Snyder, Howard A. “Unlikely Twins: Francis of Assisi and John Wesley – Implications for Pastoral Ministry Today.” Keynote address presented at the Annual Wesley Studies Symposium, Tyndale University, Toronto, Ontario, April 25, 2023. (MPEG-3; 48 min.) 1 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:01.900 Thank you. Thank you very much. 2 00:00:01.920 --> 00:00:06.940 It is a joy to be here and to see so many people here. 3 00:00:06.970 --> 00:00:13.620 I think when we had the first symposium, what did Arnold say we had? 4 00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:14.820 15 or twelve? 5 00:00:14.850 --> 00:00:18.100 I don't remember anyhow. It was fun. 6 00:00:18.130 --> 00:00:21.780 It's always been fun, and it's always been a learning experience. 7 00:00:21.810 --> 00:00:26.760 And so thank you very much for this opportunity, Trinity. 8 00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:29.900 It really is a joy and honor to be here 9 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:36.980 today to join in this celebration, be part of Tyndale Seminary ongoing exploration of 10 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.220 the significance of John Wesley and the Wesleyan Witness. 11 00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:46.440 And I want to especially say how pleased I am to recognize 12 00:00:48.040 --> 00:00:51.580 with you the strategic contribution of Bishop and Mrs. 13 00:00:51.610 --> 00:00:52.340 Donald M. 14 00:00:52.370 --> 00:00:58.060 Bastion initiating the Wesley Studies Chair at Tyndale and also the ongoing 15 00:00:58.090 --> 00:01:02.580 growing contribution of Professor James Pedler in the Ministry of Wesley Studies 16 00:01:02.610 --> 00:01:07.180 and the Wesleyan Witness through Tyndale University and beyond. 17 00:01:07.210 --> 00:01:10.290 And I want to commend especially the 18 00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:15.760 continuing support of the Wesley Chair by the Wesleyan denominations. 19 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:19.340 So the Wesleyan witness. 20 00:01:19.370 --> 00:01:28.620 There's so much more yet to say and apply, or perhaps to incarnate, as a better word. 21 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:32.180 So now, from Wesley in the 18th century to 22 00:01:32.210 --> 00:01:39.020 Francis of Assisi in the 13th, I have visited Assisi three times. 23 00:01:39.050 --> 00:01:41.540 Two with my adventurous wife, Jan, and one 24 00:01:41.570 --> 00:01:46.380 with our equally adventurous daughter, Geraldine and her husband, Sean. 25 00:01:46.410 --> 00:01:48.740 We were there last I don't know, time 26 00:01:48.770 --> 00:01:54.930 flies a while back and had a wonderful time there for a little over a week. 27 00:01:54.960 --> 00:02:00.700 Assisi is a lovely, fascinating, hilly place, still with a medieval feel, 28 00:02:00.730 --> 00:02:04.060 though there is a modern city in the valley below. 29 00:02:04.090 --> 00:02:08.780 Climbing or riding into the old city is like going back in time. 30 00:02:08.810 --> 00:02:10.780 I don't remember when I first got 31 00:02:10.810 --> 00:02:17.220 interested in Francis of Assisi, but for the past, really about 20 years since our 32 00:02:17.250 --> 00:02:26.170 first visit to a C 1003, I've been pondering the life and the witness of St. 33 00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:27.380 Francis. 34 00:02:27.410 --> 00:02:32.700 And I found the more I studied Francis, the more John Wesley came to mind. 35 00:02:32.730 --> 00:02:36.020 Two such very different characters. 36 00:02:36.050 --> 00:02:42.580 1234 I began to add up the parallels, and that's what led to today's talk. 37 00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:46.020 And I got awake in the night thinking 38 00:02:46.040 --> 00:02:48.800 about this, and I thought, oh, I shouldn't have done what I'm doing. 39 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:49.660 Here what I should do. 40 00:02:49.690 --> 00:02:53.360 I should just stand up and tell stories about Francis and John Wesley. 41 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:54.960 It would be probably more entertaining and 42 00:02:54.990 --> 00:03:00.940 maybe get the point across, but that's really not so much the way my mind works. 43 00:03:00.970 --> 00:03:06.700 But Francis and John Wesley were also very different temperamentally, although both 44 00:03:06.730 --> 00:03:11.300 were, in a sense, poets, wesley temperament was more that of the 45 00:03:11.330 --> 00:03:16.420 rational scholar Francis, more that of a mystic. 46 00:03:16.450 --> 00:03:19.580 In terms of personality, I imagine Francis 47 00:03:19.610 --> 00:03:25.140 seems more like Charles Wesley, and John Wesley more like Francis contemporary St. 48 00:03:25.170 --> 00:03:27.700 Dominic, who founded founded Dominicans 49 00:03:27.730 --> 00:03:32.760 approximately the same time that the Franciscans were founded. 50 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:35.900 Interestingly, Francis lived 200 years 51 00:03:35.930 --> 00:03:39.180 before the invention of the printing press. 52 00:03:39.210 --> 00:03:42.300 Wesley lived 300 years after. 53 00:03:42.330 --> 00:03:46.780 Yet this doesn't seem to have much affected the impact of the two movements. 54 00:03:46.810 --> 00:03:48.610 Comparatively speaking. 55 00:03:48.640 --> 00:03:50.660 Franciscans actually had many hundreds of 56 00:03:50.690 --> 00:03:54.060 books, it's just that they were all hand copied. 57 00:03:54.090 --> 00:03:58.040 They were mostly liturgical books. 58 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.820 What similarities between Francis and 59 00:04:00.850 --> 00:04:05.700 Wesley might have some relevance for us today? 60 00:04:05.730 --> 00:04:12.460 I suggest a dozen, a dozen ways Francis and Wesley's Lives and Ministries rhymed. 61 00:04:12.490 --> 00:04:17.280 I think these similarities offer clues that we can all apply in our own lives, at 62 00:04:17.300 --> 00:04:21.700 least I see that with regard to myself and insights that can help lighten the path 63 00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:26.300 for churches seeking deeper, broader witness. 64 00:04:26.330 --> 00:04:33.420 So I want to trace these parallels briefly and then draw some implications, things 65 00:04:33.450 --> 00:04:36.460 that have appeared particularly relevant to me. 66 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.060 I think the differences between Francis 67 00:04:39.090 --> 00:04:44.540 and Wesley make the similarities all the more interesting, all the more stunning. 68 00:04:44.570 --> 00:04:49.560 So I'm going to begin with the parallels that seem to me to be most basic and with 69 00:04:49.590 --> 00:04:55.800 some illustrations, and then move on to some others as well. 70 00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:03.460 So, first of all, both Francis and Wesley were transformed by Jesus call and 71 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:07.000 dedicated their lives to serving and proclaiming the Gospel. 72 00:05:07.030 --> 00:05:14.220 They both have interesting stories about how they came to experience Jesus Christ. 