Sermon Archive
Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 12, 2019
I do not know if I am the only person who has ever tried this -- part of me likes to think I am, part of me knows I’m not -- but by occasion I have put my dog on facetime just so he could hear my voice and I got to watch his reaction. On one hand, you get to witness the dog’s excited at the sound of a familiar, beloved voice, on the other hand, there is confusion because the body that goes with the voice isn’t there. We use our voices to forge relationships with our dogs: with a decisive voice, we might train our dogs to obey certain commands – sit, fetch, stay, jump, roll over – and we use treats to reward such obedience; with sweet words, we convey satisfaction – good boy – and with a stern tone we discipline bad behavior and other ways of acting out. Continue...
I do not know if I am the only person who has ever tried this -- part of me likes to think I am, part of me knows I’m not -- but by occasion I have put my dog on facetime just so he could hear my voice and I got to watch his reaction. On one hand, you get to witness the dog’s excited at the sound of a familiar, beloved voice, on the other hand, there is confusion because the body that goes with the voice isn’t there. We use our voices to forge relationships with our dogs: with a decisive voice, we might train our dogs to obey certain commands – sit, fetch, stay, jump, roll over – and we use treats to reward such obedience; with sweet words, we convey satisfaction – good boy – and with a stern tone we discipline bad behavior and other ways of acting out. Continue...
