REFLECTIONS ON THE LITURGY

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity:  Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

~ Collect of the Day, September 28, 2014

            It is sadly true that I often listen to the liturgy on a Sunday through the ears of our fellow creatures.  I listen to hear what our prayers, our hymns, and our sermons are teaching us about our relationships with animals. It is sad because it can be a source of distraction, annoyance, and impatience.  I hear the opportunities not taken for instruction, the unfortunate turns of phrase, and the prayers not said.  This is not the best path to worship.  It is, however, a predictable result when one is passionate about a subject that most clergy and worshippers don’t even think of as relevant to worship.  I try (some Sundays with greater success than others) to turn those feelings of dissatisfaction into motivation to do good, and to turn my attention back to the service.

            Some of the prayers and readings on Sunday, September 28, struck me as particularly instructive regarding why, if we will only pay attention to what we say we believe, we will come to understand our obligations of mercy and compassion toward our fellow creatures, and how there are so many opportunities to bring an awareness of those obligations to light in worship.  In this post, I want to take a look at the Episcopal liturgy for that day, to try to illustrate what I mean.

The Book of Common Prayer

            It begins with the Collect of the Day, quoted above.  Here we acknowledge that we see God’s “almighty power chiefly” in the way God shows us “mercy and pity.” We acknowledge that God’s strength comes not from force, not from domination, not from claiming what is rightfully His, but from mercy and pity.  Therefore, when we claim our “rights” as those created in the image of God, what we are really claiming is the obligation to reflect God’s mercy and pity outward.  This obligation is wholly incompatible with a perspective that says that animals were created for human purposes, or that animals suffering doesn't matter, or that maybe it matters, but not as much as what I want to do.  In this collect, we also ask for the “fullness of [God’s] grace, that we, running to obtain [God’s] promises, may become partakers of [God’s] heavenly treasure.”  How can we ask for grace, if we are not willing to show grace to those at our mercy?  What is God’s treasure if it is not grounded in sacrificial love? How can we claim to be “running to obtain[God’s] promises,” if we will not stop to hear the cries of those in misery and pain?  If we are to stand in God’s strength, we must be willing to show mercy and pity to those over whom we have absolute control: the animals.

            The second reading was Philippians 2:1-13.  This is one of the central passages of Scripture regarding how we should understand our relationship with animals. Here Paul implores his readers, “If there I any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility regard other as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”   Here Paul is saying that if there is any sharing in the Spirit, we cannot be puffing ourselves up.  We cannot stand on our status and believe ourselves entitled to service from others.  We are instead, to offer service to others.  This is a lesson that applies not only among humans, but between humans and animals.  Scripture is entirely consistent in teaching that those with power are to exercise it for the benefit of the powerless and those who stand on their status before God or in the community are destined to fall.  There is no reason to believe that this does not apply with equal force to humans as a species standing on their status as uniquely created in the image of God to claim that all other species exists solely for human benefit.  Paul says “[d]o nothing from selfishness or conceit.”  We are to live our whole lives turned toward God and not looking to our own interests.  Sadly we have become a society in which, in relation to the animals, we look only to our own interests and we have thoroughly discounted the interests of animals, whenever it might suit us or amuse us to do so. There is in these relationships no consolation from love, no sharing in the Spirit, no compassion or sympathy.  There is only pride, arrogance, and selfishness.

            We might like to tell ourselves here that Paul was talking to humans about their relationships with other humans.  Maybe so, but Paul is not done: “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.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”  This is the mind that is to be in us.  This is the image in which we are created.  This is the example we are to follow.  The creator of the universe did not stand on His status and did not claim His rights.  He did not say that He was too important to be inconvenienced for the benefit of creatures infinitely beneath Him.  How can we possibly believe, with this as our guiding star, that we are too important to care about animals or to make sacrifices (inexpressibly minor sacrifices in light of the sacrifice made for us) for their good?  Scripture tells us that God loves the animals.  He created them and gave them into our care.  We are to care for them as he cares for us.  We have no excuses. 

