CARING FOR ALL GOD=S LAMBS

(Preached on Sunday, April 22, 2007)

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ASimon son of John, do you love me more than these?@  He said to him, AYes, Lord; you know that I love you.@  Jesus aid to him, AFeed my lambs.@                  -John 21:15

 

A woman brought in a litter of golden retriever puppies to her veterinarian for their inoculations and worming.  As the look-alike pups squirmed over and under one another in their box, the vet realized it would be difficult to tell the treated ones from the rest.  So, he filled a little petri dish with some water from his sink and set it on the counter nearby.  As he finished treating each puppy he wet his fingers and moistened its head.  After the fourth puppy, he noticed his hitherto talkative client had grown silent.  As he sprinkled the last pup=s head, the woman leaned forward and whispered, AI didn=t know they had to be baptized.@

 

Today as we gather in the Easter season to celebrate God=s good creation, and especially our brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom who live with us as companions and family in our homes, sharing our lives, I want us to think together about our responsibility to them, and to all the creatures with whom we share this planet.

God=s first covenantal relationship in the Bible was not with humanity alone but with all of creation.  Ludwig Dewitz, over 25 years ago taught us in Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures that God made four covenants with God=s people.  There was the Covenant God made with Abraham, to make of Abraham a great nation and give his descendants all the land of Canaan, marked by the sign of circumcision.  Then there was the Covenant God made with Moses and the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai to be their God and they were God=s people and God gave them the 10 Commandments to guide their lives and as a sign of the covenant.  Then there was the covenant God made with David and his descendants that there would always be a descendant of David on the throne of Israel.  But the first covenant God made was with Noah and all life on the Ark, which included two of all the creatures in the world.  That was the Covenant of Life, that God would never again destroy the world through a flood and the rainbow was the sign of that covenant.

 

This covenant is the foundational covenant for all God=s dealings with the world.  It is reflected in the other covenants, that even as God chooses to relate in a special way to a special people, it is always for the good of the wider world.  It is reflected in the understanding of what God was doing in Jesus, as John 3:16 states, AFor God so loved THE WORLD, that he gave his only begotten Son...@

And I suggest that Jesus= instructions to Peter as he restores Peter and renews Peter=s relationship with himself, with God, with the wider community of faith, as he restores Peter=s standing in the covenant, that he is reminding Peter of his responsibility for all God=s creatures.  And Peter=s responsibility is our responsibility, too.

When Jesus tells Peter to AFeed my lambs@ Jesus is reminding Peter that he shows his love for Jesus in the way he cares for the weakest members of God=s flock: certainly that might be children, older people, marginalized people, but it also must include the other creatures with whom we share the planet.

 

Thomas Merton was a Roman Catholic monk who spent much of his life as a hermit, living close to nature in the hills of Kentucky.  In one of journal entries he reflects on the human tendency to cause death all around us.  He writes: AThe other day there was a beautiful whistling of titmice C and now today one of them lay dead on the grass under the house, which may well have been some fault of mine, as we dumped some calcium chloride on a couple of anthills C not as a poison but as something to move them elsewhere.  What a miserable bundle of foolish idiots we are!  We kill everything around us even when we think we love and respect nature and life.  This sudden power to deal death all around us simply by the way we live, and in total >innocence= and ignorance, is by far the most disturbing symptom of our time.  I hope I at least can learn, but in the light of Holy Week I see, again, all my own internal contradictions C not all!  Hardly!  But the fact that I am full of them.  And that we all are.  A phenomenal number of species of animals and birds have become extinct in the last fifty years C due of course to man=s irruption into ecology.  There was still a covey of quail around here in early fall.  Now I don=t hear a single whistle, or hear a wing beat.@

 

It was a horrible tragedy what took place on the campus of

Virginia Tech this past week.  I have very little wisdom to offer beyond acknowledging that it is a tremendous loss to the families of those killed, a tremendous loss to that community, a tremendous loss to the world in terms of the talents and capabilities snuffed out.  It is also important that we remember that it was a human created tragedy and loss C perpetrated by a human being, using human technology created to inflict death and destruction.

I was struck by something in the film An Inconvenient Truth that we watched together last night.  At one point in the film Al Gore relates the story of almost losing his young son to an automobile accident when he was struck by a car while running across the road.  He told how that event caused a shift in his thinking about the fragile nature of the earth.  He had been actively working to help the American people and their leaders understand global warming for years already when that happened.  But in that event he suddenly realized just how fragile was life, and how it really was possible that we might lose everything we take for granted and is so important to us in life.  As he almost lost his son, it is a fact, we can lose the world.

 

A recent UN report titled AMillennium Ecosystem Assessment,@ backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries, warns that the 6 billion human beings on the planet have already used up two thirds of the Earth=s resources.  The report states, AHuman activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet=s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted ... . We are living on borrowed time.@  At this rate, we may need another ark to rescue the remaining species, including human creatures.

 

It is way past time for us to take seriously our responsibility to care for the other creatures of the earth.  If we love God, we will Afeed God=s lambs.@  To take that responsibility seriously we need more than anything else an attitude shift.  As Al Gore said about global warming, we already have all the knowledge and technology we need to correct the problem.  That is basically true about any of the issues confronting us as we seek to care for the earth and all the creatures of the earth.  What we need is to relearn some important lessons we have forgotten.  The very creatures we are to take care of can be our teachers.

 

Jim Taylor recently published a book The Spirituality of Pets.  He wrote that book because he realized that pets have often been his spiritual mentors.  One story he pet that taught him profound lessons was his Irish setter, Brick.  Many of the lessons he did not really understand until about six months after Brick=s death.  But in mining the legacy of memories he came to realize four important lessons from Brick.  First, that going is more important than getting there.  Second, never presume malice.  Brick treated everyone as a potential friend.  Third, life without joy is no life at all.  Lastly, in the end, everything boils down to relationships.  Brick had no possessions, was never elected leader of the pack, but had wonderful relationships, died knowing he was deeply loved.  Could any of us ask for or hope for much more for ourselves?

 

These lessons can help us become better stewards, provide better care for the earth and all its creatures, by helping us remember what is most important is Sharing Love, God=s love, by caring for God=s creatures.  We can do that by remembering it is not all about us; by recapturing the joy of God=s beautiful world; and by remembering we are here for one another, that our relationships are what is most important.