St. Francis and Romans

This Sunday, October 4th is the Feast of St. Francis a well known friend of nature and animals. In our tradition we don't usually celebrate a feast like this on Sunday as it is reserved as the Lord's Day. But it is almost too easy this week. The lesson from Romans begs that the preacher spend some time talking about what it means that God "subjected all things at our feet."

In the course of human history we've seen the two extremes of subjugation. We've seen kings that exploited their land, exploited their people, exploited their livestock and in the end saw their demise. Sure, there were periods of relative bliss for those kings, but in the end exploitation is not sustainable. And unfortunately, most ruling powers end up here because exploitation seems to much easier. And I guess it is; at least in the short term.

The American ruling power seems to find itself realizing that exploitation is not a long-term option. Whether or not it is too late for that realization is up to someone else, but what Scripture tells us is that while all things are subject to us, we are still subject to the King who created all things. As Brian McLaren says, (my paraphrase), "nature is not our mother but our sister, and we should treat her as such; working hard to protect her."

Seems like a good time to talk about this stuff, don'tcha think?