            As if that were not enough, we then move to the Gospel reading, Matthew 21:23-32, in which the chief priests and the elders of the people asked Jesus by what authority he was teaching in the Temple.  Jesus responds with a question, asking them by what authority John baptized.  The priests answer that they do not know, and Jesus them tells them a parable, concluding that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get to heaven before the chief priests and elders because the tax collectors and prostitutes believed John, while those with status in the community did not.  Again and again the Scriptures tell us: we cannot rely on our status before God.  We must believe in God and do his will.  Our status as humans gains us nothing.  Our faith, our love, and our willingness to reflect that love to rest of creation, including the animals, gain us everything. 

            Finally, this particular service included a baptism.  As a congregation, of course, we participated in the baptism by renewing our baptismal covenant.  In this service, this is where the unfortunate turns of phrase came in.  In renewing our covenant, we are asked a number of questions regarding our willingness to renounce evil and follow Christ.  One of those questions is: “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”  We respond, “I will, with God’s help.”  Then we are asked, “Will you strive for justice among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” We respond, “I will, with God’s help.”  

Christ_Church_Waltham_Baptismal_Font cc by-sa 3.0 by Mbalulescu

            There is nothing wrong, of course, with making these promises in regard to our fellow humans, but it is a great tragedy that these promises are limited to “all persons,” and “every human being.” If you’ve read my post, Animals Are People,Too, you know that I have no difficulty including animals in the term “person,” but most people think only of other humans as “persons.” (I recognize that calling animals “persons” is controversial.  If you read the referenced post, you will see that I use the word somewhat loosely.  Our obligations toward animals do not depend on whether we understand them to be “persons” or not.) The phrase “every human being,” of course, leaves little room for interpretation.  Rather than be so limited, however, we should instead seek and serve Christ in all creatures, we should strive for justice among all creatures, and we should respect the dignity of all creatures.  There is no Scriptural basis to believe our obligations do not extend so far. (On animals as the subjects of justice, see Animals Are People, Too.) There may be room for debate regarding when and how Scripture may allow for human needs to come first, but any such debate can only be limited to human needs, not human habit, human greed, human gluttony, human entertainment, human pride, or human convenience.  If we could just get down to human need, the overwhelming majority of animal suffering would be alleviated.
        The kind of phraseology used in the baptismal covenant turns up in several places in different liturgies.  In addition, the Book of Common Prayer includes numerous prayers for all sorts of human conditions, and it includes prayers for "the right use of natural resources."  It does not include any prayers for the animals, however, or any prayers that humans would open their eyes to the ways we contribute to animal suffering.  Phrases like those in the baptism service that limit our concerns to our fellow humans, and the absence of recognition of animals as sentient creatures to whom we owe a duty in our prayers, contributes to a misunderstanding of our obligations to animals and indirectly supports the popular misunderstanding of “dominion” as “domination,” a relationship of power without obligation. 

            I am not, of course, suggesting that clergy should turn every Sunday into a discussion of animal welfare.  This is only one of a myriad of topics critical to Christian instruction.  I am suggesting, however, that this is one of those critical topics and it needs to be addressed.  Regularly.  From the pulpit.  I believe that if clergy and other church leaders could just grasp this fundamental point, that we have grievously misunderstood our relationships with animals are daily sinning in our participation in and silence regarding animal cruelty, that they would find the right times and opportunities to work the topic - in large and small ways - into their sermons, include corporate prayers about it, offer Christian education about it.  I think that if I heard the topic addressed even occasionally, even briefly, during worship, I might be able to enter into worship more fully and stop re-writing every service from the pew. 

            The baptismal portion of the service concludes with prayers that God would “teach [the newly baptized infant] to love in the power of the Spirit” and “send her into the world in witness to your love” and “bring her to the fullness of your peace and glory.”  As I prayed those prayers with the congregation, in my own heart, I asked that her love in the power of the Spirit extend to include all of God’s creatures, that her witness to God’s love would include a witness to God’s love for His other creatures, and that she would know the fullness of God’s peace by living in peace with other creatures and the fullness of God’s glory by standing in God’s strength, showing mercy and pity to the vulnerable creatures who come into her life. 

Dogs in la Catedral de Santa Marta Colombia cc sa 3.0 by OliverH