Over 500 hundred years ago, a young man named Francis was living the good life. He was rich, handsome, pampered, popular. And though nominally a Christian, Jesus was a stranger to him. One day, Francis was forced to interact with a loathsome leper. In a moment of dreaded touch, the leper was transformed, literally becoming before his eyes the very image of Christ. And Francis was changed. From that day forward, he felt called to discover the Christ in each person and creature around him, no matter how poor or insignificant they might seem to be. For Saint Francis of Assisi, that day was New Year’s Day — the first day of the rest of his life — a dying and a rising to all things new.

It is this kind of transforming imagination that our gospel lesson for this morning has the power to unleash…