A Poem and Reflection for a Feast of St. Francis St. Andrew's Church, Nags Head, NC
Thomas E Wilson, Guest Presider October 2, 2022
St Francis 2022
My brothers and sisters, I have a confession to make. Lets get it out of the way first. I am probably the only person in this building to have had a series of arguments in my head with people over political issues. I know that is shocking to you, and you will probably ask your Rector never to invite me back. My own political persuasion is that I think that Bernie Saunders, the Senator from Vermont, is much too conservative. I don't usually tell parishioners my own political persuasion, and I usually keep my mouth shut. However, there is a part of me that wants to “straighten people out” by pointing out how foolish they are to think differently that me. I usually stop when I remember the warning of Jesus when he said that if I were to call someone “Raca”, the New Testament Greek word for “Fool”, then I am committing murder in my heart, as part of a crusade to “fix” people.
Aldous Huxley warned : “The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treat.”
“Crusades for good causes”, and more than we would like to admit; they keep happening and often with the blessing of the religious institutions. Francis of Assisi was involved in a couple crusades. He wanted to be a soldier and he signed up for the Fourth Crusade to “battle for Christ, reconquer Jerusalem, and to allow Christians to take back the fabled True Cross of Jesus.” However, he had a malarial attack and had to return to Assisi. When he recovered, he signed up to join the battles against the neighboring town of Perugia in Umbria. He was not a good soldier and was taken prisoner and thrown into a dungeon. He father had to pay an excessive ransom to get him out. Francis, knowing that being a soldier was a lousy career path for him, and hating his father's occupation as a cloth merchant, did not know what to do. In his confusion, he had a conversion to follow Christ.
Fifteen years later, The Fifth Crusade was declared after the 4th Crusade ended in disaster. The only thing the 4th Crusade was for Christians to kill other Christians as the Roman Catholic forces laid siege to the Christian Eastern Orthodox Capital of Constantinople and replaced the Latin Rite as the official religious services and Italian merchants got richer. That is the thing about so-called religious Crusades; there is always more than one agenda. Francis felt the call to join that 5th Crusade, but not as a soldier but as a follower of Christ to being peace and converting the Egyptian Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil.
The plan was for the 5th Crusade was to invade Egypt, overthrow the Sultan and and capture the “Holy Land” from the south. The Crusade had some good military leaders but they were constantly overruled by the Papal Legate. Which made the invasion more of a nuisance that a real threat. The Sultan had already offered to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, return that city to the Crusaders, and pay them some money to get rid of them. However the Papal legate wanted a complete victory and annihilation of Muslims. He wanted a battle to the death. By the time Francis arrived in Egypt, the Christian army of about 100,000 men was trapped on the banks of the Nile after al-Malik al-Kamil had opened the dykes and flooded the area. The Nile was bloated with the bodies of Christians and Muslims. Disease was rampant. Yet, Francis got safe passage on his way to the camp of the Sultan. The Papal Legate was hoping the Sultan would relieve him of this meddlesome Monk.
Francis began by his standard greeting; “May the Lord give you peace.” The Sultan replied “wa alaikum assalam”, which means “and upon you be peace.” There was discussion; the Sultan repeated his offers for the Christian army to leave with some dignity and politely refused to convert to Christianity. The Sultan's advisors wanted the Sultan to kill this meddlesome intruder, but al-Kamil refused, saying to Francis “I will never condemn you to death-for that would indeed be an evil reward to bestow on you, who conscientiously risked death in order to save my life before God, as you believe.” The Sultan's guests stayed for a week.and al-Malik politely refused to be converted to Christianity. The war was not stopped as the Papal Legate wanted total victory; and as the war went on he got total defeat. Sultan al-Malik allowed the defeated army safe retreat back to Europe. Francis was not converted to being a Muslim, al-Malik was not converted to being a Christian, but there was peace between two men who disagreed. Two people who saw in the other the facts that they shared the underlying truth that they were both created in the image of God, and that the space between them was Holy Ground.
There is another story of Francis. It is related in a book called “The Little Flowers”, a collection of the popular legends compiled about a century and a half after Francis' death. One story is the “Wolf of Gubbio”. a municipality near Assisi in the Province of Umbria. Scholars suggest that the core story of Francis going to Gubbio to offer his help to the residents who feared a bandit in the hills, known as the “Wolf of Gubbio” The core story might have been that Francis saw the Bandit as a fellow human being , a thief, but who was afraid of not having enough food. The way the story evolved was that the “Wolf of Gubbio” became a real wolf who was raiding the sheep folds and later developed a taste for humans. The leaders of the town had a plan to form a large group of villagers to hunt down and kill the wolf. Francis feared that many people would be injured trying to kill the wolf. Francis offered to search for the wolf and talk with him as a fellow creature of God. As Francis entered the hill country, the wolf spotted him and came aggressively up to Francis. Francis knew no fear and began to speak to the wolf. He said that he knew the wolf had been injured and was unable to hunt in the wild and was obsessed with having enough to eat. The wolf shared his fears with Francis. Francis suggests an option that he accompany the Wolf to the town and Francis would ask if the inhabitants would, out of mercy, feed the wolf. Francis and the wolf walked to the edge of the village , where a fear filled crowd met them with threats of violence. Francis asked for mercy, that gift from God deep inside all people created in the image of God. The villagers agreed reluctantly and the wolf was fed.The children grew fond of the wolf and would ride on his back. When the wolf grew old and died, the heart broken members of the town put up a statue of their friend, the wolf, a fellow creature of God.
Francis, in life and legend, saw Holy Ground in the space between he and fellow images and creatures of God. What do you see?
This Tuesday night is in the Jewish Tradition “Yom Kippur”, 10 days after the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. The tradition is that God has written in the Book what will happen to each person in the coming year. However, in God's mercy, each of us has 10 days to pray that mercy will be given to ourselves and others, so the book can be changed. Since Yom Kippur this year falls on October 4th, the day of the Feast of St. Francis, may I suggest that in the next two days that we pray for our enemies and the ones with whom we disagree, for they also occupy the same holy ground we do.
St. Francis- 2022
Standing across from an enemy, saying
“You and I do not agree, but the space
between us is filled and growing apace,
with spiritual energy without our praying,
or wishing it so, due to centuries of shalom,
salaam and peace uttered by our forbearers,
sharing loving hearts instead of sour glares,
making it possible to claim that safe home.”
St. Francis shows us with Sultan al-Kamil
from Egypt, wolves from Gubbio or fathers
grieving sons by claiming them as brothers
sharing words of respect; not threats to kill.
The space between us is watered by the tears
cleansing from fear and hate throughout years.
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