Good afternoon and welcome.
When Robin asked me to officiate at this blessing of the Carden / Sanderson family’s newest members, Dave and Conway, I was honored and touched. I know how much this day means to Robin. And I know how hard the whole family has worked to make this moment possible. Props especially to Jesse for building the donkey equivalent of a Four Seasons Hotel, complete with maid and room service.
But I have to be honest. In addition to being honored and touched, I was also a little confused.
It wasn’t that I doubted the spiritual worthiness of donkeys to receive a blessing. To the contrary, donkeys have outstanding theological credentials. Throughout history, God has smiled on donkeys, which is unsurprising since it is almost impossible to look on one withoutsmiling.
As you all know, a donkey plays a key role in the famous Hebrew Bible story of Balaam’s ass. I think it’s interesting that we call it “the story of Balaam’s ass” and not “the story of Balaam, the ass’s owner.” Of course, we do so because the donkey is the star of the show.
You remember the highlights: Balaam is on his way to address the Moabites. An angel appears before Balaam’s donkey and tells him to stop. The donkey obeys, and Balaam, who can’t see the angel, starts beating the poor donkey to get it to move.
Finally, God has had enough of this and gives the donkey the power of speech. The donkey tells Balaam to knock it off. Then God makes the angel visible to Balaam and the angel tells him to knock it off, too. Appropriately chastened, Balaam cleans up his act and does God’s will.
In the entire Hebrew Bible, only two animals speak: Balaam’s donkey and the serpent in the garden. The donkey’s voice was the voice of God; the serpent’s voice not so much. Donkeys therefore stand alone in the animal hierarchy of the Hebrew Bible.
The New Testament gives donkeys an even higher honor. There, a donkey is granted the privilege of carrying Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. G. K. Chesterton wrote a wonderful little poem called “The Donkey” about that special moment. It goes like this:
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
Of all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
Indeed, in all the kingdom have we been given a better apostle than the donkey? For, what are we all called to do, sisters and brothers, but to carry Christ into all of the world’s needful places?
I’ve come to believe that donkeys even have a special alignment with the core messages of other religious traditions. Lisa and I were recently talking with someone who spends a fair amount of time caring for these “tattered outlaws of the earth.” She said: “I love donkeys. I love them precisely because they don’t really do anything. They just are. They remind me and teach me to live fully in the moment.”
I suspect that the Buddha and Lao Tzu (the founder of Taoism) would approve that message. I know Jesus does. Like the lilies of the field, donkeys neither toil nor spin. They just are.Thank the good Lord that it is so.
So, no, my confusion didn’t revolve around whether it makes sense to bless donkeys. It absolutely does, and irrefutably so.
Rather, the question in my mind was whether it makes sense to bless these particulardonkeys, Dave and Conway. Because how could they be more blessed than they already are? How could they be more blessed than to have come onto this peninsula, into this place, into the care of these people, into the circle of this congregation? It seems to me that they are already blessed beyond all imagining.
But here’s the deal. Robin doesn’t ask much of me. And whatever she does ask is always a good idea. Therefore, bless them we will, because when two or more donkeys are gathered in His name we should celebrate and throw the blessings around with wild abandon. So, here we go:
Good and generous Lord. We thank you for the gift of Dave and Conway. We thank you for the lessons that they give us in kindness, in carrying you, and in simply being and in being simply. We thank you for their strong voices, their sweet steadiness, and their magnificent ears.
We pray, dear Lord, that you might bless them with good health, with safe and secure passage through this life, and with every comfort, joy, and happiness known to donkeydom. Bless them, dear Lord, as they bless us—richly, fully, and with the enduring light of your diverse and magnificent creation.
And the people said: Amen.
