Loading...A new litter of puppies has been born at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women, just three miles south of this pulpit on Ash Avenue. Each litter is assigned a letter of the alphabet. This is litter “A”, meaning all dogs will be given names beginning with the letter “A”. I know this because St James has been involved with the prison ministry as pen pals and with Holy Eucharist brought to the women who are incarcerated there on the first Tuesday of every month. Our Deacon, Mary Abrams helps spearhead this ministry. If you want to know more about it you can ask me and Debbie Stover.
This past Tuesday, I celebrated Holy Eucharist with the women who train the dogs through Paws for a Purpose. Paws for a Purpose matches dogs with those who need them. We said “goodbye” to Kansas from the “K” litter who is going to live with a woman who works at Norton Children’s Hospital where Kansas will go to work with families every day.
We said “goodbye” to Quin from the “Q” litter who will live with a woman who works at Our Lady of Peace and he will work at that psychiatric hospital every day. Other dogs are being trained to provide service for owners who have seizures or post traumatic stress or other needs.
Not every dog makes it the whole two year training. Zena from the “Z” litter will be adopted as a pet because she has mobility issues from hip dysplasia. Once the “A” litter is ready each puppy will be evaluated for their mission. Even armed with the knowledge that they will one day say “goodbye” to the trainers who are already excited to start anew.
Watching the trainer-trainee relationship is a lesson in dedication. I cannot tell who is more in love with whom. Yet. every puppy born to the PWP is born for the purpose of being given away. And where they go, their trainers may not follow. It’s a heartrending combination of emotions to know how much love and care has been poured into these beasts, and then to imagine how much love will be experienced by the humans who receive their canine brand of care.
Yes, go ahead and make the parenting comparison right now. Those of us who are parents may never know how much influence we have on our children will affect the influence our children will wield on the world.
Raising someone up, letting someone go, and sending them forth is what Malachi is talking about. When someone is sent ahead as a messenger to prepare the way for the coming of someone else the messenger is as influential as the message: delightful.
But Malachi is foretelling the coming of John the Baptist, whose presence elicits more doom than delight, a kind of gravity one friend of my describes as DOOM.
The foreshadowing of the coming of Christ may feel like the feeling of doom. I will give you that because Revelation is my favorite book of the Bible, and it is loaded with doom. But I don't feel doom when I think about the coming of Christ. I feel the weight of the world — the heavenly world — not the earthly world. Heavenly weight changes the geography of the earthly world: valleys are filled, and mountains made low, and crooked straight, and rough places plain. Sounds delightful to this runner.
Spiritually, my heart needs an elevation adjustment, a texture transformation, a direction recalibration. And I can’t navigate that map alone.
I need a companion — or a congregation — canine or human. I need one who says “the same Jesus who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”
Our inner geography is transformed when we listen to the one who comes to prepare us: Wherever I meet Jesus I meet change. He is a heartrending combination of emotions where saying “goodbye” to one thing means exponential blessing to many. So we wait. Jesus comes to consummate all of God’s plans and purposes for the end of time. Heavy stuff. Maybe that’s why we spend an entire season reminding ourselves that Jesus comes to us first-and-foremost as one of us, a small manageable 8 pound 12 ounce baby.
Today, we celebrate a Baptism — the Baptism of Hayes Hart, son of Sarah and Skylar Hart. Let me say to you, Hayes, that it’s a messenger’s life into which your family is raising you. I hope your life’s map is full of adventure and every beautiful geographical formation and transformation.
It’s fair to say that every human bears a message. In this community we say that we all share the same mission and the same message: God is love and we are here to serve the mission of love. I believe the message of love is a rare one. It takes a lifetime of practice to communicate it. So let’s get started Hayes. As of today you are in the “J” litter — the St. James family. And may God bless every letter and every litter of the alphabet that will spell the message of your life: L-O-V-E. Amen.
