Inspiration for the Commute
Living in the 1200s, St. Francis is still challenging people of faith to live it out sacrificially in our daily lives.
One of his poems is in the United Methodist Hymnal–#62-”All Creatures of Our God and King”. As is the famous prayer attributed to him that begins: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love….
When I go from home to the church building I pass at least one St. Francis statue in a garden setting.
When leaders from the largest and best known religions meet, where was the conference? Assisi, in honor of St. Francis.
When theologically conservative or theologically liberal thinkers want to defend a statement, each will go to St. Francis. Interested in ministry with the poor? Go, like our youth mission team did this summer, to the St. Francis Soup Kitchen. Treehuggers love him. The world who might have nothing to do with “organized religion” will have St. Francis as the icon of how Christianity ‘ought to be.’
But who is he? What did he think? How was he different? Why was he different?
These and many other questions are addressed and stories told in the new CD lecture series found in Tabernacle’s Library. These six disks with twelve 30-minute lectures by Professor William Cook and Professor Ron Herzman present the information in a way that changes and expands my thinking while making me want to help more people know about his life. Especially we Protestants.
I am convinced that this lecture series will make the commute a time you look forward to…and that is no small miracle answering the Prayer of St. Francis: “Where there is despair [let me sow] hope.”