73 00:05:14.250 --> 00:05:19.100 If any of you have seen the film Brother, Son and Sister Moon, 74 00:05:19.130 --> 00:05:25.820 even though it's as much about the 1970s as it is about the 1200s, still 75 00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:31.820 the sense of the conversion of Francis that's depicted in that film is in many 76 00:05:31.850 --> 00:05:35.620 ways true to life, transformed by the Gospel. 77 00:05:35.650 --> 00:05:38.220 And the primary motive here was love. 78 00:05:38.250 --> 00:05:43.900 Love for God and for all people, whoever or wherever they may be. 79 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:49.580 Wesley's constant theme was the love of God and faith working through love. 80 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:53.060 Galatian five six in Christians lives. 81 00:05:53.090 --> 00:05:56.220 Wesley echoed Francis when he said that 82 00:05:56.250 --> 00:06:00.700 the necessary fruit of experiencing God's love in Christ is the love of our 83 00:06:00.730 --> 00:06:03.780 neighbor, of every soul which God has made. 84 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:06.660 Such love is no mere passive emotion. 85 00:06:06.690 --> 00:06:12.000 It means being zealous of good works, the hungering and thirsting to do good in 86 00:06:12.030 --> 00:06:16.540 every possible kind to all people without distinction. 87 00:06:16.570 --> 00:06:20.780 And this was precisely the spirit of Francis. 88 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:28.900 His life was lived love, beginning when God put love for Lepers in his heart. 89 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:31.420 The first thing Francis wrote in his final 90 00:06:31.450 --> 00:06:39.400 testament, when he was giving his kind of last will of his call to his brothers, the 91 00:06:39.420 --> 00:06:44.100 first thing he wrote in his testament was this he says, the Lord gave me Brother 92 00:06:44.130 --> 00:06:47.900 Francis thus to begin doing penance in this way. 93 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:53.740 For when I was in sin, it seemed too bitter for me to see Lepers. 94 00:06:53.770 --> 00:06:58.540 And the Lord himself led me among them, and I showed mercy to them. 95 00:06:58.570 --> 00:07:00.820 And when I left them, what had seemed 96 00:07:00.850 --> 00:07:06.780 bitter to me was turned into sweetness of soul and body. 97 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:10.020 And this soon led to the dramatic scene of 98 00:07:10.040 --> 00:07:15.740 Francis renouncing his old life, including his clothing, radically following Jesus. 99 00:07:15.770 --> 00:07:18.420 We don't have any stories of John Wesley 100 00:07:18.450 --> 00:07:24.360 taking off all his clothes in front of the bishop, but we do of Francis. 101 00:07:25.960 --> 00:07:28.980 I guess Francis is more radical, at least in that regard. 102 00:07:29.010 --> 00:07:31.540 Francis first biographer, Brother Thomas 103 00:07:31.570 --> 00:07:38.500 of Solano, himself a Franciscan, wrote that Francis quote could not hear the love 104 00:07:38.530 --> 00:07:43.180 of God, the words the love of God, without a change in himself. 105 00:07:43.210 --> 00:07:46.640 As he soon as he heard the love of God, he 106 00:07:46.670 --> 00:07:52.540 was excited, moved and on fire, as if these words 107 00:07:52.570 --> 00:08:00.460 from the outside were a pick strumming the strings of his heart on the inside. 108 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:06.940 So that, first of all, transformed by Jesus by the love of Christ. 109 00:08:06.970 --> 00:08:12.420 Secondly, both Francis and Wesley viewed the Bible as authoritative and sought 110 00:08:12.450 --> 00:08:16.380 faithfully to live out its precepts and promises. 111 00:08:16.400 --> 00:08:18.100 One of the surprises to me in studying 112 00:08:18.130 --> 00:08:21.140 Francis was how well he knew the Scriptures. 113 00:08:21.170 --> 00:08:26.980 Though a scholar, Wesley, of course, was famously a man of one book, the Bible. 114 00:08:27.010 --> 00:08:33.500 Francis fed on Scripture and sought its guidance in forming his new community. 115 00:08:33.530 --> 00:08:37.900 He loved to hear the Bible read, especially the Gospels. 116 00:08:37.930 --> 00:08:39.220 What Jesus taught. 117 00:08:39.250 --> 00:08:40.780 This we should do. 118 00:08:40.810 --> 00:08:41.980 Francis believed. 119 00:08:42.010 --> 00:08:46.860 He sought to pattern his life according to God's word as he understood it. 120 00:08:46.890 --> 00:08:53.660 And one of the positive surprises studying Francis is how 121 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:59.220 deeply he and his community immersed themselves in Scripture. 122 00:08:59.250 --> 00:09:01.780 So that I found significant. 123 00:09:01.810 --> 00:09:04.740 Third, both Francis and John Wesley felt 124 00:09:04.770 --> 00:09:11.700 especially called to the poor to be with them, minister to and among them. 125 00:09:11.730 --> 00:09:14.140 This was the story of Francis life, 126 00:09:14.170 --> 00:09:18.820 though, like Wesley, Francis passion was to reach all people. 127 00:09:18.850 --> 00:09:23.740 Both Francis and Wesley manifested what Latin American theologians and Pope 128 00:09:23.770 --> 00:09:28.100 Francis have called a preferential option for the poor. 129 00:09:28.130 --> 00:09:35.020 Fulfilling this call was the main reason both Francis and Wesley traveled so much. 130 00:09:35.050 --> 00:09:38.820 In the spring of 1739, Wesley was asked to 131 00:09:38.850 --> 00:09:44.660 preach outdoors to a crowd of coal miners, a radical thing he thought at the time. 132 00:09:44.690 --> 00:09:48.380 Then he thought, well, actually, Jesus did that, didn't he? 133 00:09:48.410 --> 00:09:52.260 So Wesley preached to the miners and to himself. 134 00:09:52.290 --> 00:09:54.860 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because 135 00:09:54.890 --> 00:09:58.020 he has anointed me to preach, to bring good news to the poor. 136 00:09:58.050 --> 00:10:03.620 He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, 137 00:10:03.650 --> 00:10:09.540 to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. 138 00:10:09.560 --> 00:10:12.540 And this echoes Francis own life. 139 00:10:12.560 --> 00:10:17.900 The Spirit of the Lord was upon him to preach good news to the poor. 140 00:10:17.930 --> 00:10:23.820 Because of this call, both Francis and both Francis of Assisi and Wesley wanted 141 00:10:23.850 --> 00:10:27.460 to speak simply and plainly to the common people. 142 00:10:27.490 --> 00:10:33.620 Thomas of Solano writes that Francis quote preached to the simple in simple, concrete 143 00:10:33.650 --> 00:10:39.220 terms, since he knew that virtue is more necessary than words. 144 00:10:39.250 --> 00:10:42.340 But when he was among spiritual people 145 00:10:42.370 --> 00:10:47.500 with greater abilities, he gave birth to life giving and profound words. 146 00:10:47.530 --> 00:10:52.820 With few words, he would suggest what was inexpressible and weaving movement. 147 00:10:52.850 --> 00:10:59.460 With fiery gestures, he carried away all his hearers toward the things of heaven. 148 00:10:59.490 --> 00:11:05.200 Speaking of Francis, Wesley's preaching was seldom fiery, we 149 00:11:05.230 --> 00:11:09.420 suppose, but it was both plain and passionate. 150 00:11:09.450 --> 00:11:12.140 Wesley was always concerned to give a 151 00:11:12.170 --> 00:11:16.940 plain account of the Gospel, whether he was talking about Jesus, the Methodist 152 00:11:16.970 --> 00:11:22.080 bands and class meetings, or Christian perfection. 