Who Are We?
A long time ago in a small town, lived a farmer. One day he got tired of his daily routine of running the farm and decided to climb the cliffs that stood high above the valley to see what lay beyond. He climbed and climbed and finally reached a ledge just below the top of the cliff; there, to his amazement was a nest, full of eggs. Immediately he knew they were eagle’s eggs. He also realized it was almost certainly illegal to remove them. He removed one, none the least, and stowed it in his backpack. It was getting late in the day so instead of climbing higher he decided to make his way back down the cliff to his farm. When he got home, he put the egg in with the few chickens he kept in the yard. The mother hen was so proud as she sat upon this magnificent egg. Sure enough, some weeks later, from the egg emerged a fine, healthy egret. Different from the other chickens, but none of the chickens balked about having someone different in their midst. They raised the bird as one of their own. The eagle grew up with its brother and sister chicks. It learned to do all the things chickens do it clucked and cackled, scratching in the dirt for grit sand and worms, flapping its wings furiously, flying just a few feet in the air before crashing down to earth in a pile of dust and feathers. It believed absolutely it was a chicken.
One day, late in its life, the eagle, who thought he was a chicken, happened to look up at the sky. High overhead, soaring majestically and effortlessly, with its golden wings, was an eagle! “What is that? Cried the old eagle in awe. “It is magnificent”! “So much power and grace, it is beautiful”! “That’s an eagle”, replied a nearby chicken. “That’s the king of the Birds, it is a bird of the air, not like us, we’re only chickens”. With that they cast their eyes downwards once more and continued digging in the dirt. And so it was that the eagle lived and died a chicken…… because that’s all it believed itself to be. (Unknown)
You know the old saying you are who you hang out with! Hang out with nonbelievers and you don’t believe. Hang out with negative people you become negative. Hang out with people on Sunday morning away from church and you also become to busy for church. The curse of Adam and Eve extends through history. Hebrews 10:25 was written because some Christians had already stopped meeting with others for worship. Attendance, showing up and taking part, was the most basic and key indicator of the Christian life. Whatever you participate in regularly reveals your mission in life and the world. Human beings have been hiding away, withdrawing from God and one another since the garden of Eden. Like Adam and Eve, we are very good about making excuses for withdrawing. The lies we tell ourselves, putting on one fig leaf at a time to hide our guilt. Satin is indeed the father of lies, prowling around looking to devour us. His greatest joy is not a full-frontal assault on belief; instead, he acts like a lion, securing its prey by isolating it, so it is then free to devour it. The old story from Martin Luther is that the devil always builds a chapel next to a church so he can get you coming and going. Now, he doesn’t even need to build a chapel we are willing to let him get us wherever we are at. Going to church doesn’t guarantee you becoming a Christian or growing as one. Even the devil can go to church. Christianity is not just something you are, it is something you do. You can not be something without doing something.
So who are we and what are we doing with our life? Are putting time in our lives to be ( at least try to be) better Christians? Better employees, better parents, better spouses? You are who you hang out with. No one is perfect we are all a work in progress. Are you daily working towards something? Who in the end do we really want to be? An eagle soaring in the sky or just a bunch of chickens?
In Christian Faith,
Rev. Walter Coy
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