Proper 9 Year A
5th Sunday after Pentecost
July 9, 2017
Last week, I told you about the emerging theme from my time with other Third Order Franciscans. We went back to basics, remembering that Br. Francis’ vision was that the Friars minor, (and all Franciscans, regardless of which order they were in) were to simply live the Gospel. Francis himself, as he turned religious life upside down, gave up a life of status and relative wealth to live the simplest life possible. Denying himself possessions helped him to focus on relationships and on people. He was known to say, that if we had possessions, we would have a reason to defend them. Being someone who desired radical peace, it made sense to him that the simplest life possible would keep him from being distracted from his true purpose, which was to “simply live the gospel”.
It seems to me, that simply living the gospel means that we have to be paying attention to relationships. I can remember when my daughter was in grade school, and there was a collection going on for Hurricane Katrina victims. She emptied her beloved piggy bank and all of it’s treasures that she had saved up into a ziplock bag and said she was bringing it to school for the collection and asked if we wanted to help too. She was in the first grade, and I remember how determined she was to help…. Years later, when tornadoes hit Shawnee and Moore and other areas, a friend of ours was collecting some toys that a family with young children had lost… Rachel read the request and proceeded to go tearing through boxes in our basement. She emerged a few minutes later with several stuffed care bears and some other things that were on the list and let the person know we had those items. I remember her saying how she hoped that having some of their toys replaced would help the children feel less afraid…
Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” Simply living the gospel isn’t always easy, but all of us, not matter who we are, are capable of doing it… children, I think are especially good at it because they pay attention to relationships. They aren’t as distracted as adults are by responsibilities, the need to make a living, etc. Adulthood, for many of us was a trap… we were told we would granted more freedoms, but really, wasn’t it much simpler when our biggest responsibility was how large to make the sand castle?
I think to live the gospel life, sometimes we all need to return to the basics. We need to remember who Jesus is… we need to remember that he is the center of our lives and the one whom we follow. That relationship is the most important relationship that any of us are in; and it is our relationship with Jesus that helps us to live into our other relationships as well. The yoke of Christ which may not always seem easy, is light because it is simple. St. Francis knew this, and his life, while difficult in so many ways, was joyous because he knew that simplicity made it far easier for him to follow Jesus. When he came upon the Lepers, who previously had been a source of disgust for him, he realized that they were also loved by God and that as a result, should be loved and cared for by him…
Maybe that sounds extreme to us… and perhaps it is, but it is what we are to do as disciples. The joy my child showed in giving away her money and some toys to others was a beautiful thing to witness… and she never got to see the response on the other side, but it didn’t matter. It was the right thing to do, especially because she had so much in comparison to those who had lost everything. Francis became poor, not to glamourize poverty, but because by being poor he could be free and he could be generous with what he was given by others. He didn’t have to live with the complications of ownership or greed; poverty allowed him to see the poorest of the poor as children of God; his own poverty allowed him to give everything to others… it allowed him to be closer to God who gave up everything to become human in Jesus… I think it’s fair to say, that Francis believed that the more people had, the cloudier their perceptions of God and the world God loved were…
The Gospel life was revealed to infants, to those who were not rich and worldly, so that the simplicity of the Gospel life could be readily seen… all through Jesus’ ministry, it seems that there is a tension between simplicity and wealth; and Jesus is constantly calling on those around him to see more clearly what God is asking of them; and we know, that sometimes those who see the clearest are those who are blind, until they encounter Jesus and allow their lives to be changed.
There will always be tension for us between living the Gospel and living as society would ask us to live; that tension between God’s kingdom and the empire of national wealth and pride that constantly surrounds us. And believe me, God loves this world… creation, at least as Francis understood scripture, is good… very good. And humanity is the most beautiful and beloved of God’s creatures… And that means all of humanity; the lepers, the poor, those displaced by hurricanes and tornadoes… and it means that you and I have to pay attention to relationships above our own fears for our comfort… sometimes we just have to let Jesus take the burden and we have to take the risk that it will all be ok… and not just ok, but that we might actually become better people because we dared to love and we dared to live the gospel life…
In the time of Francis, lepers wore bells so that people could hear them coming and get out of the way… can you imagine how lonely an existence that must have been? What about the poor, unshaven guy on the corner with the old dog, both of whom are needing some food? What about the Muslim woman who is wearing a hijab at the grocery store who is afraid to ask someone for help because of how her family has been treated in the past?
There are modern day lepers for us? Who are those people we are afraid to engage with because they challenge our feelings of security? Today, we aren’t called to overthink our commitment to Jesus… like children we are called to be in relationship and to give what we have, extravagantly and with joy; we are called to see the poverty whether it is spiritual, physical, financial, and alleviate it as best we can, even if it’s only for one person… and certainly for more if we can. God gave up everything for us so that he could be as close to us as possible, allowing us to become part of God’s very life. Today, we are asked to throw off all of the attitudes that we hide behind in the name of pride and self importance, and take on the vision of children so that we might see more clearly the people that God loves, and see who our own modern day lepers are, and embrace them with love and joy.
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