Wellspring UMC; Fourth Sunday in Lent; March 18, 2007: “Builders Outdo Destroyers”:

-Isaiah 49: 8-18

Where is change needed in your life in order to build up, rather than destroy?

Recently, the Tate family grew in size. That’s right, we’ve added two new lives into the mix, and it all started in my son’s classroom.

Our youngest son, Joshua, is in first grade, and upon entering the room the first day he was excited to begin a new school year, meet new friends, and learn new things, but what most excited him was the fact that in the room there was a big bird cage, with two birds in it. Finches to be exact.

The teacher incorporates learning about life and caring through these finches. Each day the children take turns cleaning the cage and changing the water and food, and in watching the birds play together and hearing them chirp, the room seems brighter and more cheerful.

Soon, however, we found out that the birds did more than sing, for you see Ms. Henning started off with a male and female. Since September, those two have produced 18 offspring, one of which we adopted as our own. If you would like to add a finch to your home, I can probably hook you up.

“Oreo,” as Joshua so named her, joined the family a little over a month ago, and we have loved having her around. The chirping is calming, and watching her soothing, but as we read more and more about finches, we learned that they are social birds and need companions.

So, within a week or so, we began looking for a companion for “Oreo.” (For you experienced parents, yes, I know you’re smiling, but I also know that you too were suckered into such a deal when your children were young!) So began the quest for another FEMALE finch, which we quickly found in Toano. One of seven and free for the taking.

I called the owners, and they shared with me that they had three males and four females, one of which was completely white. They called it albino, but we realized later that it is actually classified as a “cream, teardrop Finch”...teardrop because of distinct brown markings under her eyes which look like teardrops. The owners, however, quickly said, but the problem with the white one is that the other six attacked it and plucked out her back feathers.

One thing my parents learned is that you don’t tell me about the underdog...or in this case, underbird...without expecting me to feel compassion for it, and in fact, I married a woman who is even more drawn to the slighted. So, the boys and I headed out, picked up “Vanilla” and brought her home.

When we picked her up, we all gathered around the cage and took a good look. Sure enough, her back feathers and under feathers were gone. Luckily the breeders had quarantined Vanilla when they realized what was happening. The feathers had begun to grow back, but when she lifted her wings to shift her weight or fly, we could see pink skin.

This led into a wonderful teaching moment with our kids about prejudice and bullying. We talked about what it must have been like for Vanilla to be picked on simply because she was different. We talked about times when we had been picked on, and what to do if they were picked on. We reminded them of the golden rule.

When bringing another bird into ones home, we found out, the new bird needs to be kept in a separate cage. This is so no bacteria is brought into the cage which might mix and hurt one or both birds. So we had to keep Vanilla in a separate cage for two weeks.

At first we kept them in different rooms, but after a week, we placed them both in the living room, then eventually we placed Vanilla’s cage on top of Oreo’s. Immediately, they noticed each other, and in doing so, they’d chirp out to each other. The chatter at times being overwhelming. They’d get as close as they possibly could, with only a few bars of metal and a few inches of space separating them. But then Friday a week ago came the big day when we put Vanilla into Oreo’s cage.

Upon placing them together, they immediately were drawn to each other. At first they played together. Chirping and flying around. Then they headed over to the seed dish and ate a meal together. They flitted over to the water dish, took a drink, then jumped in to take a bath. Eventually they sat side by side on a perch, preening themselves, content as can be. That night when we got ready to cover them to go to bed, they were sharing the nest. They slept in that nest together all night and have ever since.

Throughout this season of Lent we’ve been studying the book of Isaiah, and we’ve moved from words of warning that they would be exiled, to words of comfort while in exile. Chapter 49 hones in on God’s saving grace and restoration for Israel, and we enter it with a promise that the Israelites will return home. The Lord speaks saying, “I have helped you, I will save you. I will turn all my mountains into a road which will lead home.”

But Zion cries out, “Lord, you have forsaken us. You have forgotten us.”