153 00:11:22.160 --> 00:11:28.660 Fourth, Wesley and Francis both saw the necessity of small covenant community. 154 00:11:28.690 --> 00:11:31.300 This was mentioned earlier this morning by Dr. 155 00:11:31.330 --> 00:11:32.500 Shepard. 156 00:11:32.530 --> 00:11:35.480 Both created structures not only the 157 00:11:35.510 --> 00:11:40.100 importance of community, but both created structures to let it happen so seekers 158 00:11:40.130 --> 00:11:46.380 could grow wide and deep to build communities of committed discipleship. 159 00:11:46.410 --> 00:11:49.620 Francis wrote his rule based mainly on 160 00:11:49.650 --> 00:11:53.860 Jesus'own words, what Jesus told his disciples they should do. 161 00:11:53.890 --> 00:11:58.300 Wesley, of course, had his general rules summarized in three points. 162 00:11:58.330 --> 00:12:01.120 First, do no harm, avoiding evil in every 163 00:12:01.150 --> 00:12:05.580 kind, especially that which is most generally practiced among us. 164 00:12:05.610 --> 00:12:10.540 Second, do good, being in every way merciful after your power as you have 165 00:12:10.570 --> 00:12:17.460 opportunity, doing good of every possible sort and as far as possible to all people. 166 00:12:17.490 --> 00:12:20.420 Third, attend upon all the ordinances of 167 00:12:20.450 --> 00:12:25.820 God, including public worship, the Lord's Supper, family and private prayers, 168 00:12:25.850 --> 00:12:30.580 searching the Scriptures, and fasting or abstinence. 169 00:12:30.610 --> 00:12:37.340 Wesley created much more elaborate and prescriptive structures than Francis did. 170 00:12:37.370 --> 00:12:40.780 The band, the class meeting, the society and others. 171 00:12:40.810 --> 00:12:42.900 These are big differences from Francis. 172 00:12:42.930 --> 00:12:47.940 Yet the key dynamic was the same deep, intimate, energized face to face 173 00:12:47.970 --> 00:12:53.260 communities of people committed to Jesus and to one another. 174 00:12:53.290 --> 00:12:55.500 Wesley's early Methodist communities 175 00:12:55.530 --> 00:12:59.460 involved both men and women, both single and married. 176 00:12:59.490 --> 00:13:05.260 In Francis case, of course, they were communities of men only, while his friend 177 00:13:05.290 --> 00:13:08.980 Claire formed parallel communities of women. 178 00:13:09.010 --> 00:13:15.220 In reality, the Franciscan Tertiaries, the Franciscan Third Orders, which were men 179 00:13:15.250 --> 00:13:20.420 and women leading their normal lives, were much more like the Methodists, I think. 180 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:24.220 Much more like the early Methodist, involving both single and married men and 181 00:13:24.250 --> 00:13:29.040 women who carried on their normal lives in society. 182 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:33.020 Both Francis and Wesley sought to live 183 00:13:33.050 --> 00:13:38.500 perfect lives of holy discipleship, the way Jesus taught and showed. 184 00:13:38.530 --> 00:13:42.020 In Francis day, this was called evangelical. 185 00:13:42.050 --> 00:13:47.940 Evangelical perfection, evangelical poverty, apostolic poverty. 186 00:13:47.970 --> 00:13:56.060 These were common terms and similar terms with a very radical stress on poverty. 187 00:13:56.080 --> 00:13:57.340 In Wesley's time. 188 00:13:57.370 --> 00:14:03.780 Common terms for this ideal of the Christian life were, of course, 189 00:14:03.810 --> 00:14:08.700 Christian perfection, entire, sanctification, holiness, similar terms. 190 00:14:08.730 --> 00:14:11.060 In both cases, the goal was the same 191 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:18.360 following Jesus the way Jesus taught, empowered by the Holy Spirit. 192 00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:26.700 Number six both Francis and Wesley were firmly committed to a life of good works. 193 00:14:26.730 --> 00:14:29.340 Francis watched over his brothers leading 194 00:14:29.370 --> 00:14:32.940 and encouraged them in self giving service. 195 00:14:32.970 --> 00:14:36.380 This was an essential Methodist commitment as well. 196 00:14:36.410 --> 00:14:39.340 Wesley said the true love of God was shown 197 00:14:39.370 --> 00:14:45.420 in the hungering and thirsting to do good and every possible kind unto all people, 198 00:14:45.450 --> 00:14:50.740 the rejoicing to spend and be spent for them, for every child of man, not looking 199 00:14:50.770 --> 00:14:58.020 for any recompense in this world, but only in the resurrection of the just. 200 00:14:58.050 --> 00:14:58.740 Also. 201 00:14:58.770 --> 00:15:03.460 Number seven both Francis and Wesley were churchmen. 202 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:08.100 Both were committed to the church and especially the Eucharist. 203 00:15:08.130 --> 00:15:11.340 The Lord's Supper is God's self giving for 204 00:15:11.370 --> 00:15:15.340 us in Jesus Christ based on his atoning death on the cross. 205 00:15:15.370 --> 00:15:18.140 Theologically, Francis and Wesley's 206 00:15:18.160 --> 00:15:20.420 conception of Holy Communion was somewhat different. 207 00:15:20.450 --> 00:15:22.020 Of course. Again, Dr. 208 00:15:22.040 --> 00:15:23.820 Shepherd commented on this this morning. 209 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:25.720 Wesley would not have subscribed to the 210 00:15:25.750 --> 00:15:31.100 doctrine of transubstantiation, which was just being defined in Francis day. 211 00:15:31.130 --> 00:15:33.780 Yet both men saw the Eucharist as a 212 00:15:33.810 --> 00:15:39.820 mystery of grace, more than just a remembrance, an actual means by which God 213 00:15:39.850 --> 00:15:45.700 conveys grace to us through Jesus Christ by the Spirit. 214 00:15:45.730 --> 00:15:51.540 Both Francis and Wesley, therefore partook of the Lord's Supper as often as possible. 215 00:15:51.570 --> 00:15:54.580 As an old man, Wesley published a sermon 216 00:15:54.610 --> 00:15:58.380 on the Duty of Constant Communion with this text. 217 00:15:58.410 --> 00:16:01.140 Do this in remembrance of me. 218 00:16:01.170 --> 00:16:07.740 The Eucharist was a constant emphasis and practice of Francis as well. 219 00:16:07.770 --> 00:16:13.140 With both Francis and Wesley, their sacramentalism reinforced rather than 220 00:16:13.170 --> 00:16:18.020 detracting from intimate, informal Christian fellowship. 221 00:16:18.050 --> 00:16:23.860 Both men saw that community and communion go together, part of the interweaving 222 00:16:23.890 --> 00:16:29.940 ecology of grace within the one church of Jesus Christ. 223 00:16:29.970 --> 00:16:32.060 And then, relatedly number eight both 224 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:37.220 Francis and Wesley loved and lived the liturgy. 225 00:16:37.250 --> 00:16:41.780 Francis and his brothers faithfully followed the canonical hours 226 00:16:41.810 --> 00:16:46.860 even as best they could when they were traveling similarly with Wesley. 227 00:16:46.890 --> 00:16:49.540 Wesley always carried his book of common 228 00:16:49.570 --> 00:16:55.100 prayer with him, had used it daily his Sunday preaching, his Sunday sermons. 229 00:16:55.130 --> 00:16:59.580 His preaching generally was based on electionary, and both Francis and Wesley 230 00:16:59.610 --> 00:17:04.290 understood the church's liturgy as a means of grace. 231 00:17:04.320 --> 00:17:13.000 Yet their worship was equally often spontaneous, not solely liturgical. 