Snakes and Birds...
So, here's what I just wrote for the church newsletter.
The other day, Elie and I were driving past Beaty park on our way to the church. Elie was watching the kids play and said, “Oooo, Daddy, look! There’s lots of friends at Beaty park today.”
I was struck by the contrast in what Elie and I saw in the park that day. When I take the girls to play, I’m constantly watching the other people there. The girls see a bunch of people who could be new friends; I wonder if those middle school kids are going to swear in front of them, which adult here might be a pedophile, which kid is going to try to trip, scare, punch or otherwise inflict physical or emotional harm on my children. Sigh... I wonder when I got so cynical?
Of course, we’re both right, aren’t we? I mean, I have yet to be at the park and have anyone try to snatch any child, let alone my girls, or have any kind of harm befall either of them greater than someone pushing in line in front of them or, as the girls are likely to say, “being mean.” So, all my eagle-eyed observation is for nothing. Yet...those kinds of things happen, and the girls don’t know about it (well, we do have a rule for them about strangers...and they understand that – but they really don’t know why). And, they discover, not everyone at the playground is a “friend.”
I wonder sometimes if that tension is what Jesus meant when he said, “See, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)
Jesus was preparing the disciples in two ways. First, he was sending them out on a kind of test-mission, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God. But in a larger sense he was preparing them for what would happen after his death and resurrection. He was warning them that people would persecute them, that people would hate them. But, “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
Go out into the world, take people at face value, not everyone has a hidden motive and agenda. But realize that some people do have something sinister going on.
Have we become too cynical? Are we too much “wise as serpents” and not dove-like enough? Jesus told us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” How are we doing at that? How do we look at others? Walk down the street sometime and think to yourself, “Oooo, there’s lots of friends on the street today.” I think it’s worth a try...
A Little Less Serpentine, Please
The other day, Elie and I were driving past Beaty park on our way to the church. Elie was watching the kids play and said, “Oooo, Daddy, look! There’s lots of friends at Beaty park today.”
I was struck by the contrast in what Elie and I saw in the park that day. When I take the girls to play, I’m constantly watching the other people there. The girls see a bunch of people who could be new friends; I wonder if those middle school kids are going to swear in front of them, which adult here might be a pedophile, which kid is going to try to trip, scare, punch or otherwise inflict physical or emotional harm on my children. Sigh... I wonder when I got so cynical?
Of course, we’re both right, aren’t we? I mean, I have yet to be at the park and have anyone try to snatch any child, let alone my girls, or have any kind of harm befall either of them greater than someone pushing in line in front of them or, as the girls are likely to say, “being mean.” So, all my eagle-eyed observation is for nothing. Yet...those kinds of things happen, and the girls don’t know about it (well, we do have a rule for them about strangers...and they understand that – but they really don’t know why). And, they discover, not everyone at the playground is a “friend.”
I wonder sometimes if that tension is what Jesus meant when he said, “See, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)
Jesus was preparing the disciples in two ways. First, he was sending them out on a kind of test-mission, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God. But in a larger sense he was preparing them for what would happen after his death and resurrection. He was warning them that people would persecute them, that people would hate them. But, “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
Go out into the world, take people at face value, not everyone has a hidden motive and agenda. But realize that some people do have something sinister going on.
Have we become too cynical? Are we too much “wise as serpents” and not dove-like enough? Jesus told us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” How are we doing at that? How do we look at others? Walk down the street sometime and think to yourself, “Oooo, there’s lots of friends on the street today.” I think it’s worth a try...
posted by Pastor Bill at 5:50 PM
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