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The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost I. Intro. I am happy to be here with you and to see many of our pets here also. I was excited about the opportunity to preach today, but then I became very nervous because there are many things I would like to do - talk about one of my passions; win your regard; and mostly open up the issue of animals, humans and God to reflection - talk of things that God has said and done that point us in the direction God would like us to go, and from which we have strayed - far. II. What/How it's Broken Let me begin with a statement from Paul. In his letter to the Galatians, he writes, "A new creation is everything!" That sounds so hopeful. And I believe that we need that hope for a new creation, because today our relationship with animals is broken. And thereby our relationship with God is broken. You might be thinking, 'What do you mean broken? I'm here with my pet, and people in this and other countries are celebrating St. Francis and his feast day by bringing their pets to be blessed. True, but these services are usually called Blessing of the Animals, not Blessing of the Pets - and herein lies something important and relatively new in society. This is the disconnected quality of our relations with animals, where sentiment and cruelty live side by side. At least half the dogs in America will receive Christmas or birthday presents, but most of us rarely, if ever, think of the animals existing in factory and fur farms, circuses, product and medical testing laboratories, puppy mills and the like. Why is this? Stop for a moment and ask yourself - is there something inherently wrong with them? Did they do something that makes them not deserve our blessing, your blessing? ... I didn't think so... I'm going to talk a bit about a thing that most people would like to ignore and that is the plight of animals in these places I have just mentioned. We might want to ask ourselves why it is that we want so much to avoid thinking about this. And there are a number of reasons, some perfectly valid and reasonable, some not so much. But whatever the reason, IF we are going to call ourselves Christians and IF we want to have a basic understanding of the world, its interrelatedness and how it works, then we need to know at least some facts about the roles animals play - in our food chain, in our local, regional and national economy, in the agribusiness, cosmetic and pharmaceutical megacorporations. In the above situations I have mentioned, the animals, or 'production units' as they are often called, are treated as expendable, as a sort of machine. Millions, if not billions of dollars are spent on researching how to better move them through their life cycles in ways that will benefit us. Any natural process or behavior - breeding, birthing, physical and sexual maturation, social interaction, the bond between mother and young, a natural death - is either disregarded or shortened, 'streamlined', you could say, by artificial means. The idea is to make the entire life cycle of the production unit go as smoothly and without a hitch (for us) as possible. Why? So the current production unit can get to the consumer as quickly as possible so the next one can take its place, as quickly as possible. For animals in medical and product testing labs the specifics are somewhat different, but the situation is basically the same - a life full of pain and stress, empty of grace or care, until it is ended for them. It's hard not to wonder if animals, upon seeing the treatment and fate of those preceding them and experiencing it themselves, ever question, 'If this is my life, why was I created?' We might do well to consider this question also. These facts are disturbing in themselves, but there are two things that I find especially so. First, in most of these venues, the animals are not animals, with 'anima', 'soul' in them. They are units, or machines, or simply raw material - as alive as a bucket of coal we dig from the ground. What happened to the lives that God gave them to live, or the breath that God put into them? That question brings me to the second thing that I find troubling. We are gods to them, and generally not in a benevolent way. Our decisions, our wants and needs mean everything to them, up to and including whether they live or die. Conversely their needs and wants mean absolutely nothing to us unless we choose to have them mean something. So back to the question of what happened to their 'anima', their creation, God's will for them? It's there. We simply ignore it - who wants to think about that? After all, WE're the gods, WE're in charge and we treat animals in whatever way seems best for US. Now I would call this relationship broken.... III. How to Fix it And while I would like us to go and reflect, really see and understand this brokenness, I'd like to talk also about what to do with it. Is there a remedy for it? And what would it be? We need to change how we define our dominion. Taking God's commission as proof of our superiority and as an okay to consider nothing but our well-being is a mistake. In the Ancient Near East the language of power and kingship meant something different than it does today. Serving as a ruler meant just that - serving - it was considered holy, a condition appointed by God. Often it was seen as a regency or stewardship - taking care of things until the real king returned. In Genesis, God's way of maintaining his creation and will was to entrust humans, those created in God's own image, to be in charge. We needed to care for all creation with God's own love and compassion. In God's appointing dominion to humans we understand that there is love, care, protection. What we do not hear is the commission to demean animals, crush their spirits, strip away who God made them to be, destroy their lives. These things have nothing to do with the dominion we were given and everything to do with a type of dominion we have taken. To remedy these broken relationships, this disharmony with both animals and God we need to divest ourselves of this dominion that humanity has taken on. The first step is a spiritual one - acknowledging that the brokenness exists and wanting to, being ready to, fix it. Unless we clearly recognize that change is needed, we will not have the initiative to make it happen. We need to recognize that we are NOT who we were and are called to be - caring compassionate stewards of God's creation. To put it into animal imagery that resounds through Christianity, the shepherds of God's flock. It's easy to say 'ok, we're all called to be good stewards and kind to animals' But there's nothing concrete there. So I thought about what might be a clear example of good stewardship of animals ... I found some lines in the Bible that describe God's love and care for us and our trust in God and God's goodness in specific and beautiful terms. And I used it as the basis to give us all an example of good stewardship and holy companionship. I'll read both of them - what I used as an example and what I wrote. IV. Animals' Psalm The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters; He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff - they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. V. New Creation When we feel as though we can provide and be those things for animals, when we can keep the ideas behind those words in mind when we deal with animals, then the relationship between humans, animals and God will begin to heal and a bit of the New Creation that Paul mentions will begin to shine through to us. Some of this New Creation is shining through today, right now. Look around at our pets - I believe that for many of them we are already fulfilling the Animals' Psalm I just read. We are reflecting God's love and compassion upon them. And they have their active part in a New Creation too. The Bible has stories about animals and animal imagery - Balaam's donkey demonstrates awareness and vision that Balaam himself lacks, birds serve as messengers and friends to Noah and Elijah, and kindness to Abraham's camels is a test that Rebekah, the future mother of Israel, passed - demonstrating that she was in tune with God's wishes. And Jesus is the lamb of God. From an image of helplessness, innocence and sacrifice comes the ability to understand the ultimate mysteries of our lives and our God. Through those animals, if we only open our minds, hearts, spirits, and pay attention, we are taught things, just as we are today. Each of us can think of a pet or animals who, simply by living their lives with or near us, taught us things we needed to learn - forgiveness, trust, loyalty, humility, the value of play. And in such simple things lies the key to our New Creation. Take these wonderful gifts we receive from our animals, the first hints of a New Creation, and spread them around. Think of all the animals I mentioned earlier - they need you in the role of God's loving, compassionate steward at least as much, if not more, than the pet by your side. Let us bless our dear animals, and show God that we are grateful for and value his creation by acknowledging his work in every animal. Each time we send prayers and blessings for animals, each time we reflect upon how to be good stewards for animals, each time we see Jesus as the loving shepherd and the innocent lamb, we bring our New Creation closer to us. +
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