St. Francis, and the End of the World

Today was "St. Francis Sunday" in our parish (and, I suspect, many others), complete with the blessing of animals. This rankles me, for Sunday is a Feast of Our Lord, not of any of his servants [c.f. BCP p. 16]. I am further rankled by the romantic caricature of Francis that we encounter on such a day -- a sweet and gentle little friar who preaches to birds, wrote a beautiful little prayer, is Environmentally Conscious, and loves puppies and kittens. We hear little of Lady Poverty, and nothing of the Stigmata.

Despite all this, I was moved by one of the hymns, in the context of a service emphasizing environmental issues:

Were the world to end tomorrow,
would we plant a tree today?
Would we till the soil of loving,
kneel to work and rise to pray?
....
Born into the brittle morning
of that final earthy day,
would we be intent on seeing
Christ in others on our way?
(from "A hymn on not giving up," by Fred Kaan. Copyright 1989, Hope Publishing Company)


I believe that we have run out of Last Chances. Even if we were to somehow magically all begin living responsible and energy-efficient lives tomorrow, I think that we have already pushed the environment over the edge. As a result, the collapse of civilization seems likely at some point in this century, with a significant decline in world population through plague, pestilence, famine, and war. At the end of one of the services where we sang this hymn and in light of such thoughts, I improvised a little postlude on it, a prayer.

Today's preacher, quoting a book by Thomas Berry pretty much blamed the whole mess on Christianity, especially the "pie in the sky" version of it which I espouse, involving some form of eternal life with God. This, we are told, devalues the natural world in which we live and makes us more likely to pillage it. I will say only that there is no lack of blame to go around, and it is more the fruit of the atheistic materialism which has too often been espoused by those of us who call ourselves Christians, as well as those whose God is their belly.

The "pie in the sky" (or better, the Hope of Glory) is precisely how we can continue the struggle. No matter how bad it gets, even if we succeed in killing everything on earth (ourselves included), we are not in the end tied to this world.

"Grant us, O Lord, not to mind earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to cleave to those that shall abide..." (the Collect for the Sunday closest to September 21: BCP p. 182)

This is not a cop-out. Rather than giving us license to continue in our profligate ways, it should cause us to fear God. We shall certainly stand before him and give account, an account which must include what we have done to this green Earth and all that dwells therein. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God."

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A week ago, we admitted six new Choristers to the youth choir, most of them seven or eight years of age. They took it seriously, as they ought:

Minister: As a member of the choir, will you do your best to help the people worship God?
New Chorister: I will.

For some of them, this is a Life Vocation. It is my task to help them in it, a ministry that will likely take many of them down paths I cannot imagine, and (if they keep on singing and helping people worship God, and believe and act upon the things they sing and learn) do as much as anything to help preserve this Earth and the people and other creatures who inhabit it.

In doing this, I am "planting trees."