Fish, Sheep, Chickens, Pigs... and the Christian Life?

What do fish, sheep, chickens, and pigs have in common?  And how are they connected to the Christian life?  This post is the result of a conversation I had the other night with a colleague of mine.  We'll be teaching together at GTC (Gideon Theological College) when I finish my current studies.  Sometimes when teaching and preaching, "less is more" and simple thoughts like these work most effectively.   

The fish represents a lifestyle of evangelism.  Go back to your Sunday School songs about "fishers of men" and you'll connect this image correctly.  Right thinking about evangelism is pretty widespread.  Most everyone knows of the need for it, but it is so rarely done.  How can we motivate ourselves in this area?  Instead of the "guilt trip" approach, let's imagine what it would be like to join in the celebration of having found that which was lost.  This is the Bible's idea of ultimate happiness.  Three parables in Luke confirm this overarching theme from the whole of Scripture. 

The sheep is a picture of our ministry of discipleship.  My wife's uncle owns a sheep farm in Southern Ontario, Canada.  When we've been through their barn in the past, we've been greeted by the sheep as though we were aliens from outer space.  They consider us to be complete strangers.  It's an amazing picture of John 10.  Anyway, the idea is that we are to train ourselves (and others) to follow only one Voice.  All others should be alien to us.

An old African story tells about the day of a large feast.  The tribal chief asks various animals what they can provide in order to make the celebration possible.  The cow can give milk (so can the goat if you prefer!).  Many other helpful contributions are made by the time he comes to the chicken.  "I can lay some eggs," says the chicken cheerfully.  Involvement.  This is the next stage... alongside evangelism and discipleship comes involvement.  Many believe that this is the last stage, but we are called further.  No mere token offering of ourselves will suffice. 

The chief commends the chicken for her involvement and turns to the pig.  "What can you provide for the feast?"  The pig replies, "If I am to offer anything, it will cost me everything.  It will be my life that I give."  And we arrive at the point of Christian maturity.  Evangelism will emerge from it.  Discipleship is dependent upon it.  And involvement inevitably springs out of it: self-sacrifice.  It's here where we begin to mimic the Divine Life, marked even within the Trinity by self-giving.

So we can ask ourselves, "How much of me is for the Kingdom?"  By doing so, we will ultimately arrive at the level of our spiritual maturity.  But just a word of caution.  Let this self-examination be one of joy and not guilt.  As we look inward, let it be with a desire for abiding in Christ instead of working for Him.  The relationship we then find will provide abundant motivation for the Christian life.

You'll probably remember these four animals when you wake up in the morning... maybe even for the rest of your life!  Fish... Sheep... Chicken... Pig.

The Path to Sustained Freedom

If the two images pictured here look familiar, it's probably because they are two of the most recognizable structures in the world.  They are also related in another way.  Jewish slaves contributed much, if not all, of the labor needed for their construction.

In the middle of the 15th century BC, Jews enslaved in Egypt were driven by extreme conditions and abuse to flee under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.  The famous account recorded in the Bible includes the plagues and the Passover.  But before their departure, the Egyptian slave masters had overseen an engineering marvel in the Great Pyramids in modern day Cairo.

The Romans, some 1500 years later, invaded the city of Jerusalem and overthrew it.  They carried off slaves and articles from the temple, including gold, silver, and other valuable jewels and stones.  With the bounty recovered in 70 AD, the Romans were able to finance the construction of the Colosseum under the Emperor Vespasian.  And like their ancestors of centuries earlier, the Jews were forced to provide the labor necessary to complete an equally marvelous feat of engineering.  In one of history's great ironies, they built it... and later died upon it's gravelly floors.

Immediately following the Jewish Exodus, God gave a detailed outline to Moses concerning the path to sustained freedom.  That path, often viewed as a moral code or simply a set of restrictive religious rules, was written on stone.  It was delivered to the people of Israel as the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, pictured in artistic fashion to the right.  The context of the passage in Exodus 20:1-21 is freedom.  God reminded Moses on the mountain that He was the one who brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt, out of the "house of slavery" (Exodus 20:1, NASB).  It is from bondage to liberty that God had brought them.  And He specified the guidelines for them to stay in this freedom.

This is from a class I'm taking here at AIU.  Examine these thoughts and see if freedom isn't on God's mind...

SET #1: Freedom from the gods of bondage: God brought them out of Egypt.  The 10 Commandments will keep "Egypt" out of the Israelites.

