What if the problem of poverty is that it’s profitable to other people?

Evicted by Matthew Desmond

‘There is an enormous amount of pain and poverty in this rich land,’ argues American sociologist Desmond in this brilliant book about housing and the lives of eight families in Milwaukee, WI.

Read the review here.

An excerpt:

What are the social costs of eviction? It puts incredible stress on families. It prevents people from saving the comparatively small sums that would let them stabilise their situation. They are always starting over from scratch, losing their possessions in the chaos of removal, or putting them in storage and losing them when they can’t pay the fees. An eviction on your record makes the next apartment harder to get. Eviction damages children, who are always changing schools, giving up friends and toys and pets – and living with the exhaustion and depression of their parents. We watch Jori go from a sweet, protective older brother to an angry, sullen boy subject to violent outbursts who is falling way behind in school.

Eviction makes it hard to keep up with the many appointments required by the courts and the byzantine welfare system: several characters have their benefits cut because notices are sent to the wrong address. Eviction destroys communities: when people move frequently, they don’t form the social bonds and pride in place that encourage them to care for their block and look out for their neighbours. “With Doreen’s eviction, Thirty-Second Street lost a steadying presence – someone who loved and invested in the neighbourhood, who contributed to making the block safer – but Wright Street didn’t gain one.”

“There is an enormous amount of pain and poverty in this rich land,” Desmond writes in his conclusion. That is easy to say, and many books by journalists and academics have done so. By examining one city through the microscopic lens of housing, however, he shows us how the system that produces that pain and poverty was created and is maintained. I can’t remember when an ethnographic study so deepened my understanding of American life.

American Creed

What does it mean to be American?
What holds us together in turbulent times?

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David M. Kennedy come together from remarkably different backgrounds, life experiences and points of view to explore the idea of a unifying American creed. Their spirited inquiry frames the stories of a range of citizen-activists striving to realize their own visions of America’s promise across deep divides.

American Creed premiered in February 2018 and was one of the most widely carried PBS documentaries of the year. The documentary relaunched in November 2018, followed by an all-new short film featuring teenagers whose perspectives on American ideals and identity have been influenced by seeing the documentary.

Learn more here: https://www.americancreed.org/

You can watch the documentary here (86 or 56 minutes):

https://www.americancreed.org/watch

You can see clips & stories here:

https://www.americancreed.org/stories

DEFINING THE AMERICAN CREED

This American Creed related reading list was developed by Citizen Film and its trusted advisors, including American historian David M. Kennedy and other public humanities scholars. The books and other readings included on this list may be helpful to those who view the documentary film and seek additional resources to continue their engagement with the themes and ideas in the film.

The American Creed PBS program and public engagement initiative gets its title from a phrase in Nobel Prize-winning economist Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944), a landmark study of American attitudes and beliefs during the Great Depression.

Myrdal wrote: “Americans of all national origins, classes, regions, creeds, and colors, have something in common: a social ethos, a political creed. It is difficult to avoid the judgment that this ‘American Creed’ is the cement in the structure of this great and disparate nation.”

Myrdal defined that creed as an abiding sense that every individual, regardless of circumstances, deserves fairness and the opportunity to realize unlimited potential. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was among Myrdal’s most attentive readers. In his most famous speech, Dr. King said:

“…even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…”

Like Myrdal, Dr. King placed the American creed at the center of an American dilemma. “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”

The American Creed documentary, and the accompanying public engagement campaign and education plan, are based on the premise that in every generation, a recommitment to that ‘promissory note’ is urgently needed.

