Day/date: Sunday 4 October, Animal Service Readings: Numbers 22.20-35 and Matthew 15.21-28

‘The angel of the LORD said to him, ‘Why have you struck your donkey these three times?’

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Earlier this year the film ‘Dolittle’ was released, with Robert Downey Jr in the title role. It was a remake of the classic children’s film ‘’ (1967). In this story, Dr Dolittle can talk to animals. This is surely a remarkable gift, and a useful one (as the films show). But our readings today remind us that even more important than talking to animals is listening to animals.

In our first reading, the prophet Balaam embarks on a very risky mission. He is trying to please both God and the local political leader of the day. Blissfully unaware of the danger he is in, he ignores the instincts of his donkey which keeps trying to save his life by turning off the road or refusing to move any further. The donkey reminds us that animals often sense things that humans are oblivious to. There are examples of wildlife running away before an earthquake or a tsunami. Pets seem to know intuitively what kind of mood their owners are in. And animals often respond to people who are hurt or ill. In these situations, we need to stop and pay attention, as Balaam eventually does.

In our second reading, Jesus uses a throwaway insult when he refers to this foreign woman and her daughter as ‘dogs’. We don’t know exactly why Jesus does this, but he certainly gets a powerful reaction from the woman. She says: ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table’ (Matthew 15.27). It is probably because this exchange was so memorable and so revealing that it found its way into our gospels. Here we have animals (in this case dogs) speaking to us from a metaphor. Every creature, no matter how vile or how lowly or how unclean it may be, nevertheless has needs which it will try to meet. Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. Birds and sea creatures will struggle to free themselves from the plastic or the oil slicks in which they become trapped. And these gestures of need should awaken our compassion. Each creature’s desperate struggle to survive has the potential to speak to us, if we are listening. And it should challenge us to make time and space for other creatures to flourish.

Christopher Smart shows us what it looks like to pay careful attention to animals and to learn from them, in his poem ‘For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry. / For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him […]’

And lest we forget, we humans are also animals, with needs and instincts. The Coronavirus pandemic has reminded us in often brutal ways that we have bodies and germs and fluids that affect others and can contaminate the surfaces that we touch and the spaces in which we live. Still, God is not disgusted. God made animals – including us – and loves his creation. So much so that God became an animal that lived and wept and breathed and bled and spat and touched and died among us. Animal Sunday is a reminder of all the ways we are connected to each other and responsible for one another in our living and in our dying.

Amen.