Running With the Little Dogs (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

There seems to be a preoccupation, these days, with being the focus of all; being the people everyone thinks about, being the main topic of conversation. But, if we're honest, we'll admit that's not really a new thing. We've been caught up with being exceptional for quite some time. Decades, if not centuries.

Maybe even millennia.

Part and parcel with this mindset are certain phrases we toss about in our conversations, our self-help books, and our social media posts; phrases like "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch!" ... "Go big or go home!" ... "Cookies are for closers!" (Thank you, Boss Baby). There are any number of them, rendered all sorts of ways, but their messages all boil down to one thing: you want to be one of those people ... a closer, a winner, a big dog.

"We're number one! We're number one!" The chant echoes across various sports fields and venues. And it's a good thing, being number one. It's the rare person who doesn't enjoy being the best. But there's another side: the not-so-subtle subtext that you're either among the elite or you're not worth our consideration. At a minimum, they carry a message of diminishment: you are, somehow, lesser.

Where are we going with this? In the Lectionary selection from Matthew, Jesus is confronted by a non-Jewish woman seeking His intervention on behalf of her daughter who is besieged by demons.

Jesus ignores her. (Wait. What?!)

But she keeps calling after him, following him, never letting up; really advocating on behalf of her suffering child. Eventually, the disciples beg Jesus to address her, specifically to send her away. And, eventually, Jesus finally does engage with her, but the reader gets surprised.

He doesn't give her what she's been asking for.

He tells her that He was sent to the "lost sheep" of Israel. In other words, "Not you." Then, seeming to add insult to injury, He tells her it would not be right for the "little dogs" (house pets ... as opposed to the big, feral dogs that ran in packs those days) to have the food intended by the Master for His children. The implication is that she is one of the "little dogs," and therefore not due to receive anything from Jesus.

Her response is now classic: "Even the dogs eat the crumbs from the Master's table." Astonished, Jesus praises her faith ---a faith that existed despite the absolute absence of any reason to believe it would produce any benefit for her or her daughter--- and then grants her request. We need to be like this woman ---one of the "little dogs"--- in seeking Jesus, even when we know we are in no position to demand His attention, much less His action on our part.

It's not whether we're winners or losers, whether we're "closers," or even if we can run with the big dogs. Desiring excellence is a good thing. But with whom do we associate when we pursue that desire?

Maybe we should have been running with the little dogs all along.

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Photo Credit: (Please take note: I know nothing about this magazine. I just like the photo and this particular article. SCO)
https://relevantmagazine.com/slices/meanwhile-australia-dachshunds-race-purpose

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 15 (20) (August 20, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Psalm 67
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

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Join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. We're still in the back function room at Waco's "Egg and I" restaurant and we still start at 8:00-ish. Good food, good folk, spending an hour with a good God.

Blessings,
Steve