An Expansive Reign

Construction beginning at St. John's Church

To my knowledge I have never literally heard the voice of God. Sometimes I wonder what that voice might sound like. In my imagination I hear a deep, booming voice with reverberations that shake me to my core. Old Testament stories of God calling Moses at the burning bush or speaking to Elijah in the sheer silence strike me as moments when the Almighty utilized such resonance to break into the lives of ordinary people. Sure, we have built up these two as outstanding and exemplary, but an orphaned child of a servant and an obscure Tishbite would not have made the “Who’s who” list of their days. Still, God chose to speak to them. Likewise through Jesus, God spoke to normal, everyday people like fishermen, tax collectors, soldiers, merchants, and even criminals. What is to say that God is finished speaking? Maybe God has spoken to me? Why wouldn’t God speak to us in this very moment on this wonderful occasion?

In much the same way that God spoke to Moses, Elijah, and disciples, like Andrew, God spoke to a man from Assisi, Italy. Francis of Assisi—whom we celebrate today—heard the voice of God and through this calling expanded the reign of God here on earth. But, it did not happen all at once. At first, Francis did not get what God was saying.

A young man who spent his early adult years in military service and revelry, Francis suffered as a prisoner of war for a year until his family could ransom him. The three hundred sixty-five days after this imprisonment required healing and recovery during which time through visions God visited the young man from Assisi. One day while in the Church of San Damiano Francis spoke to God and God spoke right back saying, “Francis, go repair my house, for as you can see it is falling into ruin.” Well, as the church in which he was praying looked shoddy, Francis thought God meant he needed to fix it. However, after selling his possessions to repair the church, what God led Francis to do was much more about spiritual reform than a building project.

Now, we often spot Francis in our gardens, as those statues preaching to birds—this helps us to recall that Francis loved all of Creation. And while this is well and good and part of the reason we are here this evening, his calling from God was not simply to bless animals. No, God called Francis to expand God’s reign here on earth through preaching, teaching, and living a communal model of love. Francis started a movement of living together in God’s love that still goes on this day. In much the same way I think we have heard God calling us as a community into expanding God’s reign here on earth. In this Capital Campaign “Our Table, God’s Table” God has invited us to do and be precisely an expansive community of God’s love.

The first fall I was here at St. John’s we had to buy a lot of sticky notes. Do you remember that? On those post-its we wrote not only who we currently are, but also who God dreams we could be. We wrote down what we were grateful for about our community, the mission of our church, ministries we would start, and from those brightly colored sheets of paper emerged a calling from God to expand God’s reign here on earth, right here in Decatur. A lot has happened since then.

In the past four years we have done so much more. We got together a group of dedicated parishioners to turn God’s call to expand God’s reign into actionable next steps; we hired an architect; we talked about how we use our space and how we want to use it; we found out that accessibility, more space to gather as a church community, youth, and staff, and a more fruitful space to share in fellowship are God’s calling for us; we met in each other’s homes; and we even hired a fund raiser to help us; we raised over $3.5 million; and all the while we wondered not how might we build a new building, but like Francis how might we work with God to expand the reign of God.

Here we are. On the cusp of ceremonially breaking ground. While this marks the end of one part of our journey, God will continue to call us to dream. God will continue to speak to us. God will continue to say, “Fix what needs fixing and expand my reign here in this place.” Today is a day of great joy when we like Francis are responding to God’s call.

We may ask again, “What does God’s voice sound like?” I want to amend what I said earlier when I said that I had not heard God’s voice, for I think we all have heard God’s voice. I think it sounds like the rustling of sticky notes and the passionate conversation of parishioners in home groups; it sounds like the dutiful deliberations of our campaign committee, the kazoos of our Kickoff Gala, and the quiet of our day of prayer; it sounds like the hard work of architect, contractor, and church coming together to create a unified vision and now it sounds the clanging of backhoe and construction equipment helping to begin this building project. God is calling us to expand God’s reign. May we continue to bring the love of God and the expansion of God’s reign to this community, to this city, and to this world!

Thank You for Letting Me Be

Today we celebrate! We celebrate the life and witness of St. Francis of Assisi! Francis would be happy with this celebration I think. Perhaps, if you have been to this service before today, you would know this because you know something about him.

 

Francis is still commonly seen today in statue form in many gardens; however, he is more than simply a bird-watcher. After being born the son of a rich clothing merchant around the turn of the 13^th Century, Francis gave all of his money away to the poor. He cared deeply for those who lived on the edge of society. Additionally, he preached marvelous sermons about the care of God’s Creation centuries before this type of practice was fashionable. In fact, much of his life Francis pushed up against the powers of his day especially the Bishop of Rome. And yet, today what strikes me about St. Francis actually has more to do with one of his companions.

Clare of Assisi was one of Francis’ first followers. She founded a monastic group, the Order of Poor Ladies, which fits the Franciscan model. After her death the order was renamed the Order of Saint Clare or the Poor Clares; however, before her death Clare said something fascinating. Upon her deathbed legend has it that she said, “Thank you for letting me be a human being.” What a marvelous sentiment for us to remember on this day and always.

