Church Sermon - November 14, 2004

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Gospel Lesson; Luke 19:11-27
Sermon Text; Jeremiah 8:4-7

There is a bird, a big bird, called the Wood Stork. The Wood Stork is a big bird that looks like a crane. It has a very long neck, is white, ugly, and has kind of a bald looking head!

The Wooded Stork feeds in a very unique way. It stands in a pond, with its beak in the water. With its beak open, it just waits…and waits…and waits, until a fish swims right in between its beaks. And then, in 25 thousandths of a second, (the fastest action of any vertebrae on earth), its beak snaps shut and it catches the fish!

Can you imagine how long you would have to wait in that water, with your hand down in the water, waiting for a fish to swim right through your hands, before you could catch it? By instinct, storks know something important. Storks know that the drier it is, the more the water dries up, and, the less water there is in the pond, the smaller and smaller the pond becomes. And so, the fish all have to congregate together, in closer and closer groups. The stork knows that if it is in a pond, where there is not much water, there are going to be a lot more fish all together. And then, it is going to be a lot more possible for a fish to swim between its beak, slam it shut, and eat it. The stork also knows, by nature, by instinct, that if it is raining and the water is rising, then it is time to fly. It is time to fly someplace dry, where the ponds are more dried up and there are going to be more fish congregated together.

Our scripture reading today says, "Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons". The stork knows, by instinct, when it is time to fly.

It also goes on and says, "the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the times of their migration."

A robin is a kind of a thrush. The robins are now gone. Have you noticed that? They are gone. How did the robins know that it was time to fly? God has put this innate, inborn, instinct into robins. No one has to teach it to them. They just know when it is time to fly. Scientists have discovered that as the days grow shorter and shorter, and the night grows longer and longer, the robins have something in them that gives them a nocturnal restlessness. Scientists call it zuegunruhe. It is this desire, as the days get shorter and shorter; it is a desire to fly. It is a desire to migrate. And when the days get short enough, that urge becomes so powerful that those robins mount up on wings and fly away. They know when it is time to fly. And, they listen to that inborn instinct that is inside of them, that it is time to fly.

Why do the stork and the birds fly, when it is time to fly? It is because they know that if they stay here, it is not going to be safe, anymore. There will not be enough food, and they will not survive. And so, they fly to safety.

The Bible uses birds as an example for you and me. The Bible says that even the birds know, even the birds know when it is time to fly. God looks at us and says, "If even the birds know when it is time to fly, why don’t you know? Why don’t you, my people, know when it is time to fly? The days are getting short."

The days are getting short, in your life and in my life. Each day I live, is one day closer to the end of my life, and the time is getting short. It is time for me to fly to safety.

Not only that, but God tells us in His Word that the end may come, at any time. God may come back in judgment, at any time. The time is getting short and we don’t know when the Day of Judgment will come. But, we do know that all the signs of the end times, (which scripture talks about), have all been fulfilled. And, we know time is short. It is time to fly. It is time to go someplace safe, because the days are getting very, very short in our lives.

Not only that, but God has given each one of us a conscious. Just like birds have that instinct to know it is time to go, God has given to you and me a conscious, by nature. The Bible says, "even the Gentiles who don’t have the written law, when they do the things required by the law, they show they have the law written in their hearts. Their conscious now accusing and now excusing them."

There, the Bible says that every one of us is born with a conscious. We know right from wrong. We know when we have done something bad. Why do you think it is that sometimes you lie in your bed at night, tossing and turning, and can’t get to sleep, because you are troubled over something that you said, or did, to somebody else? It is because you have a conscious. And, your conscious is telling you something. Your conscious is telling you, "It is time to fly. It is time for me to go someplace safe, because right now, I am not in a safe place. I have done something wrong."

Why do you think it is, that we do things we don’t want anybody else to know about? We keep them hidden. It is because our conscious is ashamed. We have that inborn conscious that God has given us, and our conscious knows, "If somebody else found out that I was doing this, they would think that I am evil, that I am twisted, that I am perverted, and I don’t want anybody to know that."

