Service on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seeyouonsunday/videos/1409123990413762
Our reading comes from the sermon on the Mount Matthew’s version and I think when we consider think about The sermon on the Mount we think about the beatitudes. Blessed are you, but in Matthew’s telling of it it goes on for three chapters covering all kinds of thoughts, ideas, responses to the world around him.
In the history of Christianity, The sermon on the Mount has given us many a holy disrupter and good trouble. The sermon on the Mount was central to are disruptors this week, St. France and St Clare.
I am sure you’ve heard of Saint Francis, hospitals or peace prayer or my favorite when it comes time to bless our animal friends and pets. To be honest, it is the care for the Earth. That first comes when I think about Frances.
Born 1181 to a wealthy merchant family, Frances live the life of privilege that his family wealth allotted him and dreamed of Glory And honor for himself by becoming a knight which first spent he had to become a soldier. The first of the crusades had began about a hundred years earlier And would continue for another hundred years marking at least eight crusades of powerful people from Europe marching toward Jerusalem to take back the Holy land from the Turks. It was Empire building and religious and bloody.
On his way to fight in the Fourth crusade, he had a vision from God calling him to return home. A later vision asked for him to rebuild a church outside of Assisi that no one seemed to care about. Turns out it wasn’t just the building. He was rebuilding the church universal which had aligned itself with the powers and itself was participating and calling for crusades.
Frances, who rejected his family wealth by striping naked in of the powerful of Assisi, removing all thing items that Fancis’ Father’s wealth had given him, began to not only to see the poor and the sick that he had once avoided as beloved children of God, but also began to identify with them lived a life of simple, humble poverty.
Claire was born a few years later and 1194 to a noble family, also of wealth and means and expectations and she grew up in a home with a mother who made their faith a priority. I don’t think they counted on her. Her refusing to be married and running away to be part of the community that Francis was building. Now some will say that she sought Francis out and there are others who say that he sought her out for her. Piety and her humility were known around Assisi.
Lest you think that, Because Claire is less well known than Francis she was less important, Frances saw Claire and the sisters as equal to the brothers that he had in his community, despite what the pope wanted. In times of need or doubt, Francis would meet with Clare to pray, discern, and consult. In the final days of Francis’ life, it was to Clare can the convent where she was the Abbes the he went to live out his final days. She took care of him Until he died in 1226. She lived nearly another 30 years.
But let’s go back. In a time of the crusades which might have been very profitable for merchants and nobles, Francis and Claire retreated. And centered on the teachings of Jesus. They lived humble lives of poverty, charity and peace and Drew thousands to them which on its own must have been disruptive to the desires of the powerful who needed soldiers.
It is easy to think when Jesus says to turn the other check, we should just be allowing people abuse us.
Theologian biblical scholar Walter wink spoke of this part of The sermon on the Mount that we read today is not accommodating the powers but reclaiming dignity
((The only way someone could strike you on the right cheek, in that culture, was to do a backhanded slap with the right hand—you can’t use your right fist, because the nose is in the way, and you can’t use your left hand because it was used for unclean acts. A backhanded slap was by definition about one person having power over another and about humiliating the one with lesser power. So, when Jesus counsels turning and offering your other cheek, your left cheek, this was not an act of passivity, but an act of standing firm and claiming your full and equal status as fellow human being. First, as you turn your head, your eyes meet, and that is a deeply humanizing moment, and then, to strike your left cheek, the aggressor would be forced to use his right fist and thereby acknowledge you as an equal.
And the direction on giving your cloak to someone who is suing you for your undergarments, well, Jesus is just brilliant here. Matthew and Luke disagree on the order here. Luke says if they’re suing you for your cloak, give your undergarment, too, but Matthew goes a step further and says, if they’re suing you for your undergarments, give them your cloak, too. What is at stake here? Well, the poor often only had their garments to give as collateral for a loan, but the law required that if you’d given your cloak as collateral, that the person from whom you had borrowed money had to return it at sundown so you could be warm as you slept. It’s rotten enough to ask someone to give their cloak as collateral, but in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is saying, “It’s even worse than that—they’re suing you for your undergarments! So, don’t stop there; hand them your cloak as well”—which would leave you what? (pause) Naked, that’s right. And nakedness in that culture was a big taboo, and the shame fell on the one gazing upon the nakedness, not the one who was naked. In one brilliant step, Jesus has revealed the moral bankruptcy, the absolute exploitation of the whole economic system of loans in that culture.
