St. Francis

I have no recorded or printed sermons copies I of sermons I have given for the upcoming Sunday, Proper 21 C, so I decided to publish a sermon I gave back in 1995 for the Sunday closest to October 4 when we celebrated the feast day of St. Francis. It not only remembers Francis but contains a good message of stewardship.

Sermon

St. Francis

Sermon given in 1995

By Rev. Valerie Hart at

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church

Luke 17:5-10

When I was a senior in High School my friend Gail Robinson gave me this book, (hold up book) Saint Francis by Kazantazakis, for Christmas. I don’t know why she gave it to me, but she was a very intuitive type of person and I guess just thought I would like it. I read it eagerly, until I reached the part where Francis removes his clothes and hands them to his father. You see Francis, the son of a rich and wealthy merchant, had been feeling more and more drawn to Christ’s service. His experiences in prayer in front of a crucifix had profoundly affected him. He was no longer the happy go lucky son his father had known, and his father was angry. Francis father appealed to the bishop to intercede with Francis, but the bishop appears to have had more understanding of Francis then did his father. The father desired the return of the money that Francis had spent on the church. The bishop said to Francis, “If you desire to serve God, than give his mammon back to your father, which perhaps has been obtained by unjust methods, and therefore should not be used for the benefit of the Church.” At this Francis removed his clothes, and standing naked accept for a rough loin cloth, returned not only the money, but the clothes his father had given him.

            I remember reading that far in the book and being so struck by the total renunciation of Francis, so moved by his willingness to give up all trappings of his former life, that I could read no further. It was as if someone had held a mirror up to my heart and showed me what I was not. I knew that I was unable to give up my comfort to serve God. I knew that I could not make that kind of sacrifice. Francis was willing to give 100%, I gave so very little.

            It was many, many years before I was able to pick up that book again. During that time I had learned to have a little more compassion for myself, to accept that I was unlikely ever to be Sainted, and that was OK. I still continue to be moved every time I read of Francis’ total devotion to our Lord - his absolute and total giving of himself. When I think of Francis I often feel like the disciples who asked Jesus to increase their faith. Next to Francis I see the ways in which my own faith is lacking.

            I have asked myself how is it that Francis was able to do this. How could he give up all comfort, all physical security? The answer is his experience with praying at the crucifix. At one point, in response to fervent prayer for how God wanted him to serve, Francis experienced the crucified Christ speaking to him in his heart. Francis experienced the crucified savior. He would meditate on what the experience of Christ on the cross must have been like. He wept for our crucified Lord. He knew in his deepest being that Christ had, out of love, given 100% of himself. He knew that Christ had died, had given his body to be crucified, for us, - out of love for us. Francis felt such a response of love to this great gift that he wanted, he longed, to give 100% back to Christ. His love for our Lord was so great, his knowledge of our Lord’s suffering so direct, that for Francis there could be no response less than 100%.

            What was this call that Francis heard form the crucifix? What he heard was, “Now go hence, Francis, and build up my house, for it is nearly falling down!” Now Francis was a simple man, and he took things literally. He had been praying in a small church that had been neglected and was falling down, so he assumed that Christ meant he should build up that physical church. Of course we who know the whole story of Francis. We know that he transformed the entire Christian church of his day. We know that the Church in the 13th century was in many ways corrupt, and that the spiritual life had been neglected. Francis through his example transformed and rebuilt the greater Church, but that was much later in the story. When Francis heard Christ speak to him he started with a physical project. He took Christ’s words literally and began to rebuild the broken down little church of San Damiano, brick by brick.

            But where was he to get the materials for this rebuilding. He had given all of his money back to his father. He owned nothing, so he had to go out and beg for the bricks. He went from house to house saying, “He who gives me a brick will have his reward in heaven. He who gives two bricks will have twice the reward.”

            How difficult it must have been for this once proud young man to beg. I know that for me the hardest thing I ever have to do is ask people for money. To literally beg from door to door for the Lord is a moving testament of love and faith.

            But gradually others were drawn to his love and commitment. He found he was no longer building alone, but a group of individuals gathered around Francis who were also committed to service to God. Francis could not imagine how he would rebuild the church, yet his faith, faith as a mustard seed, could do anything.

