Year A: St. Francis Day | Luke 12:22-34
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
October 4, 2026
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
There is no recording of this outdoor service.
Christians in the United States have a tendency to argue over the story of Creation. Is it literal? Is it figurative? How long exactly were each of the “days,” and how accurate could that order actually be? And I’ll tell you that in doing so, we completely miss the point of the story.
In the Ancient Near East, most cultures viewed the universe in the form of the three Realms I frequently talk about. Originally, everything was part of the Underworld, home to Chaos,[1] darkness, confusion, and its monsters. One day, the gods arose to fight back the forces of Chaos and establish the Celestial Realm. But with Chaos constantly trying to encroach on their hard-won territory, the gods decided to make a sort of buffer space—the Earthly Realm—and put humans there to do their dirty work for them. So basically, earth was a sort of cosmic blister, and humans were little more than prisoners of war being forced to fight against their basic nature, only to eventually succumb and fall into the Underworld at death.
The Creation story the Hebrew people told was different. In their story, their god intentionally built the Three Realms, essentially as stages to tell a cosmic story. On the first day, God established the Celestial Realm by separating light and darkness. On the second day, God built the sets for the Underworld, which was really any realm forbidden to humans, so the sky and the sea. On the third day, God brought the Earthly Realm into existence and prepared it with plants to feed what would be coming.
The fourth day, God began to populate the Realms, beginning with the Celestial Beings, intelligent entities reflected in our Sun, Moon, and stars. The fifth day, God filled both the sky and sea with life. The sixth day, then, God peopled the Earth will all its variety of creatures, capping off the day with Humans, beings intended to reflect the creativity, love, and order inherent to the Divine.
When we read on the seventh day that God “rested,” we tend to think of that as settling down for a nap or just relaxing. But that isn’t quite the idea. Rather, God came down to all they had created, exploring and celebrating the wonders so recently come into being.
Believe what you want about the order and length of days and such, but the point of the Bible’s story of Creation is that none of what surrounds us is an accident. The earth and sea and sky reflect God’s glorious imagination, provision, generosity, and love. Humans aren’t just slaves to the Divine, constantly forced to battle against the powers of darkness. God wanted physical reality to exist. God wanted all the fish, birds, and animals to exist. God wanted humans to exist—again, not as slaves, but as intelligent beings who could equally love, explore, and appreciate all that is. God made everything that is not out of a sense of duty or obligation or loneliness, but out of love and joy!
Francis, famous for his love of nature, what with the tales of his preaching to birds and drawing up a treaty between villagers and a hungry wolf, knew and celebrated that love. Setting aside his family’s wealth, he chose to rely on God just as the ravens Jesus mentioned in our Gospel reading do. And God provided. God continues to provide, both through nature itself and through our own ability to care for one another.
So be creative! Explore the natural world! Get out there and find joy in everything God has made. We don’t need to fear anything from the Celestial Realm or the Underworld. We don’t need to fight about who’s right and wrong about things that happened before people were around to record them. The truth is exactly what Jesus has told us: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”[2]
[1] The nature of which is probably better reflected with the term “Desolation.”
[2] All Bible quotations are from the NRSVue unless otherwise noted.