St. Francis Day

Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of our minds. Give us a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity, so that we may always and in all things  act according to Your Holy Will. Amen.  

Good morning, and happy Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi! This prayer we just  prayed was one of Francis’ prayers. I’ll just begin with a bit of Saint Francis trivia:  Did you know there is another “St Francis prayer”, a beloved famous one that  many of you can probably quote – that he did not create but was written  anonymously in 1912? Did you know that he was born with a different name?  Did you know that, despite being the patron saint of animals, he did not spend  his life talking to them nor devoting most of his time to them? (Don’t worry –  Francis did love animals, and our pets will still get blessed this morning!) …  Now, I’ll share a few important things about Francis.  

He was born in 1181 in Assisi, Italy, and christened as Giovanni di Pietro di Bernadone. His father, who had missed the birth while away on a business trip in France, which he loved, returned and promptly renamed him “Francesco”, or Francis, as we know him. Francis was a rich kid, a party animal, and had everything he wanted. One time, after going out to war as a young man, he got really sick. He began to become more serious about his faith and realized that he no longer wanted the kind of life he had been living.  

In our gospel reading today, Jesus is addressing the religious leaders who  challenged his authority. He tells them this horrendous parable about a vineyard owner who rented land to some tenants, who then beat up or killed every person who came to collect the rent. Jesus shows them that THEY are like the murderous tenants who just want to own the property, challenging THEIR actions and authority.  

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, describes how he had enjoyed a life of being in the right family and religious group, full of zeal and blameless, and yet was now a changed man after encountering the risen  Jesus, regarding all that he had accomplished before as nothing because of the far greater value of knowing Jesus, like a runner who strains forward toward the goal line to win the prize of knowing Jesus and becoming more like  him.  

So, back to Francis: He also wanted to know Christ, to become more like him  and follow him as closely as anyone could. In the early days after his religious conversion, he had an experience that changed the trajectory of his life. He  was riding a horse down a road one day when he saw a leper up ahead. In those days, people always kept a certain distance so as not to catch the  disease of leprosy or, even more likely, to avoid the smell of the lepers’ rotting flesh. Francis had always had an extreme fear and disgust for lepers, and when he couldn’t avoid them quickly enough, he would often become nauseated and sickened. This time, even with his horror and disgust, he got down from his horse and kissed the leper, who then extended his hand, hoping to receive something. Out of compassion, Francis gave him some money. We are told that after mounting his horse again, he looked around and  could not see the leper anywhere. It dawned on him that it was Jesus whom he had kissed. It was “Jesus in disguise”. After this, Francis and his group of brothers, the Franciscan friars, spent most of their lives at a nearby leper colony caring for the lepers, housing them, clothing them, feeding them, cleaning their wounds, praying for them, burying them – loving them. Yes, Francis truly loved the animals and all of creation, but I believe he loved people most of all. He could see the face of Christ in every one of them. And it  started with overcoming his feelings and loving a leper on the road.  

One woman recently told me of an encounter she had this summer that  opened her eyes to the way God uses our simple responses to others we encounter. She was volunteering at our food pantry and was warned about a  particular individual who might get a bit “difficult”. Instead of being defensive or afraid, she showed them kindness, even inviting them to church, and when they declined, she gave them an old bulletin with information about our Sunday service streamed online. A few months later, as she went for a little walk outside the church, she just happened to meet this person for the first time since that encounter, and they told her how they had watched the service every Sunday all summer, listening to the preaching and enjoying the music, AND they are now clean and sober, getting their life together.  

All these people encountered God by their response to a challenge – Francis with the leper, my friend with the food pantry recipient, Paul meeting Jesus,  even the religious leaders who heard Jesus’ parable.  

What might be a challenge for you? What is something that you are repulsed  by or afraid of? Does that man on the street corner with a cardboard sign with scribbles on it make you turn your head to avoid making eye contact? Does the guy asking you for a dollar outside of a Starbucks make you feel  uncomfortable? Does the woman ranting and raving at someone that only she sees cause you to cross the street to avoid her?

What if we realized that God places these people in our path so that we might respond with love? As Andria mentioned in her sermon a couple of weeks ago, it can be hard when  we are stuck in old patterns of thinking that are rooted in insecurity, but it always comes back to love. As God places us in these situations, let us not  run away in fear or disgust but run toward the opportunity to discover how to  love like Jesus does. We may even discover “Jesus in disguise”.  

At the end of the 10:15 service, our closing hymn will be a version of the  famous Prayer of St Francis – yes, THAT prayer he didn’t write but I am sure he would like anyway! I hope we will sing that hymn loudly. Dogs are welcome to  join in if they choose.  

I will end with this version of that same prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument – a channel, a conduit, a vessel – of your peace.

Where there is hatred, may I bring love;  

Where there is wrong, may I bring the spirit of forgiveness;  

Where there is discord, may I bring harmony;  

Where there is error, may I bring truth;  

Where there is doubt, may I bring faith;  

Where there is despair, may I bring hope;  

Where there are shadows, may I bring light; 

Where there is sadness, may I bring joy.  

Lord, grant that I may seek rather  

To comfort others, than to be comforted;  

To understand others, than to be understood;  

To love others, than to be loved.  

For it is by forgetting ourselves that we find;  

It is by forgiving that we are forgiven;  

And it is by dying to our self-will that we awaken to eternal life. 

Amen.