232 00:17:13.600 --> 00:17:21.090 And number nine both Wesley and Francis loved and reveled in God's created order. 233 00:17:21.120 --> 00:17:29.940 Here it is an especially pointed and timely likeness, conjoining the two. 234 00:17:29.970 --> 00:17:32.460 Wesley loved to visit gardens, to walk out 235 00:17:32.490 --> 00:17:36.740 of doors and marveled in the beauty of creation. 236 00:17:36.770 --> 00:17:40.180 Both Francis and Wesley cared about animals. 237 00:17:40.210 --> 00:17:45.090 They saw themselves as stewards of the created order. 238 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:47.740 One of Wesley's great sermons is the New 239 00:17:47.770 --> 00:17:53.090 Creation Sermon 64 with the text behold, I make all things new. 240 00:17:53.120 --> 00:17:55.640 Like Francis in his cantacle of the 241 00:17:55.670 --> 00:18:01.010 creatures, wesley saw the beauty and intricacy of creation as a cause for 242 00:18:01.040 --> 00:18:08.330 praise and for the hope of final healing and restoration. 243 00:18:08.360 --> 00:18:14.180 Francis lived and sung the same message, though he wrote no books. 244 00:18:14.210 --> 00:18:17.570 Renowned Franciscan scholars like Roger 245 00:18:17.600 --> 00:18:23.840 Bacon and John Dunn, SCOTUS lady later at Oxford, Paris and Bologna and elsewhere in 246 00:18:23.870 --> 00:18:29.140 the generation after Francis did investigate the wisdom of God in creation, 247 00:18:29.170 --> 00:18:32.700 laying the groundwork of modern science as pointed. 248 00:18:32.730 --> 00:18:34.700 Out by two recent books. 249 00:18:34.730 --> 00:18:40.290 For example, the Reopening of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman, just published 250 00:18:40.320 --> 00:18:46.180 and The Light Ages the Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Fok. 251 00:18:46.210 --> 00:18:49.980 Many of the major 252 00:18:50.010 --> 00:18:58.360 scholars at Oxford and Paris and elsewhere were Franciscans, and others were 253 00:18:58.390 --> 00:19:06.530 Dominicans, of course, like Ignatius no, who am Iquinas. 254 00:19:06.560 --> 00:19:08.800 Yes, of course. 255 00:19:10.840 --> 00:19:13.660 Francis explicit vision was to repair, 256 00:19:13.690 --> 00:19:18.570 rebuild and awaken the church, as Jesus called him to do. 257 00:19:18.600 --> 00:19:20.770 Soon, the Roman Church from the Pope on 258 00:19:20.800 --> 00:19:25.700 down broadly recognized this, though certainly Francis, like Wesley, had his 259 00:19:25.730 --> 00:19:30.290 critics and detractors throughout all Christian history. 260 00:19:30.320 --> 00:19:35.090 Perhaps no movements have renewed themselves more frequently and more 261 00:19:35.120 --> 00:19:42.290 genuinely than Franciscans and Methodists like Francis, Wesley saw the crying need 262 00:19:42.320 --> 00:19:46.290 for renewal and reform in the Church and beyond. 263 00:19:46.320 --> 00:19:52.380 Wesley's late sermon, The General Spread of the Gospel, sets forth an inspiring 264 00:19:52.410 --> 00:19:58.900 vision of the world transformed as prophesied in Isaiah eleven nine the earth 265 00:19:58.930 --> 00:20:03.740 shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 266 00:20:03.770 --> 00:20:12.090 Wesley said, It is as easy to God to convert a world as one individual soul. 267 00:20:12.120 --> 00:20:17.290 It is as easy to God to convert the world as one individual soul. 268 00:20:17.320 --> 00:20:23.570 He foresaw that God would in time fulfill, as he said, quote all his promises, until 269 00:20:23.600 --> 00:20:29.420 he hath put an end to sin and misery and infirmity and death, and reestablish 270 00:20:29.450 --> 00:20:34.860 universal holiness and happiness, and cause all the inhabitants of earth to sing 271 00:20:34.890 --> 00:20:40.880 together hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reynath. 272 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:43.010 And then number eleven. 273 00:20:43.040 --> 00:20:49.460 The lives of Francis and Wesley were marked by joy, by song, by music. 274 00:20:49.490 --> 00:20:52.740 Both were poets and loved to sing. 275 00:20:52.770 --> 00:20:55.320 Francis saw his brothers as God's 276 00:20:55.350 --> 00:21:00.250 troubadours, singing God's praises across Europe and beyond. 277 00:21:00.280 --> 00:21:05.010 Wesley, as an Oxford student, loved to sing and later composed some hymns. 278 00:21:05.040 --> 00:21:07.460 He translated German hymns and edited, 279 00:21:07.490 --> 00:21:13.700 published, and helped promote his brother Charles many myriad hymns. 280 00:21:13.730 --> 00:21:16.220 Wesley wrote rules for singing. 281 00:21:16.250 --> 00:21:18.770 Wesley had rules for everything. 282 00:21:18.800 --> 00:21:21.380 Wesley wrote Rules for Singing for the 283 00:21:21.410 --> 00:21:26.530 Methodists, and also an essay on Thoughts on the Power of Music. 284 00:21:26.560 --> 00:21:29.500 Wesley said Methodists do not like some, 285 00:21:29.530 --> 00:21:33.090 sing in a low drawing, in a slow drawling manner. 286 00:21:33.120 --> 00:21:37.940 We sing swift, both because it saves time 287 00:21:37.970 --> 00:21:43.290 and because it tends to awaken and enliven the soul. 288 00:21:43.320 --> 00:21:46.250 Francis taught his brothers to sing his 289 00:21:46.280 --> 00:21:51.420 cantacle of the creatures as a means of evangelism, that whenever you go preach 290 00:21:51.450 --> 00:21:54.140 and then sing, sing the canacle of the creatures. 291 00:21:54.170 --> 00:21:56.620 Francis, as well as Wesley, loved music, 292 00:21:56.650 --> 00:22:03.570 loved to sing, and saw music as a form of both worship and witness. 293 00:22:03.600 --> 00:22:05.220 And then finally, number twelve. 294 00:22:05.250 --> 00:22:09.420 Both Francis and Wesley had a world vision. 295 00:22:09.450 --> 00:22:13.290 Francis foresaw all peoples, races, tribes 296 00:22:13.320 --> 00:22:21.050 and tongues, all nations and all peoples everywhere on earth who are or who will be 297 00:22:21.080 --> 00:22:25.460 eventually knowing God and walking in his ways. 298 00:22:25.490 --> 00:22:28.680 Francis told his early followers, my dear 299 00:22:28.710 --> 00:22:34.500 brothers, let us consider our calling, because God has mercifully called us not 300 00:22:34.530 --> 00:22:38.900 only for our own good, but also for the salvation of many. 301 00:22:38.930 --> 00:22:43.900 Therefore let us go through the world encouraging and teaching men and women by 302 00:22:43.930 --> 00:22:48.700 word and example, to repent of their sins and to remember the Lord's commandments 303 00:22:48.730 --> 00:22:53.330 which they have forgotten for such a long time. 304 00:22:53.360 --> 00:22:55.980 Wesley, when criticized for not confining 305 00:22:56.010 --> 00:23:01.660 his ministry to one parish, famously said, the world is my parish. 306 00:23:01.690 --> 00:23:10.090 The Franciscan historian Kajitan Esser wrote of the Franciscans, the monastery of 307 00:23:10.120 --> 00:23:18.090 the Friars Minor, if we may thus phrase it, is the wide world. 308 00:23:18.120 --> 00:23:25.090 Wesley himself sent a preacher named Francis Francis asbury to evangelize North 309 00:23:25.120 --> 00:23:29.810 America, which he did with remarkable and enduring fruitfulness. 310 00:23:29.840 --> 00:23:31.900 In the century following Wesley, 311 00:23:31.930 --> 00:23:37.500 Methodists, like Franciscans, were famed for their evangelistic, church planting, 312 00:23:37.530 --> 00:23:43.180 educational and philanthropic work around the world. 