Friday, October 3, 2014

St Francis, Where Art Thou?


October 4th is the feast day for St. Francis of Assisi. Since I am not Roman Catholic, there are many saints – capital “S” saints - days that I do not celebrate. Even so, Francis is a good day to celebrate.


Francis was an interesting person. He renounced his wealth, affluence and worldly possessions. He is reported to have run out of the church naked after leaving his clothes behind because they came from his well-to-do father’s money. Later, he started his own religious order for which he is best known today. He is reputed to have said, “Preach the gospel and if necessary use words.” This would have been a strange saying for someone who started an order that included preaching. He created the first Christmas crèche or Nativity scene. This happened long before political correctness made it offensive to some to display the birth of the Christ child in public. He is known as the patron saint of animals and the environment. It is because of his being the patron saint of animals that the Blessing of Animals service is conducted on Francis’ feast day.


The Church – big “C” – is missing an exciting opportunity for evangelism by ignoring this day. So many people love their pets – some more than people! I know what a loss our two silly puppies would be to our family. Why? It is because they are part of the family. They normally mind better than the kids. They have no laundry to be done for them. They keep their bedrooms clean. Their food costs are a lot less. In many respects, they are better behaved than the kids. The truth is that we love our pets.


In addition, they are part of God’s creation. After God created all the animals the Bible says, “And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25) All creatures are worthy of having the blessing of God. There was a movie entitled “All Dogs Go to Heaven.” I do not think this untrue. In fact, dog spelled backwards is God! I was asked once if there were animals in heaven. After a thoughtful pause, I replied, “There must be or where else would the four horses of the apocalypse come from?” (Revelation 19:11) I’m not sure snakes make it though. They were cursed at the Fall. (Genesis 3;24) Blessing animals seems logical and thoroughly biblical.


I had always envisioned the Blessing of the Animals service to be a big deal. It is a wonderful safe way to attract people to the church. People may not come for themselves but many may come to receive a blessing for Fido or Rover. Imagine inviting the whole K-9 unit from the local police force. Advertising their presence would lend an air of a community outreach event to the proceedings. Allow the local pet rescue organization to set up shop with some of their adoptable pets. They could be introduced to a whole cadre of prospective pet owners. This is the kind of community outreach that can reap benefits.


Of course, the will have to be a sermon during the course of the “service.” This would be true to the order that St. Francis started. Ruminate on these themes for the sermon. If you focusing on adopting a pet you can point to the love, care and concern it takes from the potential new owner. Then, point the people to these same themes in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our adoption into God’s family and our becoming children of God. Another perspective would be to remind pet owners of their love and devotion their pets have for them and the love and devotion they have towards their pets. Then you can remind them that God feels the same way about them and sent Jesus Christ to prove it. Both subjects allow the gospel to be preached without beating people over their head with the Bible. One of the drawbacks at any service where animals and kids are present is to keep to short and to the point. Use this as an opportunity to invite people to join you for a regular Sunday service. After all, if you treat their pets right, you will certainly treat them right too! Then they can hear a more complete gospel massage.


My fear is that as we let “out of the box” chances slip away we limit our prospects for reaching those outside the church. And we do so at our peril as a church. How hard is it to invite your neighbors to something as innocuous as this? They will hopefully see the benefits for their beloved pets. How could blessing them hurt? Yet it is a wide open door. Allow them to see that the walls of the church are structurally sound to withstand their visit. Invitations to events like this take the edge off of approaching friends about coming to church. Congregations need to think more evangelistically and come up with creative ways to help depopulate the kingdom of hell. Blessing the animals in memory of St. Francis is not the only way. Think of all the sermon fodder you can obtain from St. Valentine’s Day. This is in remembrance of man who gave his life – he was beheaded - for his commitment to Jesus Christ. Or think about St. Patrick. Celebrate his day with more than just green beer or corned beef and cabbage! Patrick was sold into slavery in Ireland as a child. He escaped and decided to return to Ireland to bring them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Both of these feasts have lost their original meaning and thus their potential impact on an unbelieving world. As we attempt to draw people back to their true meaning, they will hopefully see the depth of commitment to Jesus Christ that those being commemorated demonstrated. Maybe we will be able to impress on them that this “Jesus thing” is something real, something active, something life changing. Who knows? It may even encourage our life and witness to Jesus Christ as we hear and celebrate those who are part of that great cloud of witness that goes before us. Thank you Francis for your witness and testimony and the opportunity you allow us to have to tell others about Jesus Christ.

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