I couldn’t help myself with this title. It’s pretty cheesy, but that’s the pastor’s curse isn’t it? Coming up with cheesy titles? Even so, the title is indicative of the context of this post, so I’ll simply beg your pardon and move on.
Over the course of the past few weeks, I have been reading in preparation for a book retreat/book club that I’m planning to lead at the church where I serve as an elder and pastor. Obviously a lot of this preparation is reading the books that we will be looking at, but also reading Scripture that can help give us applicable biblical grounding surrounding the topics of our books in question (that was pretty vague, yes?). Seriously, though, if you want to check it out, you can find the details here.
But with that said, I have somewhat returned to an old college/lunch break habit of reading while I eat a meal. This became a regular habit of mine during my college years when I would slip off campus to eat and study before class at the near by burger joint or donut shop. After I graduated and entered into the “secular” workforce, the habit continued over my lunch breaks. I’ve always loved reading while having a meal alone… honestly, I’ve always enjoyed taking a meal or two a week alone anyway… it’s nice to sit, read, drink endless refills and get lost in a good book. My parents have always had a hard time understanding this habit (particularly my mom), thinking that I’m lonely or that it’s sad that I have no one to go eat with me. However, they’re both extroverts. Not to insult extroverts, but it seems hard for many of them to grasp how wonderful it is to interact with a page verses a person. I love people (I am a pastor after all!) – but there are moments where it’s good to be alone. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote: “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community and let him who is not in community beware of being alone.” Meaning… life is a balance of understanding the good of community and the good of solitude. Anyway, I digress. Back to the topic at hand.
I have returned to the habit of reading while eating, particularly breakfast. At my age, this is now happening more at home and at our dining table. And here is where the title of this post begins to come into play … we have two elderly dogs. (And dog owners the world over know what’s coming next). One of the two is, unashamedly, a beggar. She will gladly lay her head on your knee, eyeball every morsel that you fork into your mouth, and grunt at you in distain if you fail to share. She has become even more assertive in her old age by propping herself up on my legs to get closer to the table, to which she receives a stern (but gentle) rebuke and to which she responds with yet another grunt of distain.
Well, the other day I was eating my bowl of morning oats with one of the books for the upcoming retreat, and she began her usual routine of begging, grunting, propping, grunting, and eyeballing when I realized something profound … When it comes to our relationship with the Lord … why aren’t we more like dogs?
Scripture is not kind to dogs. This doesn’t mean that God hates dogs! He did create them after all! But, in the culture in which Scripture was inspired (like many Middle Eastern cultures today), dogs are not the dotted upon child substitutes as they are in the western world today. But consider just a few verses that refer to dogs:
- Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly – Proverbs 26:11 (anyone who has ever seen a dog do this immediately understands Solomon’s point here.)
- You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs – Exodus 22:31
- You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God – Deuteronomy 23:18
- Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you – Matthew 7:6
- Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh – Philippians 3:2
- Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood – Revelation 22:15
You get the point. Dogs are scavengers. They eat what is dirty. They eat their own vomit. They eat out of the cat’s litter box! So, why would I begin to suggest that we should be like dogs when it comes to our relationship with the Lord?
Because… my dog is unyielding in her desire to have even a morsel from my plate… and when I have given it, she wants more. She is never satisfied. Even when my plate is empty, she wants more. I am not exaggerating when I say that I am fully convinced that she would happily eat herself to death if we’d let her.
And as I was eating breakfast the other day, I realized how little I am like her in my relationship to Christ. I should be begging for every morsel that I can get and then beg more. I should never be satisfied in what Christ can give me of himself. Thankfully, the difference in my relationship with my dog verses my relationship with Christ is that he doesn’t get annoyed with me for begging for more of him, nor does he rebuke us for begging for more of him.
I was preaching on the Wedding at Cana this past Sunday. And in that story we read in John 2:7 how the servants filled the stone jars with water “up to the brim.” That water, Christ turned into wine. There was so much wine in those six stone jars (around 180 gallons), that there was simply no way for the wedding guests to drink it all before the end of the wedding feast. Reformer Martin Bucer wrote that the amount of wine was “an abundance beyond necessity.” In this first of his signs, Jesus gives us a vivid illustration of the abundant life that he promises us in John 10:10.
The difference between me and my dog is that she doesn’t need to eat every scrap or morsel that I can give her from the table. It’s not good for her. Onions and grapes and chocolate are toxic to dogs. Dogs are mildly lactose intolerant so cheese is a rare rare rare treat. And our dogs have food allergies because of generations of inbreeding I’m sure (and the fact that our dogs haven’t had to live a day in want of food).
But Jesus… Jesus has the stone jars “filled to the brim.” My point is this: I wonder how much we might benefit from being more like our spoiled, stubborn, and unyielding pets if we were to approach Christ in the same way our dogs approach the dining table? I imagine he would happily provide us with himself in “abundance beyond necessity.” May we be more like dogs in the Kingdom of God and beg at the master’s table.
And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matthew 15:21-28)
For your listening enjoyment, I also thought I’d share a song that I adore by a group of bluegrass playing monks. Yes. You read that right.
The SouthTown Pastor 