313 00:23:43.210 --> 00:23:49.780 While a number of other Wesley Francis parallels could be noted, both Francis and 314 00:23:49.810 --> 00:23:57.540 Wesley showed special sensitivity to women and to the women's concerns and struggles. 315 00:23:57.570 --> 00:24:02.140 Wesley, though he published widely, refused to accumulate wealth. 316 00:24:02.170 --> 00:24:05.050 He wrote of the danger of riches, 317 00:24:05.080 --> 00:24:10.740 reminding us of Francis, who forbad his brothers even to touch money. 318 00:24:10.770 --> 00:24:13.660 Both men stressed simplicity and ignored 319 00:24:13.690 --> 00:24:18.980 social convention when it would have compromised their witness. 320 00:24:19.010 --> 00:24:21.700 Both Francis and Wesley preached widely to 321 00:24:21.730 --> 00:24:27.050 crowds out of doors, not restricting themselves to church buildings. 322 00:24:27.080 --> 00:24:33.420 Both were deeply disappointed when some of their followers proved unfaithful. 323 00:24:33.450 --> 00:24:38.220 The point of this comparison is not really the past, however, it's the future. 324 00:24:38.250 --> 00:24:40.840 And that's the point of the book that I'll 325 00:24:40.870 --> 00:24:45.160 be publishing with Orbis Press, focusing not so much on Francis, but on the 326 00:24:45.190 --> 00:24:51.400 Franciscan movement and what it has to teach us today. 327 00:24:51.720 --> 00:24:58.040 The lives of these two Francis and of Assisi and John of Epworth rhyme with the 328 00:24:58.070 --> 00:25:00.810 marks of other renewal movements down through history. 329 00:25:00.840 --> 00:25:04.180 As we would expect, given their passion to 330 00:25:04.210 --> 00:25:08.810 walk in God's ways as we appear into coming years, 331 00:25:08.840 --> 00:25:15.570 we can expect God again to move in similar ways to these patterns from the past. 332 00:25:15.600 --> 00:25:18.500 And so, as I've pondered this, I've thought about lessons. 333 00:25:18.530 --> 00:25:19.570 Lessons for myself. 334 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:22.900 I'm low to prescribe things for others, 335 00:25:22.930 --> 00:25:27.090 but these are the things that have particularly impressed me. 336 00:25:27.120 --> 00:25:29.020 And I would draw a number of practical 337 00:25:29.050 --> 00:25:33.660 lessons from Brother Francis and Brother John. 338 00:25:33.690 --> 00:25:34.260 Together. 339 00:25:34.290 --> 00:25:40.460 They comprise pastoral wisdom, wisdom applicable both to our own personal 340 00:25:40.490 --> 00:25:46.090 discipleship and to leading and guiding congregations of believers. 341 00:25:46.120 --> 00:25:48.780 And so I'm going to express several things 342 00:25:48.810 --> 00:25:54.570 now, kind of bullet points of things that particularly impress me with regard to 343 00:25:54.600 --> 00:25:59.380 Francis and Wesley and their lives and what they discovered. 344 00:25:59.410 --> 00:26:03.320 First, discover community. 345 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:06.290 Common to all renewal movements, really. 346 00:26:06.320 --> 00:26:11.180 In the Francis story, we see how a group of young men banded together, were 347 00:26:11.210 --> 00:26:17.260 energized to life, excitement, vision and good works. 348 00:26:17.290 --> 00:26:19.810 That is the dynamic of community. 349 00:26:19.840 --> 00:26:24.520 Claire and her sisters discovered the same, as did John and Charles Wesley at 350 00:26:24.550 --> 00:26:28.980 Oxford, then the Methodist movement all across England. 351 00:26:29.010 --> 00:26:32.900 Community generates energy. 352 00:26:32.930 --> 00:26:38.740 It takes someone like Francis or Wesley, however, to sanctify that energy and turn 353 00:26:38.770 --> 00:26:46.240 it in positive directions, both for the inward and outward journey. 354 00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:49.140 Discover community. 355 00:26:49.170 --> 00:26:52.020 Secondly live god's word. 356 00:26:52.050 --> 00:26:53.330 Live god's words. 357 00:26:53.360 --> 00:26:56.220 Wesley's sermons are, to a surprising 358 00:26:56.250 --> 00:27:00.500 degree, a compilation of biblical quotations and paraphrases. 359 00:27:00.530 --> 00:27:06.180 Wesley joins them together by drawing practical lessons and applications. 360 00:27:06.210 --> 00:27:09.500 This was true also of Francis. 361 00:27:09.530 --> 00:27:14.500 Francis words and Acts breathed the accents of Scripture. 362 00:27:14.530 --> 00:27:17.540 He lived his life as a response to Jesus. 363 00:27:17.570 --> 00:27:20.220 He sang psalms of praise. 364 00:27:20.250 --> 00:27:21.810 He understood the truth. 365 00:27:21.840 --> 00:27:26.660 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword. 366 00:27:26.690 --> 00:27:31.900 Piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow, it is able to 367 00:27:31.930 --> 00:27:36.020 judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 368 00:27:36.050 --> 00:27:38.760 The point is not so much to believe or to 369 00:27:38.790 --> 00:27:42.980 agree, but rather to do, to perform, to live God's words. 370 00:27:43.010 --> 00:27:49.220 Jesus, after all, said, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? 371 00:27:49.250 --> 00:27:54.080 The way to life is to live God's word. 372 00:27:54.280 --> 00:27:58.780 Third thing that impresses me is this love all creatures. 373 00:27:58.810 --> 00:28:00.620 Love all God's creatures. 374 00:28:00.650 --> 00:28:04.290 All living things are sacred because life comes from God. 375 00:28:04.320 --> 00:28:11.330 And God has quote an everlasting covenant with all earth's scriptures. 376 00:28:11.360 --> 00:28:18.180 According to Genesis 914 through 16, the glory of God is seen in all life 377 00:28:18.210 --> 00:28:24.570 forms, even if it is distorted or hidden or in some ways corrupted. 378 00:28:24.600 --> 00:28:30.420 Contemporary evangelicals have not stressed this, but Francis did. 379 00:28:30.450 --> 00:28:33.380 The same affection is found in John Wesley. 380 00:28:33.410 --> 00:28:40.330 Though it has been neglected, it is only now, in fact, being recovered. 381 00:28:40.360 --> 00:28:42.290 Francis loved all creatures. 382 00:28:42.320 --> 00:28:45.810 He marveled at them when he saw them suffering or enslaved. 383 00:28:45.840 --> 00:28:47.570 He wanted to free them. 384 00:28:47.600 --> 00:28:49.090 So did Wesley. 385 00:28:49.120 --> 00:28:56.540 He began to stress this theologically during his last decades especially. 386 00:28:56.570 --> 00:29:02.570 We become more fully whole and alive, more part of life with a capital L. 387 00:29:02.600 --> 00:29:05.140 When we love all creatures, partner with 388 00:29:05.170 --> 00:29:09.330 them, learn from them, protect their homes and habitats. 389 00:29:09.360 --> 00:29:14.320 Both Francis and Wesley teach us this. 390 00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:17.290 Number four learn to be lesser. 391 00:29:17.320 --> 00:29:19.700 Learn to be lesser. 392 00:29:19.730 --> 00:29:22.260 In the Francis story, we find the strange 393 00:29:22.290 --> 00:29:29.140 appeal and the strange elevation of choosing to be less choosing to be lesser. 394 00:29:29.170 --> 00:29:33.420 The call to lesserness is a call to servanthood. 395 00:29:33.450 --> 00:29:37.090 Lesserness is a call to courtesy. 