Wadhams United Church of Christ
2569 County Route 10, Wadhams, NY 12993
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Sermon by Steve Smith
November 9 , 2008
On Eagles' Wings?
There’s been a Powerpoint presentation making the rounds on the internet that describes how a mature eagle reinvents itself so that it can continue living a healthy and productive life. Have any of you seen it or heard about it? I heard about it a few weeks ago when I attended a workshop on transformative aging, and our presenter used it to help illustrate some of her points. I couldn’t actually locate it, probably because I didn’t know where to look, so I’m going to do a thumbnail sketch of the story based on what I can remember
According to the Powerpoint presentation, when an eagle reaches the ripe old age of 40 (or was it 50?), it goes into seclusion so that it can go through a makeover that would make any aspiring actor or actress downright jealous. The first thing it does is scrape its beak completely off, because the beak has lost its density and sharpness, and then proceeds to grow a new one that will be stronger and sharper than it has been in years. We all know, of course, that the beak is one of the eagle’s keys to survival, so growing a new beak would be in its best interests.
Then, as the story goes, the eagle pulls out its old talons, which have been damaged through years of gripping and grabbing, and waits while newer, sharper talons push their way through the ends of their toes. With a new beak and new talons in place, the eagle tackles the last part of the makeover, which involves pulling out their old, worn out feathers, to once again make room for the new. The chest and back feathers, as you might imagine, serve to keep the bird warm against the cold, while wing and tail feathers help it negotiate the breezes and updrafts so the eagle can soar regally through the sky. Thus the renewed eagle is empowered to live another 30 years or more because of its period of reinvention in seclusion.
While my father was retelling the story to me earlier this week, my mother asked an obvious question that brought the soaring metaphor to a crash landing: “What does the eagle eat when it doesn’t have a beak?” None of us had an answer for her, but we didn’t want to admit to our lack of knowledge. The same question had occurred to me, but I hadn’t done anything about it. I had also wondered what the eagle did without talons, because they wouldn’t be able to grasp any small rodents or fish. As a matter of fact, they wouldn’t be able to fly, because they wouldn’t have the proper tail feathers or wing feathers to help them navigate toward their fast-moving prey.
All week long I’ve been troubled by the image of a naked eagle with no beak and no talons, scrabbling around some remote outpost, defenseless against predators, and unable to feed itself anything except the occasional icky bug or sickly rodent that can’t move fast enough to escape its impaired hunting capacity. Since I wanted to use the metaphor to lead into today’s sermon, I didn’t feel right about using it without trying to get more information about the story. As it turns out, it’s nothing more than a myth designed to inspire people. At least, that’s what the experts at Wikipedia are saying. And according to two scientists at the “Ask a Scientist” website, “It is not possible for an eagle to completely lose its beak and grow a new one, by accident or on purpose.”
As a matter of fact, one of the more popular news items about eagles on the internet has to do with an eagle being outfitted with a “bionic beak,” a prosthetic replacement for a beak that apparently didn’t grow back after this trusting bird went to a secluded spot to rub its beak off. Okay, I’m making that part up, about the bird rubbing its beak off, but there really is a story about an eagle with a bionic beak. It turns out that the whole story about the eagle going into seclusion is nothing but a myth and a metaphor. An eagle’s beak and talons grow continuously, because they’re made up of the same substance as our hair and fingernails.
And it turns out that eagles molt in patches, taking almost six months to replace their feathers, starting with the head and working downward. Not all feathers are replaced in a single molt. And just to make sure that we got their point, they concluded with this splash of cold water: “An eagle without feathers, talons and a beak would die of exposure and starvation.” And since I waited until the last minute to work on my sermon, I could see my lofty message falling out of the sky, like a naked, beakless, talonless eagle. “What am I going to do now?” I asked myself, and God too.
But even as the hapless bird was plummeting toward the ground, another plan was forming in my brain. Haven’t we all heard myths about the life of faith? Haven’t we all been led to believe that maturing and growing older was supposed to usher us into some golden age of retirement? And once we became acquainted with that life of faith, or passed through the golden arches into a senior lifestyle, haven’t we experienced something in the way of disillusionment and disappointment?
Having spent a number of years in a conservative approach to faith, I heard a lot of glowing promises about what my faith was going to do for me. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade, coined a phrase that he popularized with millions of pamphlets that were passed out on college campuses: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Based on that promise, I expected wonderful and glorious things to happen to me. My imagination wasn’t big enough to contain everything that God wanted to do for me. In fact, I truly believed that God wanted to make me famous as an author, a speaker, a preacher, and an all around nice guy.
It took some hardships to disillusion me from my visions of grandeur. I’ve encountered enough of failure and setbacks to rub off more than one beak, and like they say at “Ask a Scientist,” “that’s not going to grow back.” I didn’t need to go through and pluck my own feathers out, because there have been others who were more than happy to do it for me. In fact, they were way too eager to help me with that. After being driven out from a couple of jobs, and having to declare bankruptcy, and subsequently spend a few years living with family members, I found myself asking the question that echoed the sonic boom when my soaring dreams came crashing out of the sky: “What exactly is this wonderful plan you have, God? And do I have to be dead before I see it?”
If you listen to the popular television preachers and some of our hymns, being a person of faith means never having to suffer in any way, shape or form. Betty’s roommate at seminary went blind in young adulthood as a result of her juvenile diabetes. It took a remarkable amount of courage and determination for her to retrain herself from being a research scientist to being a seminarian who was determined to bring something good out of the tragic turn of events in her life. But there was a cadre of the faithful amongst the students who were convinced that God wanted to restore her sight, and pestered her endlessly to let them pray over her. When the miracle didn’t happen, they chalked it up to a lack of faith on her part.
