All God’s Critters Have a Place – sermon on September 13, 2015
Scriptures:
Job 12: 7-10 Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of God has done this? In God’s hand is the life of every creature, and the breath of all humankind.
From Psalm 104 O God, how great you are! You make springs pour water into the ravines, so streams gush down from the mountains. They provide water for all the animals, and the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees. You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use. You allow them to produce food from the earth – wine to make them glad, olive oil to soothe their skin, and bread to give them strength. High in the mountains live the wild goats, and the rocks form a refuge for the badgers. You send the darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about. Then the young lions roar for their prey, stalking the food provided by God. O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both large and small. They all depend on you to give them food as they need it. When you supply it, they gather it. You open your hand to feed them, and they are richly satisfied. God takes pleasure in all God has made. I will praise my God to my last breath! Let all that I am praise the Lord.
Matthew 6: 25-26 I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Sermon: All God’s Critters Have a Place by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Instead of my usual prayer before the sermon, I’d like to share a thought of Meister Eckhart, a 13th century Christian mystic. He said, “‘Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God, and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature- even a caterpillar- I would never have to prepare a sermon so full of God is every creature.’
Friends, I am so glad to be with you this morning, gathering to lift up and celebrate the creatures we share this earth with. This service has been a long time coming. Ever since I first heard of animal blessing services, I have wanted to do one. I don’t know why I have waited so long, and my hope is that this is not just a one shot deal, but that our awareness of our kinship with the animal kingdom is something we will lift up periodically.
As I sat to write this sermon, I asked myself why I was doing it, what was the good news I wished to convey. Is it just a trendy thing and I am jumping on the bandwagon? I have to confess, maybe its a little bit if that. It’s not the first and won’t be the last good idea I’ve borrowed. Right away I understood it was about hospitality in a way – a recognition that Christ’s welcome table includes more than human beings. But it is more. I have long believed that salvation is in large degree about right relationship. When we are saved, we are in right relationship with God, with ourselves, and with all else – people, animals, the planet and solar system – even with human created objects. And yet you might not know that from my preaching, which primarily focuses on right relationship with God, ourselves, and other people. So with today’s service, I am lifting up particularly what it means to in right relationship with animals.
According to Genesis 1, part of which served as our call to worship, God created the earth and sky and sea, the sun and the moon, night and day, plants and birds, fish, animals and bugs. Then God created humans and gave them “dominion” over the fish and the birds, and over every living thing that moves over the earth. Now there has been some debate over what that means or entails. Dominion means to have power over, and using animals for our own purposes and comfort was, for a long time, justified by this passage. We have sovereignty over them, we can do what we want with them. We can use them for food, clothing, transportation, labor, entertainment, or comfort. God gave them to us. More recently this idea has been challenged, as people assert that dominion implies at least as much about stewardship as it does about rulership. There is an assertion that the animals do NOT belong to us – they still belong to God, but we have been appointed caretakers of them. We are to strive for their well-being in addition to our own. If our salvation requires our right relationship with animals, we probably ought to do some reflection on where we have gone wrong….
So many things come to mind, don’t they? The atrocities committed on animals for the sake of cheap meat, milk and eggs just hurts to think about. And then there are the “entertainment” abuses – holding wild creatures captive, or hunting and killing them. Such things certainly do not honor them as beloved creations of the same God who made us.
The readings this morning all lift up the ways that God has provided for the animals. The Psalm is full of wonder and awe at all God has done, how beautifully provisions are made for the creatures, and the passages from Job and Matthew remind us that we can learn about ourselves from what we see in the animal kingdom. Just as God beautifully provides for them, so God provides for us. There is enough to go around. We don’t need to hoard. We don’t have to do damage to other creatures or people to ensure we have what we want because God has provided what we need. The animals have much to teach us about how to receive such gifts from God – with no sense of obligation to sow nor reap nor gather into barns.
And animals teach us so much more, as we heard in the childrens message. They can bring out some of the best in us. Paul writes to the Galations about what it means to live in Christ. He says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” These things are called out in the care of animals, especially our pets. Providing for our pets makes us better people. I used to recommend it to my clients in recovery. Now I am not known to be a great lover of pets, but I can still appreciate the bond that develops between so many who love them. Just as some people don’t wish to be parents themselves can still respect the parent-child bond, so I can appreciate the person-pet bond. There have been too many people who have witnessed to a depth of soulful connection with their animal companions for me to shrug it off as an unimportant relationship. I have been moved by the mutual devotion I have heard about and witnessed. Such bonds deserve recognition and respect. And such gifts from God deserve our blessing. And so I invite anyone who wishes to come forward to receive a blessing for their pet, to please do so. If you have a picture or object to represent the pet, bring it up, but if not, just come with their names,and I will imbue your hands with the blessing that you may then pet it right into your Boo.