Today we bring our pets, our animal companions, here to be blessed. Someone recently asked if we did exorcisms, I think we need the bishop here to do that. We remember these companions and we give thanks for them in our lives. I believe it is also more than appropriate to give thanks to God on this beautiful day and even on all the terrible days for letting us be human beings, and for letting us have our companions who teach us something of God’s love.

God could have made us and them into anything. We could have been amoeba, plankton, gnats, ants, butterflies, catfish, sharks, squirrels, rabbits, tigers, elephants, serpents, whales, or anything else in Creation; however, we were not. God made us precisely as we are right here and now. Sometimes we may not be in the mood to be thankful, but as our Holy Communion prayer says, “It is a good and a joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to God.” This does not mean that it is always easy to give thanks for who we are or what our current lot in life is.

The words from today’s Gospel can stand out in moments of trouble. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Sometimes we may have a tough time saying thanks for letting me be a human being, and it is at these moments that strangely our animal companions can be bearers of the good news of God. 

There were tough times in my home growing up, but somehow the family dog Merlin, a bouncy Springer-Spaniel always seemed to know how to bring comfort to us. He instinctively knew to stretch out his paw to try to shake if my mom or I was having a particularly tough day. It was as though he was trying to share this love that Jesus shared with his disciples. 

We may have trouble with this belief about animals and how connected they are with God, but something C.S. Lewis wrote stands out to me. He described how our culture has lost something as we have become more scientific. We no longer believe some of the legends of yesteryears. Sure he thought we no longer believe that the world is filled with spirits. One cannot go out into the woods and see tree nymphs, but this world is still filled with God’s Spirit. Sometimes our animal companions teach us something of God’s love and they remind us to say “God thank you for letting me be a human being.” Let us be like Francis and Clare who were kind companions to the creatures of this world and who see all of Creation as a place that is filled with God’s Spirit. Amen.

Is God a Dog person?

I am a dog person. It’s not that I don’t like cats, but having been highly allergic to them as a child I did not get to know them all that well. This was not for their lack of trying, of course. Cats somehow knew that I was not so fond of them, so they would instinctively come up to me just to make me sneeze.

Talking about the differences between cats and dogs makes me think of a song by a musician named Fran McKendree. Perhaps some of you have heard his music. He writes mostly very deep, theologically significant, yet stunningly simple lyrics. Although the song I’m thinking of has less to do with how we talk about God and more to do with cats and dogs.

Fran penned a song called “Excerpts from a Dog/Cat Diary.” During the dog portion he plays upbeat music and gives the thoughts of a dog, “8 o’clock breakfast… my favorite, 8:20 go outside… my favorite, saw a squirrel my favorite… 3 o’clock kids home… my favorite, rub my belly… my favorite…” Then when describing the same day in the life of the cat, “This morning I awoke from a dream of freely roaming the woods to realize that my captors still have me locked within this minimum security fortress. After seeing the dried disgust that they call ‘food’ I snuck outside to find real meat. To show my disapproval I brought the head of a chipmunk and laid it upon my captors’ bed.”

The difference between cats and dogs sometimes gets overplayed like in this song, but quite often we identify ourselves as a cat person or a dog person. Today though we celebrate the life of a man named Francis who showed compassion to all creatures that he met, and in turn allows us to see a deeper reality about God.

Francis was a man who lived in the 12th and 13th centuries. While he was born into the family of a wealthy merchant in Italy after an experience of sickness and service in the military he heard God’s voice calling him to “repair my house.” He sold his possessions, which made his family very angry, to pay for repairs to the dilapidated church.

Soon he was living with the local priest and serving the poorest of the poor by treating their diseases, providing them with food, and showing them love when others would not. As Francis grew in popularity followers began to come and immolate his ways. Soon stories began spreading about the miraculous ways he cared not just for other humans, but also for other animals.

Francis gave sermons to birds who sat and listened to him until he sent them away with a blessing. He had animals like fish and rabbits follow him until he made another brother send them away. The saint even changed the heart of a ravenous wolf, such that the creature no longer terrorized a village that had lost not only sheep but also people to the animal’s teeth. To this day when you go into many gardens, including our own McKimmon Garden here at St. John’s you will see St. Francis bidding the creatures to come and receive his blessing.

St. Francis was not a dog or a cat person. He welcomed all creatures to come and receive a blessing from him. In this way he emulated our Creator who made all things good and Jesus Christ who beckoned for all of creation to turn to him for restoration and unloading of burdens. Today we gather to celebrate the blessing that all of these creatures are to us and to remember our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer who continues to bless us and these pets through our relationship together. As we take part in this blessing of the animals let us remember that God is not a dog or cat person, but rather God is a lover of all creatures… God is a critter God who blesses these creatures and us through his sustaining love. Amen.