Birds and Ramblings

Birds gather outside our window like a group of ladies chattering, gossiping in a break between storms. They perch on the tall wall that has some shade from the trees on the other side as winds begin thrashing around our small house. In the dark night we are wakened by other birds running across the tin roof, or sometimes it’s pinecones dropping on it like bombs. Our dogs hear sounds we cannot hear but they leap across the bed and sofa (yes, out of control) and see things or hear things we don’t see passing on the dirt road in front of our house or maybe it is just a figment of their imagination that comes through the air. And we shout out silently “Please God, don’t fail us now. Keep us safe as you water the earth and blow it clean with strong winds like vacuum cleaners.” It would be another night where faith comes to the forefront, and we pray and hope that all will be well. Please, God, let all be well. We are counting on Your Son to save us and all of nature. And one begins to pray to the Jesus in our heart and soul.

We take up Jesus today when he had just stepped out into the public eye after spending His youth more of less unknown or hidden or sheltered. We really know nothing about what His life was like. Did he have a dog? or a cat? or maybe a bird? Did thunder or storm frighten him in the night?  Did He go to school? Did He play soccer or some sort of kickball sport? He must have been physically fit to do all the walking from town to town that he did. He could also lift those heavy nets to toss from one side to the other in the fishermen’s boats.  Was He tedious in his study, always his nose in the books of what we call the Old Testament, which was the basic, the foundation of the Jewish faith?  Maybe Jesus was argumentative, revoking some of what the teachers in the synagogue thought were truths. But His words must have been beautiful, maybe gentle, those gracious words that came from his mouth, and thus from his heart and soul. And yet, at times, maybe He implied that you can’t believe everything you read if you don’t check it out.

Jesus dared to throw at those around him the fact that prophets were not welcomed in their own hometown. It is sort of a truth that still mixes up life today. One must get out of town for a while to be able to come back and integrate with the future. And Jesus pointed out that in Israel, in the time of Elijah, there had been an abundance of widows, abandoned I guess by those fleeing elsewhere.  I don’t know if people questioned this abundance, the why of it, but we are told that at that time, the heavens had been closed or shut up for three years and six months and there had been a severe famine throughout the land.  My question would be how does one close the heavens - like a grocery store or a cloth or shoe shop or a business?  But whatever it was, somehow this caused a famine everywhere. That meant food was in shortage and shops were bare, 

 But even though Elijah was a prophet, he was only sent to Zarepath in Sodom to help one widow, a single one. And another fact appeared. There were so many lepers in Israel in the time of prophet Elisha (not a different prophet), and none of them were cleansed except one named Naaman. He was a commander in the army of Syria, and yet was a leper Part of his requirement was to go bathe in the Jordan seven times and he would be clean. Of course, Naaman was angry, but his servant encouraged him to try it and he did, and he was healed from his leprosy.  Naaman became a prophet and general of the King of Aram, a great warrior, and as well a Mezora. which meant a man who servants insisted he bathe in the Jordan. He complied and was healed.  He then tried to give a gift to Elisha in thanks, but Elisha would not accept it. As a last resort, he did get a scoop of holy blessings. 

Of course, this roused up the experts in the synagogue and they were furious when he told them these truths to be evident. So they stood up and ran him, Jesus, out of the synagogue and then drove (not in a vehicle) him out of town. I guess he was handcuffed in some way, as they took him to the brow of the hill on which the town had been built with the idea in their heads to hurl him off the cliff. But, as we all know and are grateful for it, Jesus saves, even himself. There was poof he disappeared although we don’t know if he took another road out of town or if God pulled him up and placed him down in a safe place. Remember, Jesus was new in his ministry and his task, his struggle was to save people by sharing with them his teachings and above all his love that never dies, ends, slows down, forgets nor disinherits any human being on earth. 

Surely Jesus knew it was going to be indescribably a difficult task to convince the people, poor, rich or indifferent, that He was the Savior for whom they had been waiting, who was a King although he didn’t dress like a King, and hung out with normal, common people who spent most of their time catching fish, and collecting taxes, and living not in palaces and estates, but probably on the ground in many spots as he strolled the dirt roads of Jerusalem trying to give people hope through his words from His Father God. 

It was not an easy task. The hierarchy were pecking at him just to see if they could get him to say something unacceptable. He expected people would reject God’s prophets and especially him as he affirmed that He was the true prophet. And he could not get much done in his own hometown, Nazareth where he surely resided with his mother Mary. This is when Jesus’s ministry began to lean toward or included the Gentiles, and he had to move on down the road toward Capernaum, where he could do miracles since the only one in Nazareth who knew who he was happened to be the demon who declared he was The Holy Son of God. 

I’m sure Jesus got to know the birds and bees and barks of dogs and sounds of cattle and sheep which surely stirred the dust in the towns He went through.  And I hope He looked up and admired the beauty of this earth that He and His Father had created for mankind, even though those who were receiving the gifts, rarely appreciated the beauty of it all, the blessings of the gardens and farmlands and fields that allowed them to plant and cultivate vegetables and fruits. And I gather, they ate beef and lamb and chicken and a good cup of wine, which we appreciate each Sunday when we celebrate the Eucharist, to remember this wonderful, loving, and powerful son of God. Our Jesus. We are His even today. Look up at those birds that sing when the storms move on by as morning opens. May we be thankful that we are here. 

 ~ Rev

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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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