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.

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).