Earlier that morning I went out to breakfast with my son. There were three men at a table near us having, from what we overheard, one of their regular breakfast meetings together. They were Christian men and by all appearances, solid, typical American Christians: church-going middle class. But interestingly enough, one of the men was having an issue with his college aged son. The son seemed to have no clear goals, no ambition, and had been somewhat aimlessly drifting through life. While discussing that, their conversation touched on the possibility of military service, its pros and cons. What struck me was the narrowness of the viewpoint. There was an assessment of the risk (avoid the army or marines, you might have to actually go to war) and a discussion of the benefits (you get paid while being trained in a skill, free college tuition). But there was no sense of any passion for a cause, no fire of a mission, no giving up of selfish goals in pursuit of a greater cause. In fact the whole tone of the discussion seemed to be an avoidance of risk. What a tragedy. A young man from a family of believers with no goals, no identification with the mission of Jesus, no burning passion to right the world's wrongs, no sense of calling to anything.
There must be a motivational force, there must be a piercing call that penetrates the fog of confusion and the cocoon of selfishness. What tribe, what family, what cause could pull otherwise aimless youth into something that clears the fog and breaks open the cocoon? Hey, I know--it is the family of dog. We should start a movement called the Family of Dog. What does dog stand for? I don't know, just something other than god. Even though that is what we are, calling yourself the family of god sounds cultish. Family of dog sounds like a joke, meaning you could get away with all sorts of crazy, irreverent behavior while simultaneously living with passion and zeal. And maybe actually accomplishing something.
Family of dog, the pack. But the word dog has to stand for something, doesn't it? D for dead. O for or. G for God. Family of dead or god. Family of those who see absolutes: life is either dead or God. In this family, only the Big Dog (you know, Jesus) gets to rule. All others submit.
Or the word dog doesn't stand for anything. It just means dog. The family of dog. Strip away all other convention and formality. In a world that could collapse at any moment, where the poles could shift at any point, what should a young person live for? Or worse yet, in a world where there is no point, why even get out of bed in the morning? What really is the point of living if not to satisfy your flesh right now. Reject all pretense, strip off all external packaging, get to the real truth. In the family of dog, it doesn't matter what you look like, are you part of the pack? Are you enforcing the freedom of a new world order: the Order Of Dog. What is the Order Of Dog? It is the pack protecting its young, the old, the feeble. It is the pack protecting itself from predators. In fact, the pack itself is a predatory pack. But in this case, it hunts and take down predators. Its food is to do the will of the Big Dog. All the while having incredible fun together. Family of Dog. Order of Dog.
We are not a culture very familiar with the sheep and pastoral symbolism of Israel at the time of Jesus. But we are familiar with dogs. In fact, some large percentage of Americans probably count a dog as their most intimate companion. Maybe there is a divine reason for the domestication of dogs, for the intertwining of the species. Why not use the dog, lets say the African Wild Dog, as a vehicle for spiritual symbolism? Here goes. Theology of Dog.
1. The African Wild Dog reproduces at any time of year.
2. Females will disperse from their birth pack at 14 - 30 months of age and join other packs that lack mature females.
3. Males typically do not leave the pack they were born to.
4. In the African Wild Dog, a group of related males form the core of the pack.
5. The females depend on access to males that will help to rear offspring.
6. In a typical pack, males outnumber females by a factor of two to one.
7. Only the dominant female is usually able to rear pups.
8. Packs do not over-extend themselves by attempting to rear too many litters at the same.
9. Mature members of the pack including males may be left to guard the pups while the mother joins the hunting group.
10. There are separate male and female hierarchies in the pack. Gender groups will split up if either of the alphas die.
11. In the female group, the oldest will have alpha status over the others, so a mother will retain her alpha status over her daughters.
12. In the male group, the youngest male or the father of the other males will be dominant.
13. If two loner separate-gender groups meet, if unrelated they can form a pack together.
14. Dominance in a pack is established without blood-shed, as most dogs within a group tend to be related to one another in some way, and even when not this can occur.
15. The pack has a submission-based hierarchy, instead of a dominance based one. Submission and nonaggression is emphasized heavily, even over food they will beg energetically instead of fight. This is likely because of their manner of raising huge litters of dependent pups, so if one individual is injured the entire pack would not be able to provide as much.
16. The African Wild Dog hunts in packs. It is a cursorial hunter, meaning that it pursues its prey in a long, open chase. Nearly 80% of all hunts end in a kill. Members of a pack vocalize to help coordinate their movements.
17. After a successful hunt, hunters regurgitate meat for those that remained at the den during the hunt, such as the dominant female and the pups. They will also feed other pack members, such as the sick, injured, the very old that cannot keep up, or those who stayed back to watch the pups.
Ok, no real theology here, but it just drips with spiritual symbolism. At least I think so. At heart we are a submission based predatory pack; we have huge numbers of dependent pups; we protect and provide for the pack's young, sick, and elderly; we reproduce any time, all the time. Or we ought to be those things. Sure, some dog lifestyle doesn't fit, I've conveniently ignored those aspects. But in Jesus, we've become hunters, we are a predatory pack, not preying on the innocent but on the predator of the innocent.
Hebrews 2:14 - 15
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Ecclesiastes 9:4
But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
No comments:
Post a Comment