But God replies, “How can a nursing mother forget her child? How can a pregnant mother not have compassion for her child? Even if others forget, I will not. I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands, and Jerusalem’s walls are always before you...” Then, the verse that sticks out to me, “Your builders outdo your destroyers. Those who laid waste go away from you.” Your builders outdo your destroyers.

In this season of change, where are you? Where have you been? Have you felt deserted by God, even if just a little? Have you felt destroyed? Beaten down? Lost? Exiled from the old you? Wondering how you got here?

What is the change that God is working in your life? What does it feel like to be in the middle of change? Does it feel like a destruction? A dying? A transformation? Where will this metamorphosis lead?

I love the season of Lent. Personally, I love it and I need it, because it forces me to step back and examine my faith and myself. Communally we need it, because it forces us to reflect upon who we are and whose we are, by examining our faith and ourselves. And yet, isn’t it odd that the very things that we love and need, are the things which at the time feel like they will destroy us, turn our lives upside down, or make us wonder how we can ever do what we’re feeling God is leading us to do?

When Caleb was two someone gave us a series of videos called “Mighty Machines.” Someone thought of the great idea of video taping construction equipment at work. There are videos of huge dump trucks and cranes, but one of my favorites is the demolition video. Not only do you see a bulldozer in action, but there is scene after scene of a wrecking ball smashing into a building. It swings back, and boom, a wall falls. It swings again, and another wall is gone, dust flying, and I’m grinning.

The Lord says through Isaiah, “The builders outdo the destroyers.” In watching those videos it’s cool to see the machines at work, but what is destroyed is not just left there for rubble as an eyesore. Instead the remains are transformed into a place new structures are built.

I can’t help but think that the same thing happens to us, especially during Lent, and especially during THIS season of Lent, where we are asking questions about where God is inviting us to be changed. To have a changed heart, to reveal the changes God is doing, to sit back and ask, “What change of heart needs to come, and what will get us to the point where we are being built up?”

Far too often we are destroyers. Sometimes that destruction is aimed toward the destruction of others, but more times than not, we destroy ourselves. We allow the recordings in our heads to tell us we won’t account to anything. We listen to those voices which say, “Rely on yourself. You don’t need God.” Or the subtle ones which say, “I’ll just do it myself.” We listen to those things inside us which move us to look inward, and when we do, we risk keeping at bay, if not destroying, the voice of God which says, “I love you, and will pick you up. I love you like a parent loves a child, and I’ve inscribed you on the palms of my nail-pierced hands.”

Miraculously, however, those things which destroy can become the very things which build us up. We can hear those voices tell us we’re not worth anything, and realize that those aren’t the voices of God, but of those who too had heard and followed destructive ways. We hear the call to rely on self, and realized that we should rely on God, but recognize that it was God who made us who we are. We can listen to the one that says, “I’ll do it myself,” and know that that is an option, but when God and self combine, then we live out the best of both worlds.

The builders outdo the destroyers! The builders outdo the destroyers! Isn’t that great news?! But the building comes through change...it comes in the midst of exile. In a new land, in a new space, in seeing the world and ourselves from a different perspective – God’s perspective.

Our bird, Vanilla, was hurt...destroyed if you will...by those of her own kind. That destruction was wrought because she was different, and instead of seeing the uniqueness, her parents and siblings saw an anomaly...something that had to be destroyed, or at least one that needed to suffer. Sad to say, we do the same thing to those who are different than ourselves, and sometimes even to ourselves. We listen to others, follow some ideology, and the destruction comes.

And yet, isn’t it wonderfully odd that salvation came for Vanilla through one of her own? Not her parent or sibling...not the family into which she was born...but one who accepted who she was and needs to journey together. And the same can be said for us. It’s not always the nuclear family that builds up, and who in fact can be our destroyers, but it is the ones whom God has placed in our lives to be instruments of Grace, Joy, Hope, and Peace.

Where is change needed in our lives in order to build up, rather than destroy? It’s a hard question, but well worth asking. When you do, remember God’s Word through Isaiah. “The builders outdo the destroyers.” Thanks be to God. Amen.