Bird-Brain Disciples and Jesus

 

Yesterday we had our fifth and final study session for the book Sermon on the Mount by Amy-Jill Levine. It certainly seemed appropriate that we held it during the week of Jewish Passover and Christian Holy Week. Today, in fact, is Maundy Thursday which commemorates Jesus' Last Supper with his followers, a Pesach or Passover meal which we now acknowledge as one of our Christian sacraments.

We spent some time on the passage in Matthew 6, where Jesus encourages his disciples to live beyond worry and anxiety. He speaks of the birds of the air and how they go about their lives with purpose. Levine is quick to point out that while it is important to attend to nature and the examples around us, we are not asked to be birds or wildflowers. And birds are often subject to the vagaries of weather and the threat of predators. Jesus does ask us to do what Levine describes as "learning from the simplicity and the ephemerality of their lives."  The lives of all creatures are precious to God and they are also fleeting, even those of humans. To accumulate stuff may seem to give us security, but we do learn that we really can't take it with us, so simple living and generosity to others is essential to the spiritual life. 

                                                    Not So Mute Swans at the Frink Centre Boardwalk 

I thought about this on my drive home yesterday and as I walked this morning in a light Spring snowfall. I was dressed warmly as I made my way through the woods and along the water of the Frink Conservation Area, but the birds weren't. Yet the ducks and blackbirds and crows and swans were busy eking out an existence in the cold and snow. As always, I found comfort in sharing their world, as I do when watching the birds at our feeders in all manner of weather. I passed quite close by a pair of swans until one decided to spread its wings and hiss at me!  It makes sense that Jesus would use as examples the birds and flowers they could all see around them.

Two evenings ago I participated in a Zoom event with novelist and poet Margaret Atwood, celebrated bird observer, illustrator and author, David Sibley, and musician and writer, Jonathan Meiberg. All are very knowledgeable about birds and the event was an homage to Atwood's late partner, Graeme Gibson and the re-issue of his The Bedside Book of Birds. They eloquently touched on what we do and don't know about birds -- were you award that bird can never get out of breath because of their lung structure? They also spoke of the solace and wonder that birds provide, particularly during these uncertain days, as well as their presence in our spiritual understanding. 

There are certainly lots of birds in the bible from beginning to end. You know, I think Jesus was on to something.