We are really blessed to live in New Zealand, with its
unique and wonderful array of amazing birds.
I had a wonderful afternoon a couple of months ago down at
the reclaimed Taumanu reserve in
Onehunga. I spent forty minutes sitting on a cold hard rock by the boat ramp as
this pair of Royal spoonbills (Kotuku Ngatupapa) basically wadded right up
close to where I was sitting. I’d only seen them once before and then off in
the distance.
They Shock their heads scything those wonderful beaks
sideways through the water to catch small fish. Some ducks even sailed by just
to give me the chance of getting a photo so people could see how big these
spoonbills are.
The Gannets at Muriwai, but also down the east coast,
watching them circle majestically and then the lightning fast plummet and
splash as they go fishing, then later having them dip and come along a wave
face one wing tip touching the water… as if to say now this is surfing.
Stopping at homer tunnel in the South Island to take photos
of Kea and having them jump on the car and start to eat windscreen wipers and
the rubber of our door seals. When Kris tooted the horn to make them stop the
only creature startled was … well me, crocuhed down by the bonnet for a better
angle. The Kea on the screen behind me is from Auckland Zoo.
I’ve told you many times about the way in which God has usedthe wood pigeon or the kereru to speak into my life, as for me it is a symbol
of the Holy Spirit, and every time I see one I thank God for his presence with
us.
Today as Part of the season of creation it’s been good to
acknowledge and give thanks for these wonderful birds and when
Today I want to look
at two ways in which scripture looks at the birds of the air and see what they
have to say to us as a church
specifically as we look at the coming year. Because in the two passages we had
read to us today the birds of the air are used to speak of the providence of
God and the purpose of God, both important for us. God’s provision and God’s
purpose.
In our reading from Ezekiel, we are presented with a picture
of the coming of the messianic king. God will take a branch from a cedar and
plant it on a hill in Israel. That tree will grow big and strong and providing
shelter and nesting sites for all different kinds of birds of the air. It’s an
image that is echoed in Daniel chapter four where Nebucanezzar ahs a dream of a
giant cedar tree providing shelter for the birds of the air, then the tree
being cut down and the birds scattered but regenerating and once again being a
home for the birds. Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar that he is that tree, in Daniel
there is a sense that Nebuchadnezzar has come to admire the God of Israel, and
as he humbly walks in a relationship with him, his kingdom can be a place of
shelter and home for the people of the world, but as he reverts too thinking it
is all about him and is filed with pride that kingdom vision is taken away. At the end of chapter 4 we see that Nebchadnezzar has a seven-year period of what we would
call mental illness, but once he reignites his relationship with God he is
restored to the throne.
Jesus himself picks up this image in Mark 4:30-32,
to talk about the kingdom of God. He tells the parable of the mustard seed, the
Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that is planted and grows into a mighty
tree, the mustard seed is the smallest of the seeds and the mustard tree the
largest of the garden plants, and it will provide shelter for birds of the air.
The picture is of the purpose of God for his kingdom, for
his people and his church that in Christ we would be a place where people can
come and find a home and a place to rest and have shelter. It is a picture of a
welcoming and loving community rooted deeply in Jesus Christ and his death and
resurrection, where people without those things
will find hope and purpose and rest and new life.
One of the things about living in New Zealand is that we
don’t have an understanding of the significance of such a picture. We are a
green nation there are so many trees, its as if the birds can pick and
choose. Maybe we catch a glimpse of what
the biblical picture is like when you see a large tree in an urban landscape
and as the day starts and finishes it is alive with bird song, as they all come
to find rest there. I used to pick Kris up from work in Tauranga and Napier,
and where I’d wait in both places was a solitary tree in an area of buildings
and roads and the tree would be defeaning loud with bird song, and of course
you parked under the tree at your own risk.
Lyn Baarb, who lectured in pastoral theology at Otago
University, got an understanding of the scriptural story by living in the city
of shiraz in Iran. In an article on the spirituality of preachers, She
describes the place as mountainous desert and in the six months they lived
there it only rained twice, which had the affect of simply turning the roads to
mud. The hills were barren of vegetation
and everything was beige brown: all hillsides and rocks and dust and dirt. You
were aware of any water as the blue was so strikingly distinct against the
brown.
One day She and her husband were taken on a roadtrip by a
church member, and he stopped the car by a small stream with a walking track by
it in the middle this barren land. He told them he wanted to show them
something amazing, so they followed him up the path, and came upon the source
of the stream, and beside it grew a large tree, she said “the greenness of the
tree amidst all the brown was “totally unexpected, astonishing and refreshing”.