Suggested Reading and Viewing:

● American Creed 2-minute trailer: https://vimeo.com/191090561 (password:equalopportunity)
● “The Lasting Legacy of An American Dilemma,” by The Carnegie Corporation (2004) https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/98/65/9865c794-39d9-4659-862e-aae1583278a8/cc ny_cresults_2004_americandilemma.pdf
● “I Have A Dream,” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963) http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
● Freedom from Fear, by David M. Kennedy, Chapter 8, “The Cauldron of the Home Front”
● Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom, by Condoleezza Rice
o Read an excerpt from this book here:
https://medium.com/freeman-spogli-institute-for-international-studies/americas-second-d emocratic-opening-d790c6356151

Additional Reading and Viewing:

● An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, by Gunnar Myrdal (1944)
● “American Denial” (documentary), a cinematic response to An American Dilemma: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/american-denial/
● “An American Dilemma: A Review,” by Ralph Ellison (1944) http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/an-american-dilemma-a-review/

October 20 Sermon

Almighty God, who sits in the throne judging right: We humbly beseech thee to bless the courts of justice and the magistrates in all this land; and give unto them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, that they may discern the truth, and impartially administer the law in the fear of thee alone; through him who shall come to be our Judge, thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This summer we were hiking in nearby West Rock Ridge State Park and we came across Judges Cave.

In 1649, fifty-nine British judges convened to condemn King Charles I to death. When the monarchy was restored eleven years later to Charles II, the new king demanded revenge for his father’s death. Some of the judges were seized and executed, others ran away and hid.

Edward Whalley, William Goffe, and John Dixwell, three of the judges, fled to North America, believing they would be safest in the Puritan colonies of New England. Dixwell escaped to New Haven and lived under an assumed name.

Whalley and Goffe landed in Boston. The Puritans in the city received them kindly, but the judges feared discovery by royal informants. Whalley and Goffe left Massachusetts, ultimately ending up in New Haven in a Puritan Pastors home.

When the orders came for the judges’ arrest, Whalley and Goffe were forced to flee again, this time into the wilderness. With the help of several New Haven residents, the judges hid in the large rocks on the summit of what is now West Rock. They stayed hidden in the cave for a month during the summer of 1661. Several sympathetic locals brought them food throughout their stay. They were ultimately chased from their hiding place by a panther, which scared them into realizing that they could no longer survive in the woods. The pair escaped from New Haven under the cover of darkness and spent the remainder of their lives in hiding in Hadley, Massachusetts. (https://environment.yale.edu/blog/2013/11/welcome-to-judges-cave/)

Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell had power but lost it when the monarchy was restored. Was justice done in this case? That is in the murky woods of history.

“Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.” – Founding Father, John Adams

John Adams understood that power often corrupts. The importance of moral character increases as the importance of the position increases for government officials and for judges.

It was true in 17 & 18th Centuries and it is true in our own time.

That is why, judges are called to use wisdom & understanding as they impartially administer the law. Sadly, this doesn’t always happen.

In Pennsylvania, the "kids for cash" scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In 2008, 2 judges were accused of accepting money in return for imposing harsh adjudications on juveniles to increase occupancy at for-profit detention centers. Those two judges are now both in prison. There were other judges in that court who were also cited for some connection to the scandal. Over 2,400 juveniles had their convictions expunged. (Wikipedia)

It’s a story about the abuse of power. Sadly, mass incarceration and a lack of trust in the judicial system are too common place in our country and need to be fixed. Power must be tempered with justice.

Think about our Gospel reading and the parable that Jesus offers: An unjust judge in a certain city refuses to give a widow the justice she seeks. The widow kept going to the judge, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” He refused. But she would not go to her home and give up. Over, and over again this scene would happen...

The judge, as we are told, who does not fear God or respect anyone else, decides to give her justice, not for her sake as a widow or because she is right or because he is respecting the law, not for the sake of justice, but so that she stops being a nuisance to him! The unjust judge in the parable has all the power for he can grant justice to the widow or not. The widow of course, in the time of Jesus, is vulnerable, she can be exploited or forgotten, her very survival could be at stake because she has no husband, and maybe no kin to take care of her.

She is on the margins of that society and would seem to have no power in this situation. And yet, she does not give in to his refusals. She uses what she has available to her, her persistence, & her voice, “Grant me justice.” The widow refuses to be marginalized or forgotten and uses her voice to be heard. From the days of the OT on, widows were not the only ones who were among the most vulnerable of the society, so too were the children, esp. the orphans. Time & time again, you hear God pleading with Israel to take care of the poor, the widow and the orphan. It is God’s plea to us today – to hear the widow and not be the judge.

