October 5, 2008 Sermon
This page is offered for those unable to attend the service or who would like more time to study the message.
St Francis Day - 2008 Early Service
October 5, 2008 Allan Conkling
(This is our homecoming – the first service in the church in over 3 months.)
Early October brings the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, and has for years meant the annual Blessing of the Animals to Emmanuel. However, most people are completely unaware of the real story of the man, St. Francis. To most Francis is a nature lover, a bird watcher, a friend to the animals. During the 1970's there was a movie made, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, which portrayed him as a kind of a hippie; but there is so much more to this interesting individual. "Of all the saints, Francis is the most popular and admired, but probably the least imitated." (LFF. pg 336) David Veal calls him "one of the boldest and most spirited figures in history." So who was he?
Francis was born in Italy in the 12th century. His name at birth was Francesco Bernardoni, and he was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. As a youth he had it all: a fine education and a prosperous family. He joined the military as an act of chivalry to see the world, to make his mark, and to find fame and glory. But along the way his travels brought him into contact with the other side of life: the beggars and the lepers, the dispossessed and the down-and-out. These touched his conscience and he experienced a religious conversion of the most extreme kind.
Francis embraced a life far removed from the fineries of his childhood. In the name of God he became an advocate for the poor, but he did so by taking on the lifestyle of the very ones he served. Today this would be outrageous. It would be like us contracting TB or AIDS, or becoming a drunk to work among those suffering with the disease. His followers, friars as they were known, also embraced this radical lifestyle, but were unable to keep up with his strict discipline. Francis died at 45 years old, his body literally worn out due to the effects of stress, poor diet and exhaustion. In his final days he experienced the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, on his hands, feet and side.
This is the "other" story of St. Francis we rarely ever hear. Hearing it can fascinate us; attract us, even as it repels us. No wonder, as Sam Portaro says, we prefer to keep him "on a benign perch in the quiet corner of the garden, a companion to the flora and fauna." He is so much safer when he is domesticated!
St. Francis is a parable, an icon, who like his savior and Lord was an outward and visible sign of a greater reality. Like Christ he draws us in, if we will allow it, to a deeper level of being human. He calls us to take on that yoke of Christ, to bear the marks of Jesus branded as it were, on our lives. No, I will never be a St. Francis, but I can see in St. Francis and through St. Francis the "bar" which continues to be set high: calling us to exercise compassion, advocate social justice, and be a voice for the voiceless, the marginalized, and the dispossessed.
In Francis' day the medieval towns and villages of Italy and Europe each had their piazzas, churches, municipal halls and residences all encircled by city walls. To be cast outside the walls by excommunication or exile meant exclusion not only from society but also from communion with God, like Adam and Eve cast out of the garden. But as author Murray Bodo says,
"Francis’ prophetic act was to turn society upside down by moving voluntarily outside the walls and proclaiming that God dwells there as well..."
Therein lays the challenge for us today. God does dwell beyond the walls, and God calls us to look beyond our "comfort zones", to transcend the walls of our human making. In St. Francis is found our blueprint for peace, justice, service to others and personal renewal. Christ beckons us beyond our selves: to serve, to love exceedingly even wastefully all people in his name; and to be as a church, all that Christ has called us to be. Francis would have us do nothing less.
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Revised: 10/22/08