Shalom

I apologize for getting the gospel reading wrong in your bulletin. If the one assigned for St. Francis Day which I just read seems familiar to you it is because we read this just two months ago. I guess God wants us to take special note of this passage this year.

I play a lot of games on my phone and so I see a lot of advertisements. They are mainly for other games or for exercise routines but almost every day I see one asking me to send money to help orangutans whose forest is being cut down. I have enjoyed watching orangutans in the zoo and wondered why their native forest is being destroyed. There are several answers, but I was amazed to learn that one major reason is that Americans like RVs.

Yes, RVs. Recreational Vehicles.

When I think of the simple life of St Francis and how I might live more simply,  with very few possessions, one of the options seems to be to sell the house, get an RV and see where the Spirit takes me.

But RVs are made of a particular timber.  It is processed into a lightweight, moisture-resistant, flexible plywood then R.V. makers use it for interior walls, flooring, cabinets and other features. And where does that special timber grow? In the forests of Borneo where the orangutans live.[1]

In the last five years alone, tens of thousands of acres of the island’s forests have been chopped down. This has contributed to the disappearance of some of the world’s largest rainforests and wetlands, unleashing dense stores of carbon, upending the lives of Indigenous people and endangering the habitats of orangutans and other animals. All so that we can enjoy our RVs.

Who knew?

Of course we didn’t. But my friends, the information is out there.

The man in Jesus’ story knew that death was a possibility as any moment. The information was out there. But he chose not to think about that. Instead, he chose to build big barns to store all his goods. He chose to be rich in material wealth but not spiritual wealth.

And this is the challenge that St Francis gives us. He came from a wealthy family and as a young man had no trouble spending money on all the things that rich young men in the 13th Century spent money on. After a conversion experience and a big fight with his father, he became an itinerant beggar. He spent his time restoring local churches and nursing lepers. Eventually he built himself a hut and dedicated himself to a life of poverty – the complete opposite of the guy in the parable. He started preaching peace and brotherly love and soon gathered a group of men around him. The order was recognized by the Pope and grew rapidly.

There are many stories about Francis and animals. It is said that he preached to the birds and that on one occasion he brokered peace between a village and a wolf.  It is certain from his writings that he saw and honored God in Creation. In 1989 Pope John Paul II said that St Francis "invited all of creation – animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon – to give honor and praise to the Lord. [He] gives us striking witness that when we are at peace with God we are better able to devote ourselves to building up that peace with all creation which is inseparable from peace among all peoples."[2]

When we are at peace with God we are better able to devote ourselves to building up that peace with all creation which is inseparable from peace among all peoples.

So we can see that peace has three dimensions – peace with God, peace with one another and peace with all creation. And by peace I don’t simply mean no fighting. Peace in the spiritual sense is shalom – shalom means wholeness, or completeness. We might think of shalom as living in harmony with all beings, a state where there is abundance and an ethic of restraint which makes sure there’s enough for everyone.

The man in the gospel story is trying to create shalom for himself, but he doesn’t get that shalom is living in harmony, with generosity and care for all beings.

Jesus has already brought about our peace with God; it is a free gift, given purely through grace as a result of God’s amazing love for us and for all creation. Yet we get to live into it. We get to learn to live in peace by surrendering our lives – making a commitment to living shalom with all beings, guided by the Holy Spirit. I’m not sure if we ever get there, but the vision of God’s holy shalom draws us onward.

And it is that same vision of shalom which inspires us to cultivate peace in all our relationships. This is difficult. Relationships have at least two people involved and that means there are always at least two viewpoints. Even when we are estranged from someone, we can work to offer them shalom in our hearts; to cultivate an attitude of open love that allows them to be fully themselves – to know the joy of their own true nature. We can do that even when we disagree.

And then there’s peace with nature. This morning we are celebrating our companion animals, those creatures who share our lives and inhabit our hearts. Yet however much we live in harmony with our beloved pets, we know that the relationship between human and nature has become fundamentally disordered. And that disorder has reached a point where it threatens animal and human flourishing.

The orangutans of Borneo are not the only creatures threatened by our habits. Some scientists are calling our time the sixth mass extinction. There have been five previous times when huge numbers of living beings have been wiped out in a very short period. Now, due to human behavior we are losing biodiversity at a rate of somewhere between 100 and 1000 times the rate that would be expected were we not cutting down forests, wiping out coral reefs and increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

How then are we to love creation?

Perhaps it is time to take an inventory of our lives. The fourth step of Alcoholics Anonymous is “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” Perhaps it is time to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of the ways our lives impact creation. And then with God’s help look for ways to change our behavior and learn to live more simply with less negative impact.
There is a lot of information available about the impacts of which bank we use or where we invest our money, the food we eat and the food we throw away, the cars we drive and how much we walk; how to make our yards drought tolerant and insect friendly, and where we can send dollars to help save habitat for orangutans and other creatures. I could go on, but you know these things. The information is out there.

People of God, the big aha that we need is to realize that we are part of an incredible web of life – God’s ongoing creation. And our actions, our prayers, yes even our thoughts, impact that web. And we are called to pour love into the web. We are called to be points of Shalom which bring peace and healing. The love which we feel for our companion animals is a start and it is only a start.

St. Francis calls us to live simply so that we may share the abundance we receive from God with all beings and so that we do not use more than our share of creation. Because building bigger barns to store stuff for ourselves is missing the point. God made us to live in shalom with all beings. At peace with God, at peace with our neighbor and at peace with creation. 

      Shalom

the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall


[1][1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/world/asia/indonesia-borneo-deforestation-rv.html#:~:text=American%20demand%20for%20tropical%20wood,clouded%20leopards%20and%20sun%20bears.
 

[2] https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_19891208_xxiii-world-day-for-peace.html