Our Old Testament reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, reminds us of Jacob’s wrestling with an angel and finally Jacob prevails as Scripture reminds us that justice will not be handed to us, but there will be struggle. We must be patient, but we must also persevere, and remain steadfast in using power in the right way. (Which is also a theme in the Gospel parable – pray always & not lose heart!)

If we are honest, though, we must also confront the power that we each have in our lives. Many of us understand that we possess some kind of “power” that we exercise over others, even as others exercise their power over us. Such power is inevitable and important.

The tricky thing about power is that is can be abused, as we know. If power can’t be abused, it isn’t power. Still, my power and yours, whatever it consists of, can be redeemed and made holy by mercy. Mercy is what we call it when power is exercised and restrained for the sake of love.

A veteran police officer reflects: “When I became a cop, I thought the job would be all about power. Then I found out it is all about service. And I found out I really liked it that way.” [Adapted from Beginner’s Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life by Kate Braestrup.]

Jesus’ parable of the dishonest judge challenges us to consider how we use whatever power we possess, how we employ the authority entrusted to us by others: Do we use our power in the service of others? Do we exercise our authority to create community and to provide for those who are struggling or lost? Sometimes, we find ourselves in the position of the widow in today’s Gospel, asking God to answer our prayer — but, more often than we realize, we are the judge who can be the answer to another’s prayer if we stop, listen, and realize we have the means to help and heal.

And our response, in and of itself, is prayer: a prayer of gratitude to God for his giving us the resources to bring hope and help to another; a prayer of petition to God that God will be as responsive to us when we find ourselves in the place of the widow, desperate for mercy and justice.

Be it the economic power of an investment banker or the moral “power" of a parent or teacher or coach, we can easily “abuse” the power we possess for our own gain and satisfaction, or we can use our power as God intended us to use it: to bring justice and mercy to the wronged “widows” in our lives in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus. Amen.

Global Philanthropy Leaders

Global Philanthropy Leaders
an ECCT youth service initiative

At the opening of a United Nations special summit in 2015, world leaders embraced a sweeping 15-year global plan of action to end poverty, reduce inequalities and protect the environment, known as the Sustainable Development Goals. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) for 2015-2030.

The Episcopal Church in Connecticut has previously resolved to fund relevant mission projects to address these goals. One such project is the Global Philanthropy Leaders initiative created at St. Stephen’s – Ridgefield in 2017 and rolled out to St John’s – Bridgeport and St. Luke’s – Darien in 2018. St. Peter’s joins in this project today!

Global Philanthropy Leaders targets high schoolers who are looking to make a difference in someone’s life and who are curious about the world around them. Leaders will learn how to make microloans in a thoughtful and prayerful way to people in need from around the world. They will learn the difference between being given money versus being entrusted with church funds.

By receiving these loans (through kiva.org), recipients will either start or expand a business of their choice in order to improve their family’s lives. Microfinance, loans made to people with no credit history nor collateral, in amounts too small to be of interest to conventional banks, help to address 13 of the 17 SDG’s. Talk about making a difference in people’s lives!

Leaders will also learn how their faith informs their decisions through discussing relevant Bible passages using the technique of Dwelling in the Word. Along with the camaraderie of a shared experience of learning about microfinance, making loans, thinking and talking about the Good News, they will present their experiences as well as their results to their respective parishes in an end of year report out. This initiative gives young people the opportunity to work as the body of Christ now and in subsequent years.

Informal leadership opportunities are plentiful during the first year but in the second and subsequent years, Leaders will develop their formal leadership skills by teaching the first year curriculum to new Leaders, either at their own parish or at parishes with newly established GPL initiative.

A Prayer for Social Service

Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be served but to serve: Bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of others; that with wisdom, patience, and courage, they may minister in his Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy; for the love of him who laid down his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Teresa of Avila & Prayer

Talking to God with Teresa of Avila
by Ryan Kuratko

A priest friend once confessed to me that he had been years out of seminary before he realized that, throughout his life, he had spent all of his time talking about God rather than to God. He had been excited by the idea of God, by all the accoutrements around worship, and by the call to justice. In all his excitement, it took some time before he realized that he had missed the central piece.

