But one Sunday, the cows did.
Dad worked with a family friend to run a small dairy operation just outside of town. The two of them alternated. One handled the dairy while the other one was away working on a riverboat, and vice versa. So, every other month, for the duration of that month, Dad drove out to the farm twice a day to milk the cows. My participation in these activities was sporadic—and mostly limited to early mornings on school days.
I awoke early that Sunday to the sound of my Dad calling my name, telling me to get up. He needed my help with the cows.
For a moment there, I was completely disoriented; wasn't this Sunday? Then my head cleared and I knew it was Sunday…very early on Sunday. I pulled on my jeans and a shirt and headed downstairs, but I griped all the way down the stairs…and all the way out to the farm. I whined about losing "Sunday time" to the cows. I was emphatic that we had to finish in time for me to get to church. I was oh-so-righteously ticked off at Dad for making me do this "on a Sunday!"
Dad didn't say a word all the way to the farm. He just let me rant. But once we arrived and were walking toward the dairy barn, Dad turned and stopped me with a palm to the chest.
"Do you hear that?" he asked.
Of course, I hadn't heard anything other than the sound of my own voice for several minutes. But as I paused to listen, I did hear something.
"Yeah," I said, "It's the cows bawling."
Then he asked the question, the one that really shut my mouth: "Do you know why they're bawling?"
Up to that point, I had never once stopped to wonder, well, any thing about the cows. I had to admit that I had no idea, really, why they were bawling. Somehow, in my youthful mind, I just thought they were ticked off that we were late.
Well, no.
"They're bawling," said Dad, "because they're in pain. They will stay in pain until somebody milks them."
There’s a term for what I had been doing that morning: aesthetic outrage. It refers to a person having an angry reaction to events that, in reality, have had no actual impact on them. I was like those folks in this week's selection from the gospel of Luke. I couldn't see past my own well-ordered world view to the actual living beings who were in need.
In the Luke passage, Jesus messed with somebody’s church time. He healed a woman while at church! To our modern sensibilities, this may seem absolutely the right place and time. But the leader of the synagogue didn’t see it that way. He was offended. How dare Jesus—or anyone—say or do anything to breach the decorum of the Sabbath?! In his view, all that healing should take place on one of the other six days.
But Jesus came back with inescapable logic. None of them would leave their farm animals bound on a Sabbath, unable to have access to water. How does that stack up against providing much needed relief to a human on the same day?
You may find that some people prefer the traditional pieces of worship to the actual work of worship. Nothing Jesus said that day was new, and it wasn’t news to His audience. For centuries, the Prophets had been telling God’s people that the work of worship—attending to the needs of the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the imprisoned and the ill—was more important to God than the sacrifices and festivals...even though God had instructed them to do those things, too.
The acts of worship have meaning and purpose. They are not, however, satisfactory on their own. Like Jesus, we must become attuned to the needs of those near us—our neighbors, if you will—and act on that knowledge in a timely manner. In other words, do the actual work of worship.
Once I could see those dairy cows as real beings with real needs, it completely changed my attitude toward them.
Can we do any less for people?
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PHOTO (and a brief article about a family running a micro dairy. It will give you an idea of our dairy operation):
https://www.grit.com/animals/small-dairy/
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I look forward to seeing you Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We're still having a great time discussing the scriptures and enjoying a great meal at Our Breakfast Place in Waco. Join us there or on Zoom** at 8:00.
Blessings,
Steve
**Contact me for the Zoom link
NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera and microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK
Find them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=276
Print them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Cx_Proper16.pdf
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Isaiah 58:9b-14
Psalm 103:1-8
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
Proper 16 (21) (August 21, 2022)
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