A Sparrow Sings at Starbucks”
Matthew 10:26-31, Psalm 104:1-9
October 22, 2006
I have told you before that Toni and I have fallen in love with Aruba. Aruba sits about 15 miles off the coast of Venezuela and is 19 miles long and only six miles across at it widest point. The western shore has some of the best beaches in the world. You find miles of white sand, gentle surf, palm trees, resorts, and tourists. The interior of the island reminds me of the desert southwest of the United States with cactus, arid mountains, dusty trails, and lizards the size of house cats.
The eastern coast is wild and rocky. The surf relentlessly pounds the shore and salt spray is always in the air. We love both sides of the island. We always seem to find ourselves at the same spot on the far northeast tip of the island. After walking across about a half mile of white sand dunes, you reach these huge boulders which were deposited there, who knows how many eons ago, by unknown geological forces. It is a beautiful place to sit looking out to sea to take pictures.
This is obviously a favorite spot for many others as well. The beach is littered with trash: plastic bottles, aluminum cans, cast off diapers, all sorts of stuff. There are places at which it is almost impossible to walk without stepping on trash. It is such a tragedy. I’m not sure why human beings can be so thoughtless, careless, and disrespectful of the creation given us by God.
Do you remember last December when a group of researchers walked into an area of about 740,000 acres in New Guinea which had never before been visited by people? It is amazing that such a place would still exist today, but even native peoples had never ventured into this area.
These researchers discovered some incredible new species of animals never before identified. They found an orange-faced honeyeater bird. They found golden-mantled tree kangaroos and a Long-Beaked Echidna, an egg laying mammal. They discovered 20 new species of frogs, five new species of plants, and four new species of insects. This is one of the last places on earth, said one of the leaders of the expedition, where humans have failed to make an imprint.
Psalm 104 is a song of creation. The psalmist remembers how God built his palace out of the depths of the oceans. He set the earth on its foundations. He created mountains and valleys, springs and rivers, wild animals and birds. How do we see the majesty of God? For this psalmist, that majesty is seen in the clothing of creation, the heavens and the earth.
Throughout the history of Christian spirituality, there has often been a profound sense of God’s presence in nature. In the early years of the thirteenth century, St. Francis of Assisi wrote, “The Canticle of Brother Sun.” He praised God for all his creatures: brother sun, sister moon and stars, brother wind, sister water, brother fire, and sister mother earth.
One of my favorite psalms is the eighth. This psalmist marvels at the creation. According to Eugene Petersons’s translation, the writer says: “I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, moon and stars mounted in their settings.” And then he says: “Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?” This psalmist understood the greatness of creation and the smallness and insignificance of human beings.
That point is brought home to Job. When Job was in the midst of his suffering, he complained to God about the injustice of it all. God responded with some questions of his own. “Where were you,” he wanted to know, “when I created the earth…How was its foundation poured and who set the cornerstone…Who took charge of the ocean?” (see Job 38:2-11). You see, God’s creation has been good from the beginning. God knows the big picture.
Not every sanctuary is found indoors. Certainly you have experienced a profound sense of the presence of God at some time or another when you were walking along a beach, or hiking in the mountains, or having a picnic in a park, or enjoying the sunset over one of our northern Indiana lakes. The whole outdoors becomes a sanctuary in praise and blessing from God. In moments like that, don’t you, like the writer of Psalm 8, feel incredibly small? Don’t you wonder why in the world God pays attention to you? With all that God has to do – running the universe and all – isn’t it amazing that he still has time for us?
Jesus was talking to the disciples one day about their fears. He was telling them that there would come a time when they would face persecution and trouble. But he told them not to worry. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matthew 10:29).
That’s incredible. In the midst of the wonder of all creation God never forgets us. God has time to create orange-faced honeyeater birds and golden-mantled tree kangaroos, along with turkey buzzards, elephants, mountain lions, and aardvarks. And he still cares for us. If God cares for the sparrow, we know he cares for us. Jesus said, “…you are of more value than many sparrows.”