I don’t think this is an unusual situation, whether we are ordained or not. The excitement of religious life only sometimes begins with an intimate meeting of God. Much of the time, we become interested in spirituality only after using the young adult group as a dating pool, faithfully pew-sitting as a surrogate for family, delighting in the beauty of song and light and architecture as a gateway to somewhere outside of ourselves. Stuff about God, rather than listening to God, often attracts us first.

That’s not bad! We go on a date because we read the profile first, or because we saw someone across the room, or because a friend of a friend thought it might be a good match. But it certainly is insufficient if the relationship stops there, talking about rather than talking to.

Making the shift from ‘talking about’ into ‘talking to’ also changed Teresa of Avila’s life, and we remember her witness today. Also known as Teresa de Jesus, Teresa lived in 16th century Spain. Teresa’s reflection on that shift from ‘about’ to ‘to’ colors all of her writings. She found the methods of prayer taught in her context insufficient. She claims to have spent decades of her life as a mediocre monastic, unable to connect with the prayer-styles on offer: intellectual theorizing about God, or simple recitation of the words of prayer even without understanding (which was often encouraged for women). She later stumbled onto richer ways of paying attention directly to God in scandalous books, some of which were banned by the same Spanish Inquisition that later threatened her life. In order to pass this wisdom of speaking to and not only about God along to her monastic communities, she began to incorporate it into her texts.

Teresa’s genius is that she hopes to coach/cajole/woo her reader into talking (and listening) to God. She’s not talking about the spiritual life. She spins whole conceptual paradigms that allure rather compartmentalize, and then collapse, revealing that we don’t need more complex conceptual schemes—we need God. She wants us to cross the dance floor and take a risk. She describes prayer as the first moment we enter our own interior richness in order to meet God, and what stands in the way is our anxiety about how we look; the paucity of courage so carefully trained into us by our culture (and especially trained into women); and our obsession with status rather than genuine love of our neighbors and ourselves. We are, Teresa says, going to have to get over ourselves. We need courage and a great deal of perseverance. We may be helped by learning to pay attention to God. But most of all, we are going to need to get started with a real relationship!



If you’re interested in reading Teresa, most people start with Interior Castle, her most mature book on prayer (it’s fantastic), but I’d start with The Way of Perfection. She spends many, many chapters digressing on all the things we’d have to do before we could possibly have interior prayer—not least her wandering reflections on the numerous possible interpretations of ‘water’ for spiritual people—so that by the time we’ve pulled out our hair waiting for the real talk on prayer to start, we experience the way that ‘prayer’ describes a holistic process and not some words said on a particular bench. As a writer, she’s conversational and sometimes funny, and she’s can be a real joy to read (as always, choose translations with care).

If all of this prayer sounds a little navel-gazing, allow me to close with this. Teresa is adamant that we see our growth in prayer only in the way we treat our neighbors—not in the special feelings we have. She lived at a time of political instability, intense racism, and intractable cultural division. She was under threat by the Inquisition, and for years, the spiritual directors who controlled her life kept her locked away and under guard for fear she had a demon. In the face of incredible opposition, she created something beautiful—not perfect, surely, but profound. She navigated a misogynistic culture and church to create spaces of safety, small communities where women could live together and pursue their vocations. What offered a pathway through this time of anxiety was, she assures us, God—prayer alone, she notes, gave her the strength, courage, and peace to continue.

I won’t speak for you, but I could use a little of that prayer today.

One of Teresa’s more famous prayers:

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing frighten you.
Everything is passing away.
But God is not lessened.

Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone is enough.

[Image Credit: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Teresa’s Superior, Father Jerome Gracian, commissioned this portrait by a lay Brother named Juan de la Miseria. It is said that when the Teresa saw it, she laughed and said to the artist, ‘God forgive you, Brother John; after making me go through no one knows what, you have turned me out ugly and blear eyed’.]