396 00:29:37.120 --> 00:29:40.980 In Francis day, it was the courtly age of 397 00:29:41.010 --> 00:29:45.740 chivalry, and the word courteous comes from court. 398 00:29:45.770 --> 00:29:49.180 And so courtesy was a much sought virtue. 399 00:29:49.210 --> 00:29:54.620 To be mature, virtuous, chivalrous was to be courteous. 400 00:29:54.650 --> 00:29:59.570 The way of lesserness is the way of courtesy, of graciousness. 401 00:29:59.600 --> 00:30:06.180 It is a call to live graciously with all courteous withal and to live for the poor, 402 00:30:06.210 --> 00:30:12.020 so we can be more truly human and be a blessing, not a curse. 403 00:30:12.050 --> 00:30:18.480 Looking at Wesley through this lens helps us appreciate him more deeply. 404 00:30:19.320 --> 00:30:24.260 And number five find joy in suffering. 405 00:30:24.290 --> 00:30:26.860 Joy in suffering. 406 00:30:26.890 --> 00:30:29.180 It's an amazing truth, proved over again, 407 00:30:29.210 --> 00:30:36.380 over and over again, in human experience and especially in Jesus own life. 408 00:30:36.410 --> 00:30:40.740 Jesus, for the sake of the joy that was 409 00:30:40.770 --> 00:30:45.940 set before him, endured the cross, disregarding its shame. 410 00:30:45.970 --> 00:30:52.380 Hebrews Twelve Two this is a deep spiritual and also psychological truth. 411 00:30:52.410 --> 00:30:55.140 Joy defeats pain. 412 00:30:55.170 --> 00:31:00.660 Joy can overwhelm pain, turning suffering into surprising joyousness. 413 00:31:00.690 --> 00:31:03.020 This is true even physiologically. 414 00:31:03.050 --> 00:31:07.780 Joy releases substances within the body that block pain. 415 00:31:07.810 --> 00:31:10.090 How else explain Francis? 416 00:31:10.120 --> 00:31:13.090 He suffered dreadfully for long periods. 417 00:31:13.120 --> 00:31:18.500 I have a chapter in my book on Francis diseases, francis Health Issues. 418 00:31:18.530 --> 00:31:19.900 Yet he rose above this. 419 00:31:19.930 --> 00:31:24.700 How else explained the paradox of Francis, who would be cheerful, even joyful, even 420 00:31:24.730 --> 00:31:30.140 joyous and light hearted, even as he suffered in his eyes and his stomach. 421 00:31:30.170 --> 00:31:32.260 Suffering was surrounded and overwhelmed 422 00:31:32.290 --> 00:31:38.700 and captured by joy, grace, love, self giving. 423 00:31:38.730 --> 00:31:43.620 Physically speaking, John Wesley was much healthier than Francis. 424 00:31:43.650 --> 00:31:50.050 Wesley maintained a wise emphasis on good health with many practical lessons. 425 00:31:50.080 --> 00:31:52.810 Francis, I think, failed at this point. 426 00:31:52.840 --> 00:31:58.570 Much of the reason, however, traces two differences in culture of the time and in 427 00:31:58.600 --> 00:32:02.740 the ideal of Christian spirituality of the time. 428 00:32:02.770 --> 00:32:08.330 Still, suffering brings benefits for the faithful, as Wesley himself stressed. 429 00:32:08.360 --> 00:32:13.940 Wesley said, suffering, rather than preventing or lessening our happiness, 430 00:32:13.970 --> 00:32:19.740 greatly contribute thereto and indeed constitute no small part of it. 431 00:32:19.770 --> 00:32:23.500 Love itself leads to suffering. 432 00:32:23.530 --> 00:32:28.660 Wesley notes that the love of our neighbor will give rise to sympathizing sorrow. 433 00:32:28.690 --> 00:32:31.660 It leads us to visit the fatherless and 434 00:32:31.690 --> 00:32:36.570 the widow in their affliction affliction, to be tenderly concerned for the distress 435 00:32:36.600 --> 00:32:42.810 and to mix our pitying tears with those who weep so often. 436 00:32:42.840 --> 00:32:48.880 This is true. Those who suffer deeply, love deeply. 437 00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:53.220 Pain may perhaps be endured, but it can be transcended. 438 00:32:53.250 --> 00:32:57.800 Joy, well placed, is stronger than pain. 439 00:32:57.840 --> 00:33:03.180 Francis shows we can learn to live above and beyond pain and distractions through 440 00:33:03.210 --> 00:33:08.160 prayer and mental and spiritual disciplines. 441 00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:14.290 Number six cherish church connections. 442 00:33:14.320 --> 00:33:17.660 Cherish church connections. 443 00:33:17.690 --> 00:33:21.180 Surrounded by pain or shrinking meaning, 444 00:33:21.210 --> 00:33:25.160 we tend to neglect the very links that nurture us, 445 00:33:25.320 --> 00:33:30.680 like an arm or a truth not exercised connections with other truth seekers and 446 00:33:30.710 --> 00:33:36.700 truth walkers wither and die if not stretched and strengthened. 447 00:33:36.730 --> 00:33:41.540 Much of the genius of Francis life lies here. 448 00:33:41.570 --> 00:33:45.700 He reconnected nominal believers with the church. 449 00:33:45.730 --> 00:33:51.860 Where the church was corrupt or decayed, francis and his brothers offered living 450 00:33:51.890 --> 00:33:58.220 connections connecting cells and sinus that brought life to people in need. 451 00:33:58.250 --> 00:34:00.540 Wesley's genius was similar. 452 00:34:00.570 --> 00:34:02.740 He brought people to church or back to 453 00:34:02.770 --> 00:34:06.020 church through a living encounter with Jesus. 454 00:34:06.050 --> 00:34:09.820 Not only the head, but equally important, the body, the church. 455 00:34:09.850 --> 00:34:15.780 Both Francis and Wesley worked to remember the dismembered. 456 00:34:15.810 --> 00:34:17.820 Francis and Wesley instructors. 457 00:34:17.850 --> 00:34:19.780 Franciscan and Wesley instructors were 458 00:34:19.810 --> 00:34:23.460 quite different from each other, but both serve this function. 459 00:34:23.490 --> 00:34:28.740 Here again, the closest parallel is between Methodist societies, I think, and 460 00:34:28.770 --> 00:34:35.740 Franciscan third orders cherish church connections. 461 00:34:35.770 --> 00:34:39.960 Number seven go deep in prayer. 462 00:34:40.080 --> 00:34:44.540 The Importance of Prayer prayer begins with reaching out to God. 463 00:34:44.570 --> 00:34:48.540 It's not a matter of right words or even pure thoughts or motives. 464 00:34:48.570 --> 00:34:53.980 Prayer arises out of desperation or out of gratitude. 465 00:34:54.010 --> 00:35:00.130 We pray because being all alone is not enough. 466 00:35:00.160 --> 00:35:05.780 Francis, Claire and Wesley and their movements lived lives of prayer. 467 00:35:05.800 --> 00:35:09.640 All accounts of Francis and of Claire and their brothers and sisters stress the 468 00:35:09.670 --> 00:35:14.980 vitality of prayer, sometimes in exaggerated ways. 469 00:35:15.010 --> 00:35:19.580 Accounts tell of Francis brothers being caught up in ecstasy, lifted from the 470 00:35:19.610 --> 00:35:24.420 ground, conversing with Christ, losing all count of time. 471 00:35:24.450 --> 00:35:26.620 This was true of some, not of others. 472 00:35:26.650 --> 00:35:28.690 For we are not all the same. 473 00:35:28.720 --> 00:35:31.420 But we all need prayer, just as we all 474 00:35:31.450 --> 00:35:37.650 breathe and we all breathe, and as we need regular rest. 475 00:35:37.680 --> 00:35:40.200 A significant parallel between Francis and 476 00:35:40.230 --> 00:35:44.620 wesley lies here, the centrality of prayer. 477 00:35:44.650 --> 00:35:47.820 Both men combined formalized liturgical 478 00:35:47.850 --> 00:35:51.940 prayers with informal, spontaneous praying. 479 00:35:51.970 --> 00:35:54.600 Spontaneous or extemporar, prayer was a 480 00:35:54.630 --> 00:35:58.100 significant new learning for the young John Wesley. 