Jesus

An American friend of mine named Dale served as a missionary for twelve years in Australia.  I know Dale to be a sensitive and intelligent minister.  Thus, I have no doubt that he took great steps to understand Australian culture and to avoid saying or doing things that might offend Australians.  But even a careful preacher can make a misstep.  At one Christian gathering Dale was preaching from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matt. 5-7.  There, Jesus addresses our obsession with possessions.  He deals with our fretfulness over finances.  To do this, Jesus points to the birds: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?” (Matt. 6:26 ESV).  Dale summarized Jesus’ point by saying this: “We need to become birdwatchers.  Those of us who follow Jesus need to be birdwatchers.”  He meant that as we look at the birds, we are reminded of Jesus’ statement that God takes care of birds, and thus God will take care of us.  But upon that statement, Dale’s listeners smirked, giggled, and laughed.  Not the kind of expected laugh you get after telling a great joke.  The kind of laugh that means you just said something you shouldn’t have said.  Afterwards, a member of the gathering took Dale aside and explained: “Here in Australia we have a word for ‘men’—the word ‘bloke.’  And we have another word for ‘women.’  That word is ‘bird.’”  According to this Christian leader, some of the listeners used the word ‘bird’ as a synonym for ‘woman.’”  Thus, when Dale encouraged them to be “birdwatchers” he was actually encouraging them women watchers. Read More »Follow: When Are You? (Mark 2) May 12, 2013 – Sunday Morning Message