 

from the website: growchristians.org
 

October 13 Sermon

Almighty God, whose blessed Son went about doing good, and healing all manner of sickness; Continue, we pray, his gracious work among us; cheer, heal, and sanctify the sick; grant to the physicians, surgeons, and nurses wisdom and skill, sympathy and patience; and send down your blessing on all who labor to relieve suffering and to forward your purposes of love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Carrying on Jesus work today as his disciples means we look at the world through the eyes of mercy; praying that the Spirit of God will guide us in our love towards others, that we seek to do good and forward God’s purposes of love in all we do.

It does not mean it will be easy or that it won’t challenge us.

In our first reading…Naaman – the commander of the army of the king of Aram, though a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy. (remember Leprosy in the bible is not the same as we understand Leprosy today as Hanson’s disease).

Naaman hears from his wife about an Israelite slave girl, the most powerless person around him, and she startles him with the revelation that a prophet in Samaria can cure him. In Israel?!? Outrageous!

He writes to The King of Israel, who doesn’t want him to come, he’s commander of the enemy’s army. But…Elisha the Prophet intervenes and asks for the General to come to him. When he approaches the prophet, Elisha doesn’t go to him. He sends a messenger instead to Naaman with his horses, his chariots, and his entourage with him. The messenger tells him to go wash in the Jordan, 7 times, and he will be made clean.

Naaman was furious, felt disrespected because the prophet didn’t come out to see him, didn’t call upon God and didn’t do anything. The rivers back home are just as good as the Jordan! Such impudence!

But…his servants approach him and remind him that if the prophet had given him a hard task to do, he would have done it. Why get upset about going to the Jordan to wash and get clean?

And for the second time, Naaman listens to the least in his presence and he goes and does as Elisha had said. And lo and behold, he is made clean, his leprosy is gone! And he goes back to the prophet and he praises God for what has happened.

An amazing story of one who was healed, an enemy of Israel, who becomes faithful from the healing.

The slave girl and servant both lived into

“Love is unselfishly choosing for another's highest good.” ~ C.S. Lewis.

In the Gospel, as Jesus entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" They kept a distance because they had to, no one was to touch them, they lived apart from others in society. Many saw them as cursed by God, impure, rather than infected with a particular disease.

But Jesus looked upon them, loved them and said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." To be declared clean or healthy, a leper was to show him or herself to a priest who would then make the judgment. So by sending them, Jesus healed them, choosing the higher good.

And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. Who was it? A foreigner. An immigrant. A stranger.

The thankful one who returns to Jesus to praise God, is a Samaritan, someone outside the Jewish faith, someone whom the disciples of Jesus & those who heard this Gospel in the 1st century would have been shocked to hear praised by Jesus. It is an important point that the one who stopped to give thanks was the unexpected Samaritan & that Jesus healing knows no bounds.

Jesus looked upon them with the eyes of mercy and the who one came back to praise God, was an outsider to the faith just like Naaman from Assyria when he was healed via Elisha. It would seem that God does not always operate within our boundaries.

So as we go out into the world, to be those healers that God calls us to be, we need to make sure we have our eyes wide open for mercy’s sake and that we seek others highest good. Maybe even those we think are our enemies.

In John Drinkwater’s play Abraham Lincoln, this exchange takes place between President Lincoln and a Northern woman, an anti-Confederate zealot.

Lincoln tells her about the latest victory by Northern forces—the Confederate army lost 2700 men, while Union forces lost 800. The woman is ecstatic. “How splendid, Mr. President!”

Lincoln is stunned at her reaction. “But, madam, 3500 human lives lost . . .”

“Oh, you must not talk like that, Mr. President. There were only 800 that mattered.”

Lincoln’s shoulders drop as he says slowly and emotionally: “Madam, the world is larger than your heart.” (Connections, 2013)

Our attitudes and perceptions, our view of the world often reduce others to lepers - those we fear, or those whose religion or race or identity or beliefs seem to threaten our own. We exile these lepers to the margins of our society, outside our gates; we re-duce these lepers to simple labels and stereotypes; we reject these lepers as our enemy or too unclean to be part of our lives and our world.

