These are Galapagos penguins.
While this is a chinstrap penguin. Who knew?
This is a little blue penguin, so-called because… erm… I'll get back to you on this one.
These are strictly Emperor penguins
This is a Gentoo penguin.
And here's an Adelie penguin. I hope I got all of those right...
And so we decided penguins aren't monochrome, and Christians aren't monocultural. As with Desmond Tutu, we're to be God's rainbow people.
Anyway, how fast can a penguin go? They can toboggan about at speeds upwards of 20mph, and all the evidence suggests that they do it for fun as well as progress. Penguins have no land predators, so there's no need for speed. But they slide along having the whoopiest time of their lives!
Who needs flight?
And then they give it up.
Male penguins give up that slippery life of feathery frolicsome fun to look after the egg. You'll've seen films of huge huddles ("waddles") of penguins crossing the North Manchester antarctic tundra at about 2mph, all to preserve that one single egg that they carry in such unlikely fashion on their feet.
Who'd do that? Well, lots of you, I guess, if it meant looking after your young. Wyth-It thought a bit about the sacrifice it would be - giving up all the streamlined sliding to waddle, for the sake of someone else.
And of course from there we thought about how Jesus did it. How Jesus left heaven (which I suspect is a bit five-star rated on Trip Advisor) and slummed it down here, just so that he could save us, re-connect us with God, and offer us a whole new set of possibilities.
I mean, this earth is good. God made it, and God di'n't make no rubbish, good readers. It's not like Jesus was coming on down to complete squalor. He came down to a mother's love and to the occasional lie-in and to wine and laughter and he chose a time that predated reality TV, so in many ways it was better than today (but with less good anaesthetic should you need it).
Nevertheless, it's a step down. It's a 33 year step down, with crucifixion guaranteed. And puberty, which is as bad. And wisdom teeth. And siblings, who divide opinion. And Thursdays. And teething and sore bumbum. And rejection, a bit of a flogging, some betrayal and a long trip carrying a cross-bar. So, you know, not entirely idyllic.
Jesus, it says in Philippians 2, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!
Whenever you read the gospel, that's Jesus walking when he could be flying. That's Jesus working when he could be loafing. That's Jesus, living the extra mile. That's him, that is. You can excuse him a good nap in a storm-tossed boat and the odd bit of impatience.
And our attitude needs to be the same.
What does that look like? I need constant reminders that hunkering down with people is what Jesus would do. The church needs constant reminders that we're not here as some aspirational club but as a movement to sit alongside the weariest and make a difference, even when we think we could be flying or hanging out with the frankly beautiful people of witty repartee and hipster clothes.
Be like those penguin fellows. Think upon the sacrifice of Jesus - not just the crucifixion but the whole 33 years - and see what it looks like when we sacrifice our time or dignity or popularity or salary to do some of the same stuff as Jesus, to follow his trajectory and to spot that extra mile.
We're not done with penguins yet. Yes, they're not all black and white. Yes, they put the ice back in sacrifice (see what I did there?). But there's more…
Come back tomorrow to see that huddle waddle...
No comments:
Post a Comment