Grace and Peace to you from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
St. Francis of Assisi has an amazing story to tell. When we list, reformers of the church, we should put Francis’ name right up there with Martin Luther’s. The church in the Middle Ages had become very self-satisfied and worldly. Francis was repulsed by this and sought to return the church to her faith roots. Initially, the Franciscan order took its vow of poverty absolutely seriously. Scores of the children of wealthy Italian merchants came to St. Francis because they were inspired by his commitment to Christian truth, his zeal for service and his love for Christ and for others.
The hymn we are about to sing speaks of Francis’ love for creation. He saw grace in everything that God’s hand had touched. The earth for example, was not a substance to be used and exploited. The earth was a sister, a brother, a holy sibling. The earth was a gift from God that yielded food for us to eat, food to sustain us. More than that though, the food itself is delightful. We don’t have a boring diet. With a little imagination and some flair, even lowly humble rice becomes risotto flavored with pumpkin and bright orange to the eye, or delicately seasoned with porcini mushrooms carrying the subtle smell of the woods and of humus, or bring yellow with saffron reflecting the rays and color of the sun itself. Francis in this amazing hymn calls us to see ourselves united with even the heavenly bodies – he calls the Brother Sun and the Sister Moon. There are more than terms of endearment; they reflect the reality that we are all creatures together united in an ecosystem of profoundly deep interconnection. We are one with the universe because we are part of it.
I love the phrase “Dear sister water, useful clear. Make music for you Lord to hear”.
Who among us doesn’t take delight in water? Oceans and beaches are our most popular vacation destinations and we all want access to a pool in summer’s heat. When Eliza and my boys were little we used to go to the creek near our house and catch crayfish. The water would ripple over the rocks and serenade us. The water was from a mountain stream and our toes would get numb.
I was listening to the news the other night about the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq. They have had drought for 2 years and these rivers are flowing at 50% of their capacity. The waters are used for irrigation and farmers are unable to raise the wheat and the rice they need to feed Iraq’s 60 million people. After oil and petroleum, dates used to be Iraq’s number two export. Many dates planters haven’t had a harvest in 2 years because the trees are simply struggling to survive
The cost of water in Southern California, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico is skyrocketing. Civilizations rise and fall because of changes in water tables, water levels. The people who built the great cities of Mesa Verde at the junction of the four states around the Southwest corner of Colorado had to migrate and their civilization was lost because they failed to steward their water.
Science tells us that children and almost 90% water when they are born and we remain more than 75% water our entire lives. Water is life giving. In some ways we are indistinguishable from the water around us. The ocean’s tides are affected by the gravitational pull of the moon and our words lunacy and lunatic remind us that our emotions and our mental health are affected by the ecosystem we are a part of. Christian theology and St. Frances’ contribution to it, including this hymn remind us that what happens to the earth, the sky, and the vast seas like the Atlantic and especially our own dear Mother – the Chesapeake happen to us all. God calls on us today to re-double our efforts and our commitment to preserving the bay, restoring her to health, and presenting her to our children’s children teeming again with oysters, crabs and rock fish. She is our Holy sister and equally beloved by our creator. Our job, our stewardship must include her re-creation.
The third verse reminds us that St. Francis believed that the earth is our mother. While the term mother is a metaphor, it is more than that. The earth and its soil were created by God before us – according to Genesis. The earth is our big sister, God’s first born. More than that, scripture tells us that God scooped up handfuls of soil and hand fashioned Adam, our first ancestor. We are made from clay.
When I was a kid I used to play in the mud. We would make mud pies or mud cakes and bake them near my Dad’s burn barrel. Something about the mud attracts us. At expensive spas people climb into mud baths; the soil pulls out impurities and refreshes our skin in a strange and curious way. Perhaps there is secret evidence of our universal longing to feel at one with creation, at peace with the earth.
One of the things I love about being Pastor at Holy Communion is that I have two county wide champion compost makers in the congregation – Thelma Maisenholder and Richard Sherrill. Compost is a miracle of God. To make compost you mix soil even very poor subsoil and add any kind of organic garden debris and detritus to it. You mix that up, add some water and wait for God’s regeneration crew to do its magic. The regeneration crew in question is bacteria – the same kind of bacteria that can make us sick, some strains of which are even deadly to human beings. The bacteria breaks down “creation” e.g. old rotten salad, or cucumbers or pumpkin shells and return it to the earth as the raw elements necessary to generate new life. Life and structure breaks down to be able to give the soil life again. Oh that all of us were organic gardeners.
But because of sin, our age old rebellion, we want to maximize our profits for short term gain. We add petro chemicals to the soil to bring on growth and we spray on all manner of pesticides that enter the food chain. Forty years ago, we nearly lost our national bird, the “bald eagle” because of DDT. We stopped that and eagles have made a big come back. Yet, the battle against greed goes on. Look at the food label on any can, box or wrapper you get at the grocery store. It will include all manner of chemical compounds that you can hardly pronounce. All of these are additives that combine with natural ingredients to either enhance the foods flavor or as preservatives. Yet, seldom have long term studies been conducted to see if these additives have long term adverse health effects, yet, we constantly hear of new diseases and disorders arising. Forty years ago no one had head of autism or Torette’s Syndrome, now they are common. Is there a connection between the two phenomena? Many people a lot smarter than I am believe there is. There’s an old adage – you are what you eat. St. Frances’ hymn reminds us that we are to carefully steward the earth, our home. We are to treat the soil as a sister and our mother. It is only wise to do so. We have no other home.
The fifth verse of St. Francis’ great hymn seems odd at first glace. How can Francis call death our sister, the one who returns us to God? Quirkily perhaps, but also only possible from the soul of someone as full of faith as St. Frances. God is before us and had us in mind millions of years before we were born. God’s love never let’s us go. Our entire lives are “bracketed” by God’s love and grace. All we can do is praise this loving God! Solo gloria dei.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor John