St Francis’ Sunday 2-10-2016
Amos 6.1a,4-7, Ps 139.13-18, ! Tim 6.6-10,17-19, Lk 10.1-9, 16
Back in the ‘80s in Melbourne, Vicky and I were involved in a discipleship school. It was a full-time, live-in programme where young adults gave a year of their lives to being formed as disciples of Jesus. Life was pretty frugal at DS. No-one was able to give time to earning money; no-one had much of it. The disciples paid what they could – supplemented by whatever their family, friends or supporters might give them. And the parish subsidised the school by paying the rent on the building as well as fuel and water costs.
If life was frugal, it was also very intense. If you’ve ever been on a church youth camp, you’ll remember coming home both exhausted by the intensity of close community life, and filled with the exultation of deep worship. You’ll also remember red-rimmed eyes from the endless, deep conversations that lasted late into the night. Now imagine doing that for a whole year.
DS involved regular Bible classes and daily worship together. Everyone did lots of work alongside local poor and under-privileged people; everyone taught RE at local schools; everyone was on the team with whatever project or outreach the parish undertook. But the most challenging part was living together under one roof as an intentional Christian community. It’s in close, family community that the great challenges of living justly, truthfully, humbly and compassionately are right in your face every day. DS was tough and wonderful for everyone involved, and it shaped a number of unique Christians.
I think it’s the closest my life has come to living the sort of life St Francis saw Jesus live, and which Francis therefore chose for himself, and later on, for his order of Friars. It’s a life of intense community, a life of costly commitment and obedience, and a life of extraordinary privilege – set free to care for the poor and the sick; to bring the lost back into the presence of Jesus.
It’s also a very controversial life: it was back in Francis’ day; it was back in the 1980’s, and I’m pretty sure it would be controversial now too. Listen to some of the Rule of St Francis for his Friars, and once you’ve heard it, let me know your one or two-word reaction to it.
Chapter VI
The Friars should appropriate neither house, nor place, nor anything for themselves; and they should go confidently after alms, serving God in poverty and humility, as pilgrims and strangers in this world. Nor should they feel ashamed, for God made himself poor in this world for us. This is that peak of the highest poverty which has made you, my dearest Friars, heirs and kings of the kingdom of heaven, poor in things but rich in virtues. Let this be your portion. It leads into the land of the living and, adhering totally to it, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, wish never to have anything else in this world, beloved Friars. And wherever you meet one another, … act like members of a common family. And … securely make your needs known to one another…
Reactions…?
On the surface, the St Francis we meet this morning seems to have a very different emphasis from the one we meet this afternoon at the blessing of the animals. But the kind, gentle, compassionate Francis we meet this afternoon is the very same Francis who, this morning, is so strong on poverty, humility and proclamation.
His liberty from worry about material things set him free to join consciously in the community of all life that depends for everything on the providence of God. Reflect for a moment on any way last week’s power outage affected your relationships with other people. Did it draw you closer to others? How?
Francis, in his poverty, found himself a citizen of creation. His choice for poverty was simply living as his Lord Jesus instructed him. The Lord’s specific instructions are those he heard in the gospel we heard just now.
3 Go on your way. … 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” … 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid.
There are instructions Francis heard quite literally as Jesus’ call to him to live a life of pilgrimage as a pauper and a preacher; to live a life of humility that is both a choice, and a result of being always truly dependent on providence. Again, this was counter-cultural in Jesus’ time, in Francis’ time, and in ours. It may seem harsh; it may seem unnecessary. But today’s scriptures suggest that at the very least, it’s worth serious consideration.
Amos tells the comfortable and the wealthy of the Land that they’re living in a fools’ paradise. They’re so disconnected from what’s going on in the world that the obvious, coming disaster will claim them first. And it did.
The letter to Timothy urges us to be content with a life where our basic needs are met – to be generous with anything extra we might have, and by doing this, to take hold of the life that really is life. What wonderfully powerful words!
St Francis’ day challenges us to discover connections with each other and the living creation around us; to take hold of the life that really is life. He understood the Bible to be saying that the way to do this is to imitate the example of Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Phil 2.6-8 In that light, what might DS look like for us? Amen