481 00:35:58.130 --> 00:36:03.860 With Francis, it seemed to come naturally, almost inescapably, as he walked hills and 482 00:36:03.890 --> 00:36:08.580 valleys and watched birds and other creatures. 483 00:36:08.610 --> 00:36:11.210 Both men lived the rhythm of spontaneous 484 00:36:11.240 --> 00:36:14.420 prayer and liturgical or other written prayers. 485 00:36:14.450 --> 00:36:20.300 With both, this happened in three mutually reinforcing ways private prayer, 486 00:36:20.330 --> 00:36:27.340 small group prayer, and prayers together in the great congregation. 487 00:36:27.370 --> 00:36:29.650 Prayer is the breath, the oxygen and 488 00:36:29.680 --> 00:36:36.380 nitrogen that supply life as we walk in God's word. 489 00:36:36.410 --> 00:36:40.380 Another things I Know number eight love the liturgy. 490 00:36:40.410 --> 00:36:44.580 Not my tradition, but something I've been learning. 491 00:36:44.610 --> 00:36:47.120 Love the liturgy, actually not my tradition. 492 00:36:47.120 --> 00:36:48.360 It depends on how far back I go. 493 00:36:48.390 --> 00:36:51.130 Because if I go back to Wesley, it is right. 494 00:36:51.160 --> 00:36:56.980 As we walk the path of truth, we see footprints, we find well trodden paths. 495 00:36:57.010 --> 00:37:00.820 For the path of truth is an ancient way. 496 00:37:00.850 --> 00:37:04.650 Travelers before us have left markers and 497 00:37:04.680 --> 00:37:10.500 signposts, prayers, testimony, songs, lives added together. 498 00:37:10.530 --> 00:37:13.260 These are called the church's liturgy. 499 00:37:13.290 --> 00:37:16.400 Liturgy in various forms is the record of 500 00:37:16.430 --> 00:37:21.940 the church's journey through time and culture, often codified in forms of prayer 501 00:37:21.970 --> 00:37:30.540 and song and readings that offer profound words to help us pray and praise and grow. 502 00:37:30.570 --> 00:37:33.060 I can and must pray in my own words, but 503 00:37:33.090 --> 00:37:38.440 the thing I love about liturgy is that often it says better than I can what I 504 00:37:38.470 --> 00:37:42.820 really meant, what I really mean or really need. 505 00:37:42.850 --> 00:37:45.170 Plus, it's not just me or you. 506 00:37:45.200 --> 00:37:48.210 Liturgy is by definition of the people. 507 00:37:48.240 --> 00:37:53.210 That is, it is the public property of God's people, so to speak. 508 00:37:53.240 --> 00:37:59.460 This gives us a both and not either or walk with God in the world. 509 00:37:59.490 --> 00:38:01.860 Our own efforts and cries and prayers 510 00:38:01.890 --> 00:38:07.650 blend with those of the communion of saints, the vast numbers of folks through 511 00:38:07.680 --> 00:38:13.340 history, in many lands, who have walked and proved this way. 512 00:38:13.370 --> 00:38:16.690 Liturgy helps us pray with a broader lens, 513 00:38:16.720 --> 00:38:23.960 a wider view to remember in prayer important things we tend to forget. 514 00:38:25.240 --> 00:38:29.540 Another thing number nine find and live your gift. 515 00:38:29.570 --> 00:38:34.650 As a self centered youth, Francis showed the gift of hospitality. 516 00:38:34.680 --> 00:38:38.460 Often he was the center of his group, the life of the party. 517 00:38:38.490 --> 00:38:46.640 But it was all for his own sake, until he met Jesus and hugged a leper. 518 00:38:46.720 --> 00:38:52.170 Transformed by Jesus and given mission, francis discovered gifts of leadership, of 519 00:38:52.200 --> 00:38:58.540 teaching and preaching, of discipling, of humor and song. 520 00:38:58.570 --> 00:39:01.740 He discovered the gift of inspiring others. 521 00:39:01.770 --> 00:39:05.900 This was his charism, his grace gift. 522 00:39:05.930 --> 00:39:12.580 Within the Franciscan communities, other brothers then found their gifts. 523 00:39:12.610 --> 00:39:15.690 Some could garden and some could sing. 524 00:39:15.720 --> 00:39:18.820 Some could preach and some could dream. 525 00:39:18.850 --> 00:39:23.480 Some could go deep or rise high in theology and philosophy and in the 526 00:39:23.510 --> 00:39:28.900 emerging sciences, leaving legacies that still nurture us. 527 00:39:28.930 --> 00:39:32.620 In the mathist movement, wesley encouraged disciples to find their special 528 00:39:32.650 --> 00:39:38.460 ministries, and through doing all the good they could to serve. 529 00:39:38.490 --> 00:39:42.780 Others. The apostle Paul wrote that each of us has 530 00:39:42.810 --> 00:39:47.580 been given grace according to the measure of Christ's gifts. 531 00:39:47.610 --> 00:39:49.900 Gifts are given so that each of us can 532 00:39:49.930 --> 00:39:55.100 serve others and be blessed and enriched in doing so. 533 00:39:55.130 --> 00:39:57.690 As we walk in God's ways, we should expect 534 00:39:57.720 --> 00:40:04.580 both to receive and to give, not only grow in grace, but help others grow in ways 535 00:40:04.610 --> 00:40:09.560 that each one can, each in our unique ways. 536 00:40:10.520 --> 00:40:14.840 And number ten trust God's future. 537 00:40:14.920 --> 00:40:16.500 Trust God's future. 538 00:40:16.530 --> 00:40:19.500 We look ahead to future days, days and 539 00:40:19.530 --> 00:40:25.620 events and people still unknown to us and entrust all into God's hands. 540 00:40:25.650 --> 00:40:31.580 This is what the church calls eschatology the matter of last and ultimate things 541 00:40:31.610 --> 00:40:35.900 wrapped in mystery, yet not needlessly ominous to us. 542 00:40:35.930 --> 00:40:42.460 For we trust God's power and character, justice and lovingkindness. 543 00:40:42.490 --> 00:40:44.650 Joshua in the Old Testament told the 544 00:40:44.680 --> 00:40:49.020 Israelites just before he died, not one thing has failed. 545 00:40:49.050 --> 00:40:53.780 Of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you, all have come 546 00:40:53.810 --> 00:40:57.380 to pass for you, not one of them has failed. 547 00:40:57.410 --> 00:40:59.780 We can trust God and his covenant 548 00:40:59.810 --> 00:41:05.380 promises, so that so long as we remain covenant faithful. 549 00:41:05.410 --> 00:41:13.900 Francis believed this and lived and proved it to and through his final earthly hours. 550 00:41:13.930 --> 00:41:16.420 Both Francis and Wesley lived in times of 551 00:41:16.450 --> 00:41:21.260 high apocalyptic speculation, yet avoided getting caught up in it. 552 00:41:21.290 --> 00:41:25.500 I think this is a wonderful lesson really, considering the times we're in today. 553 00:41:25.530 --> 00:41:28.300 They lived in times of apocalyptic 554 00:41:28.330 --> 00:41:30.980 speculation, yet avoided getting caught up in it. 555 00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:32.690 Though this was not true of some of their 556 00:41:32.720 --> 00:41:39.740 followers, their lives were Jesus focused, not end times focused. 557 00:41:39.770 --> 00:41:43.940 Number eleven forgive joyfully. 558 00:41:43.970 --> 00:41:48.690 Francis saw no point in bearing grudges or withholding pardon. 559 00:41:48.720 --> 00:41:51.940 He made plain the way he wanted his brothers to live. 560 00:41:51.970 --> 00:41:54.650 While he could, he held them accountable. 561 00:41:54.680 --> 00:41:55.780 But he joyfully. 562 00:41:55.810 --> 00:41:59.380 Forgave when anyone in or out of his order 563 00:41:59.410 --> 00:42:04.500 turned from evil and walked in the way of peace and justice. 