Sermons at St. John's Presbyterian Church

God’s Doggy Spa and the Blessing of Pets

Transcribed from the sermon preached October 9, 2011

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: Matthew 6:25-33, Psalm104:10-25

I can’t resist sharing a little Dave Barry with you again this year: “Cats are less loyal than dogs, but more independent.   (This is code. It means: "Cats are smarter than dogs, but they hate people.") Many people love cats. From time to time, newspapers print stories about some elderly widow who died and left her entire estate, valued at $3,200,000, to her cat, Fluffkins. Cats read these stories, too, and are always plotting to get named as beneficiaries in their owners' wills. Did you ever wonder where your cat goes when it wanders off for several hours? It meets with other cats in estate-planning seminars. I just thought you should know."

“Dogs would make totally incompetent criminals. If you could somehow get a group of dogs to understand the concept of the Kennedy assassination, they would all immediately confess to it. Whereas you'll never see a cat display any kind of guilty behavior, despite the fact that several cats were seen in Dallas on the Grassy Knoll area, not that I wish to start rumors.”

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing.  Today, Jesus warns us against anxiety and worry, using plants and animals as an example of how, worry or not, God provides. Worry will not add time to our life.

While thinking about the sermon this time around, it dawned on me that pets often become an extension of who we are.  I love the 101 dalmations scene at the beginning of the movie when they show all the dogs with their people; the big bone headed dog for the big bone headed owner, the short round dog has a short round owner, the prancy primped poodle has a prancy primped lady owner.

I guess owner is no longer politically correct…what is the proper word?  Pamperer?

These days there are a lot of pampered animals.  And it is a bipartisan affair:  Liberals pamper their animals in the guise of extending love and equality beyond the human species, while conservatives pamper their animals because they can. Now there is pampering that shows love and affection and there is pampering that ignores the needs of others people and life around the world, and the simple needs of animals.  Could it be that all the lavishing upon our pets may have more to do with our own anxieties and desires, more with capitalism than the happiness of the animals?

Our dog Sassy is getting a little old and pulled a muscle in her leg.  We took her to the vet.  The vet gave her some pain pills.  The visit and the pills cost us $80.  We opted not to do the $400 x ray.  The doctor also told me that Sassy was a bit overweight.  Now I am not about to stop feeding her leftovers. For one, she loves them, and two,  that is what dogs are for.  The amount of food thrown out by Americans is a sin, especially when there is a living, happy garbage disposal in the back yard.  So, we stopped feeding Sassy so much dog food, and try harder to not forget to walk her, and she has started to lose some weight.

Did you know that forty percent of pets in the US are overweight?  Like the 101 dalmations, I think our animals are reflective the people in our culture.  But it is not just food that we lavish upon our pets. 

According to the Institute for Canine Studies, “After consumer electronics, pet care is the fastest-growing category in retail, expanding about 6% a year over the past decade. “  In 1998 $23 billion was spent on pets. In 2010 spending for pets went up to $47.7 billion.  That is over 100% increase in 12years.    http://www.caninestudies.org/about/economic-impact/

The increase in spending is due to a number of factors.  Part of the increase comes from a growth in the number of households who have pets, up from 56% to 62%.  As baby boomer’s kids move out; they may decide to buy animals.  With people getting married later and the divorce rate so high, there are more single member households than ever before.  And, some of the spending may be due to an increase in disposable income…but, as the economy has hit bottom, pet spending has continued to increase.  So even with these factors mentioned above,  there has been a huge increase in spending per animal.

Now in capitalism purchasing anything is good, since when we spend somebody else makes money, and they then can buy from someone else.  So Paris Hilton and her diamond collared dog are role models. Don’t get me wron. In the grand scheme of things, there must be 5000 other jobs that are less appreciated by God than pet pamperer. Just ask Roger Moore, maker of Bowling for Columbine. Heck, ministers may be further down the list.  But somehow I don’t think diamond dog collars is what Ghandi had in mind when he said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." 

Now in all my searching this week, nobody even hinted that pet spending may be a little over the top.  It is all good and prosperous as business will testify.  There has been a big increase in designer and luxury goods for pets: Automated food dispensers, mouthwash and electronic tooth brushes, doggy beauty solons, monogrammed sweaters, bird manicures.  Heck, there are even doggy psychologists and cats on Prozac.  Could it be that we have projected our anxiety and worry, our addiction to buying  the latest best thing onto our pets?  Today, when we look at the birds of the air we think they need their nails polished.

In an article explaining how business people can tap emotions to get people to buy things they don’t really need,  George Torok , author of The Secrets of Power Marketing, says that there are five things that determine why we buy: we buy out of love, pride, guilt, fear and greed. http://www.torok.com/articles/marketing/5EmotionalTriggers.html

As Christians God would ask us to beware of all those motivators except love.  And our love may also be expressed in a poor way.  I may love my son, but that doesn’t mean I need to buy him every video game that comes out. I may love Sassy the bone headed dog, but I would be the bone head if I sent her to a doggy spa.  She would be happier if I found her a mud puddle at the park, and topped that off with a dead bird.  For Sassy, that is God’s doggy spa.

The point is, it is good that we love our animals, but we we need not project our culture’s materialism upon them as if that is love.  Let them show us how to relax and enjoy the simple life rather than us showing them how to complicate, stress and consume to the detriment of the rest of life on the planet.

It has been shown that pets do help make us healthier, reduce stress and lower blood pressure.  They keep us company, protect and entertain us, and teach us about life.

We bless our pets each year here at St. John’s.  Now we might argue that this is yet another thing we do for ourselves rather than the needs of our pets.  For to the best of our knowledge our pets are not even aware of God and do not conceive the value of a spiritual blessing

Yet the psalmist and St. Francis and Jesus suggest that living things, by their very being and breath, give praise and testimony to the glory and love of God.  Plants and animals, rivers and mountains are co-participants in the earthly choir.  And we ought to feel good about recognizing the beautiful animals that make our lives humorous and warm.  Asking God to bless our pets brings their presence and love to the forefront of our conscious.  And it helps us to think about how and why we treat them the way we do, and to improve our relationship with them.  Abraham Lincoln said, "I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."  We give thanks and open our minds and hearts to the Spirit of God in all life, for the blessing of animals.