            I think it is interesting that Francis began his work of rebuilding the church with a concrete project. Similarly, when asked to increase the faith of his disciples, Jesus answers by talking about a servant who rather than being thanked at the end of the day is asked to do more. How do we increase our faith? Jesus seems to be answering, “Serve”. Usually we think about it in just the opposite way, “if I had faith, then I would serve. Then I could do great things for God.” Jesus is telling us to begin to do things for God, and your faith will increase. Francis began with a project. He began by repairing a small church. He didn’t start with trying to change the world, but he did, brick by brick.

            We too are called by Christ. It is no accident that each one of us is here today. We each have followed a different path to be here, to be a part of the Episcopal Church in Brentwood, but here we are. And we are called to action, to build up Christ’s house, Christ’s church, right here. We are called to respond to the 100% love shown by Christ in his crucifixion. We are called to be servants, to do, to act, to serve. None of us are St. Francis. Few beings are able to respond as fully and completely as Francis. 100% is too much for most of us, that’s why the biblical ideal has been the tithe, ten percent, - because we are unable to truly give 100%, to give 100% of our money, to give 100% of our time, to give 100% of our talents. But we can give. We can work to build up Christ’s church. We can be a beacon of light and love. We can show others how much we are loved by God,

We can do what is so beautifully put in the prayer attributed to St. Francis, “Where there is hatred we can sow love, where there is injury Pardon, where there is discord, union, where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy.”

            How do we increase our faith? Serve.

            Where do we start? Here.

            When do we start? Now

  

Proper 27 B Sermon

 This is a sermon about four widows who had very little except a trust in God. Out of that trust they needed to give, to care for those around them and to offer whatever they had to God.

Proper 27 B

Transcribed from a sermon given on

November 11, 2012

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

In the lectionary today we read about three poor widows. The widow in the Gospel of course, but also of Naomi and Ruth. For those of you who haven’t read the book of Ruth for a while I want to give you the context here. Naomi and her husband were from Judea, from Bethlehem. There was a famine so she and her husband and their two sons moved to Moab, which was a nearby nation. It was an enemy of Israel, but due to the famine they went and stayed there. While they were there their two sons married Moabite women. So they would have been considered foreigners to the Judeans. Then her husband died and Naomi became a widow. And then both of her sons died, and there she was a widow with two widowed daughter-in-laws. No grandchildren had been born. So the question came up, now what were they to do?

Back in those days the life of a widow was pretty difficult. They had no social safety net, no social security. Basically your support was from your children and your grandchildren, especially the males, because at that time a woman couldn’t own property or inherit property, and there weren’t any good jobs for women. So these three women were pretty destitute - very poor widows.

Naomi decided to return to Judea. She had heard that the famine was over there. As she left she told her two daughters-in-law, “you stay here. Go back to your mother’s houses and see if you can find new husbands because I am not going to provide you any more husbands.” Well one of them decided to stay in Moab, but Ruth, in a very famous statement said, “No, I will go with you. Your home will be my home. Your God will be my God.”

So Ruth and Naomi return to Judea, probably hoping that there might be some friends or distant relatives who would help them out. Well at that time the way that the poor were taken care of was through what was called gleaning. If you had a crop and you were harvesting it you were not supposed to harvest every single grain. You were supposed to leave a little bit behind. It is hard to get the edges, it is hard to get everything, and rather than going back and getting all of that for yourself you were to leave it there so that the poor could come by and harvest the part that was difficult to harvest and have it for themselves. So Ruth goes out to glean in order to try and get some food for her and Naomi. And it just happened. (There are lots of things that “just happen” in scripture, but we know it is God’s hand when things “just happen.”) It just happened that the place where she went to glean was owned by a relative of Naomi’s husband. So Ruth was gleaning, and she worked very hard, and she took back whatever she gleaned to Naomi. They had enough, and she did that for several days. The owner of the field, Boaz, noticed what a hard worker she was so he surreptitiously told the people who were gathering his crops to leave a little more for her so she had plenty to glean. And he told them to give her some water because she gets thirsty in the middle of the day. He was treating her very well. There was respect for her, even though she was a foreigner, because she was caring for her mother-in-law and she was working very hard.

