Buzzards, Bats, Bumblebees and Eagles
Are You Living Like A Buzzard?
Scriptures: Matt. 8:21-22; 10:33; James 2:17; Psalm 121:1-2; John 20:24-29
Introduction
I get a lot of inspirational emails from relatives and friends. Some of these emails give me inspiration for sermons and Bible study lessons. Recently I received such an email from my brother titled "Buzzard, Bat, and Bumblebee." As I read the email, immediately this message came into my spirit. This morning I will use an analogy comparing people to Buzzards, Bats, Bumblebees and Eagles in how we deal with our everyday situations. So the question for today is: "Are you living with buzzards?"
I. The Buzzard
You know how we often characterize people based on animals? We may find ourselves calling a man with little moral fiber a dog. When our kids make a mess at the dinner table we sometimes say they eat like pigs. When we see someone who cannot be trusted, sneaking around, we call them a snake. A lot of the comparisons we make towards one another are based on animals and/or insects living in the world around us. This morning my first comparison with be with the buzzard. As I walk you through the information, consider whether or not you are living with buzzards and/or if you are a buzzard.
Fact #1: Buzzards loves the dead. Unlike other animals that will hunt their food, kill it and eat it, buzzards eat what has been killed by something else. They are not equipped to be hunters like other birds of prey. They can fly around for hours, without even moving their wings just floating on the air, searching for something dead to eat. I remember watching cartoons while I was a child and there was always someone lost in the desert with buzzards flying overhead just waiting for the person to die. Buzzards require something else to do the work, the killing, and then they come along and finish the job by eating the leftovers.
Fact #2: Buzzards have limited vocalization abilities. Buzzards, unlike other birds, cannot make loud noises, but can only hiss and grunt. So you will never see a buzzard flying around making a lot of noise.
Fact #3: Buzzards are extremely un-aggressive and non-confrontational. When the buzzard is compared to the hawk or other birds of prey, there is really no comparison. Buzzards do not have the physical abilities to be deadly so they generally mind their own business unless provoked. When provoked, because of their limited ability (or non-ability) to fight, they will vomit on their aggressor, their primary means of self defense. This vomit is very foul smelling and deters most creatures and if gotten on the aggressor’s face, it will sting and burn.
Fact #4: Buzzard needs room to fly. The most important fact I want to share with you for this message is that buzzards require 10 to 12 feet of running space in order to fly. This need causes problems for the buzzard. Because they must have so much room to fly, they are often killed by oncoming cars when they themselves are eating road kill. They also become the victims of other predators because of their inability to take off without needing 10 to 12 feet to run and get up speed. Now here is where it gets interesting, if you put the buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, despite its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. Without the space to run, as is its habit, the bird will not even attempt to fly, but remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.
II. People Are Like Buzzards
People are like buzzards in how we response to some situations in our lives. Consider the four facts I pointed out about buzzards and let’s see how we are similar.
Feeding on the dead. Like the buzzard, there are people who are spiritually feeding on the dead; dead works, dead faith and dead actions. I remember reading about a situation in the New Testament where a young man who had the opportunity to follow Jesus but requested to remain behind in order to bury his father. Turn to Matthew 8:21-22. It states "And another of the disciples said to Him, ’Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me; and allow the dead to bury their own dead." For many years I thought this was a very cruel response that Jesus gave this man. I mean the man’s father was dead and how could the dead bury their own dead. How cruel was it to deny a man the right to bury his dead father. It just did not seem like an appropriate response from Jesus. The fact is, I did not understand the situation. The man’s father was not dead at this time, but he was requesting to be able to stay with his father until his father died. In other words, he wanted to follow Jesus, but he was not ready to leave home, his father or his comfortable surroundings in order to follow Jesus. Jesus was offering the young man life so His statement about the dead burying their dead now seems appropriate. Those who were not following Jesus were dead spiritually and were not seeking life. Although this young man believed in Christ, he was not yet ready to give up all to Him.
Just like the buzzard feeding on the dead, there are many of us who are feeding on the dead. We are not seeking life in God, we’d rather stay amongst the dead of this world. We stand on our faith, yet we do no work in support of that faith. James said in James 2:17 that "Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself." If you are doing nothing but taking care of your own and coming to Church every now and then, you have no works to support your faith – it’s dead.
Limited Vocalization Ability. There are many Christians who are like the buzzards in their limited ability to speak. Whereas the buzzards can only hiss and grunt by design, many Christians have lost their voices, choosing to remain quiet while the world speeds towards a final destination of hell. We do not speak up any longer for what is right. We ignore what is going on around us as long as it does not affect us personally. We choose to remain quiet in our faith, even in the presence of evil. We have lost our ability to speak. We have given in to the world’ demands. We can no longer pray in school and our kids are getting worse. When there was an opportunity to stop this action years ago, Christians were quiet believing the bill would never pass. We must find our voices again. Jesus said in Matthew 10:33 "But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven." In our quietness lies our denial.
