I was asked to preach this past Sunday and decided to focus on St. Francis and his approach to creation. This week’s post is my sermon manuscript.
Today, October 4, is the Feast Day of St. Francis. He lived in the late 12th century and early 13th century in Italy. Sometimes he’s known as St. Francis of Assisi, Assisi being the small town in Italy where he was born. His father was a wealthy cloth merchant, so Francis came from money. He had everything you could want and, by all accounts, lived a pretty stereotypical carefree spoiled rich kid life. (If there are any Marvel fans here, I’d compare him to Tony Stark before he became Iron Man.) The story goes that while Francis was selling his father’s cloth in a marketplace, a person who was poor approached him, begging for alms, or today we might say asking for a handout. Francis must have either ignored him, or froze on the spot, because the person who was begging moved on and Francis finished the transaction he was in the middle of. Then, he left all the rest of the cloth there in the marketplace and ran after the person looking for help. When Francis caught up to the person, he emptied his pockets and gave away everything he had – quite probably all the money he had just earned at market that day. Needless to say, his father was furious with him and his friends teased him, mercilessly.
Not long after, Francis joined the military. He was sent to a different part of the region and captured. Francis was a Prisoner of War for about a year and used that time to re-evaluate his life. When he was released, he left the military and returned to his old life, but struggled to really return, because he wasn’t the same person he was before. Since he was Catholic, like pretty much everyone in Italy at that time, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome. It’s what you did. But Francis had noticed the poor and now had a special concern for those who are economically disadvantaged. In Rome, he joined those who were begging outside St. Peter’s Basilica. Later, Francis spent some time praying alone at the church in San Damiano back closer to Assisi. One day, while praying at this church, he heard Jesus tell him, “Go, rebuild my church which is falling down.” At first, Francis took this literally, because the church building he was sitting in needed some work, which is to say, it was actually collapsing, so he started working to repair the structure. It’s like he was trying to literally live out Isaiah 58, “If you share your bread with the hungry, if you give shelter to the unhoused, if you provide cover for the naked, and satisfy the needs of those who are unable to meet their own basic needs, then your light shall rise in the darkness, the Lord will guide you continually, your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt, you shall be called repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” What Francis did was radical, and yet it’s right there in Scripture.
Unfortunately, Francis missed the part in Scripture about not stealing and he also took and then sold some of his father’s cloth and tried to give the money to the priest at San Damiano. The priest knew the money really belonged to Francis’s father, because it was his cloth, and as his father held a lot of power in the region because of his status and wealth, the priest refused to accept the money. Following this fiasco, because of course his father found out about it, Francis hid from his father for a while in a cave. Then his father called him before the city council giving him an ultimatum to either change his ways (as in, go back to his old life and the family business) or his father would cut him off entirely. Francis called his father’s bluff and not only gave up his inheritance, but, so the story goes, stripped naked then and there in front of the council to return everything that belonged to his father, including the clothes that he was wearing! The Bishop of Assisi was present at this meeting, and he draped his cloak around Francis to cover him. Cut off from his family, Francis became a beggar himself and used the handouts he was given to rebuild the church in San Damiano. Committed to a life of poverty, or simplicity, Francis also began preaching around the region a message of love and peace. His intentional life of simplicity attracted others. As the group grew, the Pope authorized the founding of the Franciscan Order. Franciscan friars even today take vows of poverty, which is to live simply; chastity, to love everyone and remain celibate; and obedience, to God, the community, the Church, and to oneself.
In addition to his ministry with the poor, St. Francis is also known for his care for animals and nature. Supposedly, one time when he was looking for more friars, he noticed flocks of birds in the trees around him and he was inspired to preach to the birds about their duty to praise God just like Psalm 148 says. “Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! ...Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps… mountains and all hills… wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!” Many pictures of St. Francis, such as the one below, show him preaching to the birds and wildlife.
Then there’s a song he wrote that has survived called “The Canticle of the Sun,” in which he gives thanks to God for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind, feeling a connection as close as brotherhood to nature. He’s credited with creating the very first nativity scene, those scenes we see around Christmastime of baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph and the animals in the manger. His goal in doing so was to encourage worship of Jesus using all the senses. Finally, the reason why some churches do a Blessing of the Animals in early October is because of him. As I mentioned, his Feast Day is this week, October 4, and he believed that nature and animals are a way to connect us to God and inspire us to praise God. It’s like the first verse of the hymn, “How Great Thou Art,”:
“O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hand have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.”
Or the beginning of Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” This is all that St. Francis is saying. Look around you. Look at the sky, look at the trees and the flowers, look at the sunrises and sunsets, look at the fields and feel the breeze on your face. This is all God’s doing, God’s creation, and if you’re paying attention, will probably inspire you to praise God.
There are two other writings attributed to St. Francis but for which we don’t have proof. One is a quote which I love, which says, “Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” The point is that our actions often speak louder than our words. It’s one thing to say we love our neighbor, it’s another thing to sit and listen to them, or fix them a meal when they’re hungry, or get their mail when they’re out of town. When you’re hungry, good news isn’t words or a verbal sermon. Good news is food. The other writing is a prayer, which is often called the Prayer of St. Francis, that you may be familiar with. He did not write it; in fact, the earliest record of it is only 100 years ago, in 1912. Join me in that prayer, please:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.