Previous Post – Bridging Parish/Congregation Divide

It is not uncommon for people to be curious about the level of my engagement with St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan tradition.  Most will affirm him as a good example (or at least handy for some excellent sound bites), but wonder if I am going to far in my emphasis on him.  After all, isn’t Christ enough?  Wouldn’t I be better off placing more of a focus on Jesus than one of his whacky, 13th century followers?  Fair questions.

Interestingly, I am writing this while the internet is somewhat abuzz with Frank Viola & Leonard Sweet’s recent “A Jesus Manifesto for the 21st Century Church”.  Central to the theme of this manifesto is the contention that Christians have made Jesus secondary to other focuses, with justice figuring in prominently in the critique.  While the manifesto makes some important points, much of the criticism of it has been quite warranted. (See excellent responses by Julie Clawson and Mark Van Steenwyk, the man behind my favorite Jesus Manifesto).  The manifesto presents a false dichotomy between a Christ-centric faith and an emphasis on justice.  (Also see Len Sweet’s gracious and helpful response in the thread following Mark’s post).

I bring these two issue up together because they share something critical, namely Jesus.  St. Francis was a passionate advocate and practitioner of justice.  He embraced a life poverty, at times to excess, out of his passion to identify with those who suffered from the systemic injustices of the day.  The Franciscans, by following Francis’ example, transformed the monastic traditional by hitting the streets in genuinely evangelical zeal, embracing a missional dynamic that was too often missing from the church.  Their impact can arguably be linked to some of the important dynamics of the Reformation, not the least the nature of community life in the Radical Reformation.

So what inspired St. Francis and his followers to live such explicitly missional lives, championing justice, mercy and compassion?  Jesus Christ.  And I say this, not in the knee-jerk, Sunday School “Jesus is always the answer” kind of response, but in the truly radical commitment to live according the teachings and example of Jesus Christ.  While their literal obedience can at times be rightfully criticized as extreme and misguided, what cannot be denied is the continued impact this kind of Christ-centered obedience had on the Church, both then and now.

When I follow in Francis footsteps, it is not due to any merit of his own, but because his footprint lie within the deeper prints of Christ Himself. Francis also openly celebrated that to follow Christ is to follow God- Father, Son and Spirit- and God is one. The example of St. Francis is such a critical and timely one because it is unquestionably Christ-centered made manifest in the declaration of His glory and the practice of His love- a love that produces justice in it’s richest and truest sense.