Lydford Parish and Community Magazine
May 2012
This springtime, the dawn chorus has got me thinking about St Francis, and the story of him telling the noisy birds to be quiet while he and his fellow friars recited the office, after which the birds were free to resume praising the creator in their own distinctive way.
The life of St. Francis of Assisi has always had an endless fascination for people. He came from a well off family but renounced money, inheritance, and even respect to embrace poverty, prayer and obedience to God. He became a beggar who inspired a legion of others, even today. I've got some good friends who are Franciscans. They are among the poorest, and happiest, people I know.
One remarkable thing about Francis is his closeness to nature. He talked to the birds, and the birds took notice of him. They stayed calm near this human being. Wild birds rarely let people approach them closely. Perhaps wisely, they lack any trust in our good will. But the birds allowed Francis to come close, so close that his clothes touched them. They trusted this human being more than any other.
Jesus said we can learn from the birds. He said, "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
Francis talked to the birds; and Jesus invited us to learn from them. I wonder if you think you can learn from them. And I wonder if you talk to the birds - or other creatures. One congregation to whom I posed this question shared many stories about birds and other animals they talk with, including one person’s pet, Cocky the 30+ year-old cockateel.
Francis walked through the trees - he found the birds living in them; and Jesus also walked through the trees - he found something very profound to say about them. The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!' The Lord replied, 'If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea", and it would obey you. Jesus seems to be saying, if you talk to the trees they will hear you and follow what you say. If you only had a tiny bit of faith.
Now usually we keep our distance from people who talk to the trees. There's that famous song from Paint Your Wagon, ‘I talk to the trees, But they don't listen to me. I talk to the stars, But they never hear me’, which my Dad always changes to, ‘I talked to the trees, They came and took me away...’ Prince Charles and free spirits everywhere who happily talk to trees and plants and flowers are usually laughed at or scorned. Yet Jesus talked to the trees. The mulberry tree; the fig tree on the road to Jerusalem which he famously withered. Jesus talked to the wind, talked to the waves - which obeyed him.
He was only following his Father, who, at the very beginning of time, spoke to the light - and there was light, who spoke to the waters, and the waters appeared, who spoke to the earth, and the earth formed, who spoke to the plants and the creatures, and the plants and the creatures appeared in all their variety and all their beauty.
If we only had a tiny bit of faith we would be able to see that there is something very good, something very right, something God-like in being so close to nature that we can enter into a two-way conversation with it.
Actually, I think our faith is a bit like that already. Many people do happily talk to their animals. A survey in the Church Times revealed that many people pray with their pets. They are their companions in life; they share the deepest things with them, it's natural to include them in their prayers. I know at least one person whose dog joins him for prayers each night.
A woman wrote in to the Church Times to tell about her father who was a vicar and whose three cats always followed him to Evening Prayer every day: "After he tolled the bell at 6.00 and donned his robes, they would quietly settle down: Dicky at his feet, Bill around his neck like a tabby scarf, and Mowley - well, she was more keen on checking the mouse population." In fact only one reader wrote in to say he didn't pray with his pet: "I don't have to," he said, "my pet is a praying mantis."
Jesus' words to his disciples were really to encourage them to grow in faith just by being more faithful. It's the only way, there is no magic formula. But, as we celebrate Rogation together this month, asking God’s blessing on creation, it is good to remember how our faith can grow the more we appreciate natural things - creatures, trees, the world around us. God values all of them. God is in all of them. God speaks to, and through, all of them. Sometimes, God wants us to talk to them.
Note
Based substantially on a sermon preached in Liverpool in 2004, I talk to the trees (A Franciscan conversation)
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