Sermon for October 2 on St. Francis of Assisi

Both here and in all your churches throughout the world

we adore you, O Christ, and we bless you

because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.  Amen.

Listen again to the words from today’s epistle reading: Philippians chapter 3

7   … whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss

because of Christ.

8   More than that, I regard everything as loss

because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,

and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

This is a description, not only of the Apostle Paul, who wrote these words,

            but also St. Francis of Assisi.

He too had been overwhelmed by the Love of God,

            and so for him anything else looked like rubbish in comparison.

Tuesday is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi,

and as usual we hear

            about a lot of different churches celebrating this saint,

                        mostly with blessing animals.

            like what we did yesterday afternoon.

            As a member of the Third Order, Society of  St. Francis,

I and my 3,000 other sisters and brothers in this worldwide Anglican order

            tend to get tired with this being the only thing some people thing of

                        regarding St. Francis.           

Now there is nothing trivial about blessing animal companions, or pets,

            but I am quick to say that there is much more to St. Francis of Assisi

                        than a natural affinity with birds and wolves and animals.

Francis is the ecological saint par excellence,

            the one who saw the intrinsic connection between us humans

                        and all the other creatures, indeed the whole planet,

                                                                                    the entire ecosystem,

                        the interrelatedness of all life forms,

                        the interconnection that binds up all our destinies together,

            so that with our four legged and winged brothers and sisters,

                                    and our sister Mother Earth,

            we must both honor them and serve them for the sake of us all.

But that’s not all.

Francis is a complex saint;

            who, although he lived 800 years ago,

                        is still immensely relevant for today

                        and especially in light of today’s economic issues.

Francis was known as the Poverello, the little poor man,

            because of his practice of radical Gospel poverty.

He took the Gospel literally when he read the words of Jesus saying,

            “Go, sell what you have and give to the poor,

                        and come follow me.”

Here’s the context.

Europe at that time was experiencing something new,

            the emergence of the merchant class,

            people rising to a new economic status of wealth through commerce.

It wasn’t quite the free enterprise, capitalistic system as we know it today,

            but the beginnings of that,

the start of a system of economics that would spread and become global

            and radically effect all other cultures and ethnic groups,

and in many cases changing cultural traditions and altering cultural identity.

Francis was the son of Pietro Bernardone, a cloth merchant,

            who had built up a fortune

                        buying fabric in France and selling it in Italy.

Pietro was grooming his son to follow in his footsteps in the family business,

            naming him Francesco, or Francis,

                                    after the source of his wealth in France.

In that naming alone

            we can see what was becoming most valued and a priority in society.

The young Francis was probably the best dressed young man in Assisi,

            and with the wealth the business brought

                        he put on many good parties for his friends.

Not only was Francis rich he also aspired to a higher social claim;

            he wanted to be a knight and win glory and become nobility.

His military career, however, was short lived and disastrous

            ending as a prisoner of war in a dungeon

                                                where he became desperately ill.

This illness, encounters with lepers, and an acute inner spiritual struggle

            were elements feeding a process of conversion in Francis.

He began to give alms, in fact so generously that this alarmed his father,

            especially since much of this giving to the poor

            and rebuilding of derelict churches

                        was from Pietro’s own business gains.

So I’ve told you this story before, but it bears repeating.

            Having stood in the town square of Assisi,

            I can see it all in the mind’s eye.

On April 10, in the year of our Lord 1206,

in a dramatic showdown in the town square of Assisi

            Pietro Bernardone dragged his son before the bishop

                        complaining about his son’s profligate behavior

                        hoping to get something back that had ended up

                                                                                                in the church’s hands.

The bishop turned to Francis and said,

            “You have scandalized your father. 

            If you wish to serve God, return to him the money that you posses.”

For Francesco this was the decisive moment.

He immediately gave back the purse of coins he had in his pocket

            and then gave back the clothes he was wearing also,

                        products of his father’s business,

            stripping right down to the skin.

And he said, “ Listen, everyone. 

            From now on Pietro Bernardone is no longer my father.

            From now on I can say with complete freedom, ‘Our Father in heaven,’”

And indeed from then on

            Francis lived like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.

He begged for his basic needs and gladly did without

            counting it all joy, living in radical trust that God would provide.

For him this renunciation of all earthly wealth

            was like being betrothed to a beautiful woman

                                    whom he called Lady Poverty.

His whole life style and that of his many, many followers

            made a huge statement about the economic values

                                                                        of his culture and period of history.

So captivating was Francis’s life and example,

            speaking so clearly to the heart in addressing the issues of the time

that his order of Friars Minor, the “little brothers,” grew tremendously,

            although they struggled in how they too could keep holy poverty

                                    to the extent that Francis did.

What Francis discovered in following the example of Jesus

            was that in possessing nothing, he had the whole world.

                                    in possessing nothing, the whole world was open to him.

Well, how does that address the situation that we are in the midst of today? –             recession, unemployment, government paralysis,

            and now banks having been bailed out charging extra fees

                        for services we all need to use,

            provoking demonstrations on Wall Street and many major cities,                                                                                                                                                 including Seattle.

This is a time of intense anxiety and precariousness for many.

Sometimes we get stripped clean of our possessions

            such as when a hurricane blows it all away

            or thieves break in and steal

            or when investments drop down in value to nothing

            or when the dreams you once had are no longer possible to be realized.

Francis chose to strip himself of possessions

            as a voluntary act

            in response to that great spiritual discovery:

                        owning nothing the whole world was his.

Well, all this is not to say that we should try to literally be like Francis

            in his example of radical poverty

but it is important to know that following Jesus

                        is a path of spiritual renunciation

            that leads to realizing union with God.

People like Francis provoke us to reexamine

            our relationship with money and material possessions.

This path of spiritual renunciation lead Paul to write these words

                                                                                                                        in Philippians 3:

10   I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection

and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,

11   if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

And Francis’ own prayer to share in the sufferings of Christ

            ended in the stigmata, the wounds of the crucifixion in Francis,

                                                            the marks of the nail prints in his flesh.

Continuing with verse 12  

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal;

but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

So where can we apply this today

            in our current societal situation and our individual lives?

Can we with even a small measure

                        of Francis’ great trust in the Providence of God

            step back from our possessions enough

                                                to examine our own faith and trust?

Where are we in terms of our trust in God?

Do we discern how subtle idolatry can be?           

            how our possessions, or whatever promises us security

                                    can displace God in our lives?

Can we admit to our idolatry?

Francis is an example to show us a way.

He takes it to the extreme,

            but if we catch the vision of what is of ultimate worth,

                        everything else appears like so much rubbish in comparison.

The great truth: possessing nothing, attaching to no things,

            you then are free to enjoy all things.

This is a way in which we can have our awareness transformed

            so that we break out of a fear based “scarcity” orientation

                        to the generous abundance of the Kingdom of God.

This is a way in which we can have our awareness transformed

            so that when we know that all living beings are our brothers and sisters,

                        when we truly know that we are all related

                        and interdependent with one another,

then without possessing it, the whole world is ours,

            and we are freed to be of real service to one another in love.