She said she had found the tree of Psalm 1, planted by a water source that does
not run out, that the psalmist talks of someone who basses their life on God’s
word is like. She didn’t mention if there
were any birds, but it gives the idea of
how important and special such a tree for the birds would be.
Our vision as a church is that we maybe an authentic,
vibrant and sustainable community, growing as followers of Jesus Christ,
inspiring others to join us on the journey. It’s an image of being like that
tree planted by the water source of the living word, Jesus Christ, and of us
growing and being that vibrant, sustained green of a tree with a good water
source, and producing fruit, also that God’s purpose and plan for us is to be a
place where the birds of the air, birds of all kind, multi generations, multi
cultures, can find a home and shelter.
In John 15 jesus uses the metaphor of a grape vine and says that he is the vine
and we are the branches. We lived at Laidlaw Bible College out on Lincoln road when it
was in the middle of vineyards, and you soon came to realise that vines attracted
birds. When the fruit was ripe, all day
long the place resounded to the bang of bird scarers, every ten minutes or so
boom, we don’t want the scarer thing we want to see God able to draw those
birds here. God does not bring new people into a church that has a tendancy to go boom, with disunity, criticism and grumbling, those thing stop a Church from growing and thriving. Our hope is that people will come to find rest and shelter, to find new life which the idea of
nesting speaks of. That people would find rest and welcome, and here find their
lives sourced and feed by the water of life.
Not wanting to mix metaphors but it is also a call for us to
stretch out those branches be about offering room for people to land, of
growing our community facing ministries, to children, youth, in families or by
themselves. and of all ages. That the broken may find wholeness, that the poor
of spirit may find the richest of fare as it talks of Isaiah 55. That is the
purpose of God for his church.
In our Matthew reading from the sermon on the mount, Jesus
also invites us to consider the birds of the air in terms of God’s priorities
and God’s provision. We should not worry about what we eat because if we look
at the birds of the air we see that they don’t plant or reap, but their
heavenly father cares for them, and are we not more valuable than they are.
If you are more into flowers than birds, Jesus goes on to
invite us to consider the flowers in the
field, they don’t sow or weave, but not even Solomon, the height of Israel’s
glory as a nation was dressed as wonderfully as they are. Just to prove the point, a couple of weeks
ago, as I was leaving Church it was magic hour, when the sun is low to the
horizon and I saw the flowers round our car park and went and grabbed my camera
and took some images.
The passage speaks of God’s ability to provide, not so we
can sit back and not do the work that needs to be done. It’s the birds that
don’t sow and reap and the flowers that don’t labour and or spin, we need to do
what we can to provide what we need, however we are not to worry about those
things, they are not to consume our time and effort and energy, they are not to
deprive us of sleep or rest. Jesus says “Don’t worry” rather be able the the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto
you.
It’s a call to trust in God’s ability to provide as we are
willing to put the kingdom of God first in our lives. As a church we work hard
to make ends meet, we are blessed by a good resource in our property and are
blessed by people who give generously and sacrificially, the call and the
challenge is to seek and find where God is calling us to do his work and invest in those things.
Churches often speak about the difference between setting maintenance budgets
and mission budgets, that is a budget that is focused on the ministry of the church,
not just on keeping things going. We need to look and consider the birds of the
air and the flowers of the field and trust in God’s provision as we set out to
fulfil more and more our vision and our mission. One of the maxims that people
quote to me is that Money follows mission, and money follows vision, as we seek
first the kingdom of God as we put first God’s purposes for us as a church,
that is when we will see God’s ample provision more and more. Here at St peter’s you’ve seen that, making a commitment
to full time ministry and saying well we’ve got enough for four years, here we
are seven years later… it hasn’t been easy costs are going up and we’ve got
some big ticket items coming up in the next few years with our thirty year old
building, but through careful management, wise decisions we’ve seen God’s
provision.
We are really blessed to live in New Zealand with our
wonderful array of unique and beautiful birds. Sadly as a nation with human
habitation, we’ve destroyed various habitats and we’ve introduced predators and
competitors to our native birds. But also its been great to see the energy and
care and a concern that has gone into conserving what we have. One sign of hope
for me this year has been spotting Dotterel’s, Tuturiwhatu doing their dance on
the beaches of the Manukau and west coast.
For us as a church this year as we face the AGM, I believe
God’s word for us is to consider the birds of the air. AS a metaphor and image
of seeing God draw people here to dwell amongst the branches, our call our
vision our hope is in Christ to grow in Christ and numerically. Like our kowhai
tree out the front, we’re in a fragile state, but It needs to be the focus for
our prayer and our efforts and like the birds of the air to trust in our
heavenly father to provide the resources we need. Amen…? Amen
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