This is my first homily to the boys (and sixth-form girls) at Eltham College. Consequently, I've had to adapt my style slightly to make concessions for the youthful ear. Hope it doesn't offend you too much!
Homily preached at Eltham College on 4th October 2006.
It is Harvest Festival
at St Philip’s Church
in the village of
Little Flapjack-on-the-Turn,
and,
as is the custom for this time of year,
the locals bring their produce
into the church
by way of giving
thanks.
All this produce
goes to the needy of the Parish
and it is supposed to be
the best of the year's harvest.
In the old days,
the church would be chock-full of
fruits and vegetables,
bread and pastries.
These days,
the church is more often full
of mouldy satsumas,
bedraggled pumpkins,
disappointed lettuces,
and tins:
tins of soup,
tins of stewing steak,
tins of potatoes
and tin upon tin upon tin
of baked beans.
Usually,
the people who get
these tinned produce
are the elderly.
But!
Old Mr Smith gets
the tins of stewing steak,
and he hasn't a tooth in his head.
Mrs Bundock has lost her tin-opener.
And poor Mrs Murphy ends up
with all 365 tins of Baked Beans
and as a result is banned
from leaving her house
for the rest of the year
in order to reduce
greenhouse gasses.
She is released
from this prison
at next year's Harvest Festival
when she receives another
365 cans
of baked beans.
Is giving tins
and mouldy fruit
to a church Harvest Festival
an appropriate way of giving thanks for
all that we receive?
Well, who would
be a good example of how
to give thanks appropriately?
Today is St Francis' day,
so how does he,
St Francis of Assisi
give thanks for
all that he is given?
He does the Full Monty
in front of a large crowd of people
including a rather bemused Bishop!
Okay, so it's not precisely the Full Monty.
This is the 13th century,
about 800 years before
Tom Jones records
"You can leave your hat on".
Tom Jones himself is probably
still only a Welsh coal miner.
But St Francis strips off
all his clothes
to make a point.
His very rich father
has been telling him
to stop wasting the family fortune
on the poor,
and he brings him
in front of the Bishop
to threaten to disinherit
St Francis.
So St Francis reacts
by literally giving up everything
he owns,
not just his possessions,
but his clothes as well
- everything.
All for the love of the poor.
St Francis lives to give freely,
without grudging a penny,
and this is how he gives thanks.
He has been given freely,
so he gives freely,
generously.
Possessions merely
weigh him down with things
to look after and replace.
But doesn't it seem strange
that in order to give thanks
for what we do have,
St Francis seems to tell us
to give up everything?
Well, we mustn't follow
St Francis too closely,
otherwise the Headmaster will not be able to invite
senior members of the Clergy
to Eltham College
again.
Even the followers of St Francis
- the Franciscans -
go around correctly dressed.
But the root of the word "thanks"
is the word "think", and to give thanks
means to consider how much we have,
and how we are using it.
We do need
to look at our lives more closely
and strip away
the surface of possessions
and material things.
What is it that we really need in our lives?
Do we really need
the new pair of Nike trainers,
the new iPod, or
the new digital television set.
If we believe that we do,
then who might benefit
from the old ones that we had?
But if we do believe
that we need new iPods, trainers, et c.
is it because the old ones have
worn out or broken,
or because they have gone
out of fashion?
It can cost an awful lot
to keep up with fashion.
If we have to have
the latest model,
the newest edition,
the most powerful version all the time,
then surely we start spending
our time nervously scrutinising
the shopping channels,
hovering around Amazon.co.uk
or grabbing at the Argos catalogues waiting for the new stuff
to come out.
Is that any way to be living life?
Are dedicated followers of fashion
truly thankful for what they have,
discarding perfectly good things
for the latest model?
So who really does enjoy
the world we live in?
The Franciscan who owns nothing
but enjoys the beauty of the Earth
free from all the hassle
of owning possessions,
or those enslaved
by every whim
of fashion?
Whose thanksgiving is greater?
How do you express thanks
for all you have?
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1 comment:
My brother,
If they don't have you preach often in that chapel, then they just don't know what they're doing. The side of me that never grew up loved it! I'll bet a lot of your kids didn't like what they heard at all -- but I am sure they heard it, and with images of a naked saint and a gassy old lady to hang it on, they (or at least some of them) will never be able entirely to forget it.
ed
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