564 00:42:04.530 --> 00:42:08.500 For Francis, to forgive was not a burden, it was a joy. 565 00:42:08.530 --> 00:42:11.620 A brother or wanderer had been restored. 566 00:42:11.650 --> 00:42:16.170 He had the joy of the Father welcoming back the prodigal. 567 00:42:16.200 --> 00:42:21.170 For in the end, Francis trusted his savior and Lord Jesus Christ. 568 00:42:21.200 --> 00:42:24.060 We see the same spirit in John Wesley. 569 00:42:24.090 --> 00:42:27.260 His brother Charles often thought John was too lenient. 570 00:42:27.290 --> 00:42:29.500 Too forgiving. 571 00:42:29.530 --> 00:42:35.130 When we joyfully forgive, we renew joy and freedom in ourselves. 572 00:42:35.160 --> 00:42:37.980 We become the liberated, not the victim, 573 00:42:38.010 --> 00:42:44.880 nor the oppressed one carrying the weight of others crimes and failures. 574 00:42:45.880 --> 00:42:54.100 Number twelve shun extremes shun extremes we may live in an age of extremes. 575 00:42:54.130 --> 00:42:57.040 We may be pushed and pulled out of the 576 00:42:57.070 --> 00:43:00.940 perfect path into far off ways that lead astray. 577 00:43:00.970 --> 00:43:05.260 If we daily nourish our roots and reflect on God's promises. 578 00:43:05.290 --> 00:43:11.980 We find the path of perfection, the path both Francis and Wesley sought. 579 00:43:12.010 --> 00:43:14.580 For the path of the righteous is like the 580 00:43:14.610 --> 00:43:19.130 light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. 581 00:43:19.160 --> 00:43:22.620 Proverbs 418 here admittedly, Francis 582 00:43:22.650 --> 00:43:28.130 advice was better than his life, francis sometimes went to extremes, stressing 583 00:43:28.160 --> 00:43:32.500 poverty and embracing suffering, especially with regard to himself. 584 00:43:32.530 --> 00:43:38.690 Even here, though, Francis warned the brothers against extremes of ceticism, 585 00:43:38.720 --> 00:43:43.180 against inflicting unnecessary pain on their bodies. 586 00:43:43.210 --> 00:43:45.460 Here, I think actually that Wesley is more 587 00:43:45.490 --> 00:43:49.660 wholesome and biblically sound than Francis. 588 00:43:49.690 --> 00:43:56.460 Both Francis and Wesley did shun extremes in doctrine and liturgy, embracing rather 589 00:43:56.490 --> 00:44:02.580 established church tradition and then a couple more. 590 00:44:02.610 --> 00:44:03.660 Sing joyously. 591 00:44:03.690 --> 00:44:06.460 Number 13 sing joyously. 592 00:44:06.490 --> 00:44:09.740 Francis was a joyous troubadour. 593 00:44:09.770 --> 00:44:13.860 Wesley also loved to sing, as his journals showed. 594 00:44:13.890 --> 00:44:20.080 Francis loved songs and singing often went singing on his wave and went suffering. 595 00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:23.860 Francis knew the songs of his age. 596 00:44:23.890 --> 00:44:26.260 Songs based on the romance of the rose 597 00:44:26.290 --> 00:44:29.340 rendered the fox the knights of the roundtable. 598 00:44:29.370 --> 00:44:32.820 Francis was poet and singer and dramatist. 599 00:44:32.850 --> 00:44:38.980 Chesterton said of Francis as he saw all things dramatically so himself. 600 00:44:39.010 --> 00:44:40.820 He himself was always dramatic. 601 00:44:40.850 --> 00:44:45.740 He was a poet whose whole life was a poem. 602 00:44:45.770 --> 00:44:50.660 Francis saw the beauty of God and the bounty of creation. 603 00:44:50.690 --> 00:44:53.300 He lived the life of joy, celebrated 604 00:44:53.330 --> 00:44:59.140 creatures small and great, especially the sun above and the larks that fly. 605 00:44:59.170 --> 00:45:05.000 He also noticed fish and fireflies, flowers and flowing streams, and the 606 00:45:05.030 --> 00:45:09.260 creatures noticed him, saw him as one of their own. 607 00:45:09.290 --> 00:45:11.940 Perhaps birds would stop singing if he 608 00:45:11.970 --> 00:45:18.340 asked them and would sometimes flock around him and sent a settle on him, 609 00:45:18.370 --> 00:45:23.460 even when knocked down in a snow drift, francis rose up singing. 610 00:45:23.490 --> 00:45:26.260 Thomas of Solano says exhilarated with 611 00:45:26.290 --> 00:45:32.400 great joy he began in a loud voice to make the woods resound with praises to the 612 00:45:32.430 --> 00:45:37.340 Creator of all, often going on his way, often singing in French. 613 00:45:37.370 --> 00:45:40.210 Francis was a living metaphor all the more 614 00:45:40.240 --> 00:45:47.740 because he was flesh and blood and could lead as well as make music. 615 00:45:47.770 --> 00:45:52.660 And then finally, which I suppose is first, although I have it here, number 14 616 00:45:52.690 --> 00:45:58.660 follow Jesus steadfastly it was all for Jesus sake, 617 00:45:58.690 --> 00:46:03.580 his life and resurrection and especially his sufferings for us. 618 00:46:03.610 --> 00:46:06.180 This is what moved Francis. 619 00:46:06.210 --> 00:46:08.460 He would weep long and bitterly over the 620 00:46:08.490 --> 00:46:13.820 sufferings of Christ, yet like a lark, he would rise up in song 621 00:46:13.850 --> 00:46:17.740 for the new life he received through Jesus. 622 00:46:17.770 --> 00:46:20.380 Wesley may not have been as exuberant or 623 00:46:20.410 --> 00:46:23.660 impulsive as Francis, yet he had the same spirit. 624 00:46:23.690 --> 00:46:29.340 In his journal, Wesley often simply has the word sang. 625 00:46:29.370 --> 00:46:30.820 He was singing. 626 00:46:30.850 --> 00:46:32.700 This is a lesson for all of us. 627 00:46:32.730 --> 00:46:38.780 The way to life is to walk in Jesus way, so learn from him. 628 00:46:38.810 --> 00:46:42.300 This joyful certainty never faded, for 629 00:46:42.330 --> 00:46:49.060 Francis and his brothers caught the contagion following Jesus steadfastly. 630 00:46:49.080 --> 00:46:50.740 This, of course, is really number one. 631 00:46:50.770 --> 00:46:52.920 It is the clue and key and power of the 632 00:46:52.950 --> 00:46:58.360 other things we learn from Francis and Wesley. 633 00:46:59.160 --> 00:47:04.180 So finally, in conclusion, I think comparing Francis of Assisi with John 634 00:47:04.210 --> 00:47:09.860 Wesley offers practical wisdom for all Christians today. 635 00:47:09.890 --> 00:47:12.460 For pastors, it offers insights about 636 00:47:12.490 --> 00:47:18.380 building community, nurturing practical daily discipleship, 637 00:47:18.410 --> 00:47:24.060 extending witness that can grow generation to generation, 638 00:47:24.090 --> 00:47:30.700 pastoral wisdom rather than quick fixes or computer based products from commercial 639 00:47:30.730 --> 00:47:36.180 marketplaces or how to advice how to advice for church growth. 640 00:47:36.210 --> 00:47:38.740 For small groups, bands and discipleship 641 00:47:38.770 --> 00:47:44.660 cells the lives of Wesley and Francis offer inspiration and devotional resources 642 00:47:44.690 --> 00:47:49.140 to help serious Christians grow deeper day to day. 643 00:47:49.170 --> 00:47:54.820 For each of us, I think looking at Francis and Wesley side by side offers hope, 644 00:47:54.850 --> 00:48:00.380 inspiration, courage and long range rather than short term perspective. 645 00:48:00.410 --> 00:48:02.940 As we seek seriously to walk in the steps 646 00:48:02.970 --> 00:48:08.000 of Jesus, the parallels we discover between Francis and John Wesley can 647 00:48:08.030 --> 00:48:15.420 perhaps fortify us to find new courage and energy as we walk in the world in our day. 648 00:48:15.440 --> 00:48:16.240 Thank you very much.