Today we are open! A Dog Taught Us...

This sermon followed a time with the children where, Catie, a dog in training with the Canadian Intervention and Assistance Dogs, taught them about being a good neighbour.  She was accompanied by her human, Angie.  

Last week we began and ended with the word Ephphatha; be opened.

And today we are.

Would you have ever guessed that the church would be open to having dogs in church?

Would you have ever guessed that the church would be open to a dog teaching us how to be neighbour?

Would you have ever guessed that the church would be open to calling working dogs ministers of the Gospel?

In recent weeks Jesus has been approached as a healer and a miracle worker. In today’s lection Jesus turns his attention to teaching. This moment shifts the direction of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus teaches the disciples what lies ahead. It is a teaching that, although it goes over their heads, it plants seeds that will make sense in the months to come.

If I was classifying this Jesus’ offered seminar, I would be tempted to catalogue it as an elective in the school of economics.  Jesus teaches about the economy of God’s kingdom.  This class is one that poses difficulties to students: it is not that the teacher is inadequate, or that the concept is complicated, the reading list is not too heavy—the kicker is that the teachings are contrary to every other class and teachings being learned.  And although doable, the assignments are risky, putting students in awkward and uncomfortable situations. 

Jesus teaches that the economy of God, grows and flourishes in suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, following in Jesus’ steps, and losing one’s life for another. The fullness of God’s economy – abundance for all- was realized in Jesus’ journey to the cross and his death at the hands of human beings. To become Christ – conquering sin and death, opening the world to the fullness of God’s grace, compassion, and mercy - Jesus had to be open, vulnerable, and self-sacrificing.

In my last parish there was a woman who was a teacher; now she would never have used this word to describe herself. The woman was industrious beyond belief, quietly supported many individuals in the community, and lived from a sense of gratitude. Her life was a ministry of service and faith. She was a living example of God’s economy. There was always enough and more; plenty to go around.

This woman, this teacher, taught me how to sew knees back into jeans of an active five-year-old boy, how to easily replace coat zippers without having to take out the previous zipper; to use old pantyhose for quilt stuffing, to can vegetables, to crochet snowflakes and make starch.  She had a hundred uses for the paper bags that flour comes in, and with what appeared to be little effort she could feed as many people as showed up.

She taught me how to make change in church happenings – like new altar clothes, orders of service, renewed words for liturgy -without getting the congregation hot and bothered. She had a way of teaching those around her new ways, without them having a clue how much change they were going through.  She taught the community how to live together and be civil, despite family feuds.  She was neighbour to the grieving, the poor, the outsider, the struggling mom, the addicted, the abused, the prisoner, and the least lovable. With very few words, and most certainly contrary to the operating human views and values, she did all this.

She never stood in front of a class.  She didn’t preach or read in church.  She was not the first to offer ideas at Bible Study or at public gatherings.  She was a teacher – of skills, of usable knowledge, valuable for surviving and thriving, and making other peoples’ lives better. Her classroom was where she found herself, a place, open to entering someone’s suffering and pain; of visiting her own pain and vulnerability; and sharing all whole heartedly.  She taught by being open to losing herself for another. She grew God’s economy in this way.  God’s economy grew in happiness quotient, in community interaction, and in neighbourliness.

Today we are blessed to have been introduced to Catie and her ministry as a working dog. She has helped us to think about what it means to be neighbour. Catie and other four-footed colleagues, are taught to be open.  They enter vulnerable and sometimes dark places, to be present in the suffering of human beings.  Their ministry is to be a non-anxious presence, to be hope, to be light, to be safety, to be life – in the midst of depression, anxiety, flashbacks, and post-trauma experiences. In this ministry, dogs are teaching people how to cope, to find companionship, and to live in the abundance life has to offer.

Their ministry reminds me of a saying credited to St. Francis of Assis -the patron saint of animals, merchants, and ecology, “In all things preach the Gospel, when necessary use words.”

Reflecting on Catie’s ministry, and the story of the woman teacher, what do you know that you can teach? What can you teach that would be a ministry – in the sense that through the teaching you are sharing of yourself, growing a relationship, and offering skills to build community and lives full of gratitude and abundance.

This is teaching the economy of God’s kingdom.

Teach someone to read, to write, to paint, to sew, to mend, to knit, or to drive.

Teach another person conversational skills; the skills to grow, harvest, and preserve food; the skill of building shelter.

Teach others rules for living, the importance of community, presence, accompanying, and the skills to be open…vulnerable, to enter another’s suffering, and to lose one’s self for the healing of the whole world.

Teach others to be neighbourly – if you have to use words.