"No other gods"... the form of Pharaoh worship meant that the gods of Egypt were slave masters.  God wanted Israel to see that He was a God, not of bondage, but of freedom... spiritual freedom.

"No idols"... idol worship destroys the dignity of man, that he was created in the image of God.  No graven image would serve as the image of God because man had been so created.  Far from pride, this image of God in man should lead us to value all human life, an essential trademark of freedom.

"No vain use of God's name"... we are not to use the name of God to oppress the masses.  We are not to crusade and enslave with Christian ideology.  We are not to advance personal agendas by using God's name.

SET #2: Freedom within society:

Freedom in your home = honor your father and mother.

Freedom in your community = don't commit murder or adultery (be at peace with people).

Freedom in your mind = don't covet and don't steal (be content).

SET #3: Freedom from legalistic sanctification:

Keep the Sabbath.  At first glance, this one seems to be the least important of the ten.  In fact, there was a death penalty for failure to recognize it.  Why?  In our western culture, the answer should seem so obvious.  If God is all about rules, keeping them and driving others to keep them as well, He is another god of bondage like those in Egypt.  But in the Sabbath, God says that we need to rest.  And in that rest, we find that He delights in us.  No other god is in the business of relationship.  All others demand performance.  But Yahweh calls His people to stop working.  He is not a utilitarian task master.  He delights in His people as treasured possessions.  Thus, keeping of the Sabbath frees us from defining ourselves by what we do.  We are free from the performance mentality.  We are loved in relationship, not based on performance.

Jesus then, is the ultimate agent of liberation.  He breaks the bonds to sin, death, and the power of the evil one.  He restores (spiritual) freedom to those long held in dark dungeons.  He is the ultimate expression of relational sanctification in his work that destroys performance based spirituality.  He is the Lord of the Sabbath.

So the next time that someone accuses Christianity of being all about rules, you can say that the rules are not really "rules" at all.  They are the guide to spiritual liberty.  Relationship is on the mind of God.  Freedom is on the mind of God.  And the 10 Commandments are the pathway to sustaining the freedom He provided you in your relationship with Christ.  "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free", not for following a set of rules.

Where Education Meets Reality

      The issue of eating meat is not a very hot topic in the US and Canada.  Most people only consider giving it up to become vegetarians.  They have no aversion to the meat itself, except perhaps the well-known health benefits that avoiding it brings.  In Africa, however, it is a much more sensitive issue than I first assumed.  The following is a scenario generated from personal research into a traditional Kenyan funeral service.  Pretend that you receive the phone call at the end of our story.  What advice can you offer?  This is where education meets reality.

     As the eldest son in his family, Ezra is faced with many responsibilities.  On top of his pastoral ministry, his wife and five children, and his post graduate studies, he must also attend to the family duties that are uniquely his.  Cultural expectations of the firstborn son are very significant among most Kenyan tribes.  During his first term of studies, he was informed one Tuesday morning that his mother was very sick.  He was told that she had contracted pneumonia, making her very weak and close to death.  He encouraged fellow classmates to pray for his mother and the rest of the family during this difficult time in their lives.  This was particularly important to Ezra because his family members are not believers, though they are “good” people.

     On Wednesday afternoon, Ezra and a friend from his congregation were on a bus to rural Kenya for the funeral.  Ezra’s mother had died earlier that morning and her death had been announced throughout the community.  After a long journey, the two travelers were thankful to have arrived safely.  The next morning, shortly after dawn, the family slaughtered a ram in keeping with tribal tradition.  The following morning, now Friday, a bull was slaughtered and that night a grave was prepared for the burial ceremony.  Of particular concern to Ezra was the communal meal that came each evening.  The animal that had been slaughtered in the morning was prepared and then eaten by the family each night.  Ezra was aware that their tradition demanded a sacrifice, but was unsure about the spiritual significance.  His father explained to the sons that it was important to make the spirit of their mother happy.  She would continue to bless the family in various ways even after her death.  The sacrifices were to ensure her ongoing blessing.  “Every meat has a meaning,” his father said.

     That night, Ezra lay awake in his bed, thinking about his father’s words.  He thought about the food that was prepared from the sacrificed animals.  He thought about his friend, a new believer from his church, who had accompanied him for the funeral.  Had they made a mistake in eating that meat?  Had they opened themselves up for demonic attack?  He wondered if he had compromised his allegiance to God.  If he continued, would he shake the faith of his friend?  And if he did not, what would he say to his father, brothers, and sisters?  Oh, how he longed for the advice of his brilliant classmates!  At least he could call his elder board for help, even though it was the middle of the night.