With this sermon on St. Francis of Assisi, Pastor Brooks began a sermon series on Christian thinkers who can help point us toward God during the lenten season. Listen to the sermon now or read it below.
Scripture Reading—Matthew 16: 21-26
As we begin this season of Lent, I want to put before you the question, “Who keeps you honest?” Or, to put it another way, “Who helps you stay on the right track in your life of faith?” The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio found an answer to such question during conclave voting in the Vatican. In his own words, the voting was getting “dangerous.” It was starting to look like he might be the next pope. At the time, Bergoglio was sitting next to a close friend, the Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes. When Bergoglio surpassed the required 77 votes to become pope, Hummes hugged and kissed him saying, “Don’t forget the poor.”
After becoming one of the most powerful persons in the world, the pope related this story before a crowd of more than 5,000 journalists. He explained how the words of Hummes were what inspired him to take the name of Saint Francis of Assisi. The pope then described Saint Francis as “the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation.” The pope added, a creation “with which we don’t have such a good relationship.” The pope looked to Saint Francis to keep him honest. He also looked to Saint Francis for much more than that. He declared, “How I would like a church that is poor and that is for the poor.” Pope Francis wanted to stay true to his sense of calling just as he hoped the church would stay true to its calling. Who is it that keeps you honest?
Saint Francis lived 800 years ago, but he still serves as a spiritual North Star to many and as a towering figure in the family tree of the Christian faith. Modern movements ranging from liberation theology to environmental theology can trace their lineage to him. Perhaps it is because of the example of how he lived his life that he has become a historic figure who keeps us honest. Perhaps it is because of the simple yet powerful language of his words as we heard in the prayer earlier that keeps us honest. Whatever the case may be, this past week I thought I would explore the ways in which Saint Francis kept himself honest. What nuggets of insight from his life might we gain to help us on our Lenten journeys?
A recent biography of Saint Francis by Augustine Thompson has attempted to recast Saint Francis from a miracle worker flying above the ordinary masses to someone very human who wrestled with pedestrian demons and shortcomings. Saint Francis could apparently be very moody, sullen, and temperamental. He was by no means perfect, yet he was also someone who underwent tremendous transformations in his personal life. As a young man, he went from living a rather ostentatious and decadent life as the son of a merchant to living a repentant life of simplicity and poverty after leaving his family and the wealth it afforded. According to Saint Francis, the most profound moment in his conversion came when he found himself among a people he had bitterly despised: lepers. In need of a shelter and a means to survive, he found himself not only living among lepers but caring for them. He bathed their bodies and dressed their wounds. For him, what was profound about this experience was not the poverty of it, the humility required, or the service he rendered to others. What was profound was how it led him to an experience of God’s love. As his biographer puts it, in showing mercy to outcasts, he came to know God’s mercy toward him. Among outcasts, Saint Francis found his “rebirth and healing.” So, who is it that keeps you honest? For Saint Francis, it was lepers.
Another defining moment for Saint Francis came in a way that would likely strike many of us as superstitious. Saint Francis and his first two followers visited a priest and asked him to perform an ancient practice known as sortes biblicae. Sounds magical and mysterious, right? Well, this ancient practice entailed having the priest open up the Bible to a random verse that was then believed to reveal God’s will. I think I might have done this ancient mystical practice in a tree house growing up. As it turned out, the priest didn’t have a complete Bible, so they used an altar missal instead. As was the common practice, the priest opened up the book three times to select three different verses of revelation. The first selection came from Mark 10 and contained the line, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” The second selection came from Luke 9 which contains the line, “Take nothing for your journey, not staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.” For the third selection, the priest’s finger landed on a verse from Matthew 16 that said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Saint Francis’s biographer notes that “the three passages called for a shockingly radical renunciation of the world: give all to the poor, take nothing on the journey, and embrace the Cross.”
Talk about three scriptures to keep you honest. In truth, it is not so much the scriptures that keep us honest. It’s Jesus. One could hardly select three quotes from Jesus that would be more demanding and more extreme in their break from the societal status quo. Yet, these are the texts that would serve as the foundation for what Saint Francis would refer to as his “form of life.” These texts not only defined the core of his ministry but the heart of the monastic order that he would later found. This order was initially known as the order of Friars Minor which we would translate as meaning the lesser brothers. Today, we know them as the Franciscans. As a sign of their poverty and their carrying of the cross, the original Franciscan form of dress was a peasant smock roughly cut into the shape of a cross. I think ultimately the main reason Saint Francis continues to have such a profound influence on Christians is because one cannot help but to look at his life and see one who was utterly devoted to imitating Jesus, regardless of the extremes to which it took him. Who is it that keeps you honest? Modeling our lives after Jesus is one way to stay honest.
Yet, I also think there is a complementary feature to the life of Saint Francis that has made him all the more attractive over the centuries. A life so strongly devoted to a renunciation of the world and its material pleasures might seem overly dour if that was all that comprised it. But there is a charming and delightful side to Saint Francis that has long appealed to Christians, and that is the Saint Francis who preached to the birds. His biographer, however, presents a more interesting and nuanced picture of Saint Francis’s relationship to nature. Saint Francis’s contemporaries never said anything about his preaching to birds. That is likely the work of later folklore and mythology. The contemporaries of Saint Francis did see in him a remarkably deep and affectionate affinity for animal creatures. Saint Francis did speak to animals, but it was more as a loving friend or close family member than as a preacher and exhorter. Animals moved him to compassion. They also moved him to a sense of gratitude toward God.
One of my favorite stories about Saint Francis involves a cricket that he found on a branch outside the door to his room. He gently moved the cricket onto his finger and said, “Sing, my sister cricket!” And, the cricket began to sing. The cricket’s song kept Saint Francis enthralled for an entire hour. For the rest of the week, he would come out of his room in the morning and listen to the cricket sing. The song brought him a sense of comfort, consolation, and encouragement. Who is it that keeps you honest? Maybe a cricket can sometimes help.
This morning I want to invite you to try a visualization. You may want to close your eyes for this. Imagine that today is one of the biggest days of your life. In fact, something incredible is going to happen right here in this sanctuary. Your life is about to be forever transformed. As it happens, one of your closest friends is sitting right next to you. In the midst of your fantastic moment, your friend leans over and, if they are the type of friend who gives you a hug and a kiss, they give you a hug and a kiss. Your friend then whispers in your ear. I am not sure what exactly your friend just said, but it is something that will profoundly shape your future. It is going to keep you honest in the way that only the words of a close friend can. Perhaps, your friend whispered, “Remember those of us who aren’t so famous.” Perhaps, your friend whispered, “Remember those of us who are still searching for happiness.” Or, perhaps, your friend whispered, “Remember the poor.” Whatever it is that your friend whispered, keep it close to your heart this Lent. Make it part of your Lenten walk. Allow it to enter into who you are. You may even be so profoundly affected that you will want to call a press conference and change your name. Well, maybe we can’t all be a Pope Francis, but I believe we can all be transformed. We can all find new life. Amen.