This brings us to the part we just read, of Naomi going to Boaz, the owner of this field. Boaz was a kinsman and in Israel at that time inheritance of property was a very complex thing. It was to be inherited down the lineage, son to son to son. It was the property that had been divided up when they entered into the Promised Land, and the property was to stay within the family. So it was difficult if a man died without an heir. The law was that if a man died who didn’t yet have an heir and he had brothers one of the brothers was to take the man’s wife into his home and provide that woman with a child so that that child could be the heir for the man who died - so that brother’s name could continue on. There was a responsibility to take care of your brother’s lineage and heritage. Remember Naomi’s husband had died leaving no heirs since the sons have died.

So Boaz is a kinsman, but not the closest kinsman, it turns out. But he is a kinsman so if the property is going to go to someone, it should go to someone who is related. And that is why Ruth goes and offers herself to Boaz, getting all dressed up and beautiful for the, well you all can imagine. Add to that the symbolism of uncovering the feet. The feet are often used in scripture as representing the genital area. So you can kind of see what Naomi was telling Ruth to do. They left out a part in which Boaz says that he is interested in marrying her, but he can’t do it right away because there is one kinsman that is closer, one relative that is closer and should have right to the property. So he has to first give that kinsman the opportunity to take Ruth as his own. The other kinsman says no so Boaz marries Ruth. And that is why when Ruth has this boy child with Boaz, it is taken to Naomi because that boy child represents the lineage of Naomi’s husband. It is a little confusing to us, but it is a very important story. The reason it is so important in scripture is because the son of Obed was Jesse who was the father of David. So when you read the genealogy of Jesus in scripture, it includes Obed of Ruth. Ruth is one of the women mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy. It is interesting too that this woman is a foreigner. She is a Moabite. But what is important to me today is the faith that these women had. Their great trust, especially Ruth’s trust in Naomi’s God. She was willing to leave everything she knew to go back and worship the God of Israel.

We have another poor widow with great faith in the Gospel today. She comes and puts two small copper coins or pennies into the collection box. Jesus is impressed because he says she gave everything she had to live on.

And there is one other widow I want to tell you about, a fourth widow. This was a woman who went to my previous parish. She lived in the poorer area of town. She had an apartment in subsidized housing. She didn’t have much. There came a time when the person who had been giving her a ride to church wasn’t able to do it any more and since I went right by her house when I came in to church I started giving her a ride to and from church. And it came to be the fall and it was stewardship Sunday, which is what we have here today. When I got into the car with her on the way back to her house she had tears in her eyes. I asked what was the matter, and she said she couldn’t come to church anymore. So I asked. “Why not.” She said, “Because I can’t give anything. I don’t have any money to give.” At that moment I felt like God inspired me. I had been hoping to find someone to make bread, so I said, “Could you make bread?” She said, “Sometimes I won’t have the money to buy the flour and the yeast and all.” And I said, “If I got you the flour and the yeast could you make bread?” She said, “Sure.” After that, every single Sunday until she went into the hospital before she died, when the gifts were brought up, her loaf of bread was right there. Her gift was offered to God.

You see it is not the size of the gift, it is the heart behind it that matters. The two copper coins were more valuable to God then lots of money from a rich person, because you see God doesn’t need money. God doesn’t need money any more than God needed the blood of animals that were sacrificed at the temple. God has all the animals God needs in creation. God has it all - it is all God. God can take a church and blow it down. God can make something grow up instead. God doesn’t need money. But we need to give. That poor widow needed an opportunity to give to God. Each one of the four widows we have spoken of had a relationship with God. A relationship that involved trust, that involved love, that involved a sense of oneness. They had a relationship that included a sense of thankfulness even though they were poor, even though they didn’t have much, and they needed to give to God. Ruth did so by taking care of Naomi. The widow by giving her two pennies. My friend by making bread. They needed a way to express that relationship, to live out that relationship. The giving was a sign of a giving of themselves to God. Of their trust that God would take care of things.

