Sermon preached by Fr. Tom
at St. Thomas Episcopal – Plymouth
October 6, 2013
20th Sunday of Pentecost – Proper 22
Lamentations 1:1-6
Psalm 137
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
I am going to do something today that is a little unusual for me. I usually start with the Scripture and then let it suggest a topic. Last Sunday I had a couple of people suggest a topic, and so I am starting there instead. Friday was the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, and we are having the Blessing of the Pets today at 4 PM to celebrate that Feast Day. There was a lot of interest in St. Francis last Sunday, and so I am going to talk to you about the saint this morning. The pets wouldn’t have the attention span for much of a sermon unless perhaps St. Francis were here himself. If you come this afternoon, I will have a few very brief reflections that I have practiced with my dogs and the cat at home. They seemed politely interested and did not yawn too much.
St Francis is a saint we all know and love. He is up there with St. Nicolas in terms of popularity I suspect. You see a lot of statues of St. Francis in gardens with birds perched on his hands.
Francis was born the son of a wealthy Italian merchant. He spent his youth having all the fun money could buy. From the reports, it was wine, women and song that were his primary interests. He was the life of the party. It seems that the “fun” that money buys has not really changed much over the years.
When he was about 20 years old, a regional war broke out, and Francis was in the cavalry. He was not an especially good soldier, and he was captured after his very first battle, and he was held prisoner for a year.
As has happened with lots of folks, military service changed Francis. He came home when he was released, and he was a more thoughtful man. After the year of captivity, he was a man who wondered why he was on Earth. He wanted some purpose to his life. He had a heart for his brothers and sisters who found themselves captive to circumstances of poverty and disease. He was a new man and decided to sell his possessions, give the money to the Church, and devote his life to Christian service.
His family disowned him, and he lived in poverty. He was a humble man who was a walking witness to his love of Christ. His love for others and his dedication to them caught the attention of other young men who joined him. They gave up worldly pleasures to spread the Gospel and serve Christ in all people.
Francis was famous for a number of things. He was reported to be able to bi-locate. So, he could be in two places at once. Bishop Little once advised me to pray for this gift, but so far it has escaped me. It could be handy on a busy Sunday morning though. He was man who had a way with animals, and even wild ones were not afraid of him. A famous homily of his which was preached “to the birds” has been preserved and multiple versions of it can be found on the internet. Here is a portion of that homily.
My little sisters, the birds, you are bound much to God, your Creator, and always in every place you ought to praise Him, for that He has given you liberty to fly about everywhere…, and because you do not know how to spin or sow, God clothes you, you and your children…[T]herefore your Creator loves you much, seeing that He has bestowed on you so many benefits; and therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and learn always to give praises to God.
So you are thinking that Francis was quite a guy. What I have told you is the popular version of the Francis story, but it turns out there is more. The Living Church reviewed a book that has been written on Francis, and Francis was more complex than we make out. He was deeply devoted to the Daily Office and the Eucharist. He had a heart for liturgy. He was not just some guy running around in sackcloth and bare feet preaching in the glades and on the street corners. He was more than the “bird whisperer.”
So now you are thinking that Francis is a deeper more complex character than you ever imagined, and you would be right. Now I will admit one of the hazards in hearing a sermon on the saints of the church. They are too good to be true really. They take on this superhuman quality, and they seem a little remote. How am I going to be more like Francis? It is a long way from where I am to where he is.
The answer is in today’s Gospel. The apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. Jesus responds by telling them “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” He then tells about a slave who does what he is told to do.
We have to have faith, and we have to do what God tells us to do. It is that simple and it is that tough. There you go. Maybe I should say “Go and do likewise,” and end the sermon now.
The thing is that we get all this. The problem is in the living of it, and this is where hearing about the saints is a big help. These were people just like you and me. They lived and did stupid things. They had setbacks and recovered. The lives of the saints are not there to show us how bad we are. They are success stories like you read about in business management case studies. We can learn from their lives and be better disciples of Christ ourselves.
So we are supposed to have faith and do what God says. Why is it that we don’t? I think we have good intentions, but we have setbacks. Things don’t work out the way we plan. We say “thy will be done” when we pray, but we don’t really mean it.
How can Francis help us out here? I want to point out some things in the life of Francis that we can all learn from. First of all, Francis was an idiot as a young man and he recovered. It is easy to get stuck and just end your life as a more experienced idiot, and he did not. He saw the empty life he had in front of him and he turned it around. This is a good lesson.
Next Francis got captured by the enemy in a war, and was held in prison for a year. There is no way really to cherry coat this one. Being a POW is pretty grim. It is easy enough to feel sorry for yourself when it is raining and you don’t want to get your hair wet running to the car to go to work. Being a POW is lot worse than wet hair, and it is a lot easier to feel sorry for yourself. It is even easier to just give up.
We don’t know exactly how Francis dealt with being in prison. We do know though that he emerged a better man. He took a really bad experience and found a way to benefit from it. Would Francis call that time in prison a blessing? I am not sure. I do know that he was blessed and so are we because he turned his life around. Maybe it took prison for him? Francis was a man who took a bad experience and benefited from it. That is a good lesson too.
His father disowned him. Was that the best day in the life of Francis? I am claiming it was a pretty dark day for him, but he did not let that discourage him. He realized he was not just embracing poverty as a lifestyle. He really was penniless. When you can’t do anything about your situation, you might as well own it and move on. This is another good lesson in the life of Francis.
In all this Francis has his eyes on Jesus. He knows that he has to have faith, and he has to listen to what God intends him to do. He does not let the details discourage him.
The takeaway this morning is that we all need to be more like Francis.
We need to keep our eyes on Jesus, have faith and be obedient.
We need to seek and serve Christ in all persons.
We need to recover gracefully when things go bad.
When we can’t do anything about a situation, we might as well own it and move on.
Like the birds, we should beware of the sin of ingratitude.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen