Battle at the Birdfeeder

The Eve of All Saints            The Rev. Nancy E.Gossling

A Prayer attributed to St. Francis, BCP p.833

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is

hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where

there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where

there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where

there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to

be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is

in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we

are born to eternal life. Amen.

I have to tell you that this passage from the Gospel of Luke is one of my favorite lessons in scripture for a variety of reasons. In it Jesus talks about our worries and God's providential care for all creation. Jesus describes how creation is clothed with the beauty of lilies, better than King Solomon’s finest apparel. Creatures great and small, like you and me, include ravens and all kinds of birds of the air, and yet how much more valuable we are to God than the birds!  After all, we’re made in God’s image. And don’t worry, Jesus says. God knows what you need and God will provide.

            Our son Brian made me a birdfeeder for my birthday a few years ago. My husband Paul and I had just temporarily relocated from our condominium in Cambridge to our generational family home on Cape Cod. At that particular time the cases of COVID 19 were fewer on the Cape but surging throughout our country. Masks were being worn all the time, and places were being shuttered. It was a summer of COVID lockdown, isolations, and worry.

At first, we put the birdfeeder on the back deck of our home. It was a source of great joy for us as we watched birds arriving in numbers during the Spring and early Summer months.There was a great variety, and word got out pretty quickly that we had food to share. Then the squirrels showed up. 

In August, Paul sent this email to our friends: “I thought I would give you a quick overview of how we are spending our time: 1) We fill the bird feeder in the morning 2) We discuss our strategies for getting rid of the grey and red squirrels 3) We run onto the deck screaming at the squirrels to get off the birdfeeder 4) We go to the bird store and discuss ways to stop the squirrels 5) We go to the hardware store to buy patches to repair the holes in our screen door, which the squirrels had chewed through looking for the birdfeeder. 6) We bought a pole, greased it with vaseline and black pepper, but when the squirrels bent the pole in two we returned the feeder to our deck. There our tomato plants were thriving, except there was only one tomato left, and it was half bitten by a squirrel. 7) We run onto the deck screaming at the squirrels once again  8) After we discovered the roof of the birdfeeder had been chewed through we discussed buying our first gun 9) Finally, we called “Squirrels Anonymous” to deal with our addiction. And then, (10) exhausted by our battles at the birdfeeder, we go to bed. 

Now we all have various ways of dealing with this COVID pandemic. Growing tomatoes, feeding the birds, and screaming at squirrels were some of them for us. I also enjoyed connecting with people through FaceBook and created a FaceBook posting that I entitled hashtag “Battle at the Birdfeeder.” I discovered that there were people like me who were “anti-squirrel” advocates. They too had stories of frustration and offered suggestions for remedial work. There were also the “squirrel lovers.” Like St. Francis, they were people who blessed and fed all animals, and they regularly reminded me that I was neither a saint nor a good Christian. Let them eat your tomatoes and bird food, I silently fumed.

There were also moments of levity about those squirrels. One of my favorite jokes came from a parishioner in our diocese who posted this on my FaceBook page. “In  a small town, a band of squirrels had become quite a problem. The Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about their squirrel infestation. After much prayer, they concluded that the squirrels were predestined to be there, and they shouldn’t interfere with God’s divine will.”

“At the Baptist Church the squirrels had taken an interest in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a water-slide on it and let the squirrels drown themselves. The squirrels liked the slide and knew how to swim; and so twice as many squirrels showed up the following week.”

“The Lutheran Church decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God's creatures. So, they humanely trapped their squirrels and set them free near the Baptist Church. Two weeks later the squirrels were back when the Baptists took down the water slide.”

“The Methodist Church tried a much more unique path by setting out pans of whiskey in an effort to kill the squirrels with alcohol poisoning. They sadly learned, however, how much damage a band of drunk squirrels can do.”

“But the Roman Catholic Church came up with a very creative strategy! They baptized all the squirrels and made them members of the Church. Now they only see them at Christmas and Easter.”

“Finally, not much was heard from the Jewish synagogue. They took the first squirrel and circumcised him and they haven’t seen a squirrel ever since.”

As an Episcopalian, after much trial and error, I gave up my battle at the birdfeeder. We’re a big tent, I recalled, and our church welcomes and honors all God’s beloved children. In our baptismal covenant, we ask, “Will you cherish the wondrous works of God, and protect the beauty and integrity of all creation?” Our response remains, “I will with God’s help.” And clearly, I needed help. 

Eventually, life improved on our back deck. The red squirrels didn’t like the spicy bird food we bought and so they left, which made me and the birds very happy. And the grey squirrels repented of their sin of gluttony; they no longer emptied the bird feeder in one sitting. We bought tomatoes at the farmers’ market and let the chipmunks dig into our pots. Eventually, peaceful coexistence reigned at our bird feeder. In fact, I snapped some pictures of both the squirrels and the birds eating at the same time. And at the end of the day, Paul and I went to sleep and rested in peace.

During this COVID time of isolation on the Cape, I began to be grateful for God’s providential care for all creatures, great and small, and for the beauty of all God’s creation. I could begin to see beyond my battle at the birdfeeder to other forms of life: the marsh grasses, the sand dunes, and the vast expanse of the Atlantic ocean. I understood in new ways how we worry about the climate and the changes that we see happening in our environment.

Worry was part of our COVID life that summer and it remains with many of us today. Because worry has been familiar to me for many decades, I will often recall this passage for comfort. I can see the freedom of the birds in the air. I remember how the lilies of the valley are clothed. I pray for God’s providence and protection. And in the midst of our vulnerabilities, and the battles that we all share, I hear Jesus say, “Do not fear. Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” 

In these COVID times we worry about life and death, and yet nature reminds us about death and resurrection. Without speaking a word, it offers us images of the kingdom of heaven. In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he wrote, “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ Fool!” he wrote. “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.”

“God gives it a body as God has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another.”

Which is why the author of Revelation “heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power to our God. ‘Praise our God, all you his servants, and all who fear him, small and great. Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give God the glory.’”

  Tonight is the beginning of what we call Allhallowtide, which encompasses the triduum of All Saints' Eve (Halloween), All Saints' Day (tomorrow) and All Souls' Day, on November 2. Allhallowtide is a "time to remember the dead, including martyrs, saints, and all the faithful departed." And tonight we can remember all creatures great and small: both the birds and the squirrels, both you and me. 

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all else shall be given unto you. There’s no trick here. Only a treat for those who believe. Amen.

Luke 12: 22-31

He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?* If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?  Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his* kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Revelation 19:1,4-10

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power to our God, And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who is seated on the throne, saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah!’ And from the throne came a voice saying, ‘Praise our God, all you his servants, and all who fear him, small and great.’ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunder-peals, crying out,‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God.’ Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow-servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’