St Francis, a model for today

Sermon preached at St Alphege 11am Eucharist
Sunday 4th October 2009: St Francis of Assisi

Readings: Micah 6: 6-8 Galatians 6: 14-18 Luke 12: 22-34



St Francis is probably the most famous and influential saint to have lived since biblical times, certainly within western Christianity. He may have died almost 800 years ago, but it seems to me that he remains extraordinarily relevant to our modern day world. Our sophisticated world of wealth, consumerism and individualism needs now more than ever to focus on St Francis and his values of poverty, simplicity and trust. I would like to give three examples of how helpful, and also challenging, Franciscan values can be. I suspect that many, many other examples that could also be given.
First of all let’s think about Francis, and his love of poverty. Francis would not allow his followers to have any money. They lived from day to day on the gifts provided by others. He and his followers took very seriously our gospel reading today. They sought first of all the kingdom of heaven, especially through their preaching and teaching; and all the other things, clothes, food, shelter, were given to them as they needed them. St Francis considered “Lady Poverty” to be his best spiritual friend; it was almost as though he had married her.
Now this attitude to wealth was extremely influential. Most of us are not all called by God to live a life without money or processions. But we are all called by God to see our processions as gifts that God has given us to help us to serve one another. Whether we are rich or poor, we are called not to be too attached to our processions. We must be ready to give, especially if we have more than we need. In my opinion this generous spiritual attitude towards worldly wealth was one of the factors that allowed the western world to become very wealthy over the following centuries. It contrasts starkly with the greed that lies behind our current economic problems. It is profoundly helpful for us at this time to be reminded of the importance of spiritual poverty. It helps us both personally and as a society if we develop the ability to give freely and the ability to let go of earthly things whenever this is required by God’s will.
Now as a second influence let’s think about Francis and his great love of creation. He loved all creation. He is famous for preaching to the birds and to the fish and for rejoicing in everything that God has made. Our first hymn today was based on his canticle of the sun, in which he calls on all creation to praise God. The sun, the moon, the wind, the clouds, the morning and the evening, water and fire, earth, flowers and fruit are all called to sing praises to God. It does not come over in hymn version, but in the original poem Francis speaks of brother sun and sister moon. As a fellow creature created by God he feels himself profoundly close to all creation, like a brother or a sister. His attitude always is that it is important to take great care of all that God has made, and to use things only as God intends, for God’s own purposed. How powerfully this contrasts with the way that we tend to exploit nature for our own purposes, undermining the purposes of God and leading to all kinds of environmental crises. And the simpler lifestyle advocated by Francis could make a hugely important contribution towards solving the climate change problems. If we are to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 20% by 2020 then we all need to live much simpler lifestyles, less dependant on cars and consumer goods and depending much more on our relationships with the people around us.
Third example - Francis lived during the crusades. Christians and Muslims were at war. We may feel that Christian Muslim relationships are difficult nowadays, but things were far worse in the early 13th Century. After the failure of the third crusade Francis travelled to Egypt to visit the Sultan, thinking he would simply solve the crusade problem by converting the Sultan to Christianity. Most people of the people who saw him go thought this was a crazy idea, and fully expected Francis to be beheaded for his insolence long before he got anywhere near the Sultan. But Francis walked in faith. He was received by the Sultan, and preached the gospel to him. The Sultan did not convert, but he was deeply impressed by the holiness of Francis. They entered into a week long discussion. Francis too was profoundly impressed by the Muslims, by their pattern of regular prayer and by their prayer beads. One website I looked at even suggested that it was this encounter that introduced into Catholic spirituality the practice of saying the rosary with beads, and the thrice daily recitation of the angelus. The Sultan apparently said, “Pray for me, that God may deign to reveal to me that law and faith which is most pleasing to him.” It was a foundational example of inter-faith dialogue. It was made possible by Francis conviction that judgement was for God. His role, as a Christian, was not to judge, but rather to love and serve the people who God had made. This includes all people, the Christians and non-Christians, the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. This universal love of Francis is an outstanding example for us, as we struggle to cope with multi-faith, multi-cultural societies.
So there you are three challenges from St Francis. Firstly to be spiritually poor; ready to lose things for the good of others, or as God requires. Secondly, to love all creation, and to ourselves as part of it, not exploiting creation, but working in harmony with it, as God intended. Thirdly, to be ready to love everyone, even the person of a different race and religion who we might be tempted to think of as an enemy. Let’s thank God for St Francis, and let’s pray for the grace to follow his example. Amen.