And that is what it is for us. Today is the day we collect our estimate of giving cards, sometimes called pledge Sunday or stewardship Sunday. God doesn’t need your gift, but we need to give, because what we give represents our relationship with God. If we truly feel that we have received love from God, if we’ve experienced the incredible gift of God’s love, we need to give back. It’s just a natural thing.

We can give back in many ways. We can help out around the church, we can help our neighbors, and we can help our families. We can love God in many ways. One of the opportunities is by giving to the church. Because when we offer our offering to God it is a symbol. It is a symbol representing our offering of ourselves. As one of the Eucharistic Prayers puts it, “We offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies.” It is a giving of ourselves that is offered up at the altar. The amount of the money isn’t important. The ministry that goes on here can go on without a building, without a paid organist, without a paid priest and a secretary. We could still express the love of God to people. The early church worshiped in houses and there were no paid clergy. God’s work could still go on. God doesn’t need our money, but we need to give. We need to love, we need to give and we need to share.

Sermon Proper 5 B

Here is something I wrote back in 1994 that includes some reflections on martyrdom. Who would have thought then that 20 years later the news would include information about people killed just because they are Christians.

Proper 5 - Year B

June 5, 1994

Sermon Given at St. Alban’s, Brentwood

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

During the past several weeks I have received in the mail two letters asking that vicars and rectors set aside this Sunday for a special purpose. The first was from the bishop of our diocese concerning the Episcopal Charities Appeal and the second was from the Ugandan AIDS project, asking that we remember the Ugandan Martyrs who appear on our calendar on June 3rd. I said something about the Episcopal Charities appeal in my newsletter and I will say more about it later, but first I’d like to talk somewhat about the Ugandan Martyrs. If you are like I was before I started Seminary, you probably never heard of the Ugandan Martyrs. Rather than try and describe them myself, I would like to read you the letter describing the background on the Ugandan Martyrs that I received

(Here I read from the letter which I no longer have)

It is hard for us who live in the United States, a country that has had total religious freedom for more than 200 years, to really comprehend martyrdom. It is hard for us who have never had to chose between life and our belief in Christ to realize that people have been systematically killed because of the belief in Christ not just centuries ago, but in 1977. It is hard for us who come to church on Sunday mornings when it is convenient, when we are not too tired, when there is nothing else we need to do on Sunday to imagine what it was like for Christians who lived under communism to meet in secret and risk losing everything in order to go to receive the Eucharist. It is hard for us who live such secular lives to realize that a religion could be that important in a person’s life.

What is it that would bring someone to a willingness to give their lives for Christ? It is not out of duty, or ought, (the primary motivators in much of American religion) but rather a response - a response to the love of God demonstrated through Jesus Christ. It is a response to the freedom we have been given through Christ’s sacrifice, the freedom from bondage to sin and guilt. The Old Testament reading today concerning Adam and Eve’s refusal to accept responsibility for their actions and the subsequent separation from God was wiped out by Christ’s loving sacrifice. All need to feel guilty and separated from God was wiped clean by the inconceivable love shown by Christ. Christ knows us, sees us, sees through us, sees all the little fears and guilts and mistakes…and…he loves us. To paraphrase Mr. Rogers, “he loves us just the way we are.” And that love transforms us, and helps us to become the people God intends for us to be.

To be willing to die for someone who gives us ourselves is not so surprising. To be willing to give up all for the one who is the source of all the we are, all that we have, is not so surprising When we realize how much we are loved, when we realize that all we have, all we are, is a loving gift from God, when we know that we belong to Christ, then we must respond.

In the Gospel reading today Jesus says:

And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Those who just say that they are related to Christ, are not acknowledged, only those who “do the will of God.” When we know that we are Christ’s, that each breath is a gift, that all we have is a gift, that every penny that passes through our hands is a gift, that the beauty of the sky and the trees are gifts, that our very lives are gifts from a loving sacrificing God, how can we not respond? How can we not try to do the will of God?