Our conscious tries to keep it a secret from everybody else. What our conscious is really telling us is "It is time to fly. You are not in safe place. You need to fly. You need to go someplace safe."

Why is it, when we see somebody doing something that we ourselves are involved in, we think to ourselves, "How can he do something like that? How twisted is he? How sick is she, that she would do something like that?"

We may think that, when all the time, we ourselves are involved in it, and yet we make excuses for our own selves. That is our conscious. That is our conscious speaking and telling us, "That is wrong. It is time for me to fly. It is time for me to go someplace safe, because right now, I am in a very dangerous place."

God, in His Word, not only tells us the time is short, and not only does He give us a conscious that tells us, "I am not in a safe place", but He also gives us His Word, where He tells us just what He expects of us. In His Word, He cannot be clearer, than when He says,

"Be perfect,

just as your Father in Heaven is perfect".

It is there, in His Word, God tells me that I must be perfect. That troubles me. That troubles me a great deal. That troubles me, because I know I am not perfect. I know that I have sinned against God, day, after day, after day, after day.

And God, in His Word, tells me what I deserve, because I am not perfect. God, in His Word, clearly tells us that He cannot tolerate sin. By every right, He could condemn us, for all eternity, in a place called Hell, which is a real place, of real suffering, real fire, where the worm never dies. That is what I deserve.

It is time. It is time today to fly someplace safe. Even the birds, even the birds know that. So, how can you and I not know that?

Now, there is something else we know about the birds. Jesus once said this about birds, (and this is an awesome statement). "The birds of the air do not sow, they do not reap, they do not store away in barns, and yet your Father in Heaven feeds them. Aren’t you much more valuable than birds?"

What was Jesus telling us there? There are some things that birds simply cannot do. They are not capable of doing them. Birds are not capable of planting seeds in the ground. Birds are not capable of going around with a combine and combining the seeds. They are not capable of building barns and storing the food in the barns. It would not be fair for God to tell the birds, "If you want food, you go out and sow it, reap it, and put it in barns." God, in His love, knows the birds are not capable of that. Jesus said, "The birds of the air don’t reap, they don’t sow, they don’t store up food in barns, and yet your Father in Heaven feeds them." Because they are incapable, God, the Father, sees to it that they are cared for.

Then Jesus asked this question. It is an awesome question! "Aren’t you much more valuable than birds?"

God knows that there are things you and I are incapable of doing. It would not be fair, or right, for God to ask us to do something that we are absolutely incapable of doing. What are we incapable of doing? Well, if my sin can condemn me for all eternity, and God were now to say to me, "Look Mark, you need to restore yourself to perfection, so that you can be in Heaven," I am not capable of that. I am simply not capable.

You know, if you take a bird’s egg, break the shell, and crush it, it is impossible to put that shell back together, again. If we take perfection and we crush it, (and all of us have crushed perfection in our own life, there is not one person here who is perfect), it is impossible to become perfect at this point, because there is already sin in our lives. It has already happened.

And yet, God does not demand that you and I find a way for ourselves to be perfect, because we cannot do that. God does not demand that you and I go out and try to earn our way to Heaven, try to earn our way into a safe place. The Bible says, "no one will be declared righteous in God’s eyes by observing the law, rather through the law we become conscious of sin."

There, God tells us that it is impossible for you to do enough good things to be righteous, and perfect in His eyes. That is impossible. You simply can’t do that. Rather, when you look at God’s Law, you see that you are a sinner. Scripture even says,

"All of our righteousness is like filthy rags."

Even if I tried my hardest, to do everything I could to get into a safe place with God, even the best things I do, are tainted with sin. They are not good enough. They are just not good enough for me to get to a safe place on my own. And yet, Jesus said, "Look at the birds of the air. They don’t sow. They don’t reap. They don’t store away food in barns, and yet your Father in Heaven feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds?"

God provides a safe place for us, because He knows that we are incapable, absolutely incapable of going to a safe place on our own.

