The life of a preacher is full of little surprises. You never can tell what’s going to pop up to give a new perspective on something that’s been going on for years. That’s what happened to me as we prepared for this Sunday’s worship. I discovered we’ve never actually used the lections appointed for this minor feast day. We’ve always just figured out a way to use the lesson appointed for the Sunday and somehow worked the blessing of the animals into it. This year however, the gospel appointed for day is about divorce. We are doubly blessed with lectionary inserts today, so you can check it out. I muttered to myself for several days about how that might work this year and concluded that it just wasn’t going to happen, that we absolutely needed to use the readings appointed for Francis—so here we are.
By the way, if you’d like to know what I said the last time the divorce gospel came around, look on our website for October 6, 2006, or ask me, and I’ll get a copy for you.
Back to today’s readings and my second little surprise. When I looked at the readings for today, I realized for the first time that there’s very little mention of the animals we associate so closely with Francis. The reading from Genesis has become a tradition, but as a lesser feast, this day is only assigned three readings from Galatians, the psalms and the gospel according to Matthew. The reading from the letter to the Galatians appears to be a nod to the stigmata—the mystical marks of crucifixion—that Francis is said to have experienced. The psalm speaks of the praise of all creation for God. And the gospel portion is one of those that had me wondering if the folks who do the matching up of saints and scripture had really just run out of readings. But then I looked at it again and again and over the last couple of days I’ve begun to see the image of Francis emerge from these readings. That is to say—I’ve seen an image of Francis as he may perhaps have been, not as we have created him.
We humans have a tendency to Disney things up a bit, you know. Especially when we bump into someone who touches the Holy as Francis is said to have done. We see pictures of Francis feeding birds from his hand; we tell stories of his preaching to the birds and making peace between a marauding wolf and a village. We rarely speak of his commitment to live as much as possible in the poverty and suffering that Jesus experienced. As a young man, he had several spiritual experiences that affected him profoundly. As a result, he became convinced that the true spirit of Christian living calls for detachment from material things and loving care for our neighbor. He turned away from all the wealth and position of his family to live a life of poverty, caring for those who were ill, begging alms for the poorest of the poor and delighting in every aspect of God’s creation. He was transformed from a young man who loved the troubadour society of the 13th century to a man who sang songs of love to the universe. He put down the burden of attachments and lived his life in freedom to love God and all God has made.
So why do we use the occasion of Francis’s feast day to ask God’s blessing on the animals who give us such joy in our lives? The obvious reason is that we do this as an act of thanksgiving for these creatures who share our lives. The second reason is that we do this as an act of remembrance—reminding ourselves that we are stewards of creation, not simply the consumers of all the beauty of this earth. So, this morning, as we prepare to ask God’s blessing on these creatures who bring so much to our lives, I invite you to join me in a vow to creation—a promise to serve as responsible and grateful stewards of this earth.
If you choose to make this commitment, please respond by saying, “I will, with God’s help.”
Will you cherish the beauty of the Good Earth that God has entrusted to us, and will you do all in your power to preserve its beauty for own age and for the people of the future?
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Word of God that issued from God’s mouth and created all things; you have called creation good, and we celebrate the goodness of creation which you have given to us to enjoy and tend. Bless the Good Earth and its fruits, and us as we commit ourselves to its stewardship, in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.