St
Francis, Galatians 6:14-18
Year
C
“Preach the Gospel at
all times. When necessary, use words.” This quote is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi,
the saint who we are celebrating today.
It’s a great quote, but he didn’t actually say it. He said, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our
walking is your preaching.” I think
you would agree that his actual words are a little more nuanced than the quote
we normally associate with him. The
problem with his actual words is that it’s not a quote you can just drop in the
middle of a sermon or an article and expect people to make sense of it. Frankly, I prefer the real one, partially
because I preach. But I also think that
people like to pull that misattributed quote out when they want to have an
excuse not to talk about their faith. It’s
a perfect quote for Episcopalians who fear evangelism.
The other problem with that quote,
is that it doesn’t fit with St. Francis because he loved to preach. What made
St. Francis unique in his preaching was that he didn’t preach in the
church. In fact, he wasn’t a clergy
person. He preached anywhere and
everywhere. He would go to fancy parties
and preach to the rich and entitled, which probably took him off the invite
list pretty quickly. He would walk from
village to village preaching in up to five different places a day. If he was in the country, he would get on top
of a bale of straw. In the city, he
would be on a box or on the steps of a building. He was described as “the strange but fiery
preacher.” Apparently there were times when he would get so animated, it would
look like he was dancing.
So how did that quote get attributed
to him? “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” It’s about action and how your actions match
your words. It’s about
authenticity. No one ever doubted that
Francis lived what he preached. He was
known as a peacemaker, whether it be between the Christians and the Muslims,
the rich and the poor or even between humans and animals. He sacrificed everything he had. He came from a wealthy family. He could have done anything. Instead, he gave away all he had, including
his inheritance. He chose a life of
poverty.
That is one of the reasons that this
reading from Galatians is assigned for the Feast of St. Francis. In it Paul writes, “May I never boast of
anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” It’s a little confusing
when you take it out of context, so let me explain it. One of the things Paul
was frustrated about was that Jewish Christians were trying to tell new
Christians who were not previously Jewish that they had to be circumcised,
despite the fact that was not a requirement of the Christian faith. Some people wanted it to be a requirement,
because it was a visible marker. It was
physical proof. It was also a way that they could escape persecution as some
Jews were persecuting Christians at the time.
Paul
was an observant Jew and he was circumcised. He wasn’t against the practice in
general. He was against doing it for the wrong reasons, doing it simply to win
human approval. That is why he said that he would only boast in the cross of
Christ. While Paul had plenty to boast
about, he refused to boast in anything besides the God who created him and died
for him.
St. Francis, much like Paul, didn’t
feel that he had to prove himself. He
acted the way that he felt called to act.
He didn’t even seek the approval of his parents who ended up disowning
him because of the life he chose. He
only boasted in the God who loved him, and loved all the people and animals he
cared for. Because he didn’t have to
prove himself, because he didn’t have to earn the acceptance and love of
others, he was able to achieve peace within himself.
That
was why he was able to bring peace to so many people and situations, because he
had found peace within himself. That
peace was not rooted in his self-perfection or actualization. That peace was rooted in the cross, the
sacrifice that Christ made, that unconditional love that he experienced and was
able to share with others. Imagine how
much better our lives could be if we didn’t have to constantly earn the love and
acceptance of others, if we didn’t have to prove our worthiness to ourselves
and the people around us. Imagine how
free we would be. That is what it means
to boast in the cross of Christ. I bet
that is why he danced when he preached.
He was free of the weight that bears down on so many of us.
We
all know that Francis cared for animals.
One of the things that I learned when I was working on this sermon was
that he started the tradition of the living nativity. He set up an animal trough for a manger in a
cave in Italy. There were live animals
and people. He wanted people to
experience the messy reality of the birth of Christ. He wanted scripture not
just to be read, but experienced.
That
is why I think having an animal blessing as part of our worship service is such
a great way to commemorate St. Francis. Sometimes it’s messy. Sometimes the animals are a little disruptive
and distracting. Things don’t always go
according to plan and that is ok. It’s
one of the few times when Episcopalians give themselves freedom to worship
without formality. That’s why I try to
embrace any disruptions in our worship service, because God is supposed to be
disruptive. That is why St. Francis made
such an impression on people. He lived
into that disruption and ironically, that brought him peace and enabled him to
bring peace to others.
I
am not suggesting that we throw out the beauty and solemnity of our
worship. I am suggesting we remember
that it is not beauty or solemnity that we worship. We worship a God who was born in a barn to
unmarried parents and turned our world upside down.
