Welcome, Opening Comments
Rev. Bob Donnell
Welcome to our celebration of the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. Today is also the last day of the Season of Creation, which started September 1st and which we celebrated a few weeks ago on September 21st. That was also Sun Day, on which we celebrated our star the Sun, and its promise to help heal our home Earth by providing us with clean energy. As you will see this evening, these three themes—St. Francis, the Season of Creation, and Sun Day—are closely interrelated. You will hear about each. All Saints and Gulf Coast Creation Care are co-hosts for our celebration, and you will hear from both Lella Lowe and Rhoda Vanderhart. Thanks also to Josh for our music. I am sure you have noticed our fire. Perhaps a little warm for a fire, but it reminds us of the never-ending light and energy of creation, and especially of our star the Sun. I hope you enjoy the evening.
Brother Sun: Our Hope for Healing
Lella Lowe
Humanity has honored the sun for millennia, through poetry and song, art and dance. St. Francis’ 13th century poetry referred to the Sun as “brother”, who bears the likeness of God and brings the day and the light. As early as 1500BC, ancient Vedic hymns celebrated the sun as the source of light and life, with practitioners physically and spiritually worshipping the sun. Indigenous tribes have continued traditions such as the Sun Dance every spring.
We do well to recognize the sun as a symbol of God’s ongoing care for all of creation, as it reliably provides light, warmth and food through photosynthesis. Today, we are increasingly aware that the sun can also supply all the energy humanity needs. In fact, the sun constantly bathes the earth with about 10,000 times more energy than humans currently use. With modern technology, we can harness just a tiny portion of that energy and move beyond our reliance on fossil fuels.
In his new book Here Comes the Sun, environmentalist Bill McKibben notes that, in a world where everything seems to be going wrong, this is the one big thing suddenly going right. Economic forces are finally on the side of renewable energy, and there will be no going back to fossil fuel dominance. He points out that:
1. In the early 2020’s we reached a point where the cost of generating solar energy dropped below the cost of producing energy from burning fossil fuels, and
2. Globally, we are in a period of exponential growth in the production and installation of solar panels, due to countries’ desire for energy independence.
We have reached a tipping point with solar energy. There. Will. Be. No. Going. Back.
However, as they say, “we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way”. In the United States, we appear to be choosing the hard way, while the rest of the world moves on without us. That is especially the case in sunny Alabama, where currently only 1% of our electricity comes from solar energy. Last year, in the United States, 80% of new electric generating capacity was from solar panels and batteries, while in Alabama the Public Service Commission is still permitting new natural gas power plants and denying permits for utility scale solar projects.
You are probably aware, because you can see with your own eyes, that there is precious little rooftop solar installed in this area The main barrier is a fee imposed by Alabama Power, with the blessing of the Public Service Commission. This fee acts as a “tax on the sun,” significantly reducing the financial return for homeowners who install solar panels and remain connected to the grid. As a result, solar energy adoption remains minimal in the state.
In response, Gulf Coast Creation Care decided to participate in a national movement called Sun Day that, for other groups, involved everything from electric vehicle parades…to field trips to solar installations…to presentations by solar installers and advocates. But given Alabama’s unique challenges, GCCC chose to focus on a postcard writing campaign directed at the Public Service Commission. The goal is to urge our elected officials to create policies that support, rather than hinder, solar energy development in the state.
While the official Sun Day was September 21, the postcards can be sent any time, because the PSC needs constant reminders that the public cares about solar energy—for the savings it provides, the jobs it can create, and the promise of a healthier planet for us and for future generations. Postcards are available tonight for anyone willing to participate in this important advocacy effort
The sun shines impartially on all life, reminding us of our interconnectedness and the divine power that cares for and sustains us. It is a universal gift that binds all of creation together. For this, we join in offering our praise to God, grateful for the blessings bestowed by our Brother Sun.
A Sun Reflection: Sacred Imagination
Rhoda Vanderhart
Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,
Yours are the praises, the glory, the honor, and all blessings.
To You alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no man is worthy to mention Your name.
Praised be You, my Lord, with all your creatures;
especially Brother Sun, who is the day, and through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor,
and bears a likeness to You, Most High One.
This is a part of The Canticle of the Sun, a song of praise composed by Saint Francis in 1225. It is considered the first poem in vernacular Italian.
Can you think of anything more worthy of praise for Earth dwellers in God’s creation than our sun? Is there anything more beautiful and useful to us than humanity’s personal star? What a blessing it is to wake up every morning, knowing that no matter how difficult yesterday was, the sun will rise in the eastern sky to bring light to our world. Even if the sky is covered with clouds and it rains all day, our sun is powerful enough to bring light through the clouds, enough light to see and go about our business of the day. Is there any miracle more astounding than the process of photosynthesis? Sunlight, collaborating with plants to use water and carbon dioxide to create sugar and turn it into food that sustains all life? As I sat in San Juan del Sur bay a few weeks ago on vacation and watched the gorgeous sunsets every evening, it occurred to me that the sun gives us the most stunning artwork in the world. Can you think of anything more awe inspiring than the sun coming up or going down to a vast array of pink and blue and orange and coral and purple and red clouds spread across an endless sky?
And yet, with the large-scale burning of fossil fuels that began in the mid-eighteenth century, we have made the sun into our enemy. We have created a blanket of smog that traps sunlight and prevents its rays from leaving our atmosphere, thereby setting in motion a steady rise of heat that will one day make life on earth impossible for humans. By living outside of right relationship with this beautiful God-given gift, we have turned the burning power of the sun into something that will eventually be our demise if we don’t repent—that is, change our minds, which will lead to a change in our behavior.
