If I want to observe real-life high drama or delightful entertainment, all I need to do is watch the action around the bird feeder in my back yard. There is a wide variety of birds who visit, plus a dozen or so who live here. Parent birds bring their fledglings, chip away suet from the cake, and then feed it to their children—even though their children are now able to fly. Adolescent birds do all kinds of gymnastics on the suet cake. Like human adolescents, they goof around and try to impress each other!
As far as I can tell, the male cardinal who lives here is in command. When things are crowded, he decides who eats and who waits. Mrs. Cardinal always has first choice! The male blue jay polices things when the cardinal is off doing other bird business. The jay will even chase the squirrels up a tree if they get out of line. Last summer, the critter in charge was a squirrel who had learned how to shimmy up the pole and knock the feeder so the food fell on the ground for everyone to eat. This year several squirrels have figured out how to spread the feast, so that quality is less respected by the plethora of birds, squirrels, and chipmunks who entertain me.
I’ve pondered today’s readings while I’ve watched the birds this week. The birds have given me a perspective on the readings.
Micah
The prophet Micah prophesied from about 727-700 BCE. He was a prophet to Judah, a contemporary of Isaiah. He was successful in bringing about conversion in Judah under Hezekiah (Jeremiah 26: 18-19). His prophecy focused on following God with your heart, not just with ritual or social compliance.
The first part of today’s reading presents the Lord’s point of view:
For the LORD has a plea against his people,
and he enters into trial with Israel.
O my people, what have I done to you,
or how have I wearied you? Answer me!
Micah hears God’s voice and wrestles with what God wants. He comes to a clear, simple conclusion:
You have been told, O man, what is good,
and what the LORD requires of you:
Only to do the right and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.
Hmm. Interesting. Micah says God asks three simple things: do right, love goodness, and walk humbly with God. The psalm picks up the theme and repeats it:
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?
Jesus and the Sign of Jonah
In the Gospel, the people who are big into outward observance ask Jesus to “show us a sign.” Now in the verses right before this Jesus has said, “the tree is known by its fruit.” He has done numerous “signs” of healing. He has also just called these people who put the focus on outward observance a “brood of vipers.”
This seems to be a scene very similar to the one described by Micah. I can easily imagine Jesus thinking, “Oh my people, what have I done to you? Or how have I wearied you? Answer me.”
So Jesus says,
“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,
but no sign will be given it
except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Jesus goes on to say that the sign of Jonah prefigured his coming death and resurrection. That would be THE SIGN. They would know that Jesus was of God, indeed, was God Himself, when he rose from the dead. But then Jesus says more: that the people of Nineveh would judge and condemn the people of his generation who refused to believe in him.
Jonah, Nineveh, and the Birdfeeder
The animals at my bird feeder make choices to cooperate or be in competition—even though they do not have the gift of free will that us humans have. They learn—to not make the blue jay mad, to shimmy up the pole and knock the feeder, to hunt for suet on a pole rather than worms in the ground. They profit from their learning.
Bluntly, from what I can see, by their natures, they do right, love goodness, and walk (or fly) humbly with their God. They take care of each other…and God takes care of them.
If you remember the full story of Jonah, he did not want to be a prophet to Nineveh. Nineveh wasn’t even a Jewish city. It was pagan. Jonah ran away from God…and ended up in the belly of the fish. The fish spit him out, Jonah went to Nineveh and preached “Repent.” The people repented, Nineveh was saved…and Jonah was mad because God was merciful.
I wonder if Jesus used the story of Jonah to both predict his resurrection and to say, “what’s important is ‘do right, love goodness, and walk humbly with your God.’” Right after this selection from Matthew comes the parables of the Sower and the Seed we had a week ago on Sunday and the other parables of planting the Kingdom of God we had this Sunday.
Those are all parables that say in effect, “God is generous and he sows his call to come join in the holy life of right, of goodness, and of humility with a wide spread.” In between, just because you perceive yourself as holy does not mean that you are fertile ground.
Application
So many of us are in distress and pray for our children who are not active in church. I spoke to a friend yesterday whose two daughters are in the front lines of tending Covid victims in Chicago and Florida. I read where medical personnel are flying to Florida and other “hot spots” to help out. Some of my own children are very active in Black Lives Matter. I have seen them mature in conscience greatly in the past month. Other parents with children not actively practicing faith also tell of what their children are doing for others and for the common good. They seem to be doing right, loving goodness, and (perhaps unbeknownst like the birds) walking humbly with God.
Meanwhile, many of us (including me) pray for repentance for our nation, our culture. We have pictures in our heads of what repentance looks like. But…is it possible…repentance is happening right before our eyes…but we don’t see it.
Is Nineveh repenting and we don’t notice? Is Nineveh repenting more than we-who-see-ourselves-as-chosen people?
It wasn’t until this extended time at home that I noticed the hidden life of the bird feeder. Do I also need to attend to learning and conversion going on around me…in the secular world?
Prayer
Lord, open my eyes and help me to see people doing right, loving goodness, and walking humbly with You, even if they are not doing it the way I would expect them to. And lead me and guide me so that I may do right, love goodness, and walk humbly with You. Convert me more every day.
