Living Lent 5 - “The Vulture Reveals a Coming Savior”
Lent is just flying by… I can’t believe that next week is already Palm Sunday! As I’ve been reminding us these past few weeks… we are in Lent… the period before Easter where we focus on Christ and prepare our hearts and minds for that splendid Easter morning. As a church, we are spending this time hearing from animals to teach us lessons about Christ and to help us prepare for Easter! So far… we’ve heard from a fox… we’ve heard from a donkey… we’ve heard from a dove, and we’ve heard from a chicken. This week we will be learning a little something from a vulture. I’ll admit… this one cracks me up a little. Of all the animals they could have picked to teach us something about Jesus… a vulture! Really!?! In fact, why don’t you turn to the person next to you and exclaim… “A vulture! Really!?!”
To get us rolling… let’s just stay away from what we think of vultures for a little while and look at what the Old Testament has to say about vultures. They don’t come up very often but when they do, the image they portray is quite powerful... let’s look at three quotes really quick:
Leviticus 11:13
“13 These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, (and also at the top of the list) the vulture”, followed by many other… very icky birds.
Habakkuk 1:6-9
6 I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. 7 They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; 9 they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.
Job 15:20-23
20 All his days the wicked man suffers torment, the ruthless through all the years stored up for him. 21 Terrifying sounds fill his ears; when all seems well, marauders attack him. 22 He despairs of escaping the darkness; he is marked for the sword. 23 He wanders about-- food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.
Now… this is not a pleasant picture to be starting out with: detestable… devouring… harbingers of darkness and torment. This sounds like a bird we should be keeping around as pets… doesn’t it?
The New Testament doesn’t do the vulture any favors either… both times it is mentioned Jesus is talking about when he will come again and I invite you to follow along with today’s scripture lesson from the gospel of Matthew:
Matthew 24:23-28
23 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect-- if that were possible. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time. 26 "So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
So, imagine my trouble getting my head around turning the vulture into a sermon illustration for Christ. The Old Testament has them as detestable… the New Testament has them as a sign of the end times! I was really worried for a while thinking… “What is this going to teach us about Christ?” And then… I got to know the vulture a little better, and you will be shocked at the things I had to learn.
Now, I want you to do something for me… I want you to get a visual image of a vulture in your mind. Now… I would bet that a lot of us are conjuring the same image. By show of hands… how many of you imagine a vulture… circling in the air slowly… over some poor creature knocking on death’s door. It is almost an iconic image for vulture’s… especially those of us raised on cartoons like Bugs Bunny.
Let me push this just a little bit further… how many of you when you think of a vulture circling… think of a poor animal underneath dying or already dead. While this is true… we are only HALF right. There is much more for us to learn about the circling vulture.
For instance… did you know that vultures are considered to be the most graceful birds of the air? I am serious. It shocked me a little too. When we think graceful… we think of the majestic eagle… but a vulture? C’mon. Perhaps this will change your mind.
Vultures will wait on top of high perches until the morning sun has begun to warm the earth. Then, when the sun has warmed the earth… and the earth has warmed the air… they will launch themselves from their perches and glide until the find a warm pocket of air… also known by you scientists out there as “thermals.” They will get themselves nice and secure in that thermal and the will let the warm air carry them upward rising in circles. When they reach the top of the thermal, they will dive across the sky at speeds nearing 60 miles per hour… and glide… until they find the next thermal that can carry them up higher and higher. All of this is done… without flapping their wings even once! Now here is the most amazing thing of all… vultures can glide for over 6 hours at a time and soar to heights of over 20,000 feet without ever flapping their wings a single time.
Isn’t that amazing? It makes me wonder why other birds haven’t caught on to this. Take the humming bird for example. The humming bird will flap its wings up to 70 times in one second. I would probably have trouble flapping my arms 70 times in one DAY! 70 times in one second! Now compare that to 6 hours of flight without EVER flapping your wings even once! How many of you knew that there was this whole other side to vultures? One more fun fact… can anyone guess what a group of vultures rising on warm thermals is called… a kettle… because they look like a pot of water rising in a boil! Now you can all sound really smart the next time you see a bunch of vultures rising on thermals… you can say to whoever’s with you, “Hey, check out that kettle in the air.” Of course… they’ll look at you like your nuts… but you’ll know how smart you are.
Now, I wonder… if Jesus would have had these fun facts about vultures, perhaps he would have spoken more favorably about them and would have given us a famous bird parable using the lowly vulture. Perhaps something similar to Matthew 6:26:
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can’t you see Jesus saying a parable like that about vultures? “Look at the vultures of the air. They do not toil to reach great heights… yet your heavenly Father lifts them up with the warm air of the earth without any effort of their own. And these are icky vultures we are talking about… are you not much more valuable than they? Trust in me as the vulture trusts in the warm thermal updrafts… and I will lift you up.” All of a sudden vultures are sounding like a sermon illustration right?
Now of course I know Jesus didn’t actually say that… but the lessons we are learning from the vulture can be found time and time again in scripture. The first lesson is trusting God. You can find that lesson 42 times in the bible, 16 times in the book of Psalms alone! And hand in hand with this, the vulture has another lesson to teach us in trusting God… and that is we shouldn’t try to go it alone.
Interestingly… when a vulture does have to fly on its own, like when they take-off from the ground or when there is no warm air for them to rise… their flight is extremely laborious and it takes an extraordinary amount of effort for them to gain any altitude. On their own… they struggle just to get off the ground. On their own… they struggle to reach any great height. On their own they become slow and vulnerable. On their own they struggle. This lesson too comes right out of scripture:
John 15:5-9
5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
It’s hard going it alone… kinda like a big awkward bird trying to lift itself up of the ground. But… get that same bird in a warm air thermal and they can soar at 60 miles per hour and rise to 20,000 feet! Get us in the support of our Lord…
Isaiah 40:31
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like VULTURES; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Those are the lessons that the lowly vulture has to teach us this Lent. The final thing I will say is that I find it interesting that there is a sort of dichotomy happening in our example of the Vulture. Either the vulture is picking at scraps off the ground or it is soaring high… either or. The only difference between the two… is that warm thermal lifting it up. Which are you today? Are you feeling grounded… are you picking for scraps off the ground… or are you flying high through the support of a wonderful Lord? And which of these shall you be tomorrow?
Romans 15:13 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
