Words for Worship
Ministry Today
Francis of Assisi
Texts: Mark 6.6b-13
Psalm 104.1-13
If we asked someone we stopped in the street who was the most famous monk in history. They probably would say Francis of Assisi. But they would be wrong. Not about Saint Francis’ fame of course. But the fact is, he wasn’t a monk – he was a friar. Does that really matter – you say to yourself? Well yes it does. Because over the last few weeks we have been looking at what happened to the church between the fall of the Roman Empire and the reformation; a huge track of centuries during which the church tried to cope with a pretty brutal world by at the same time dominating it, refereeing it and withdrew from it. However, around 13th Century, something else happen. Since then the friars came along; friar coming from the French for brother. And as a result the church in all its traditions has never looked back!
For you see, about that era, Europeans started to discover the idea of the city as a centres of knowledge, trade and culture. As a result they started to mushroom outward from the old fortified sites necessary to survive lawless times. But as these communities grew so did their slums, their poverty and their disease. And it was this that Saint Francis amongst others saw and decided to do something about it. So he created a group who would follow a strict religious discipline but not to stay in a monastery. Instead they to go out like Christ’s disciples. And it was these men who were called friars. In particular, the Franciscan friars worked with the poor and the Dominican friars preached on street corners and in taverns. The outcome was the church transformed its relevance to ordinary people in changing social conditions.
Well, today who could deny the world is changing more quickly ever before. This is true socially, technologically and environmentally. What better time for a new generation of disciples to be sent out. What better time for believers to demonstrate Christ’s relevance to ordinary people. What better time to reassess what Francis can tell each of us; in particular, what his message of harmony means to our now?
Now, certainly, Francis does have at least one very important message for this problematic 21st century. Because, amongst his other roles, he is the patron saint of animals and natural conservation. For it is said that, one day, while Francis was traveling with some companions, they happened upon a place where birds filled the trees. Francis told his pals to "wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds". Then as the birds surrounded him he said:
You owe much to God, for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky. Therefore... always seek to praise God.
Actually, I suspect that Francis was making a rather good preaching point to his possibly disinterested mates. Nevertheless, he points up God as the patron of far more than just humans. He is the patron of all that we heard of in our lesson from psalms. He is indeed the maintainer of what Al Gore and Prince Charles would call the environment.
Well there is not the time today to explore green matters further except to say that humans are probably at their best when they are in harmony with their surrounds. The world too is a better place when communities live in peace with each other and their natural setting. That to some degree is to state the obvious.
Yet to Francis these harmonies alone are not enough. Rather he brings back into focus the vista given in the psalms. And that is creation as a whole is most harmonious when it reflects the nature of God. We are the most diligent stewards of that creation when we praise God for his gift of creation. And we are personally at our most civilised, fulfilled and happiest when we are in harmony with God through Jesus Christ. Because surely, humanity, creation and God as one is the very essence of the Kingdom.
There is a legend about Francis that illustrate this possibilities of the whole of creation united with God. Apocryphal certainly, yet it makes its point memorably.
The town of Gubbio was being terrorised by a wolf "who devoured men as well as animals". Francis in his compassion went up into the hills to find the wolf. When he found it, he made the sign of the cross and commanded the wolf to come to him and hurt no one. Miraculously the wolf closed his jaws and lay down. "Brother Wolf, you do much harm in these parts and you have done great evil...", said Francis. "All these people accuse you and curse you... But brother wolf, I would like to make peace between you and the people". Then Francis led the wolf into the town, and surrounded by startled citizens made a pact between them and the wolf. Because the wolf had “done evil out of hunger”, the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regularly, and in return, the wolf would no longer prey upon them or their flocks.
Before he saw the light, Francis must have been a headstrong if not violent youth. Since his outburst of "our town against yours" chauvinism in 1205, earned him a prison sentence.
Yet his downtime must have affected him. Upon his release he made a trip to Rome, after which he had a vision. He believed that God had told him to rebuild a church of near Assisi. Selling his horse and some of his father's textiles, he gave the income to a building fund. And when his father disowned him, Francis renounced worldly possessions and became a beggar, taking up collections to raise funds to rebuild more churches.
Well as we have said in the past weeks, Christ church needs rebuilt today. And we start to answer that call in the way of Francis when we see our place in creation, when we see the benefice of our creator and when we see the sheer possibility of Jesus Christ as bridge between the two. For that alone will inspires to go out like latter day disciples and make what the church is saying relevant to every day people. That will mean finding people wherever they are spiritually, materially and geographically. That will mean talking to them about the problems that are genuinely causing their disharmony within in themselves, with their community and with their environment. That will mean, above everything, leading them back to a praising and loving unity with God himself.
For this is the timeless and harmonious mission of the church that is typified in Saint Francis’ most famous prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy 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;
and 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
Francis of Assisi