It was wonderful to be back at Holy Trinity this past Sunday for worship, to reconnect yesterday with our Wednesday bible study group, and to once again be working alongside your faithful Ministry and Office Coordinator, Mark Donahue. I look forward to being with you all these coming months.
In my Episcopal tradition, the first Sunday of October is often set aside to honor St. Francis and to celebrate the gift of Creation which Francis loved so much. So, I hope you will indulge me this coming Sunday as we do just that at Holy Trinity. In place of the usual lectionary readings for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, we will instead read the lessons and sing some of the hymns suggested for the Feast of St. Francis.
I don’t know about you, but I feel a desperate need in these fragile times to be in the company of holy women and holy men. For saints, even in the midst of darkness, have a way of reminding us that God’s light will not be extinguished but continues to shine in the lives of faithful folk around the world. And certainly, St. Francis remains an inspiring example of what the Christian life at its best can look like.
One of my favorite reflections on saints is from the writer Frederick Buechner (who died just a few months ago) in his book Wishful Thinking. This is what Buechner says about saints:
“In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a pocket handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints. Many people think of saints as plaster saints, men and women of such paralyzing virtue that they never thought a nasty thought or did an evil deed their whole lives long. As far as I know, real saints never even come close to characterizing themselves that way. On the contrary, no less a saint than Saint Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘I am foremost among sinners’ (l Timothy 1:15).
In other words, the feet of saints are as much of clay as everybody else's, and their sainthood consists less of what they have done than of what God has for some reason chosen to do through them. When you consider that Saint Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven devils, that Saint Augustine prayed, ‘Give me chastity and continence, but not now,’ that Saint Francis started out as a high-living young dude in downtown Assisi, and that Saint Simeon Stylites spent years on top of a sixty-foot pillar, you figure that maybe there's nobody God can’t use as a means of grace, including even ourselves.
The Holy Spirit has been called ‘the Lord, the giver of life’ and, drawing their power from that source, saints are essentially life-givers. To be with them is, in a phrase, to become more alive.” In the short time I have been at Holy Trinity, it has become abundantly clear to me that in this church I am in the midst many, many life-giving saints. Thank you for inviting me into your beloved community. Together, with God’s help, and with holy witnesses like St. Francis, we will get through these challenging times!
Finally, I would be remiss if I concluded these remarks on St. Francis without offering the great prayer attributed to him:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace: where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O Holy One, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Blessings, Luther