And then, going the second mile. A Roman soldier, a member of the occupying force, could force a civilian who had no power to carry his pack for a mile, but not for two. Again, this was humiliating for the occupied people, but to fight a Roman soldier was out of the question. So, carry the pack the second mile became Jesus’ elegant third way. A) It exposed the Roman soldier to severe military penalties because the rule was one mile and no more and B) It exposed the Roman soldier to ridicule from his buddies—“What, you’re not strong enough to carry your own pack?” and no Roman soldier wanted to be ribbed like that. Again, the person with no power has found a way to hold fast to the human dignity of which the system of subjugation was fervently trying to strip him.
At every turn, Jesus is showing people how to resist without standing against, how to hold fast to your dignity as a beloved child of God when the powers-that-be are trying to strip it away, how not to replicate the very system of retaliation that people of the Jesus way are called to transform. And this is crazy hard. Retaliation is so much easier; it’s the default of our primitive brains. And when we’re really stuck in our primitive brains, we don’t even stop there—we go straight for vengeful full-on retribution, forget “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.”))
How did Francis and Clare live this Sermon on the Mount life?
Francis would go to talk with the soldiers before they got on the boats to go fight in the crusades trying to convince them not to get on the boats to choose a way of peace. And in the middle of the fifth crusades frances, 1219. So here’s the Sultan, the head of the people who were supposed to be Francis’s enemies. He was the leader of the Muslims who the Christians were fighting against, who they were trying to take the Holy Land from. And the story is that Saint Francis snuck across enemy lines and he only had one companion with him. He did not carry weapons or shields or anything else. He went across with one person completely unarmed in order to meet with the Sultan. He was captured and he was brought before the Sultan. And then rather than being killed, he was actually received graciously and respectfully by the Sultan. He got to talk with the sultan, and they had actual dialogue. Some accounts say that Francis preached Christ, but without violence or judgment or coercion. He didn’t make any threats of hell. He just testified to the love of God and Jesus. The Sultan, with curiosity and with hospitality, was impressed by Francis’s humility and his courage to cross enemy lines unarmed with no intentions of doing violence or harm. So Francis, in this conversation with the Sultan, challenged the use of violence by both Christians and Muslims alike and he emphasized peace and love and the conversion of the heart over conquest. Some traditions and stories around this encounter say there was theological debate. Others say they just shared about their faiths respectfully but then the Sultan, after their conversation, offered Francis safe passage and gifts, though Francis only received one small token. He refused the rest. He didn’t convert the Sultan and the Sultan didn’t convert him, but they encountered one another with mutual respect. Francis returned to the crusader camp unharmed, and Francis himself was changed by this encounter. It further shaped his commitment to peace, to dialogue, and even later on, the Franciscan mission amongst Muslims, emphasized presence over proselytizing them. Francis took a very different approach. He did not come to the enemy lines and cross them with intent to harm, with intent to hurt, with intent to conquer. He came with the intent to foster dialogue, relationship, and peaceableness between people.
