18 Pentecost/Year A/5th Sunday in the Season of Creation: BLESS
(Pray, Learn, Act, Advocate, Bless)
Oct 1, 2023
Philippians 2:1-13; Psalm 25:1-8; Luke 12: 22-32 (from St Francis’ feast day)
Opening words: Show us your ways, O God, and teach us your paths…
On this 5th and final Sunday in the Season of Creation, we pause to reflect on the theme of “BLESS” this week.
The Season of Creation series that we’ve been participating in these past few weeks officially ends on October 4th.
Today’s gospel reading that we just heard, is the gospel reading assigned for the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, which many churches will observe on the actual day, Oct 4, or today or in the next week sometime, and will most likely include a Blessing of the Animals as part of their services. If you’ve brought your pet with you this morning, we will have a blessing of the pets, immediately following each service today.
Most people associate Francis with his love of animals, and his praise and thanksgiving to God for all of creation, as is beautifully written by him in, “The Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon”. In our 1982 Hymnal, hymn #406 captures a beautiful version of this Song of Praise and Blessing.
Francis comes to mind for many, as we often read the prayer attributed to St Francis on page 833 (in the BCP) – Lord, make us instruments of your peace…
But, the description about Francis that may be lesser known to many, can be found in the lesser feasts and fasts publications…In this episcopal church resource, we learn about his early years, and a time of radical transformation that shaped his faith and the way he looked upon the people and the world around him…and how his faith and prayer life shaped the way he lived out his life in relationship with all of God’s creation…
Listen to an excerpt from that…
Francis, the son of a prosperous merchant of Assisi, was born in 1182. His early youth was spent in harmless revelry and fruitless attempts to win military glory. Various encounters with beggars and lepers pricked the young man’s conscience, however, and he decided to embrace a life devoted to Lady Poverty. Despite his father’s intense opposition, Francis totally renounced all material values and devoted himself to serve the poor. In 1210, Pope Innocent III confirmed the simple Rule for the Order of Friars Minor, a name Francis chose to emphasize his desire to be numbered among the “least” of God’s servants. His last years were spent in much suffering of body and spirit, but his unconquerable joy never failed.
His unconquerable joy never failed…I believe, because his faith was continually teaching him and reminding him that wherever he looked, he could find signs of God’s blessing being poured out upon all of God’s creation…
In the midst of a life where he dared to renounce all material values according to worldly standards, and serve his most vulnerable neighbors, trusting that God, through the hands and feet and actions of himself, and all those who would join with him, in serving the most vulnerable among them…his faith was continually teaching him and reminding him that wherever he looked, he could find signs of God’s blessing being poured out upon all of God’s creation…
I look to his story, his whole life story, as we have heard about it so far…and I find hope in his witness…and in the words of today’s Gospel reading…that….
In all our times of trial and worry about all the material needs and the overwhelming issues always before us…we need only look all around us in the gift of Creation, and in the changing seasons throughout the year, to see where time and time again, we can be reminded that even when we are not sure, even when life seems overwhelming, even when we can’t see it or believe it ourselves yet -we can hold onto the hope and trust that God has always been present, always caring, always providing, always acting, always advocating on behalf of all creation…
In the beginning, God was.
Here and now, God is.
In the future, God will be.
It’s up to us now, the time is now, for us to share this good news with those who struggle with seeing themselves in God’s beloved story and included in the embrace of God’s love and blessing. And this includes our island home and all fellow creatures that we share our breath and daily life with…
Like Jesus, like Francis, we are called to pay attention to all of God’s people, all of God’s creation…
And as we continue to grow in our faith, through the practice of praying, learning, acting, and advocating on behalf of all of God’s people, all of God’s creation…we can hold onto the promise and the resurrection hope, that following Jesus in the way of love and life Jesus has taught us and shown us, and remembering the examples of St Francis, and all the other every day saints who walked before us, will lead to the healing and reconciliation and restoration of life for all of God’s creation.
Show us your ways, O God, and teach us your paths that lead to your abundant blessings showing forth in all of creation, and in the lives of all we will meet on our earthly pilgrimage…
Let us pray: Hymn prayer after sermon: Bless now - Voices Found, #142
1 Bless now, O God, the journey that all your people make,
the path through noise and silence, the way of give and take.
The trail is found in desert and winds the mountain round,
then leads beside still waters, the road where faith is found.
2 Bless sojourners and pilgrims who share this winding way,
whose hope burns through the terrors, whose love sustains the day.
We yearn for holy freedom while often we are bound.
Together we are seeking the road where faith is found.
3 Divine Eternal Lover, (Creator)You meet us on the road.
We wait for land of promise where milk and honey flow.
But waiting not for places, You meet us all around.
Our covenant is written on roads, as faith is found.
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church, Sitka, AK
*TODAY’S FINAL BLESSING:
Go forth now to care for God’s world.
Use resources wisely. Share your knowledge.
Sacrifice where necessary.
Live in harmony with all creation.
Go out into all the world as prophets of a new way of
living and preach the good news to all.
And the blessing of the Creator God, the Risen Son,
and the Promised Holy Spirit bless you
that you might be a blessing to others
today and always. Amen.
BLESSING: Prayer from “Prayers for the Planet” at a service at Hinde StreetMethodist Church, London, before the Climate March, December 2005, as published in Season of Creation 2 (Green Anglicans, the Anglican Church of Southern African Environmental Network, 2012)