God breaks into this world. Healing an enemy general, healing 10 lepers including a Samaritan. God seeks a higher good for all of us, loves us through God’s mercy and grace. Jesus who heals lepers comes to perform a much greater miracle—to heal us of our debilitating sense of self that fails to realize the sacredness and dignity of those we too often demean as lepers at our own gates.

May we with the eyes of mercy be God’s bearers of love and mercy to embrace everyone in our world, not just those on our side, for it is our baptismal calling to be such a presence in our world, whether we are young or old, rich or poor, God calls us all to be healers in our world today. Amen.

The Armenian Genocide

With the current developments in the Middle East, it is good to remind ourselves about the history of that region, especially of the Turks, Kurds, and Armenians in WW I.

Back in 2007, I called it the Armenian Genocide as so many have over the years. In 2015, Pope Francis mentioned it: http://www.npr.org/2015/04/13/399292623/armenian-genocide-remarks-by-pope-francis-spark-row-with-turkey

I read the book The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response (HarperCollins, 2004) by Peter Balakian .

Peter Balakian's The Burning Tigris places the story of the Armenian genocide in its larger historical context, which includes the international response and the emergence of a fledgling human rights movement that, two decades later, turned its attention to events in Nazi Germany. Balakian's book also illustrates how quickly the victims of history are pushed aside and forgotten in the greater geopolitical picture. Adolf Hitler, addressing his generals as they prepared to invade Poland in 1939, told them to be as ruthless as Genghis Khan and ominously asked, "Who today ... speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Genocide - the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group (from Websters on line)

". . . the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it . . . the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1918

"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" - Adolf Hitler (1939)

"Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it, . . . the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten." - Ronald Reagan (1981)

The son of murdered Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink has been found guilty of insulting "Turkishness", along with another newspaper editor. Arat Dink and Serkis Seropyan were convicted after printing Dink's claims that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks from 1915 was genocide. (October 11, 2007 - from the BBC)

I first heard of the Armenian Genocide when I visited the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC. There in the Missionary chapel is the the genocide memorial dedicated to the Armenian victims of the Ottoman Empire (1915-23), the victims of the Holocaust (1939-45), and other genocides.

Too often we want to forget our history, forget the bodies, forget the blood, forget the evil that was committed, but we can't do that, we must remember or it will happen again, as sadly the 20th century could be called the genocidal century.
Archbishop Williams repudiates genocide in visit to Armenian memorial, read it here.

Learn more about the Holocaust and other genocides here.

Responding to today's threats of genocide, go here.

Learn more about the Armenia Genocide, here and here.

Let us pray:

 
O Holy God, you love righteousness and hate iniquity: strengthen we pray, the hands of all who strive for justice throughout the world, and seeing that all human beings are your offspring, move us to share the pain of those who are oppressed, and to promote the dignity and freedom of every person; through Jesus Christ the Liberator, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Francis Sermon

Most High, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart and give me true faith, certain hope,
and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, that I may carry out your holy and true command. of love. Amen. (based on a Franciscan prayer)

When I think of someone who lived in the Spirit of God, I think of St. Francis.

In so many ways, Francis of Assisi, lived a holy life like the holy fools of the Orthodox faith…

As St. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians: “We are fools for Christ, but you are wise through Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are dishonored! 11 Up to this very moment we are hungry, thirsty, wearing rags, abused, and homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are insulted, we respond with a blessing; when we are harassed, we put up with it; 13 when our reputation is attacked, we are encouraging. We have become the scum of the earth, the waste that runs off everything, up to the present time.”

Bishop Kallistos Ware – “The Orthodox Way” p. 99 – fools in Christ

Indeed, Francis is a western church holy fool. He renounced the life he lived – he gave up the wealth he could have inherited from his father; he gave up on the glories of war; his place of privilege and status meant nothing to him when he heard the call from God, to repair the church. He gave it all up.

