Discerning with St. Francis: October 9, 2022

 Matthew 11:25-30                                  Year C, Feast of St. Francis                                                    

            In the Roman Catholic Church, St Francis is the patron saint of animals and ecology.  He was known for his love of animals and creation.  That’s why we have the animal blessing near his feast day.  Most people also know that he was committed to a life of poverty.  He was born to a wealthy family.  He could have done anything with his life---led a life of leisure if that was his choice.   And he did…for about 25 years. He worked for his father who sold fine cloth and did very well. But he gave it all up.  The story we typically hear of his conversion/transformation is that he was praying in a church in front of a crucifix and he heard the voice of God tell him, “Francis, repair my church.”  However, there was more that led up to that. 

            When he was a young man, what he really wanted, was to be a knight.  He wanted the honor and the glory.  When Assisi went to war with another town in Italy, he got his wish. However, he was soon taken as a prisoner of war and was held for a year.  Like many prisoners of war, he was held in deplorable conditions.  Since his father had money, he was ransomed and returned home, but only after considerable trauma.  Despite the ordeal, his dream of knighthood was not diminished. 

            In 1205 there was a call for knights for the 4^th crusade.  He got his father to buy him all the fancy and expensive armor.  He got on his horse and left, determined to be a hero.  A day into his journey he had a dream where God told him he had it wrong and he needed to return home. Amazingly, he listened.  

Imagine what that must have been like…returning home after 2 days, never even making it to battle.  It must have been a humbling experience.  He knew what God had told him, but everyone else knew him as the man who had gone off to prove himself in war only to return after 2 days.

            It was only after that and then more intense time in prayer that he had his true conversion experience.  Yet even with this profound experience, there was some confusion when God told him to repair his church.  He thought God intended him to repair buildings and that was what he initially did. He sold all he owned and begged, to repair buildings.  It was after years of that when he realized his true calling was to create an order of Franciscans who would live in poverty and served the poor and oppressed.  They had no need of restored buildings.  In some sense, they repaired the heart of the church.

            St Francis has so many things to teach us in his words and actions.  One part of his story that we don’t talk about is how discernment fit into his life and teaching.  Discernment is a word we often use but rarely define. It means trying to understand God’s will in your life.  The prayer we used for the collect today is a prayer written by St. Francis.  “Enlighten the darkness of my heart, and give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, that I may carry out your holy and true command.”

I would think that almost all of us yearn for God’s direction in our lives.  We just have a hard time identifying that direction.  It’s comforting to know that St. Francis had this challenge as well.  He made mistakes, he sought glory and honor. He also faced consequences and learned from those consequences. 

            I imagine that when he returned from the crusade that he didn’t fight, people judged him harshly.  He almost surely judged himself. He might have felt like a failure.  This was his dream after all---to be a knight.  Yet in the end, that failure taught him something and can teach us something as well.

            This Gospel text is a famous one, mostly because it’s so incredibly comforting. At one time or another (probably many times) we feel as though we are carrying heavy burdens and long for rest.  A yoke is a tool used when working with animals that are pulling large loads.  The yoke can be used on one animal, or two animals can be yoked together.  Here, Jesus is offering to share the load with us—so that we might be yoked to Jesus. I have always loved that image. Yet there is a part that I have never really paid attention to.  “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart...”  Learn from me. If we are truly yoked to Jesus, we cannot help but learn from him.  We can see what he sees, experience what he experiences.  When we see, or even just try to see with Jesus’ eyes, then everything looks different. 

            This text is perfect for honoring St. Francis---but not because of the promise of rest for the weary.  That’s important, but that wasn’t what St. Francis was all about. He was intent on knowing God and knowing the people who most needed God.  That requires humility. Jesus said, “Learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart…” If God, the creator and savior of humanity can be humble, why is it so hard for us?  Why are we so often convinced that we have the right answers?  I think some people mistake humility for insecurity or low self-esteem.  That’s not what it is.  It’s knowing your worth, but also knowing that your worth, and all that you have is dependent on God.  It’s means relying on God for direction and being willing to learn from all that you have experienced—even your failures. 

            St Francis wasn’t wrong to join the war. It was a step on his path and it helped form him.  Every step on our journeys is an opportunity to get closer to God.  Discernment isn’t a clear and direct path.  It’s a path.  The important thing is that while we are on that path, we are learning from God and about God.  We are praying to know God more deeply. And hopefully, we will have companions on that journey, others who will help us. (Sometimes they will companions with 4 legs who can remind us of what it is to care for another being, and to be loved unconditionally. Often it will be the two legged kind.)  Because it can be an exhausting journey.  But in the end…every step…every step leads us to where we need to be as long as we keep listening, keep learning from God.  

