So, last week our family grew by one. Her name is Maybelle, and she is a mix of black mouth cur and coon hound, kind of what Cotton is, except Cotton is old enough to have seen his mouth go from black to white. Maybelle is four months old, round about. She has all that puppy energy that seems centralized in constantly moving and sniffing. She's mostly chill and doesn't seem to be all that interested in running off as far as she can go. It seems like she would rather stay within eyesight off her people.
We are in the stage where she is learning new rules like “off” (get off the furniture or the person), “down” (lie down), “sit” (useful when feeding and getting a lead on and off), and a general “enh” (which is more or less a “no” or a “bad girl” without all the baggage...kind of a shortened “you might want to think about what you are fixing to do”). And the big one, which is “ring your bell.” “Ring your bell” is the phrase we use when she is being trained to do all her potty business outdoors. There is a hotel desk bell, the kind that had the button on top and give off that “DING!” on the floor by the door. Whenever she is taken out, we take her paw and press the button, then with a cheery “Good girl, good ring your bell,” out she goes.
“Off” seems to have been a quick lesson, and “sit” and “lie down” are getting there, but “ring your bell” is taking time. It's hard to learn and hard to coordinate at just the right time. Even Cotton, the dog who is so brilliant he's on the verge of speech, had a long learning curve for this one.
But all in all, the addition to the family seems to be going pretty good, adjustments are being made, and it looks like Maybelle will be a great addition. Did I mention that she loves to cuddle? That's a plus.
Now, I guess now is the time for full disclosure: my role in training is minimal. She is staying up with the Catos. Maybelle is my dog only in the sense that we have a bond, she likes me, and recognizes me as someone higher on the pecking order. She will do what I say...if she knows what to do already. But I am not the one teaching commands. That comes from Brooks and Becca. I'm more of the uncle who is as nervous about undoing recently learned behavior as I am excited about a new puppy.
So, you are probably wondering if I'm just taking valuable sermon time to talk about a puppy, and the answer is, of course! Puppies are fun. But I also think this is an important life lesson we each face as Christians.
Jesus is wrapping up his time with the disciples, giving them instructions on how to live when he's gone. And he has given them some commandments. Not many, it turns out. Just enough of them for a follower to navigate in a world with a lot of noise and scariness and differences to be safe, but also to be effective. And even those commandments can be boiled down to two. Like a puppy, you've heard them over and over, you know what I'm about to say: Love God, and love your neighbor.
But how you react is the sticking point, right? What you do with what you've heard, how you make it part of your being, your nervous system, your soul, that's when it starts to work.
When I was in Knoxville, there was a college student that would come to church because she was a member of a group that would meet during the week. They were mainly focused on two things: poverty and nuclear weapons (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where the Manhattan Project was researched, is a suburb). She was big in the group, but wanted to come to church, too.
We met several times for coffee and discussions, and in the course of those discussions we established that: 1. She didn't believe in God, 2. She didn't think Jesus ever lived, 3. She thought miracles were fake, and 4. People who believed all that were kinda stupid. I gotta admit, it made me wonder why coming to church interested her so much.
But I remember commenting that she at least had half of the great commandment down. She certainly seemed to love her neighbor, and she put a lot of energy into trying to improve her community.
This went on for over a year. Attend Tuesday evening meetings, then come to church on Sunday and stay and get to know people. Well the long and the short of it was that, after a year, on the Easter Vigil, she was baptized and affirmed her faith as a Christian. It wasn't some epiphany, the heavens didn't open up, but, instead, it was just the long repetition of worship that began to work on her and carve out a space for the Holy Spirit to come in and work.
Most of our famous stories in scripture have the Holy Spirit swooping in and affecting hundreds of people at a time, or have the Holy Spirit working miracles through the big names like Paul and Peter. But mostly that work is done over time, abiding with each of us and in each of us. And with us listening to those words of Jesus: Love your neighbor...AND love God. And in loving the one you want to do the other.
That's harder than you might think. There are a lot of other commandments being uttered out in the world: Hate your neighbor. Round up your neighbor. Hoard wealth. Destroy safety nets. Let people fend for themselves. Hurt those who are different. Kill those who are different! Wall yourself off. Use others for your own glory. Replace God with yourself. Become a graven image to the world. Make YOUR name heard throughout the world.
So many people follow the commandments of evil and hatred, because, quite frankly, the outcomes provide so much gluttonous pleasure. The drug-induced high of self-centeredness and selfishness.
But once the Holy Spirit get a toe-hold, once it establishes a beachhead, miracles can happen in you, and because of you. Imagine a nation of leaders that were quiet enough to hear the still small voice of God.
Now I'm not implying that Brooks and Becca are God, but to Maybelle, they do thunder from the mountain top with commandments. And she listens, and in her listening, she eventually learns. Not all at once, but bit by bit, until those commandments are part of who she is.
So, take this time, this time before Pentecost, when we will be raised up and sent out, to listen to those commandments, to follow those commandments, and to make them ours. Pray that others in positions of power will listen, too. Protest, organize, meet together, write, make your voice known. All those things. But also pray for room for the Holy Spirit to it's work in ourselves and others. Love God and love your neighbor. This how you change the world.
I am tempted to end right here by saying, “If you follow Jesus' commandments, you will be rewarded with the puppy treat of salvation,” but that would be tacky. So, instead, I think I'll just end the sermon!