leper a coin he took his hand and
kissed it. And in turn the leper gave him the kiss of peace.
Legends abound about Francesco’s
love of creatures other than humans. In one he stops to offer a sermon to a
flock of birds who wait attentively until he finishes
and blesses them, much to the astonishment of his companion. One of the
frescoes in the basilica in Assisi depicts him preaching to those birds.
The story I like the most has to do
with the Living Nativity. Francesco likely did invent the nativity scene we
associate with Christmas, and he began with living creatures in a cave near his
hometown. His biographer from the time in which he lived tells us that the
first creche was a manger with hay, an ox and a
donkey – no humans at all. We had a living nativity at St. Paul’s for many
years, and a real donkey named Cricket who was a cast member longer than any
human.
So, can we listen to the stories and
legends from the past and allow the spirit of St. Francis to be more than the
garden statue in our backyards? Does this man and his
movement from 800 years ago have something to say to us today? The answer is a
resounding “yes” and his greatest legacy is not a huge church or even his
religious order, the Franciscan order. It is his example of simplicity, respect
for all living things, and devotion to Christ.
Some of the biggest congregations in
the United States these days are the ones which promise health and wealth to
their members and we need to remember that this is a false religion, which is
not true to Christ nor to the example of so many of the saintly figures through
the centuries. Being a Christian is not about accumulating wealth.
For shrinking congregations in
Canada we need to ask how we take the example and energy of Francesco of Assisi
and apply it to our moment and circumstances as the way to revival. We can ask
ourselves who the lepers are in our culture and prayerfully find the ways we can
serve them and learn from them.
When several hundred young people
from across the United Church, including several from St. Paul’s, gathered in
Toronto this summer they heard from a skinny, dreadlocked Christian from
Philadelphia named Shane Claiborne. Shane helped found The Simple Way, a
grassroots movement which has reached out to the homeless and the poor in the
inner city. It sounds as though Shane and those who have gathered around him
have been reading the same passages of scripture that spoke to Francis, and
it’s good to know that people like this still exist.
One
of the sayings attributed to St. Francis is “preach the gospel always, and
if necessary use words.” This is an invitation to live out our faith once
we leave here on Sunday mornings in ways which are not self-serving or
comfortable. We need to remember that Francesco was passionate in his
relationship with Christ. It wasn’t an either/or of personal piety or social
action. One is the outcome of the other.
Since
we are finishing Creation Time it is important to mention that in 1979
Pope John Paul II declared St. Francis the patron saint of ecologists as well
as the patron saint of animals. Francesco had the “big picture” of the
interconnected of all living things and the universe itself. In a time of
environmental crisis we need his vision and his ability to praise God for the
beauty which is around us, if we are able to appreciate it.
This
morning we will come to the table of Christ with followers of Jesus from around
the world. We will share in the symbols of his sacrificial and world-changing
love and we can allow this to be a moment of recommitment in our own Christian
journeys. Perhaps our faith has become conventional and routine rather than the
core of our being. We can choose to live joyfully, simply, faithfully, in the
spirit of St. Francis.
The
so-called Prayer of St. Francis may not actually be his, but it does
capture his passion, so I invite you to listen to a version of this prayer sung
by a Canadian Sarah Maclachlan, and as she sings ask
yourselves how you will live for Christ today, tomorrow and always.