At our previous residence in the Brainerd Lakes area I used to keep chickens, but not the bedraggled, white laying machines that one would find in a modern egg factory. I used to go to the Murray McMurray Poultry catalogue and select one of the dozens of available breeds, some of which come in six different color varieties. The minimum order was 25, so I would order two roosters and 23 pullets all from the same breed and color. I free ranged them on the two-acre clearing that surrounded our house in the woods. There was something beautiful and fluid about the flock as it moved around scratching and pecking. The only bird I could distinguish from all the others was the rooster. All the others were too similar to distinguish one bird from another.
Still, the birds managed to distinguish between themselves and even the most docile breeds would pick out one member of the flock for social rejection. The hen who was rejected received a peck if she chose the wrong place to roost and a peck if she tried to eat at the trough with the others. Aggressive breeds will peck the outcast until feathers give way to bare skin, which eventually bleeds and inevitably ends in death. The gruesome truth is that if the victim’s carcass is left exposed, the flock will devour it.
People want to feel a part of their own flock or community. We all search for something that will help us feel good about ourselves and defeat loneliness. So we look to each other, comparing and contrasting ourselves, looking to find either something we can join for company or reject with a sense of superiority.
The first murder recorded in the Bible is one brother killing another over, of all things, how to worship God. God accepted one offering and rejected the other, however God did not reject either worshipper. If Cain, whose offering was rejected, would have taken his hurt feelings and frustration to God, God’s love for Cain would have taught him something valuable about worship, dismantled Cain’s misplaced shame and reaffirmed his true self-worth. Instead, Cain wrongly determined that there was only so much self-worth to go around and his brother was eating up his. So Cain resolved to settle the problem by eliminating the competition.
If we compare and contrast ourselves to one another, we will end up devouring each other; we give in to our lowest, animal nature that is separated from God and resentful of one another.
“For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” (Galatians 5:14-15)
The Gospel message is that God is not grading on a curve, and His salvation is not a competition. He is the one we are measured against, not those around us. His salvation grace is limitless and there is plenty to go around. That is because He loves us so much that He will take us into His community just as we are, but He also loves us too much to let us stay that way. When we take our inadequacies and shame to Him, He teaches us our mistakes and bad choices and, if we accept His judgment and correction, He even empowers us to change. Honesty with God results in our increased sense of dignity and belonging; we find our true community in Him and then together.
This is a Gospel that has the power to heal people and whole communities.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month’s contributor is Pastor Dave Harvey, who has served as pastor of Grand Marais Evangelical Free Church since February of 2008.
Leave a Reply