They are not too smart. Their feed costs far exceeds what I would ever eat in eggs. They reside in my back yard, clucking away, laying eggs and teaching me a lot about our relationship with God. You know, if my chickens could ever work together, their lives would be so much better, but they only look after themselves. Periodically, I will let them roam around the yard. They are never still. They are constantly running, flapping and going from one place to the other. If one of them finds something good to eat, all the others will run over and try to steal the food away. They will do this even when there is lots of other food around. I don’t think they intend to be this way. It’s just the way chickens are.
It reminds me what chapter 2 of the Book of Philippians says. It is a great book telling us how to have peace and happiness by getting along with each other. One of my favorite parts says… “then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirt and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather, in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Do not look out for your own interests but each or you should look out for the interests of others.” This is something maybe my chickens should learn.
My chickens lives would be so much better if they worked together. Can you imagine what our church or our families would be like if none of us did things out of selfish ambition or vain conceit? It would be amazing if we looked after each other, rather than just our own wants. We would never have a vacancy in any teaching positions. We would welcome people with open arms. We would invite others to join us in our classes and in our fellowship. No one would feel left out or feel like an outcast. In our homes we would never exchange cross words or selfishily decide we wanted our way over another family member. None of us would be like my chickens who run around paying no heed to what they are doing and interested only in taking care of themselves, busily going about their own lives.
Next, Paul says, “…for it is God who is working in you to will and to do His good pleasure. Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a wicked and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” Now my chickens exist for one reason only, to provide food. Paul says we exist to do God’s will and pleasure. We all know what needs to be done and what God would have us to do. We know that our church is not going to spontaneously grow. We are going to have to work together to make it grow. I think, often times, like my chickens, we just run around really not stopping to think what God would have us to do. We know what He wants us to do. We just tend to not do it.
My chickens can get quite upset and make a pretty awful racket when they are hungry or thirsty. Now, unlike God, I think it’s kind of funny to hear them squawk and make all that noise. But God says that when we do not get our way, or when things don’t happen the way that we think that they should, that we should not squawk or make a lot of noise but that we should “do EVERYTHING without complaining or arguing so that we will shine like stars in the universe in a wicked and crooked generation.” The bottom line for my chickens is that they are there in my backyard to provide eggs and multiply if I so choose. God’s bottom line for our church on this hill is to “shine like stars in the universe” as we hold forth the word of truth to those we work with and go to school with. God wants our church to grow and to minister to those around us. We cannot be too busy. We cannot be concerned only with ourselves and what we want to do. We must look after the interests of others. Those “others” may be your down the street neighbor or a coworker. I am praying that during this interim time we can say that we did shine like stars in the universe.