The Dog House and Bread

Welcome to Scattered Moments. Years ago, I was preaching in South America and I learned an important lesson about language and doghouses. After the message, I noticed a group of men gathered together having what appeared to be a very serious conversation. They were pointing in my direction. That'll get my attention. My interpreter and I walked over there and one of the men had a question. Apparently during my sermon I had said something like, Men, if we don't want to listen to our wives, we may end up in the doghouse. Perfectly understandable, at least in Tennessee, but these men who lived near the edge of a rainforest had apparently not heard about the marital institution known as the doghouse. Hadn't made its way there. They had questions, lots of questions. What is a doghouse? Do men in America actually live there? How long do they have to stay? Does the wife send them there? I suddenly realized that somewhere in South America there was now a group of men imagining American husbands being evicted from their homes and forced to sleep in tiny wooden structures beside the Labrador Retriever. I tried to explain. No no no no. We don't actually live in dog houses. That conversation comes to mind when I read Matthew 16. Jesus tells his disciples, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And then the disciples immediately hold an emergency bakery meeting. They start talking among themselves, it is because we bought no bread. I love the disciples, because sometimes they make me feel so much better about myself. Jesus is talking about the dangerous influence of false teaching, and these guys apparently were checking the lunch bag. Did you bring the bread? I thought you brought the bread. Nobody told me I was supposed to bring bread. Great. Jesus is upset because we forgot the bread. And you can almost hear Jesus thinking, guys, this is not about bread. They heard the words, they missed the meme. Which makes me wonder how often I do exactly the same thing. I can read the words of Jesus and move right past what he is actually trying to say. Maybe part of the problem is speed. We read scripture the way we drive on the interstate. Got places to go, chapters to finish, boxes to check, three chapters before breakfast, four if we're behind on our Bible reading plan. Come on, Deuteronomy, we've got to keep moving. But maybe scripture isn't meant to be read at interstate speed. Maybe some passages have a school zone sign beside them. Slow down, pay attention, look around. There are children crossing here. These are things you won't see at seventy five miles an hour. The Bible isn't merely information we're trying to get through. It's the living word of God that is trying to get through to us. Sometimes a sentence needs to sit with us. Sometimes a word needs to bother us. Sometimes a question Jesus asks deserves more than twelve seconds before we move on to the next verse. Sometimes we need to read it again and again and sit quietly long enough for the Holy Spirit to whisper that you're still thinking about the bread. There is always a danger that we'll become so familiar with the words of Jesus that we stop listening for the meaning of Jesus. So today, don't hurry. Read it slowly. Listen carefully. Stay curious. Let the words breathe. You don't have to finish three chapters. You don't have to win the race through Deuteronomy. You don't even have to understand everything the first time you read it. Just stay there long enough for the words to work on you. Because sometimes the difference between simply reading the Bible and actually hearing God is the willingness to slow down and ask, What is Jesus really saying here? So I guess there are really two lessons here. First, read slowly. Secondly, men stay out of the doghouse. Metaphorically speaking.