Bob has asked me to paint a picture of what creation might look like today if we truly followed the way of Francis. So come with me as we imagine life on Earth powered by renewable energy resources. A world where our power plants do not release harmful gases into the environment, where climate change slows, where habitats that have been lost begin to renew, where air and water pollution from extractive processes plummet.
Air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels is estimated to currently be responsible for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. Imagine……deaths from asthma, cancer, heart disease beginning to fall.
Imagine…..oil spills being a thing of the past…..some scary occurrence our grandparents lived through.
Imagine…..our groundwater and drinking water no longer contaminated by arsenic, lead, chlorine, and mercury from fracking operations.
Imagine….the health disparities of black and brown communities living near oil refineries and industrial zones begin to dissolve.
Imagine…sheep grazing on millions of acres of solar farms that power our world.
Imagine…throwing away your car’s windshield sun blocker as every parking lot is covered by millions of solar panels that provide shade for us to park under.
Imagine….college students powering their laptops with solar panels hung off their balconies.
Imagine…your energy bill cut by a third or a half.
Imagine…never going to the gas station again to fill up your car, and never having to remember to change your oil.
Imagine…coral reefs teeming with life as ocean waters cool.
Imagine….no city in the world ever having to clean soot off of historic buildings again.
Imagine…our financial and political systems not controlled by billion dollar industries and rich, powerful men that can cut off supplies of energy and perpetuate war.
Imagine…instead of a Department of the Interior, a Department of Earth Stewardship, responsible not for licensing extraction but for healing the land, restoring watersheds. Instead of pipelines, soil trusts and community reforestation programs.
Imagine…instead of the EPA, a Department of the Common Good, to protect and co-govern what we all share—forests, seeds, water—not as commodities, but as sacred trusts to be passed down to future generations.
This world doesn’t have to be in a far off future. We have the knowledge and materials and technology to fully create this world right now. Many communities around the globe are already leading the way. In 2024, approximately 57% of California's in-state electricity generation was from renewable resources. Renewable energy sources collectively produced 81% of Denmark's electricity generation in 2022, and are expected to provide 100% of national electric power production from 2030 on.
This week, Richard Rohr’s daily devotional reminded us that up to the point of St. Francis’ ministry, “most of Christian spirituality was based in monastic discipline, theories of prayer, or academic theology, but not in a kind of practical Christianity that could be lived in the streets of the world. Francis emphasized an imitation and love of the humanity of Jesus, and not just the worshiping of his divinity.” Let us quit theorizing about caring for God’s creation, and begin the work of restoring relationships, building community, welcoming and harvesting the energy of the sun, leaving the world of exploitation and greed behind, and being a blessing, not a curse to our incredibly precious natural world.
O God, grant us a whole new mind that we may help usher in a new world already on its way. Amen
Homily
Rev. Bob Donnell
Allow me to tell a few stories that shed some light on the life of St. Francis.
There is a little book called “Into the Green Future” with daily meditations written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In it is a quote by the Native American leader Si’ahl, chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples in what is now the state of Washington. The Anglican pronunciation of his Si’ahl is Seattle. The city Seattle, Washington is named after him. He and his people lived on the islands of the Peugeot Sound in what is now the state of Washington in the mid-1800s. He is famous for among other things a letter he wrote to President Franklin Pierce in 1855, some 700 years after the life of St. Francis. This speech and letter was a response to the treaty of the American government for buying the land of native Americans. It throws light on the carelessness of the White people towards the environment. Here are a few lines from that letter: “The President…wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sand shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy…we are part of the earth and the earth is part of us…the perfumed flowers are our sisters…the bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers…the rivers are our brothers…the earth is our mother. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected…Man does not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.”
That sounds a lot like St. Francis to me.
Let’s move now from the American west across the ocean to Russia.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. His literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. The following is from his book The Brothers Karamazov:
“Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.”
That too sounds like St. Francis.
Dostoevsky wrote this in the 1800s, during “the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres” of Russia. Are we not in the midst of just such troubled times here in America today? The temptation for many of us is to dive into this bottomless pit of hatred and lies and fear, to join the cacophony of angry voices screaming at one another. Yet Dostoevsky’s message and the message of St. Francis is a message of love.
This is the path we too are called to follow. Could the ultimate solution to our troubled times possibly be as Dostoevsky suggested? “Love all God’s creation…and you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.” Imagine! It sounds naive doesn’t it? Yet it is the very message Jesus taught over and over again. And it is the message that the life of St. Francis of Assisi teaches us as well. Don’t succumb to the fear and the hatred we see around us. There has to be another way, and the way Francis chose was the way of simplicity, of unity with creation, and of love. St. Francis was more than just a gentle animal-loving and earth-loving man. He was a political activist in his opposition to the crusades. He took vows of poverty and lived a life of solidarity with and care for the poor. He was later named the patron saint of ecology. He is credited as the author of “The Canticle of the Sun,” also called “The Canticle of the Creatures.” I will close with his words:
“Be praised Lord through all your creatures…through my Brother Sun…he is beautiful and radiant…Sister Moon and the stars…precious and beautiful…Brothers Wind and Air and clouds and storms and all the weather…through which you give your creatures sustenance…Sister Water…she is precious and pure…Brother Fire…beautiful and cheerful and powerful and strong…Mother Earth who feeds us…and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs…for those who forgive for love of you, through those who endure sickness and trial…through our Sister Bodily Death from whose embrace no living person can escape…”
St. Francis came, in the words of Dostoevsky, “to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.” This is who we celebrate tonight.