Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert. – Lamentations 4:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 20, 2017): Lamentations 4

As soldiers began to return home from the Crusades in the early 11^th or 12^th Century, they began to come back with a legendary story to tell alongside their own adventures. The story took place in Silene, Libya, because it was there, in a pond close to the town, that there lived a dragon. The dragon had poisoned the water supply for the town and he had brought plagues on the surrounding area and was causing havoc among the people who lived there. According to the story, a knight known only as Saint George happened to be passing by the town. A princess tried to warn the saint off, to stay away from the town, but he persisted on coming close to the lake. When the dragon showed himself, Saint George charged the dragon and battled the beast – and eventually was even able to tame the creator of the town’s misery.

The story spread as it was told at parties and anywhere else where people were willing to listen. Part of the attraction was that there was probably no animal that was feared more than a dragon. It is thought that the legend of the dragon probably arose from a number of factors. The presence but not clearly understood Nile crocodile was one element in the development of the legends of dragons. The fire-breathing version of the dragon may have risen from the spitting Cobra – and all of this is augmented by bones of whales, or even dinosaurs to create the mythical creature that scared the children as they went to bed – and gave Saint George a proving ground for his sword.

While the NIV chooses to translate the Hebrew word “tanniyn” as a jackal, a better translation of the passage might be a dragon. Jeremiah’s description is that even a dragon, one of the most feared animals on the face of the earth, knew how to care for its young. The idea is that the fiercest of beasts that this world has ever imagined, these dragons that have captured the imagination of a planet and have been long feared by the human race - even these animals know how to care for their young.

Judah desired to be a dragon; they wanted to be a force that had to be dealt with in the world. And so they had picked up some practices that they thought made them strong. And one of the practices they had adopted seemed to be a lack of care for the weak of their society. Somehow they had come to believe that caring for the vulnerable made them weak. But Jeremiah pushes back. He says to Israel that they are not dragons, they are ostriches. An ostrich lays its eggs and then leaves the eggs unguarded to be trampled on by whatever happens to come along. Jeremiah looks at his nation and says “you want to be dragons, but all you really are is ostriches.”

The Bible continually raises the image of the weak among us. God wants us to be strong, but the reality is that if we are really strong, we will not overlook those who are weak – the young and the old and the challenged with whom we share this planet. And I am convinced that this is one of the places where the contemporary church is failing. We know that the weak are among us, but they test our patience. We don’t mind if they worship with us, but we don’t want them to interfere with us because they don’t think the same way that we do. We draw a very clear line between the weak and the strong when God says that there is no line. Our community will always contain both those who are in need and those who are affluent. And sometimes we will be strong – and sometimes we will be weak. But the good news is that God has created us to be dragons and not ostriches. And that means that when we are strong, and part of that strength is that we will care for those who are weak. This is the reality in which we are designed to live.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Lamentations 5

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to be daughter-in-law, Michelle. I hope you have a great day