As part of the so-called “Gospel of Health and Wealth,” some of these folks truly believe that God wants all of us to be wealthy, and that all we have to do in order to receive all the material blessings this world has to offer is simply name it and claim it. I remember hearing one of them say, “We’re children of the King, so we should be living like princes and princesses.” Many of these folks are in for a rude awakening when they discover that God’s wonderful plan for them involves years of financial hardship while God tries to convince them that the greatest reward comes from giving, not from receiving.
And what about retirement? For decades, people have referred to the post-employment phase of life as “the golden years.” Wealth management experts spend hundreds of millions of dollars in advertisements every year trying to convince us to invest our hard-earned money through them. During the golden years of corporate and industrial growth in our country, companies promised steady pension payments and subsidized health insurance for all the valuable employees who served their companies so well. People who scrimped and saved to buy their homes in the fifties and sixties saw rich dividends when they went to sell those homes, because they had consistently appreciated in value year after year.
As a result of these and other factors, there were a significant number of Americans who enjoyed some golden years of travel and leisure after they retired, and any number of them could afford to retire early because of their wealth management. As we realize now, though, it doesn’t always work out that way. As the vultures descended to plunder various companies in their leveraged takeovers, they raided corporate pension plans, ran the companies into the ground, and devalued the stock that many employees had invested in to the point of worthlessness. These corporate pirates left millions of hard-working Americans with nothing to fall back on.
As I look back on my reflections today, it’s all rather depressing and discouraging, isn’t it? But that’s the nature of disillusionment and disappointment; both of them have to do with expectations that are out of balance with reality. So the larger issue has to do with how we manage our expectations of the life of faith and of the maturing process. How do we negotiate the setbacks, the tragedies, the losses and the growing pains? Having found myself in situations where I felt naked and defenseless against the world, waiting for the beak or the talons or the feathers to grow back, I discovered that I had to be more active in the process.
I discovered that I had to answer the nagging doubts in my mind, and if things weren’t going to return to a normal state by themselves, then I had to be inventive, creating the bionic beak if you will. That meant reinterpreting my understanding of God’s plan for my life. That meant shedding the worn out and useless feathers of faith telling me that everything had to work out for my good. The promise is a corporate one, not an individual one: that is, God promises to use the hardships we endure to bless others; God promises to take our pain and use it to bless someone else in pain. With this new perspective, I can look back to see that God has indeed been faithful to those promises.
If the cadre of faithful healers at seminary had taken the time to listen to Karen’s story, Betty’s blind roommate, they might have been inspired to greater heights of selfless service rather than dumping their disappointment on an incredibly courageous woman of faith. When it comes to the Gospel of Wealth, we might do well to mimic the Navajo people, whose culture emphasizes generosity. In their culture, it’s no honor to die wealthy. In fact, if you do, they don’t consider you to be a good Navajo, because the good Navajo gives everything away. Wait a minute: didn’t Jesus live that way, too?
And what about retirement? Adjusting to a lower income is no picnic, is it? Having to balance the budget becomes increasingly difficult with each passing year. But with each new crisis there comes a call to bring wisdom and experience to bear on this situation. By looking at the crises we have had to face in years past, we can find hope for facing the latest series of setbacks. We can look back as people of faith to see that somehow, God got us through something incredibly difficult. By looking back as people of faith, we can see what worked for us in the past, and who helped us, and find similar solutions to meet today’s needs.
With the gaining of wisdom comes the realization that the story isn’t just about me: it’s about us, about each of you, it’s about each person who comes into our lives, it’s about learning how to open our hearts and minds so that we can be a blessing to the people we meet in the living of our lives.
Order of Service November 9, 2008
Welcome, Announcements & Prayer Requests
A Prayer for Peace Family #682 (verse 1)
Opening Prayer
Leader: We worship and adore you, O God, for you have done for us what we could not do for ourselves. Remind us of our great debt to you.
People: O God, we come to you, for you are the God who knows us. You are the companion of our journey and the goal toward which we move.
Leader: You are the God who has created all things and in whom all things consist and have their being.
People: Give us the conviction that the world is in your care, and empower us to work for peace and justice.
Leader: Keep us diligent in well-doing and grant us the power to love one another.
People: Make us mindful of your presence with us, today and always.
Leader: Carry us through the days to come and give us much cause for rejoicing.
Hymn Family #349 O for a Thousand Tongues
Responsive Prayer
Leader: Your love has brought us together, O Lord, and it is your love that sustains us through each day.
People: We pray that you would keep us faithful. Keep us alert, for our minds are dulled by the monotony of routine.
Leader: We want to wait patiently for the fulfillment of your kingdom, but we are frustrated by our need for instant gratification.
People: We want to believe your promises from ancient days, but we are sometimes overwhelmed by modern doubts.
Leader: May we witness your steadfast love with us today, guiding us to walk as your children, servants of Christ and of each other.
People: We pray for those in our community who need your healing and comfort.
Leader: We pray for persons in leadership across our country, that together we might make wise decisions.
People: We pray for brothers and sisters around the world, whose lives are torn apart by war.
Leader: We pray for the saints who have witnessed to your love.
ALL: We pray, knowing you are with us now, and that you will strengthen us to keep the faith, to keep working for the time when Christ will come again, with love and justice on earth.
Pastoral Prayer, Lord’s Prayer
Hymn Family #486 Open My Eyes
Psalm 8; Deuteronomy 32:7-14; Matthew 25:1-13
Sermon On Eagle’s Wings
Offering, Doxology, Dedication
Hymn Family #432 Softly and Tenderly
Benediction
Leader: How awesome you are, Lord Most High. Fill us with your love and mercy, that we may joyfully serve you, now and always.
People: You alone, Lord God, are our refuge and strength. Help us to trust in you. Take away our fear, that we may rejoice in you.
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