Luke
17:11-19
The first time I attended a UK football game
was in 1984. Our neighbor at the
time came over to tell me he was given two free tickets to the game and asked
if I would like to go. Well, I’m
all about free so of course I said yes.
I was so grateful he offered me a free UK football ticket.
He asked if I could drive, since he had the
tickets, and I thought that was fair.
When we got to Lexington he told me where there was a great place to
park near the stadium, which I thought would be very expensive, but if we split
the cost it would be reasonable.
When we pulled into the parking area he said maybe I should pay, because
he had provided the tickets. By
this point my gratitude was beginning to wane somewhat, but once we got to our
seats and the game started I was happy to be there. But we hadn’t been there long when he decided we should get
something to eat, and guess who should pay for it? That’s right – me.
And not just once, but twice.
After all, he had provided the tickets. Later in the season he came over and once again had two free
tickets to a game and asked if I would like to go. I told him I didn’t want to sound ungrateful but I couldn’t
afford another free ticket!
Sometimes, it’s hard to be grateful.
As we continue our series of messages called Think
Again, today we come to a fascinating historical character. He’s one of my favorites, and is a
person who brought a great sense of gratitude to the world.
Born Giovanni di Bernardone in 1181, his father was furious when his
wife named their son Giovanni, after John the Baptist. His father wanted him to be a man of
business, not a man of God, so he renamed his son Francesco.
Francesco enjoyed a very easy life because of his father's wealth,
and everyone loved him. Francesco
became the leader of a group who spent their nights in wild and lavish parties. He was also very good at business,
which made his father very happy.
Francesco later decided he wanted to be a knight and go to battle. He found his chance, but he was taken
prisoner and held for ransom. He
spent a year in a dungeon before being released.
After his release he continued to party and even went back into
battle, with other knights in the Fourth Crusade. He rode away on his horse wearing a suit of armor decorated
with gold and a long, flowing cloak.
But he only rode one day’s journey away from his home when he had a
dream in which God told him he was living his life all wrong and that he should
return home. He began to spend
time in prayer and went off to a cave to weep for his sins.
As he traveled through the countryside one day, Francesco met a
leper. Although Francesco was
repelled something compelled him to climb down from his horse and to kiss the
hand of the leper. The leper
returned the kiss of peace, which filled Francesco with joy.
He eventually came to an old church – the church at San
Damiano. While praying there, he
sensed God telling him to repair the church, which was at that time a crumbling
old building. To get money to
repair the church he sold fabric from his father’s shop. His father was so enraged that he
dragged his son before the local bishop and the entire town and demanded that
his son return the money and renounce his right as his father’s heir.
The bishop told him to return the money to his father and that God
would provide. Francesco returned
the money as well as the clothes off his back. In front of the town he said Pietro Bernardone is no longer my
father. From now on I can say with
complete freedom, “Our Father who are in heaven.” Wearing only old castoff rags and barefoot he walked off
into the freezing weather, with nothing, but singing because of his gratitude
that God would provide for him.
Even though Francesco had nothing, he believed he had everything. He went to work on the church at San
Damiano, begging for stones, and with his bare hands he to worked to rebuild
the church.
Francesco began to preach and as he did he
attracted others who began to work with him. They slept under the open sky, begged for food – sometimes
eating garbage – and always loved God out of gratitude for what they had
received. He taught and practiced
that everyone was equal, and no one was greater than another.
Francesco and his companions went out to preach two by two, and some
listeners were hostile to these men dressed in rags and talking about the love
of God. Some people even ran away from
them, believing them to be crazy. But they also noticed that these beggars who wore old rags or
sacks and walked barefoot were filled with a constant sense of joy. How was it possible, people wondered,
that a person could own nothing and yet be happy?
Francesco believed that he and those who followed him were truly
free. They would not accept
money. He believed that if they
had possessions they would need weapons to defend them. What can you do to someone who has
nothing? You can’t steal from him.
Francesco was only 45 years old when he died, but he left an
indelible mark on history. If you
have not yet guessed the name by which we are most familiar with Francesco you
may be familiar with is famous prayer –
Lord, make me
an instrument of your peace.
Where there is
hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is
injury, pardon.
Where there is
doubt, faith.
Where there is
despair, hope.
Where there is
darkness, light.
Where there is
sadness, joy.
O Divine
Master,
grant that I
may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be
understood, as to understand;
to be loved,
as to love.
For it is in
giving that we receive.
It is in
pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in
dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
That
is the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, who changed the
world through the simplicity of his living and the gratitude he expressed each
day of his life.
How could someone be so content and so happy
with so little? How could someone
devote their life to rebuilding a dilapidated old church, working in bare feet
and wearing old rags?
That St. Francis gave up so much is a reminder
of what Paul writes of Christ in Philippians 2:5-7 – Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not
consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant.
We have traveled far from the ways of Francis
of Assisi. We have come far, but
have we gone the right direction? Now
we are in the midst of a season of conspicuous consumption that probably brings
much more anxiety that it brings pleasure.
Luke this morning tells us of these ten lepers
who were healed by Jesus, and of the ten only one returns to express gratitude
to Jesus. This wasn’t being healed
from a common cold – this was the gift of life. Lepers were in a long, slow march toward death. Shouldn’t that draw a sense of
gratitude from a person?
I think part of the message of this passage is
to make the reader or listener stop and ask have I been grateful for what I
have been given?
Many
years ago a group of farmers decided to eat their best potatoes and to only
plant the small ones. They kept up this practice for many years, even though
they noticed the potatoes getting smaller and smaller. They blamed the weather,
the beetles, and potato blight. They continued until their potatoes were reduced to a size
not much larger than a big marble. The farmers learned through bitter experience that they could
not keep the best things of life for themselves and use the leftovers for seed.
Even nature teaches us that an
open, generous, and grateful life produces blessing while an ungrateful and
ungenerous life reduces the blessings of life.
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