What was Francis’s foolishness?
About a month ago I went to the Solomon Islands in my capacity as Minister Provincial of Third Order, Society of Saint Francis.
A big part of what we (The Minister General, Dorothy Brooker also went) did was to lead some studies for the local TSSF members. Here are some fo my thoughts from the first of these.
What was Francis’s foolishness?
Well many things really:
One was to not only read scripture, but to pray and to be shaped and moulded by scripture, especially the gospels. This meant he was not only open to the bits be liked, but also the hard bits, like Jesus’ invitation. To the rich young man to go, sell everything he has and “come follow me.” We tend to gloss over that one. Or the story of the Good Samaritan, (which is not about good neighbourly behaviour, but answers who is my neighbour….people I do not normally include in that) As an aside, at a conference I was at yesterday, someone talked about a t-shirt he had seen which said “Jesus loves porn stars” There was great mirth and laughter. The thing is, Jesus does love porn-stars, as does God. Porn stars are among those for whom God so loved that “he sent his only begotten son”. Some how I feel like we think that real Christians are all nice and middle class like me.
I ramble. What I was trying to say was that Francis’s foolishness was in his willingness to pray with and be moulded from within by the gospels and the whole of scripture. That is a very risky thing. It takes you to places that just seem really outrageous and foolish. Like selling everything you have, renouncing your birthright, kissing and living among lepers, relying on what people give you for your meals each day.
Well, all this is very well, but the hard part is how to appropriate the foolishness of Francis for today. How do we appropriate his stories and his foolishness and apply them to life today. (It is a similar question to how to read the Bible for today, a hermeneutical question.) As an OFM brother said to Dorothy. Francis is dead, so to ask what would Francis do is a non question. The real question is what would someone living our their Franciscan calling do? (Kind of like the WWJD stuff as well)
An example is the story of Francis giving away his horse to the poor knight (after he had ridden out of Assisi the day before all decked out in the latest knight gear to join the crusade and become a heroic knight, only to have Christ come to him in a dream to tell him he was following the wrong Lord) So what do we do with this story. I don’t have horse and am not off the Iraq, the modern crusade. It involves reading it to see what the horse represents, and how to take that into today. The horse was a symbol of wealth and power. Only the wealthy owned a horse, only knights, the powerful, rode these kinds of horses. So what are my symbols of wealth and power? How do I let them go?
Foolishness. All this is foolishness. How can one be successful as a youth minister, as a Christian, and a person with this kind of attitude? Ah… there is a question. For that is one of the things we seek today. To be successful. To be outcome driven. A choice then. To follow the way of Francis, to let go, to rely on God, or to seek success for God!! Which to follow? And what does it mean to be successful. And what do I loose in this quest? My soul perhaps?
A big part of what we (The Minister General, Dorothy Brooker also went) did was to lead some studies for the local TSSF members. Here are some fo my thoughts from the first of these.
What was Francis’s foolishness?
Well many things really:
One was to not only read scripture, but to pray and to be shaped and moulded by scripture, especially the gospels. This meant he was not only open to the bits be liked, but also the hard bits, like Jesus’ invitation. To the rich young man to go, sell everything he has and “come follow me.” We tend to gloss over that one. Or the story of the Good Samaritan, (which is not about good neighbourly behaviour, but answers who is my neighbour….people I do not normally include in that) As an aside, at a conference I was at yesterday, someone talked about a t-shirt he had seen which said “Jesus loves porn stars” There was great mirth and laughter. The thing is, Jesus does love porn-stars, as does God. Porn stars are among those for whom God so loved that “he sent his only begotten son”. Some how I feel like we think that real Christians are all nice and middle class like me.
I ramble. What I was trying to say was that Francis’s foolishness was in his willingness to pray with and be moulded from within by the gospels and the whole of scripture. That is a very risky thing. It takes you to places that just seem really outrageous and foolish. Like selling everything you have, renouncing your birthright, kissing and living among lepers, relying on what people give you for your meals each day.
Well, all this is very well, but the hard part is how to appropriate the foolishness of Francis for today. How do we appropriate his stories and his foolishness and apply them to life today. (It is a similar question to how to read the Bible for today, a hermeneutical question.) As an OFM brother said to Dorothy. Francis is dead, so to ask what would Francis do is a non question. The real question is what would someone living our their Franciscan calling do? (Kind of like the WWJD stuff as well)
An example is the story of Francis giving away his horse to the poor knight (after he had ridden out of Assisi the day before all decked out in the latest knight gear to join the crusade and become a heroic knight, only to have Christ come to him in a dream to tell him he was following the wrong Lord) So what do we do with this story. I don’t have horse and am not off the Iraq, the modern crusade. It involves reading it to see what the horse represents, and how to take that into today. The horse was a symbol of wealth and power. Only the wealthy owned a horse, only knights, the powerful, rode these kinds of horses. So what are my symbols of wealth and power? How do I let them go?
Foolishness. All this is foolishness. How can one be successful as a youth minister, as a Christian, and a person with this kind of attitude? Ah… there is a question. For that is one of the things we seek today. To be successful. To be outcome driven. A choice then. To follow the way of Francis, to let go, to rely on God, or to seek success for God!! Which to follow? And what does it mean to be successful. And what do I loose in this quest? My soul perhaps?
Comments
have you read "Eat this book" by Eugene Peterson? It sounds like you have, but if you haven't I think you'd find it a really good read along the lines of your thinking here around scripture.
BTW - following on from your thought about having large chunks of scripture read out in church and re-installing that in our evening community I can report back that people have really taken to it and it's become a highlight of the service for me (and others I suspect)
and as an aside to your post I have come across one recent frustration and that is people who say that they want "deeper teaching" in the service. As we explore that idea more I discover that they want more teaching on peripherial Scriptural themes rather than just constantly hearing the central gospel themes. My frustration comes when I don't feel like they/me/we have really got a grasp on "living out" as opposed to just "knowing" those central themes - do you keep banging away until people seem to get it and live it? Do you move on to other themes so that people don't get bored and perhaps they come back to asking themselves some of the questions you have posed here at a later date.
Christian faith has always seemed to me to be a fairly simple matter (though often challenging to live out), some people though seem to want to make it quite complicated and sometimes I wonder if that's a smoke screen of just knowing more stuff as a substitute for actually living the simple stuff well and allowing oursleves to be shaped by scripture.
any thoughts?
Ben