The Episcopal Charities are one way in which the will of God is done in our name by the Episcopal Diocese of California. There are people out there ministering to the homeless, the elderly, the lonely, those addicted to drugs and alcohol, mothers who are struggling to raise children alone, people dying, people diagnosed with AIDSS. These people who are doing the will of God in our name thorough these Episcopal Charities ask for our support, especially our financial support. By giving to the Episcopal Charities Appeal we do the will of God by financially supporting those who are doing the will of God throughout the diocese.

We as a church, as the St. Alban’s community, are also called to do the will of God. When you financially support the church you help this entity to do the will of God. Now we do not have enough money even to balance a very limited budget. How can we together do what our church is called by God to do in the community of Brentwood without consistent financial support?

And we are called to do the will of God as individuals. To strive to do the will of God in our work environments, to strive to do the will of God in our families, and to strive to do the will of God during our leisure time.

All that we have, all of our time, all of our talents are gifts from God and we are called to be stewards of these gifts and to in all ways and at all times consider whether our choices are consistent with the will of God. When we do this, when we feel our actions are consistent with the will of God, we experience a deep inner satisfaction and we know that we are indeed Christ’s sisters and brothers.

Sermon for Proper 22 A - St. Francis

What follows is a transcription of a sermon I gave October 2 of 2011. We were honoring St. Francis that day and would be blessing animals immediately following the sermon. I always enjoyed sharing our worship with our animal friends. That Sunday I based the sermon on the lectionary readings for Proper 22 A and retold the parable of wicked tenants from a 21st century perspective.

Proper 22 A

Blessing of the Animals

Transcribed from a sermon given

October 2, 2011

Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church

The Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer.

Please be seated, or should I say “Sit!”

If you were reading along or singing the psalm with the choir you saw where I got that statement that I almost always use to begin my sermons. It is from that Psalm, number 19.

I would like to tell the parable that Jesus gave us today in the manner it might be told in the 21^st century. Let’s imagine that Bill Gates has discovered a new area that is very poor and a town that has absolutely nothing. So he goes there and he builds a factory. He puts in wells. He builds houses for the people who will work in the factory. He puts in a large garden so the people can be well fed. He plants fruit trees for the future and sets everything up for this town to thrive. The people of the town are so thankful, so appreciative of what they have been given. Then Mr. Gates picks out a few of the more intelligent and sophisticated of the people and says; "Now you will be the managers and you will oversee what happens.” You are to send me a certain percentage of whatever you make so I can reinvest it other places, and you are to see to it that everyone has a good life. Then he goes off to another country in another part of the world to help them out.

 Well, at first the people are so thankful to Mr. Gates for having done this and helping them out that when it comes time and they add up how much money they’ve made that year they have no trouble sending the percentage that was expected back to Mr. Gates. They have more than enough now, with enough food and housing, and so forth. Well a few years down the road the managers realize that they haven’t heard back from Mr. Gates and there is no way for Mr. Gates to know how much they are making, so why are we sending him the full percentage? We can send him less and he would never know. So each year they send a little bit of a smaller percentage of what they have made, because after all they are enjoying how they live and they want to live better. Especially the managers who want to build some new houses that are a little bigger than the other houses and they need that extra money to take care of it. Well this goes on for a few years and then comes the rumor. The rumor is, (I think they read it on the internet) the rumor is that Mr. Gates has died. Oh, well, if Mr. Gates has died then this is no longer his factory - it’s now ours. Right? So we don’t need to send him anything. We can just enjoy it, and the managers discover that they need more and more. They work harder than everybody else so they need to have more than everyone else. Some of the people are starting to be a little poor, but that’s their choice that they don’t have as much because they don’t work as hard.

Well after a couple of years Bill Gates say, “How come I haven’t gotten any money from that one town? It has been several years now. I’m going to send one of my chief aids to go and figure out what’s going on.” Well, this chief aid of Bill Gates is a little smarter than the ones in Jesus’ parable and he doesn’t go there and tell them who he is. He just tries to figure out what’s going on. Then he says that this isn’t right. This isn’t yours, this was given to you to use, to take care of and you shouldn’t be treating some people as less than. Some of the people hear and some don’t.