There is another thing that we know about birds. You know, birds are amazing creatures. Scientists have taken a bird called the Manx Swainton, which lives over in Wales, England, all the way to Massachusetts, which is 3,200 miles away. And this little bird, (who does not have a map, and nobody ever told it how to get back home), when they let that bird go in Massachusetts, 12 ½ days later, by instinct, it ended up right back in its nest, in Whales, England! It knew where to go. It just knew where to go.

The robins that flew away this year, they have a map imbedded in them. Somehow, in some mysterious way, God has put inside of them, instinctively, a map. And even though there is no other robin to show them the way, (their parents may have even died), those robins, by nature, know where to go for safety!

You and I know exactly where to go for safety. God has so clearly revealed that to us, in His Word. This is such an awesome picture that Jesus gives us, when He said, "How often I would have gathered you together, like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings". The safe place for us to go is under the wings of Jesus.

You have probably all heard the story about the forest fire, out west. It destroyed many, many acres of forest. There were a couple of forest fighters walking through this charred forest, after the fire was put out. As they were looking at the charred trees, there on the ground, one of them spotted a charred prairie chicken. It was an adult prairie chicken and its body was burned. He walked up to the prairie chicken and gave it a kick. All of sudden, to their startled surprise, out from underneath of the charred wings of that prairie chicken ran a whole bunch of little, living, baby chicks! What had that mother prairie chicken done? In a time of danger, she had gathered her little chicks under her wings and she had sacrificed her life, so that those little prairie chicks could live.

And so, when Jesus said, "How often I would have gathered you together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings" that is exactly what Jesus has done for us! What a beautiful picture Jesus gives us. Jesus has gathered us together, under His wings. And there, He withstood the entire fire and wrath of God against all of our sin. The Bible says,

"The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all

and with His stripes we are healed."

God poured out His fierce anger against our sins, onto His Son, Jesus. Jesus has paid the full price for all of our sins. And because of that, God in His mercy, absolute mercy, has forgiven our sins and does not see them anymore. The Bible tells us,

"Through the righteousness of the One Man,

the many will be made righteous."

Jesus’ holy, perfect life, (that holy perfect life that God demands of us), Jesus has given His holy, perfect life to us, as a free gift.

So where is that safe place for us to fly,

The only safe place to fly is under the wings of Jesus. Go under the wings of Jesus. And there, when God looks at you and me on Judgment Day, what will He see? We will be hidden under the wings of Jesus, and God will see Jesus. He will see someone who paid for sin. All sin has been paid for. He will see the perfect life of Jesus, as our very own. We will be absolutely safe, forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.

So, our scripture reading tells us that there is a great lesson we can learn from the birds. They know where to go. They know the time. And, they go where it is safe. We know the time. The time is short. We know the danger we are in, because of our sin. We know the safe place to go is to the wings of Jesus.

I just love something King David once said. He must have been walking through the temple one day and saw a bird’s nest up near the altar of the temple. In that bird’s nest there must have been some little chicks and the mother bird must have been feeding those little chicks. David wrote in one of the Psalms,

"Even the sparrow has found a home and the swallow a nest for herself, a place to feed her young near your altar Oh LORD, my God and my King."

There King David was saying, "Even the birds know that it is safe by God’s altar. It is safe in God’s House. They know it is safe there. They know that it is a safe place to raise their young. If the birds know that, then how much more should you and I know that?"

This is the safe place for us to be. This is the safe place for us to bring our young, our children, because what happens here? Here, our God does something. He feeds us, with the Word of God and through the Sacraments. He feeds us, through the Gospel message. He keeps us in our faith. He keeps us growing in our faith, until that day when He finally comes back to take us. And then, on that great Day of Judgment, we will be found, in faith in Jesus, as our Savior.

So even the birds know the appointed times. How much more valuable are we than birds? How thankful we are Jesus has given us His wings to safely hide under.

Amen.

Top of Page || Church Sermons || Return to Home Page