In a time of fighting between a king and the pope, The Kings an army into the valley where Claire and her sisters had Saracen mercenaries were attacking parts of Italy, and that included Assisi where Clare’s convent was located. She looks out from her convent and she sees that there are enemies approaching with the intent to do harm, with the intent to destroy. She lived with her sisters in this convent, and it was vulnerable. It was outside of the city walls. They were remote. They were unarmed, and so here come those with the intent to destroy, and so naturally, I don’t know about you, but if I were in that situation, I would probably start to panic a little bit, and that’s what the sisters begin to do. Clare is starting to worry about what will happen to them. Will they be assaulted? Will they be killed? Will they be enslaved? Those were common fates during raids. Those were not unlikely outcomes. Those were legitimate fears that they had. But Clare, though she was sick and she was physically weak, she got up and she instructed her sisters to carry her to the entrance of the convent where the attackers could be seen and they could also see her. She took with her the convent’s monstrance. Now if you’re not familiar with what a monstrance is, in the Catholic tradition it’s a vessel that is used to hold the consecrated elements of Holy Communion so people can come and gaze upon them, can look at them, can sit and pray. So she comes bearing the elements of Holy Communion, and she prayed aloud in sight of the enemy where she could see them and they could see her. She’s reported to have prayed, “Lord, protect these women whom I cannot protect.” And according to the story, she heard a voice saying, “I will always protect you.” And so there she is, unarmed with nothing but prayer and with the elements of Communion. She prays, she lifts them up, and she waits. And the attackers, for reasons unexplained, turned away without entering, and the convent was spared. Now, whether that particular story is entirely historical or partially legendary, which it very well might be, the story does reflect how Clare went out to face violence, prepared not to return violence in kind, but to recognize that the presence of God called her to a different path – one of prayer and presence and trust in God to protect the vulnerable. As she held up those Eucharistic elements, those elements of Holy Communion, they were not just a symbol of comfort for Clare and for the sisters, but they were also a source of radical, non-violent resistance to the violence that was right there in front of them.
((There’s one particular story about Saint Francis that has always stuck with me, and that’s the story of this encounter that he has with Sultan al-Kamil, in There’s another story now with St. Clare. St. Clare ended up being the abbess of a convent. And a number of years later, about 20 or so years later after this encounter that Francis had with the Sultan, there was another moment in time where Christian-Muslim tensions were on the rise again.
These are beautiful and mythic stories that might be true, and might have happened. But we don’t live in the middle ages, in a monastery or convent, we live here, now.
My Instagram was filled with pictures of Re Melissa and Mark Hortman, and their dog Gilbert, laying in the MN rotunda this weekend. In the days following their execution, their adult children released a statement. It began
“We are devastated and heartbroken at the loss of our parents, Melissa and Mark. They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we can’t believe they are gone. Their love for us was boundless. We miss them so much.
It concluded this way:
“Our parents touched so many lives, and they leave behind an incredible legacy of dedication to their community that will live on in us, their friends, their colleagues and co-workers, and every single person who knew and loved them.
“If you would like to honor the memory of Mark and Melissa, please consider the following:
- Plant a tree.
- Visit a local park and make use of their amenities, especially a bike trail.
- Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do.
- Tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it.
- Bake something — bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa, and share it with someone.
- Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something.
- Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace.
“Hope and resilience are the enemy of fear. Our parents lived their lives with immense dedication to their fellow humans. This tragedy must become a moment for us to come together. Hold your loved ones a little closer. Love your neighbors. Treat each other with kindness and respect. The best way to honor our parents’ memory is to do something, whether big or small, to make our community just a little better for someone else.”
What do we do in a time of crusades? In anger and revenge? In violence and uncertainty? When individuals and armies and leaders of nations don’t’ even seek and eye for an eye but a whole and holy body for a slight, a disagreement; the holy bodies of 1000’s, for 10’s of 1000’s for the actions of a few?
What do we do?
We cling to Christ. We cling to Christ’s teachings of justice and compassion and love and hope. We cling to Prayer and the Eucharist that connect us to God and to each other. We cling to hospitality and kindness and belonging. We be loving to our neighbors and be good neighbors to those in need.
- Plant a tree.
- Visit a local park and make use of their amenities, especially a bike trail.
- Pet a dog. A golden retriever is ideal, but any will do.
- Tell your loved ones a cheesy dad joke and laugh about it.
- Bake something — bread for Mark or a cake for Melissa, and share it with someone.
- Try a new hobby and enjoy learning something.
- Stand up for what you believe in, especially if that thing is justice and peace.