Extreme Un-Aggressive and Un-Confrontational. As with the buzzard, there are many Christians who are un-aggressive and un-confrontational. Depending on the situation, this can be a good thing. However, there will be times when we will have to be confrontational in our stance for what is right. Back in the mid eighties, this saying was very popular: "If you do not stand for something, you’ll fall for anything." In conjunction with losing our voice, we have lost our ability to confront evil and/or injustice. We have turned our vision inwards to only dealing with things that affect us leaving the rest of the world to fend for itself. What would your record show if you stood before God and He pulled out a sheet containing all of the opportunities you had to stand for Him and chose not to? Would there be one page, two, a hundred, a thousand? There is a cause and whether we like it or not, we have the answer.
Needing Room To Fly. The unique and most troubling aspect of the buzzard is their inability to fly without running 10 to 12 feet. As I stated before, this causes them to fall prey to cars and other predators. But it also causes them to be in prison within a pen that other birds would not have a problem flying out of. The buzzard has been so conditioned to need that much room to take off and fly, they do not consider that maybe they can fly without having 10 to 12 feet of running room. With all of the open space above their head, they continue to look at the ground and the pen thinking that it is impossible to fly.
In many ways we are like the buzzard. We have things that have been conditioned within us so that we act certain ways regardless of the situations we find ourselves in. Like the buzzard we too limit our ability to fly. When we are faced with harsh situations, we look at the ground, we look at the confines, yet we fail to look up. David had it right when he said in Psalm 121:1-2 "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from whence shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." The buzzard spends its time in the pen looking at the confines and the fact that it is too small to get a running start. He never considers the other possibilities that maybe he can take off within 7 feet. His habit of doing something one way cripples him to the possibility that there could be another way of getting the job done. When Jesus walked the earth, He constantly had to deal with people like this, those that would not accept Him or His teachings because of their traditions. These individuals were often the religious leaders who did not want to lose their authority and/or traditions in their religious activities. So threatened were they that they finally caused Jesus to be crucified.
Are you confined to a pen? Are you conditioned to such a point that you need a lot of room to leap out in faith? Can you jump and fly, or must your run long distances in order to build up the speed to jump into the air and flap your wings. The disciple Thomas was like the buzzard, but Jesus commended those who would just jump. In John the 20th chapter, verses 24-29 the following is recorded: "But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore were saying to him, ’We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, to them, ’Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." In Thomas words we find the buzzard. Thomas needed some running space, some proof with his own eyes before he was willing to believe that Jesus was alive. He refused to accept the words of his fellow disciples; he had to see for himself. Thomas stated that he would not believe unless he could physically see Jesus and touch Him. Thomas could not exercise his faith until he had some proof that he could accept and the words of the other disciples did not constitute that proof.
Eight days later while the disciples were gathered together, Thomas was with them when Jesus appeared. Look at verses 27-29. "Then He said to Thomas, ’Reach here your finger and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.’ Thomas answered and said to Him, ’My Lord and my God.’ Jesus said to him, ’Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed." We are part of those who are blessed for believing although we have not seen Him face to face. Thomas who had walked with Him could not step out in faith unless he could see for himself. Are you living like Thomas?
There will be times when we will face situations that will require us to act on our faith without having time to process how we would like to do it. During these times we will not have the opportunity to get a running start, we will have to act immediately. Your ability to act in faith is directly tied to your knowledge and understanding of the one sustaining you. Are you able to act immediately or must you have time to get your faith up for the situation? Are you so conditioned by our traditions that you cannot act differently from the way in which you were trained or are you able to look at alternatives? Remember this point, the buzzard’s inability to fly without having 10 to 12 feet of a running start makes them vulnerable to cars and other predators. Their lives are at risk because they need a running start. It is the same with us, Satan can attack quickly and if our faith requires a "running start" for it to be activated then we too can become a victim of Satan’s plots and devices. The buzzard is a unique creature that has created a way to survive based on its own attributes. But we can learn from the buzzard. Whereas they cannot change their situations, we have the ability, opportunity and resources to change ours. If you are in a pen and do not have the room to get a running start to exercise your faith, learn to take off from a point of standing still. Strive for the point where you can take off in faith without running at all, where your faith is always active and ready to go. Next week we will look at the bats and bumblebees.
May God bless you this week.