Oct. 5, 2014: Matthew 11:25-30

Why St. Francis thought animals were better listeners

St. Francis Day                                                             

 

 I’m not sure what was done here previously with St. Francis Day.  I know you have had the blessing of the animals at the 10:30 service in honor of St. Francis but I am pretty sure the 8am service just moved on as it always does.  That’s one of the things I love about the 8’ oclockers….you are incredibly consistent.     But it seems that even at the 10:30 service, there is not very much said about the life and teachings of St. Francis.  This was true at my previous church as well.  Churches put most of the emphasis on the animal portion and then make the connection that Francis of Assisi really loved animals.  However, when you read about the life of St. Francis, you will find that his love of animals is one of the least interesting things about him and definitely not the most important.

                Francis lived in the 12^th century in Italy.  He was the son of a wealthy merchant and was in want of nothing.   In his early 20’s he had a number of experiences that altered his view of the world.  He was taken as prisoner of war for a year, he suffered a long illness, and then fought in a war.  This was all within a three year period.  When he returned from the war, he found that he had lost the taste for the finer things in life.  Fortune was no longer the goal.  He found the things that he once took pleasure in were no longer appealing to him. 

A vision drove him to Rome where he met beggars outside of St. Peter’s.  He was moved to exchange his clothes for theirs and spend the day begging.  When he returned to his home in Assisi he was a different man, living much more simply and devoting his life to repairing churches.  He also decided that he needed to serve the sick, which meant he had to overcome his fear of leprosy.  He did that by embracing a leper.  After that he was free to help the lepers and even live among them.   Four years after his experience in Rome, he had another vision where God instructed him to give up everything.  In that very moment, he took off his shoes and gave away his staff. He replaced his clothing with a long robe.

                From that point on he dedicated his life to the poor and the marginalized.  He lived among the poor and formed a community of disciples who lived by a rule of poverty.  He was known for a love of nature, which included animals.  He did not write very much, but we have one hymn that is attributed to him.  In his Canticle to Brother Sun, he writes:  “Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun...” He went on to mention the moon, wind, water, fire, and earth.  He called on all of those things to praise the Lord through their very existence.   He believed that the same was true of animals—that their existence proved the glory of God.  There are many stories of him preaching to the animals and joking that perhaps they listened better than people. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants…”  I have always struggled with that comment.  I want to be a wise and intelligent person.  That’s why I spent four years in seminary, so I could learn all these important things about God.  But does that mean that God is going to hide things from me?  It seems a little counterproductive.  The Bible is full of affirming statements about the gift of wisdom.  In general wisdom is considered a good thing.  Why would Jesus want to hide things from the wise and intelligent? 

Well it’s not that he deliberately hid things; it’s that the wise were not able to see certain truths that Jesus and the prophets before him proclaimed.  People who were preoccupied with their own wisdom, who suffered from intellectual pride were not able to see God revealed in Jesus.   They heard the parables, but they could not accept this kind of wisdom. I’ve definitely experienced this kind of blindness.  Often times I will spend so much time trying to figure out the new and interesting twist that I can take in a sermon that I ignore the obvious and the simple truth of the text.  I think, well that sermon has been preached 100 times.  I can’t be trite!  My pride can occasionally block the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  Often the sermon should be about love or forgiveness.  Sure, that’s been done, but if that is what the text is saying, that is what the sermon should be about.

            Francis had the status and the money.  He could have been educated in the finest schools.  He could have preached to the powerful and the privileged.  He didn’t.  He gave it all up so he could preach to the people who no one else bothered to talk to. He preached to the birds and said they listened better.  They listened better because they did not have that pride that kept them from hearing certain things.  Perhaps that was true of some of the people who he preached to as well. Since they were so used to being ignored, treated as if they did not exist, they were hungry for words.  They were open to things that other people had already closed their minds to. 

I bet a lot of the learned and wise people ignored him because he seemed a little foolish and possibly too simple. Yet today, he is one of the most well known saints.  There is still a group in the Roman Catholic Church called the Franciscans who live by his example.  The current pope took his name. I read that St. Francis is one of the most popular and admired saints, but probably the least imitated.   What they meant by that is while people love his simplicity very few people are willing to live the way he did.

Yet I am not sure that is completely true.   I think what we admire is not just his simplicity or austerity but the authenticity with which he lived his life.  He refused to conform to what other people expected of him.  He was true to God’s call to him.  Most of us will never live a life like Francis, but that does not mean that we cannot live a life that is true to God’s call for us. We can let go of our pride, intellectual or otherwise.  We can forget other people’s expectations and focus on who God is calling us to be…who God wants us to be.   That is something that each and every one of us can emulate.  We can all be like St. Francis in that way.  And if some of you would like to take it a step further and preach to animals, I say go for it!