But when he started, he was rejected. He was mocked, laughed at, pelted with stones & mud.

Holy fools are not readily accepted, at least at first. But that’s not what they are doing.

As author Jon Sweeney puts it “Francis discovered a life of joy, simplicity, and wonder. The gift for expressing God’s joy and love involved being small not strong, avoiding positions of power altogether, thinking not about results but about virtue, and enjoying rather than avoiding moments of insecurity, fear, and awkwardness. These practices for being foolish in the eyes of the world were, for them, a sure way to discover the presence of God. That is what is available to anyone who chooses to walk the path of the Gospel in these countercultural ways.”

At the heart of Francis was his faith. A faith that spoke to him when he was lost; when he was searching for his way forward; a faith that spoke so deeply and clearly, that he changed his life.

It was that mustard seed faith that Jesus talked about.

When Jesus talked of faith, he didn’t talk about it using the mighty sequoia or the redwoods of California, the great cedars of Lebanon or the great charter oak of CT. No. He talks about faith as a mustard seed…

Jesus said, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.”

Mustard Seed. Small. Tiny.

It is as if Jesus is not expecting huge faith from us, from which we would do superhuman feats of faith and goodness. No, he expects us to find that tiny seed inside each of us.

In dilapidated church, Francis heard the voice of God and he found that seed. His life would not be easy. No holy fool is. But his life reminds us of the heart and soul of Jesus teaching, one you can’t learn simply in books, you must experience out here, in the real world, and put it into practice.

The holy fools are there to remind us of the deeper truths that the worldly stuff that we’ve been told we should preoccupy ourselves with, is not, in fact, real at all and not worthy of our time and effort.

"We don’t need to be running after the extraordinary, we simply need to get on and do that with which we have been tasked to do in our lives today, that which we know to be the work of the Kingdom of God as it grows out of our ordinary, everyday lives."

Thinking about faith and its outworking in this way gives us in turn a helpful lens to bring to bear on our attitudes towards others. St. Francis wandered; he touched the lives of so many; he preached to people, he preached to animals; he sought to stop war; nothing held back God’s spirit in him as he brought that spirit to all of God’s creation & creatures.

Our calling today is to strive to live into that mustard seed faith. To begin where we are, with who we are and what we have, and to work quietly and consistently with that, while seeking to grow and develop in skill and understanding through this experience of lived faithfulness. In the words of the Si Kahn song:

‘It’s not just what your born with
it’s what you choose to bear;
it’s not how large your share is
It’s how much you can share.
It’s not the fights you dreamed of
It’s those you really fought;
It’s not what you’ve been given
It’s what you do with what you’ve got’

St. Francis as a holy fool, played an important role for his time and ours, showing us what truly mattered and what you do with what you got. His last words to his fellow monks were "I have done what was mine to do; may Christ teach you what you are to do."

He heard that call, and it changed his life and he wanted everyone to have such an empowering experience. And yet, Francis never saw his life in such glowing terms. St. Francis once said, “I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.”

Indeed, God works through all of us. We are not called to be St. Francis but we can sure learn from his witness and respond to God working in us. May we live our lives faithfully and with integrity in our mustard seed faith. And just as St. Francis did as was his to do; may Christ teach all of us what we are to do today. Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi -- on perfect joy

One day in winter, as Saint Francis was going with Brother Leo from Perugia to Saint Mary of the Angels, and was suffering greatly from the cold, he called to Brother Leo, who was walking on before him, and said to him: "Brother Leo, if it were to please God that the Friars Minor should give, in all lands, a great example of holiness and edification, write down, and note carefully, that this would not be perfect joy."

A little further on, Saint Francis called to him a second time: "O Brother Leo, if the Friars Minor were to make the lame to walk, if they should make straight the crooked, chase away demons, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and, what is even a far greater work, if they should raise the dead after four days, write that this would not be perfect joy."

Shortly after, he cried out again: "O Brother Leo, if the Friars Minor knew all languages; if they were versed in all science; if they could explain all Scripture; if they had the gift of prophecy, and could reveal, not only all future things, but likewise the secrets of all consciences and all souls, write that this would not be perfect joy."