Then that person goes back to Mr. Gates and says, “I’m really concerned. I’m hoping they will change their ways, but there is no guarantee.” Well a few more years go by and they are still not getting their share of the profits so finally Bill Gates sends his son. And his son goes. Well when they find out that it is Bill Gates son they say, “Ah, if Bill Gates is truly dead then if we kill the son it will be ours. We’ll inherit it.”

In this version of the story Bill Gates’ son doesn’t get killed but what do you think of those people? Those people who were given a great gift. They were given a gift of new life. They were given so much opportunity, and they forgot it was a gift. They forgot it didn’t belong to them. What would happen to such a people?

What would happen to us, because after all, everything, everything we have, is a gift from God. The sunshine isn’t ours. The rain isn’t ours. The seeds that are planted and grow up to make food aren’t ours. Our bodies were created by God and are a gift from God. Our intellectual capacity is a gift from God. We didn’t make ourselves smart; we didn’t make ourselves talented. Our hands, with these wonderful opposable thumbs which means we would be able to create all this amazing technology, that was a gift from God. We didn’t will and decide that we would have all of that. It is all a gift.

Now we are celebrating St. Francis today, but I am using the readings that are normally used for this Sunday, not the readings that are for St. Francis, but they certainly fit with Francis.

Let’s begin with the Old Testament reading. It is always good to remember what those basic commandments are. And the very first one, the very first one is, “I am the Lord who brought you out of slavery in Egypt, you will have no other gods before me.” The very first commandment is a reminder that God gives us everything. Our freedom, our lives, all of it. And we are supposed to keep God as number 1. That’s the foundation. That’s the first commandment. No ifs, ands or buts. No I am number 1 except when there is a good football game on. Not I am number 1 but make as much money as you can. Not I am number 1 and if you make me number 1 then I will give you something. It is not a deal. It is not an exchange. I am number 1, period. End of that first commandment.

And when we make God number 1, when we appreciate and realize that God is the source of everything, all of our lives, how can we not live a life of thankfulness and praise. All the time. And that’s St. Francis. St. Francis praised and loved God all the time. No matter what.

He chose poverty because he knew that everything he had was God’s anyway. And he gave away all of it. He wrote some of the words we have been singing today in some of the songs about praising God. One of the last things he wrote was a wonderful ode to God, a poem of praise, which is Hymn 406. So if you look in the blue hymnal for hymn 406 you will recognize the words. “Most high omnipotent good Lord to thee be ceaseless praise outpoured, and blessing without measure. From thee alone all creatures came no one is worthy thee to name. My lord be praised by brother sun who through the skies his course doth run.” And it goes on that everything in creation should praise God. It is a joyous hymn of praise, a poem of praise.

You would expect that someone who could write that sort of praise for God was probably feeling pretty good at the time. But the truth is this was written near the end of Francis’ life. The last few years of his life he was constantly in excruciating pain. His feet were in so much pain he couldn’t walk. So when he wrote this he was in great physical pain. And he was also in emotional and spiritual pain because the order that had founded based on the idea that they would own nothing was now under the control of some of his followers and was starting to buy property. Which he was against. He could see that his order, although still doing good work, was not living up to the deepest commitment that he had. The absolute poverty of Francis was too much for even the Franciscans. And so he was in anguish about that. Imagine being in constant pain and seeing your life work going in a different direction than you’d intended it and being able to write such wonderful praise to God. That was St. Francis. That was St. Francis.

We bless animals around the time of St. Francis’ feast day because it is said that he loved animals. There is a story of him with a wolf and there are stories that he so needed to preach the love of God that if there were no people around to hear it he would preach to the birds. I sometimes try to imagine what Francis might have said to the birds. And I imagine that Francis said to the birds, “You beautiful creatures of God, creatures created by the loving God, sing God’s praise all the time.” And I imagine that if Francis was here today and saw the wonderful creatures we have here, these wonderful dogs who are being so very, very good, he would say, “Animals, you are beloved creatures of God. Created to praise him. Praise and serve God with every breath, with every pant, with every bark. Sing God’s praise.

And I think that Francis might say to us two legged creatures who are gathered here today, “You wonderful creations of God, you blessed of God, know that God loves you and praise God with every breath.”

Amen