Short Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull 8am Eucharist.
Sunday 11th October 2009 – Year B - Harvest Thanksgiving
Readings: [Joel 2: 21-27] 1 Timothy 6: 6-10 Matthew 6: 25-33
I wonder if you noticed that this week’s gospel reading was almost identical to last week’s? Perhaps you thought, I have heard this before recently? Perhaps you thought that some mistake had been made? But no, we are in year B of the Lectionary, and it just so happens that, in year B, the Harvest Thanksgiving gospel is the same teaching of Jesus as we read on the St Francis’ day, which we observed last Sunday. The only difference is that this week we read Matthew’s account, last week we read Luke’s. In fact the two accounts are very, very similar.
And this coincidence (although it isn’t really a coincidence) serves to highlight how the Franciscan attitude to food and clothing exemplifies the attitude that we ourselves should have as we come to God in thanksgiving for the harvest, and indeed in thanksgiving for all our worldly wealth.
St Francis, as we know, was in love with “Lady Poverty”. He and his companions would live from day to day on the gifts they were given. Francis would never allow his brothers to have any money or property. Initially they were more or less beggars, but over time a pattern built up whereby they did work for people and were given food and shelter. And in large part the work they did was the proclamation of the gospel. They were therefore lived out a very good example of the teaching in our gospel reading today. They did not worry about their food or their clothing. They strived first for the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and God gave them the food and clothing that they needed. And far from starving to death, or dying from hypothermia, they grew to become a huge religious family, with many branches spread throughout the whole world to this day.
Now most of us gathered here today are not called by God to be Franciscans, but we are all called to live these same words of Jesus, “Strive first for the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” However secure we are in our food and our clothing there are many other areas of our life where we have to live by faith in God. How can we save ourselves from terrorism, or global warming or financial collapse? How can we deal with that situation in our marriage or in our family that weighs heavily upon us? How can we prevent the deterioration of community values, the alienation of the young people, the loss of national identity? How can we cope with illness, old age, and death? In respect of all these things we have to live by faith. We can never resolve these issues; we have to entrust them to God. And how do we do that? We do it by focusing first and foremost of the kingdom of God, on seeking to do God’s will in each present moment of our lives, on seeking to love others as God loves them. In this way we make our own small contribution to the solving of problems, in accordance with what God asks from us, but for the most part we have to entrust the problems to God. And if we strive, first and foremost, for the kingdom of God, we will slowly come to see will that all these problems are part of God’s love for us, they are part of our journey, they help us to walk towards him. And if we truly entrust them to God we will see how, in the fullness of time, God brings them to resolution.
As we make our harvest thanksgiving, let’s pray for the grace to strive first and foremost for the kingdom of God. Let’s then trust God, not just for our food and our clothing, but that all these other issues too will be sorted out by God, as we live in faith. Amen.
Showing posts with label Francis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Francis. Show all posts
11 October 2009
04 October 2009
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.
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.
01 October 2009
Giving thanks for our food
Editorial for the Parish Magazine (Parish of Solihull – October 2009)
October is the month when we celebrate the harvest. We give thanks to God for the crops that have grown and been collected in. We give thanks to God for the food which we shall eat over the coming year.
The Victorians developed the annual harvest thanksgiving into full blown Harvest Festivals. Harvest hymns started to appear. “Come ye thankful people come” was written in 1844. “We plough the fields and scatter” was translated from the German in 1861. Churches were decorated with harvest produce. Harvest gifts were collected and shared with the poor. Church bells were rung and liturgical celebrations spilt over into Harvest Suppers and Harvest Shows.
In recent decades there have been some interesting developments as harvest festivals come to reflect the changing times. Away from rural areas, harvest gifts now tend to reflect what we eat rather than what we grow or harvest. Tinned and packaged foods have become the norm, and actually they make for much more practical harvest gifts! In some places the emphasis has moved away from harvest towards a celebration of the different ways in which we earn our daily bread. I have seen manufactured goods proudly displayed in church alongside sheaths of corn. As the manufacturing sector gives way to the services sector perhaps we should expect to see displays of consultancy brochures or software CDs in our church displays!
These changes make us realise the extraordinarily complicated and sophisticated ways in which we get our food. For most of us, the way we earn our money has nothing to do with producing food. We use that money to buy food that is often imported, sometimes over vast distances. Much of our food is mass produced. In the supermarkets most food is available all year round.
There are many benefits to this. An extraordinary variety of food is available to us all the time. It is more affordable and convenient than ever before and the quality is extremely consistent. The importing of food from all around the world makes us more aware of the interconnectedness of all humanity and the “Global Village” effect.
But despite all these benefits, the changes do raise several concerns. There are ethical concerns about intensive farming, GM crops and the terms of trade with the third world. There are concerns about the greenhouse gases generated by transporting food, and the intensive farming of cattle. Food security becomes more of a concern as we realise that our food supply is so heavily dependent on world trade and financial institutions. Then there is the very real problem of rising food prices, caused by agricultural land being switched from food production to bio-fuel production. This switching threatens to cause food prices to rise to levels beyond what can be afforded in many of the world’s poorest nations. Finally there is the sense in which we are diminished as human beings by our lack of connectedness with where our food comes from. We cease to understand our relationship with the soil and the weather. Our consciousness of seasonal foods and of local specialities disappears. Our distinctive role in food production is reduced to that of consumer.