After proceeding a few steps farther, he cried out again with a loud voice: "O Brother Leo, thou little lamb of God! if the Friars Minor could speak with the tongues of angels; if they could explain the course of the stars; if they knew the virtues of all plants; if all the treasures of the earth were revealed to them; if they were acquainted with the various qualities of all birds, of all fish, of all animals, of men, of trees, of stones, of roots, and of waters - write that this would not be perfect joy."

Shortly after, he cried out again: "O Brother Leo, if the Friars Minor had the gift of preaching so as to convert all infidels to the faith of Christ, write that this would not be perfect joy."

Now when this manner of discourse had lasted for the space of two miles, Brother Leo wondered much within himself; and, questioning the saint, he said: "Father, I pray thee teach me wherein is perfect joy." Saint Francis answered: "If, when we shall arrive at Saint Mary of the Angels, all drenched with rain and trembling with cold, all covered with mud and exhausted from hunger; if, when we knock at the convent-gate, the porter should come angrily and ask us who we are; if, after we have told him, "We are two of the brethren", he should answer angrily, "What ye say is not the truth; ye are but two impostors going about to deceive the world, and take away the alms of the poor; begone I say"; if then he refuse to open to us, and leave us outside, exposed to the snow and rain, suffering from cold and hunger till nightfall - then, if we accept such injustice, such cruelty and such contempt with patience, without being ruffled and without murmuring, believing with humility and charity that the porter really knows us, and that it is God who maketh him to speak thus against us, write down, O Brother Leo, that this is perfect joy.

And if we knock again, and the porter come out in anger to drive us away with oaths and blows, as if we were vile impostors, saying, "Begone, miserable robbers! to to the hospital, for here you shall neither eat nor sleep!" - and if we accept all this with patience, with joy, and with charity, O Brother Leo, write that this indeed is perfect joy.

And if, urged by cold and hunger, we knock again, calling to the porter and entreating him with many tears to open to us and give us shelter, for the love of God, and if he come out more angry than before, exclaiming, "These are but importunate rascals, I will deal with them as they deserve"; and taking a knotted stick, he seize us by the hood, throwing us on the ground, rolling us in the snow, and shall beat and wound us with the knots in the stick - if we bear all these injuries with patience and joy, thinking of the sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which we would share out of love for him, write, O Brother Leo, that here, finally, is perfect joy.

A Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with discomfort,
At easy answers, half-truths,
And superficial relationships
So that you may live
Deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression,
And exploitation of people,
So that you may work for
Justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears,
To shed for those who suffer pain,
Rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand
To comfort them and
To turn their pain to joy

And may God bless you
With enough foolishness
To believe that you can
Make a difference in the world,
So that you can do
What others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness
To all our children and the poor.

And may God: F + S + HS be with you now and forever more.
Amen.

Prayers for Sound Government

O Lord our Governor, bless the leaders of our land, that we
may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to
other nations of the earth.
Lord, keep this nation under your care.

To the President and members of the Cabinet, to Governors
of States, Mayors of Cities, and to all in administrative
authority, grant wisdom and grace in the exercise of their
duties.
Give grace to your servants, O Lord.


To Senators and Representatives, and those who make our
laws in States, Cities, and Towns, give courage, wisdom, and
foresight to provide for the needs of all our people, and to
fulfill our obligations in the community of nations.
Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

To the Judges and officers of our Courts give understanding
and integrity, that human rights may be safeguarded and
justice served.
Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

And finally, teach our people to rely on your strength and to
accept their responsibilities to their fellow citizens, that they
may elect trustworthy leaders and make wise decisions for
the well-being of our society; that we may serve you
faithfully in our generation and honor your holy Name.
For yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as
head above all. Amen.

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our
heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove
ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will.
Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and
pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion;
from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend
our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes
brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue
with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust
the authority of government, that there may be justice and
peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we
may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth.
In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness,
and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail;
all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

(from the Book of Common Prayer)