I found a sermon on the internet preached by a Canadian Mennonite pastor named Don Friesen (http://www.ottamennonite.ca/sermons/robins.htm, accessed Oct. 4, 2006) back in June of 2005. He told this story.
In 1979 there was a sparrow that somehow got into the rafters of St. Helen’s Parish Church in the English town of Brant Broughton. At the time, they were recording a guitar recital for later broadcast on the radio. The chirping bird didn’t exactly chirp with the beat. So the pastor, Rev. Robin Clark, (I’m not making up that first name) asked the congregation to leave and then asked a friend to bring his pellet gun over to the church in order to have the offending sparrow shot.
The killing of the sparrow became front page news. The “London Daily Telegraph” ran a headline that said, “Rev. Robin Orders Death of Sparrow.” Editorials and letters to the editor flowed, chastising the cruel and unusual punishment for this lowly bird. People who hadn’t darkened the door of a church in decades suddenly remembered Psalm 84 in which it is declared that even sparrows are welcome in the house of the Lord (84:3).
I think I know what Jesus would say. He told the disciples to find comfort in the fact that God cares for the lowly sparrow. Think, he said, how much God must care for you.
Still, we must admit that even though God cares for the sparrows, they do indeed still fall from the air and die. Jesus also said that the hairs on our heads are all numbered, but that hasn’t stopped some of us from growing bald. Still, there is comfort knowing that the God of all creation keeps track of the little sparrows - and the hair from my scalp that finds its way into the shower drain. In God’s eye, everything is important, not just the spectacular. Everything in the creation was ordained by God and has been labeled “good.” The Creator who established the moon and the stars, and put the planets in their orbits, still has his eye on the sparrow.
There was another church that was having some trouble with sparrows. One little bird was searching for a place to build a nest and found the ideal spot on the cross beam of the church’s giant cross. The church folk decided that they could not let this intrusion stand, especially with the prospect of a whole family of noisy little creatures beginning to call this church home. So they got their ladders out and were preparing to take care of the problem, when they were stopped in their tracks by the voice of a small boy. He said, “God must really like sparrows. He made so many of them.”
In 1905, Canadian Civilla Martin and her husband were visiting the United States. They stopped to see a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for twenty years and Mr. Doolittle was forced to get around in a wheelchair. Still, they had an air of gratitude and hopefulness. Mrs. Martin asked them how they remained in such good spirits in light of their infirmities. Mrs. Doolittle replied, “God’s eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.” Mrs. Martin was so touched that she went home and wrote the hymn, “His Eye is On the Sparrow.”
The November/December 2001 issue of “Christianity Today” had a fascinating story. It seems like everything happens today at Starbucks. A few musicians were playing in front of one of the Starbucks in New York City. It was a good place to play because people were generous as they dropped money into an open guitar case. During one of their songs, the leader of the group noticed a woman sitting on a bench swaying to the music and singing along. She later came over to him and apologized for singing along, but he said that no apology was necessary. In fact, he asked, would she like to sing with the band? He asked her what she wanted to sing and she replied, “Do you know any hymns?”
The musician was a Christian and had grown up on the old time hymns, but sometimes you have trouble remembering stuff when you need to remember it. The only hymn he could remember at that moment was, “His Eye is On the Sparrow.” The woman became silent and cast her eyes downward, and said,”Yeah, let’s do that one.”
She began to sing, and everyone at the Starbucks got very quiet. “I sing because I’m happy. I sing because I’m free. For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.”
Starbucks erupted into applause. The band leader gave her a hug and told her that she had made his day – his whole year. She said that it was funny that he picked that particular song. “Why is that,” he asked. “That was my daughter’s favorite song. She was sixteen years old and died of cancer last week.
The musician asked her if she was going to be OK. The woman said, “I’m gonna be OK. I’ve just got to keep trusting the Lord and singing his songs, and everything’s gonna be just fine.”
That’s the message. The God of all creation - The wonder-working God - God Most High - The Awesome God – The God who creates one in every five thousand lobsters bright blue - The God who created Leviathan and Behemoth – this God still cares enough to watch over the little sparrow. This God cares enough to watch over you and me.
