The Dog Days of Summer--and Ministry

"Let sleeping dogs lie"
"Don't lie down with the dogs"
"You're such a dog"

Most quotes about dogs that I could think of off the top of my head are negative.  Yet, the dog-days of summer seem to imply a lazy, sleepy time of the year when its just too hot to do much of anything but sit under a shade tree with a nice cool drink and let the breeze cool the sweat off your brow--not an unpleasant image.  Rather, I kind of like that idea!

Here is another way to look at dogs:  Remember Jesus' encounter with the foreign woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit? (Mark 7:26-30)  He was teaching in a Jewish home and she kept interrupting him.  In sending her away Jesus said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."


Right about now, most of us would feel pretty dejected.  "How dare he talk to me like that?  I am NOT a dog!"  I'm someone who needs help--the kind of help that only this Man can provide."

Of course Jesus knew that of her.  I think his words were meant to be heard by the Jews in the house.  I think he also knew her faith and determination that he was to be her daughter's savior.  He knew what she would say next.

But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

Crumbs.  Such little morsels that we would just sweep away and throw in the dustpan.  Yet, our pets lick them up like Filet Mignon or lobster.  Their animal instincts tell them that all food is good because there will come a season when there isn't food (domesticated animals are really the exception to the rule--we tend to make them fat; like us).
The Syrophoenician woman knew that because of who Jesus was, anything from him was good, effective, and lasting.

As we are in the midst of summer, when its hot and no-one likes to work, we also find ourselves often in the dog-days of ministry.  When you really become engaged in ministry you find its sometimes hard, difficult, and, at times, uncomfortable work.  It would seem as if it were all for not.

And then there are the bread crumbs of the Gospel that fall at opportune times; when an unbeliever might pick them up as a valuable morsel that they crave and need, not knowing when they might receive it again.  Just as we often do not know when we drop a crumb at the table, so often as we live our lives in Christ, we do not know when what we are doing might be leaving a little Gospel crumb for those around us to gobble up and they are then made whole in faith, just as the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter.

So if crumbs are so good, how about we follow the example of the fairy tales and fables and leave a trail of Gospel crumbs which lead people to himself and to his Church.  Because, really, when you get right down to it, weren't we all dogs before we "magically" became Princes and Princesses in faith and by our baptisms?