Dec 2 2019 Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld James 1: 2-12

Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

Charles de Foucauld, also known as Brother Charles of Jesus, has a fascinating story that resonates with me. He was born in France in 1858, and lived with his devout grandparents. Like many twenty-somethings, he lost his religion. Apparently for kicks, he took a risky trip to Morocco in the 1880s. He encountered devout Muslims whose deep faith and their practice of faith resulted in his desire to seek out his own faith. He returned to France and eventually became a Cistercian, or Trappist Monk. He moved to the Holy Land, served a female religious order and eventually was ordained a priest.

So far we have someone who in his 20’s travelled to Morocco, was wise enough to see the deep faith of Muslims and use that to ignite his own faith journey. He served a the Poor Clares in the Holy Land.

But here’s where his story gets more interesting. After he’s ordained, he decided to return to the Sahara, to be among the ‘the furthest removed, the most abandoned.’ He felt his calling was to live among those whose faith and culture was different than his own. Hmm. Sounds like the Pacific Northwest. Or maybe anywhere in the US, in this post-modern society. He went on to say that his Christian witness was not to be preaching or missionary demands, but rather to ‘shout the Gospel with his life’. Hmm. I like that idea. He wanted people to see him and his actions, and ask themselves, if this is what the servant is like, what is the master like?

There is so much that resonates with me regarding Brother Charles. Learning from the Other, realizing that evangelism is about actions, and wanting to be among the furthest removed. Although the Pacific Northwest is not the barren and rugged Sahara, it definitely is full of people with a culture and faith that differs from my own. It is full of people who desperately need to see more of the Gospel shouted out from actions, rather than preached or demanded. I feel that I’m in an oddly similar place, and want to learn more about Brother Charles, as I feel I might learn about my current time and place, from this French man living in the Sahara over 100 years ago. 

The appointed reading today is about trials that produce endurance that result in maturity and completeness. In the midst of trials, it’s hard to hear about the goodness of trials. And as it turns out, it’s not always about me and my personal trials, thank God. Putting my drama aside, I can absolutely relate to the trials that Charles faced, and how he turned that into his sense that he lacked nothing, in the midst of the desert.  

This morning, I’m thinking about how much I can learn from other people, if I take the time to put aside my story long enough to listen to theirs. Of course, my experiences inform how I hear and understand things, and as a result, how I understand things today is very different than 10 years ago.

Learning about Brother Charles doesn’t make my trials any easier. But it does give me another context to consider trials, endurance and completeness. Today, I want to think about where I am, who I might learn from, and how I might ‘shout the Gospel with my life”.