It could be easy to become depressed about these problems, but our Christian faith teaches us always to live in hope. It also provides us with extraordinary resources that ultimately have the power to address the problems. For example, on 4th October we commemorate St Francis of Assisi in our liturgy. St Francis lived a life of radical simplicity and poverty, which was extremely challenging to the economic assumptions of his time, and which remains both challenging and inspirational to us today.
What would Francis suggest to us about our food today? I suspect that in his simplicity he would suggest growing more of our food locally and growing it less intensively. He would encourage us to grow some of our own food in our own gardens. He would encourage a more interdependent community, working together on food production. He would encourage a freer sharing of the food produced. Our involvement with growing food and our connectedness with nature would increase. Of course such proposals might involve real economic costs and a reduction in financial wealth, but with his love of “Lady Poverty” Francis would rejoice in that too!
Now, we are not all called to be Franciscans. There are other spiritualities within the Church and other legitimate perspectives on food production. However, it seems to me that as the complexities and instabilities of food production increases so the Franciscan perspective will become harder to ignore. In the meantime we must give thanks for the food that God gives us, without worrying, and remembering the advice that Jesus gave to those who worried about their food. He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt 6: 33).
October is the month when we celebrate the harvest. We give thanks to God for the crops that have grown and been collected in. We give thanks to God for the food which we shall eat over the coming year.
The Victorians developed the annual harvest thanksgiving into full blown Harvest Festivals. Harvest hymns started to appear. “Come ye thankful people come” was written in 1844. “We plough the fields and scatter” was translated from the German in 1861. Churches were decorated with harvest produce. Harvest gifts were collected and shared with the poor. Church bells were rung and liturgical celebrations spilt over into Harvest Suppers and Harvest Shows.
In recent decades there have been some interesting developments as harvest festivals come to reflect the changing times. Away from rural areas, harvest gifts now tend to reflect what we eat rather than what we grow or harvest. Tinned and packaged foods have become the norm, and actually they make for much more practical harvest gifts! In some places the emphasis has moved away from harvest towards a celebration of the different ways in which we earn our daily bread. I have seen manufactured goods proudly displayed in church alongside sheaths of corn. As the manufacturing sector gives way to the services sector perhaps we should expect to see displays of consultancy brochures or software CDs in our church displays!
These changes make us realise the extraordinarily complicated and sophisticated ways in which we get our food. For most of us, the way we earn our money has nothing to do with producing food. We use that money to buy food that is often imported, sometimes over vast distances. Much of our food is mass produced. In the supermarkets most food is available all year round.
There are many benefits to this. An extraordinary variety of food is available to us all the time. It is more affordable and convenient than ever before and the quality is extremely consistent. The importing of food from all around the world makes us more aware of the interconnectedness of all humanity and the “Global Village” effect.
But despite all these benefits, the changes do raise several concerns. There are ethical concerns about intensive farming, GM crops and the terms of trade with the third world. There are concerns about the greenhouse gases generated by transporting food, and the intensive farming of cattle. Food security becomes more of a concern as we realise that our food supply is so heavily dependent on world trade and financial institutions. Then there is the very real problem of rising food prices, caused by agricultural land being switched from food production to bio-fuel production. This switching threatens to cause food prices to rise to levels beyond what can be afforded in many of the world’s poorest nations. Finally there is the sense in which we are diminished as human beings by our lack of connectedness with where our food comes from. We cease to understand our relationship with the soil and the weather. Our consciousness of seasonal foods and of local specialities disappears. Our distinctive role in food production is reduced to that of consumer.
It could be easy to become depressed about these problems, but our Christian faith teaches us always to live in hope. It also provides us with extraordinary resources that ultimately have the power to address the problems. For example, on 4th October we commemorate St Francis of Assisi in our liturgy. St Francis lived a life of radical simplicity and poverty, which was extremely challenging to the economic assumptions of his time, and which remains both challenging and inspirational to us today.
What would Francis suggest to us about our food today? I suspect that in his simplicity he would suggest growing more of our food locally and growing it less intensively. He would encourage us to grow some of our own food in our own gardens. He would encourage a more interdependent community, working together on food production. He would encourage a freer sharing of the food produced. Our involvement with growing food and our connectedness with nature would increase. Of course such proposals might involve real economic costs and a reduction in financial wealth, but with his love of “Lady Poverty” Francis would rejoice in that too!
Now, we are not all called to be Franciscans. There are other spiritualities within the Church and other legitimate perspectives on food production. However, it seems to me that as the complexities and instabilities of food production increases so the Franciscan perspective will become harder to ignore. In the meantime we must give thanks for the food that God gives us, without worrying, and remembering the advice that Jesus gave to those who worried about their food. He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt 6: 33).
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