St. Christopher's Episcopal Church: Sermons

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A Sermon Preached at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, Oak Park, IL
at the Blessing of the Animals,
Sunday, October 7, 2007, in Honor of the Feast of St. Francis (transferred from October 4)
by the Rev. J. Paris Coffey

Ask the animals, and they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you. - Job 12:7

In today's first reading - responding to privileged know-it-alls who tell Job that whatever calamities have befallen him are his own fault - Job turns to nature in defense. "Ask the animals, and they will teach you," he says to his self-righteous "friends," "the birds of the air, and they will tell you."

What Job hopes the animals will teach and the laws of nature tell is that contrary to popular belief, the good don't always prosper. "God calls the shots, not you," he presumes the animals will teach, perhaps even adding, "Job's a better man than you are, so listen to him the way he listens to us."

After all, like St. Francis or the mythical Dr. Doolittle, Job understands the laws of nature. In fact, perhaps like them he talks to animals, although even those who can't - who can't speak a word of feline, canine or any other beasty language - can still get a decent letter of reference from their pet, as Sylvia reveals.

For those of you who don't know, Sylvia is a witty, outgoing comic strip character who casts her opinion on an unsuspecting world via her life as a free-lance writer, director of self-help seminars and administrator of special goddesses. She's also a cat owner, who like many cat owners acquiesces to her feline's needs.

She's a faithful servant to her cats, and so when one of the characters of her creation - "The Woman Who Does Everything More Beautifully Than You Do" - dies and goes to heaven, she asks St. Peter what she did to get in.

"It's because I was so nice to that woman I couldn't stand, isn't it?" she probes.

"No," says St. Peter, "not that."

"Is it because I served as den mother all those years to that ill-behaved Cub Scout group?"

"No," says St. Peter, "Wrong again. Actually, you're getting in on the recommendation of your cats."

Such a recommendation is a good thing to remember today as we bless animals and honor the Feast of St. Francis. Indeed, it's a good thing to remember most days, for although God is in charge, not us (as Job tries to tell his so-called friends) the truth is that God may bless us not because of pious good deeds, but because our pets have testified that we have treated them well, and are good stewards of God's creation.

Amen.