Cathy and I have just returned from a wonderful time away in Italy. It was a two-week adventure in wonder. As someone has well noted, “ All who wander are not lost.” One of our days included a visit to the village of Assisi. Like any place we dream of visiting, the pictures and stories couldn’t match the actual experience of being there. One of those experiences was our visit to the Upper Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi. The frescoes which adorn its inner walls are a marvel. One of them stood out to me in particular, thanks to the words of our gifted guide. Pictured above is the creative imagination of Giotto – a 13th-century Italian artist, architect, and sculptor.
This fresco is the artist’s attempt to tell the story of Francis to all who would visit the Basilica. It recalls the story of St. Francis and his small band of followers when they first arrived in Rome in 1209 to seek papal approval. Pope Innocent III was skeptical of them. “Cardinal Bishop of Sabina, who was the confessor of the Pope, was sympathetic to their cause. He convinced the reluctant pontiff to meet with the group.
After about a week, Innocent III finally agreed to give the group temporary informal approval, telling them that if their numbers continued to grow, they could return and seek official approval. But God wasn’t done with them. Later that year, Innocent III had an experience he was not expecting: a supernatural dream about the Franciscans. In his dream, he saw the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of the Diocese of Rome – and it was falling over. But someone was standing in the breach: there was Francis (of Assisi), the young leader of the strange new group, and he was holding it up.”
Our guide called us to pay attention to the way Giotto intentionally depicted young Francis as standing inside the Church, which was at risk of falling down. The truth be known, God’s Church has often appeared to be falling into ruin throughout our history. The present moment is no different than in the days of Francis.
And yet, every time we receive persons into membership, we remind ourselves of a bold declaration.
“…the Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of time, for the conduct of worship and the due administration of God’s Word and Sacraments, the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world. All, of every age and station, stand in need of the means of grace which it alone supplies.”
Just as God wasn’t done with the Franciscans, neither is God giving up on the band of Christ-followers known as United Methodists. As I am fond of noting, John Wesley’s last words were, “The best of all is GOD is WITH us,” – NOT THROUGH WITH US! Thanks be to God for this mysterious, unbreakable love, which calls us, like Francis, to stay firmly planted in God’s family while constantly stepping beyond the comfort of our buildings into the hurts and hopes of ALL those around us, extending ourselves in gracious hospitality – just as God graciously extends hospitality to us.
In Christ,
Jon (the Methodist)
