Feast of St. Francis
Pentecost 18A/Proper 22
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Psalm 19
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46
Gracious God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and work through them;
take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.
Today we celebrate one of our boldest saints, Francis of Assisi. Born into a wealthy merchant family in the 12th century, Francis led a frivolous life before becoming a soldier and getting captured as a prisoner of war. While imprisoned he became very ill before his family paid a ransom and he was released. This experience led him to introspection and to reflect on the purpose of life.
One day on a walk in the countryside he discovered the dilapidated church of San Damiano. The story goes that while sitting amongst the ruins, he heard Christ speak to him saying, “Francis, repair my falling house.” Taking the experience literally, he boldly sold a bale of his father’s finest silk to pay for repairs to the church.
Outraged, his father publicly confronted him, and when we refused to apologize, he disowned and disinherited him. Francis in turn renounced his father’s wealth. One account holds that he not only handed his father his purse, but also took off his expensive silk clothes, laid them at his father’s feet, and boldly walked away naked.
But the boldest thing of all about Francis was that in a time when the church proclaimed Jesus as a King, dressed in fine robes and wearing a jeweled crown like a human king, Francis proclaimed the poverty of Christ and formed the Order of Friars Minor, whom we know as the Franciscans, whose rule was one of strict and absolute poverty. His movement created a new community with a spirit of gratitude for creation, shifted the Christological center of the church, and indeed rebuilt Christ’s falling house.
There are so many fascinating stories about Francis: the preaching to the birds, the wolf of Gubbio, his attempts to visit the holy land and his conversations with Malik al-Kamil, the Sultan of the Saracens in Egypt, to name a few.
But at its heart, the life of St. Francis points us, like so many of the saints, back to living lives with God at our center, and in right relationship with the people and the world around us.
Our reading from Exodus today also centers on God and community.
We usually call these the Ten Commandments, but I prefer the language from the Godly Play children’s curriculum which calls this story The Ten Best Ways to Live.
I’ve told this story before, but just like we return again and again to stories from scripture, this one bears repeating as well.
When telling The Ten Best Ways you pull out a heart shaped box that contains wooden pieces with each of The Ten Best Ways written on them. But before pulling those out, you begin by explaining why God gave us the best ways: [put all pieces on cardstock]
First you show this piece, and you say: God loves us.
And then you add the second piece: Love God.
Then finally the last piece: Love people.
Because God loves us, we love God, and we love people. And the Ten Best Ways show us how to do both.
The first three? Those are about loving God: don’t serve other gods; make no idols to worship; be serious when you say my name.
The fourth one – keep the Sabbath holy – is about loving both God and people.
And the rest? They are about loving people: honor your mother and father; don’t kill; don’t break your marriage; don’t steal; don’t lie; don’t even want what others have.
The fact that the majority of the best ways are about loving other people is no mistake, we need the help.
When I encountered this story for the first time the entire swath of this passage from the Bible made sense to me in a way it never had before. It helped me get past the ‘you shall nots’ and the ways in which much of it seemed like such a timestamp of another time and place – your neighbor’s wife is equated with your neighbor’s house and ox? Ugh.
But. Because God loves us, we love God and we love people.
This gave me lens through which to see these words as a way of building community together – a set of norms if you will. As with all community building and boundary setting, this is not always easy. But God did not say these are the “ten easy things to do.” They are The Ten Best Way to Live.
In these days of political and social fracture, how we center our lives in God and create community is more important than ever. We are a month away from most of us would say is the most contentious election of our lifetimes. The pace of events unfolding around us feels unsustainable and creates a chaotic uncertainty that is unsettling. The pandemic continues unchecked and has now affected the highest levels of our government.
There is nothing easy about any of this, but God gave us the gift of The Ten Best Ways to remind us that when everything feels out of control we can fall back on the promise that God loves us, and because God loves us, we can love God and love others.
One of the ways we can live this out is through prayer.
I invite you in joining me in prayer for our nation over the next month in the lead up to our election. You can pray in whatever way best suits you, but I invite you to consider offering prayers from the Prayers & Thanksgivings section of the Book of Common Prayer.
There you will find a plethora of prayers to ground yourself, soothe your soul, and lead you into intercession. If you don’t have a BCP at home you can pick up one from church, or I can send it to you in pdf form if you email me.
Like Francis, we are called to boldness. And through The Ten Best Ways, we have a powerful reminder of whose we are, who we are called to be, and how we are called to live.
I’d like to close with a prayer adapted from the BCP – For the Human Family:
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.