November 1 - Blessing of the Pets
Sermon - Pet Blessing, Nov 1, 2020. By Carolyn Smith
Here is a picture of my first baby, even before Kate, we had this beautiful girl, Cleo.
She’s been gone for too many years now, but when I close my eyes, I can feel her soft forehead against mine, or against my cheek, and feel her thick soft fur in my fingers, and boy, she was smarter than Jay & I put together. Usually a Sunday for Blessing of the Animals is seen as a quaint indulgence, but it is a chance to dip into sacred experience about the love of God from a Pet perspective, and the wider experience of Creation, and it is about vulnerability, awe, delight and healing.
The origin of a Blessing of the Animals is at least 1000 years old, and just in time for All Saints day, we have this story of Young Francis - a wealthy but unruly, self-absorbed, partying teenager. But the St. Francis we see in images is a gentle friar in the garden with birds, or a wolf or deer nearby. As the story goes, this young menace ended up languishing and ill in prison, and eventually experiencing visions of God. Some might raise eyebrows, but somehow his chaotic heart was transformed by the time he was released and thereafter, he followed his call, not even with the church which at the time was powerful and glorious and dare I say, suspect. With a vow of poverty, he rolled up his sleeves and served compassionately the last and the least, human and animals, expressing a sacred awareness of connectedness in Creation. He was so entirely counter-cultural to his town and the powerful church, that people from all around changed their lives to follow him and support him and it was just 2 years after his death that he was canonized, as St. Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Animals.
So it might seem quaint to spend a Sunday on animals, except where is unconditional love expressed more fully than in a selfless life like his, and in a way so familiar to many of us? Like a child growing in compassion for a hamster, or the pit of our stomach awe as a whale crests in the water around us, we’ve each had such opportunities, or will if we look for it. If we can love like that, the promise is that we will discover God in the people around us. And if we care to notice or relent, it’s an awareness and humility that softens and heals our hearts and our relationships -just what the Divine longs for.
Now sometimes it’s slobbery and goofy like a big old lab, who dances clumsily when we come home every single time like it’s Christmas. Even when we’re jerks. That’s healing love that works wonders in prison programs when inmates bond with a dog buddy from a shelter. Or for Post traumatic stress survivors, their trained dogs, or horse therapists softening up brain pathways that are traumatized and angry or terrified….
Cats are a different kind of teacher… unconditional love with cats looks more like permission to be quirky and independent but give in to relationship, and give up self-interest. They deign to come snuggle when they feel like it, and we allow them to rouse us at 5am again and again. And Fish come to the side of the tank when we come near, and geckos and birds and bunnies… people everywhere have weird and wonderful stories of relationship with their buddies. Relationship that expands our visceral idea of Love - with reassurance and safety, forgiveness and adoration, and self-lessness, even when it seems absurd. I don’t know how to read or relate to rats or pythons, because I haven’t taken the time to try. Maybe that’s the secret though - if we haven’t made an effort to be in relationship, then relationship eludes us. And if we’ve avoided relationship, it becomes hard to attempt. And if we’ve been hurt, we shut down. Don’t get love. Don’t give love. Don’t need it?
Psalm 139 that Fred read for us is one of astonishment at the experience of God’s love and presence. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made…. Fearful, as in awe that astounds us, and wonderfully - full of wonder… made For what? What in heaven’s name is the Divine interest is in us being ourselves, human and messy, or for that matter why do mosquitos exist, or algae, or giant whales or mountain goats…. But we know at least in a learners way that each earthworm or Koala or bumblebee has a place in Creation, and we do too. Awe-some and even Tiny things challenge our egocentric understandings of the world. For such evolved creatures, we’re driven by a lizard-brain far too often, and we forget that our sacred, wise self resides in the same part of the brain that is activated by empathy, by endorphins of touch and care. In that spot on my forehead that my dog would lean into with her soft face.
Trust me a moment here - I’d love for you to recall something warm and purely love, today of course it may be a beloved pet, or your child cradled against you, or your grandparent’s hug. It can be something else - like a favourite item that brings good memories, or a place that you felt contentment. Bring it close to mind and heart and notice the sensation that it brings up…. And while you’re feeling this, let me play you a song by a church lay leader, composer and pet lover Wendy Franciso. She was thrilled to give us permission to share it with our St. Paul’s friends.
Video: “GoD and DoG” a song about love as shown by God and a floppy black and white sheepdog. Here are the lyrics.
I look up and I see God, I look down and see my dog.
Simple spelling G O D, same word backwards, D O G.
They would stay with me all day. I’m the one who walks away.
But both of them just wait for me, and dance at my return with glee.
Both love me no matter what – divine God and canine mutt.
I take it hard each time I fail, but God forgives, dog wags his tail.
God thought up and made the dog, dog reflects a part of God.
I’ve seen love from both sides now, it’s everywhere, amen, bow wow.
I look up and I see God, I look down and see my dog.
And in my human frailty…I can’t match their love for me.
How much wisdom is here? What healing is here? Maybe these creatures, and this mechanism in our hearts and minds is God’s magic loving failsafe access to us, to connect us to the divine dream that is connectedness of all things, our humility, our frailty and all that takes our breath away. In our psalm, the writer discovers divine love, and in that love discovers the “weighty thoughts of God, How vast is the sum of them, more than the sand; I come to the end of my understanding—I am still with you. “
We’re next going to sing a song attributed to St. Francis - maybe not his words but his spirit … No one needs ask what logic there is in having a goofy dog, or a goldfish, or to watch the birds and squirrels at the feeder… instead, we feel love, we rediscover it and it heals us. As a channel of peace, we remember our place in beloved creation. All my relations, we are all connected. Amen.