Canine Social Theology

11 Pentecost, A p15, August 16, 2020
Isaiah 56:1,6-8  Psalm 67   
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

Lectionary Link

From today's appointed Gospel, I feel inclined to present a Canine Social Theology.  Sometimes animal metaphors are used to denigrate both humans and animals.  Some politicians refer to perceived enemies as dogs, using the ancient negative connotation of dogs, that derives in part from biblical and holy book traditions, even while in our society, dogs and other pets have achieved near sainthood status.   Our pets love us and are highly dependent upon us to feed them and take care of them and they bring us joy, support and companionship.

Dogs have not always and are not always held in such esteem.  I lived in a Middle Eastern Country for four years.  I witnessed children stoning young stray puppies in the river bed without conscience.  One had to be afraid of packs of wild dogs late at night on the city streets.  They scavenged the garbage left from the day.  I wondered where all of the dogs went in the day; and on a mountain hike above the city, I happened upon an entire pack of sleeping dogs.  Needless to say, I exited quickly, honoring that old cliche, "let sleeping dogs lie."  To curse at one's enemies one would issue a supreme insult, "Your father is a dog."  I guess that at least the female mother dog designation was not used, like it is so often used in our world today.  Can you tell me what is so bad about motherhood, that it is derogatory for a mother dog? Some dogs were prized in the Middle East.  I did find herd dogs when I visited and stayed with a nomadic tribe.  Those dogs were very useful and therefore given better status.

Biblical dogs were generally regarded to be like walking mammal vultures; they were scavengers, more like a pack of wolves rather than domesticated pets.  They, like the pig were designated as unclean and impure, not to be touched or eaten, and certainly that was their only good fortune.  Too unclean to eat.

The fact that dogs could be at a master's table during the time of Jesus, probably means that dogs had attained a semi-domesticated status.  Perhaps, they were good at keeping the rodents and other pesty animals away.  And they could be janitorial vacuum cleaners after a meal to clean up the floor, for scraps and the food that didn't pass the five-second rule.

With our modern day sensitivities and political correctness, we could take offense at the exchange between Jesus and the Canaanite woman.  "Jesus, please help my tormented daughter!"  "Ma'am, you know the the public stereotypes.  You're crossing boundaries.  Your people are regarded to be dogs, outsiders, scavengers  by my people.  Why are you presuming to cross those boundaries?"  "Jesus, as an outsider, a dog, I am happy to scavenge at the table for scraps to get my daughter healed."  "Woman, your faith has torn down the wall of separation and has given you access to health and healing for your daughter."

For the Isaian prophet, the Temple was to be a House of Prayer for all people.  What was the original intention of God the creator?  Each person created in God's image was to be a temple of God.  Each person had within the interior life a holiest of holy, a meeting place with God.  Such an interior temple had to be exteriorize into a Building Temple in Jerusalem within a certain people, as a strategy of the rehabilitation of all humanity, to once again realize each person's as a Temple of the Holy Spirit.

Israel and the Temple became a particular people and sacred building as a strategy for all of humanity to realize that each person could be God's holy nomadic tabernacle and dwelling for God's Spirit.

The early Christian leaders who came the heritage of the Hebrew Scriptures, believed that their Judaism could not become universally accessible as it was being practiced.   As it was being practice, God's message was cloistered within a single group of people living isolated lives from the people of the Roman Empire.

Very few of the dogs were getting scraps from the table.  There were too many outsiders?  Too many dogs who did not have access even to the crumbs of the Torah.  How can a God be known to be universal, if God is not universally accessible?  How can a pathway to God be locked off and not have the majority of the people of the world be invited?

If we appreciate this dilemma, we might understand Jesus of Nazareth and the early Jesus Movement resulted in a great great surprise.  What was the great surprise?  The mystical and spontaneous experience of the Holy Spirit began to happen in ways in which the religious leaders could not contain.  St. Paul, Peter, and the disciples  as Jews, found the Holy Spirit wildfire could not be contained within the existing religious structures of their upbringing.  What did they do?  They went with the flow, the flow of the Spirit.

The faith of Christ broke down boundaries and borders and would not let there be outsiders.  St. Paul wrote that in Christ, there is no Jews, Gentiles, males, females, but a new creation.

The dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman is an origin discourse for the ultimate success of the Jesus Movement beyond the boundaries of Judaism in the Gentile peoples of the Roman Empire.

The Gospel for us is that through faith we can over come boundaries to the experience of God's favor and love.  

The dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman shows us that Jesus is one who pushes us to have faith and stand up with it.  The use of the word "dog" as the pejorative for outsider is revealing.  The Canaanite woman had faith to challenge whether ethnic and religious barriers should keep us from the health and salvation of God.  This story illustrates how bias and bigotry turn people against themselves.  The woman was willing to accept the designation as an "outsider dog" just so that she might have the crumb of the grace of God from the Master's table, from God's table.  Jesus used the stereotypical "dog" word, to cajole the woman to get beyond her own self image as an outsider to God.  And it was her faith which helped her leap over the barrier.

For us, we need to have faith no to let anyone or anything separate us or anyone else from the love of God in Christ and God's salvation for us.  If St. Paul were here today, he would be writing, "In Christ, there is no East or West, North or South, Black, White, Brown, Asian, LGBTQ....we are all one in Christ.  No one can excommunicate anyone else from the equal love of God.  Period.

May the witness to faith in the Gospel, inspire us not to misrepresent God and God's love and access to everyone.  And may we not let the history of our own victimhood, make us think that we have to grovel to another group of people for grace.  And may, we also redeem the use of the metaphor of the word "dog" and the degrading female term for dog that comes so easily to people's mouths today.

If we have come to have regard for animals to be our pets and friends, and there is a gap between the human and animal kingdoms, can we come to appreciate that God invites everyone to be God's favorite pets in the kingdom of heaven.

This is the secret of the Kingdom of heaven.  God is whispering into everyone's ear: "you are my favorite pet human child, and my grace gives you more than crumbs.  My grace is an invitation to the main table.  Amen.