Feast of Saint Francis: 21st Sunday after Pentecost

First lesson. Genesis 1: God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every land. And God saw that it was good.

Psalm 148: Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea-monsters and all deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling His command!

From the liturgy, before the Blessing of the Animals:

And now, O Lord, we name before you this day those creatures of your making who have returned to you, but who are lost to us now in death--those whom we name before you now, either aloud or in the silence of our hearts. We thank you for the time they shared and enriched our lives, and we entrust them back into the arms of your everlasting love, through our Saviour Jesus CHrist, in whom all that is lost in death is restored to life and in whose Name we pray.

From the sermon: Saint Francis said, "Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."

Serpents of the Lord

Tomorrow we will have the Blessing of the Animals at our church. I think we'd better leave the pitbull at home. Years ago, we took Arlo, our beagle, to the Blessing. In his excitement, he lifted his leg on our daughter's shoe. Meanwhile, my husband, the Tree Hugger, found something in the service bulletin that delighted him.

"Wow, this is great!" he exclaimed. "I never thought I'd come to church and see something like this!"

"Like what?"

"It says, 'Rejoice, you serpents of the Lord.' I just love that!"

"Phil," I said, "That's servants, not serpents."

"Oh," he said, clearly disappointed.

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

First Lesson. Exodus 17: But the (Israelites) thirsted (in the wilderness) for water; and the people complained to Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?"

Psalm 78: (The Lord) split hard rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as from the great deep.

Second Lesson. Philippians 2: Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.

Gospel. Matthew 21. Truly I (Jesus) tell you (chief priests and elders), the tax collectors and the prostitutes are dong into the kingdom of God ahead of you.

From the sermon: The way of the cross is narrow. The traffic on that road will never be heavy. Humility can look suspiciously like a codependent doormat. Servanthood can look suspiciously like a disingenuous political move. Christian unity may look good in idealistic theory. But in reality, Christian unity is not very neat or tidy. So how can we possibly work out what Paul calls “salvation with fear and trembling” when it looks impossible? We can’t really—at least not all by ourselves. We must depend upon divine help, praying that God will guide us, step by step, day by day, along that narrow road to the cross.

Favorite words from the Great Thanksgiving: At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.

Stalled Stallion Makes Beeline for Stable

Thirty-five years ago, the family was visiting Phil's parents, who had retired to their non-working "farm" in Knox County, Ohio. Our daughters, then about 9 and 6, went horseback riding with their dad. I dropped them off at the riding stable and went shopping, being spectacularly allergic to horses. They were still on the trail when I returned to pick them up. The teen-aged stable girl said, accusingly, as if this had to be the rider's fault, "Loser's back!"

"What do you mean, he's back?"

"He came back! Loser came back! Your daughter must have gotten off during the ride." I had a sudden vision of her FALLING off.

Then our older daughter appeared, on foot. No broken bones. This small denizen of the Washington, DC suburbs explained, "He stopped to eat leaves and when I tried to make him go, he turned around and tried to bite my foot!"

He sounded like a pretty wild horse for a young, inexperienced rider. "For heaven's sake, why'd you put her on Loser in the first place?"

The girl shot me a look of disgust. "His name is LUTHER!" she informed me.