Mocking Birds

 

Mocking Birds

 

Jeremiah 20:7-13

The prophet must speak 

 

20:7 O LORD, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.

 

20:8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out; I must shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.

 

20:9 If I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

 

20:10 For I hear many whispering: "Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. "Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him and take our revenge on him."

 

20:11 But the LORD is with me like a terrifying warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.

 

20:12 O LORD of hosts, you test the righteous; you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

 

20:13 Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers

 

This text begins with two very interesting words: “enticed,” and “mocks.” Both of them are poignant illustrations of how differently words can be perceived. When I think of “enticed,” I am tempted to think of “tempted.” (Sorry, didn’t mean to do that…) The dictionary says something like “entice” means to offer something desirable to someone in an attempt to get them to do something. Sounds like the proverbial “carrot on a stick” thing to me. First of all, the entice-ee must like carrots, or the jig is up for the enticer. So, the choice of “bait” used must be appropriate to the intended audience. As they say, don’t holler “sermon” in a crowded casino or a busy bar, as you’ll be quite disappointed at the response, if not outright injured. In a negative context, the enticer is looking to benefit his/her self by getting some unsuspecting actor to DO something that they might not otherwise do on their own, and to the benefit of the one doing the enticing. As we read in 4^th grade, Tom Sawyer masterfully entices his neighborhood friends to whitewash the fence in the eponymous Mark Twain novel by using reverse psychology. Politicians entice citizens to vote for them by offering outlandish promises, such as the town council candidate who says he will control immigration or the schoolboard candidate who says she will curtail abortions, if elected. Such promises, while initially casting aspersions on the political candidates themselves, truthfully indict the voters, for these kinds of candidates DO get elected, as we have witnessed, so some hoodwinked or mentally questionable majority had to exercise their legal right, albeit foolishly. 

 

“Entice” can have a benevolent meaning, however, as we see here in this text from Jeremiah. The prophet writes that it was God who did the enticing, in this case, to speak God’s word to an audience that is, at best, unprepared to hear it, and at worst, is hostile to it (remember “sermon” in a crowded casino?). When God does the enticing, God promises to have the backs of the entice-ees, and as this text shows, generally does. Of course, this thought takes me to another of my favorite movies (as the Bible often does)—“Oh, God,” the original, staring George Burns as God and John Denver (yes, THAT John Denver) as Jerry Landers, the supermarket manager and reluctant “prophet” God enlists to “give his word” to the world. In this entertaining story, God is much higher on the “calling” scale, and not quite so much on the “having his back” on the defensive side, at least until late in the film. In the Bible, I’m guessing most of the prophets would identify with Jerry Landers, at least until “the word” turns out to be “the truth,” even to the often hostile audience. Remember Elijah, hiding in the cave, paranoid about his future after defeating the prophets of Baal? Still, God ultimately does defend God’s spokespersons, unless you count John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul, all of whom met an untimely end, after challenging authority. George Burns’ portrayal of the Almighty in the movie caught God’s occasional reticence in standing up for God’s human “mouthpieces.” God may have a higher aim in mind, and martyrdom may be on the docket, if for nothing else, to prove a point to the human community that God’s ways are decidedly NOT our ways. In short, God’s enticements to the would be prophets are with the intended audience in mind, not the messenger, who may “get shot” in the line of duty. Part of faith is believing that all things will come out in the “great wash” at the end of the line.

 

The other word in verse one of this text is “mocks.” Now, here’s another verb that can have differing “nuances,” depending on what the “mocker” has in mind. I have usually viewed being “mocked” as a negative. “Don’t MOCK me!” is not a statement made by someone who is feeling flattered by the act. To repeat someone’s statement in a snide way is most often labeled as “mocking,” but to repeat it as a point of recall or emphasis, may be viewed as a high compliment. Given what Jeremiah is saying here, he wasn’t hearing the “word of the Lord” that he was proclaiming coming back at him for clarification or to endorse the message. There’s this: For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. As Jerry Landers found out, even a “good word” turns sour in some peoples’ minds when it is given as “from God.” The problem is, if it really IS from God, it’s hard to argue with, unless you’re Moses. And many folk have a hard time with that kind of finality or “last word” on anything. Since Jeremiah is writing somewhere around 600 B.C.E., I’m guessing we can say this kind of “derision” is universal among humans. Jeremiah’s mocking was not praise for his eloquent rhetoric; not praise at all.

 

There’s another word that catches my self-diagnosed ADHD brain: “derision.” John Wesley and his fellow Oxford students that had banded together to study the Bible, nurture their mutual spirituality, and perform acts of mercy to the less fortunate of England back in the early 18^th century, were branded “Methodists” by other, far less pietist students. It was a term of derision—or “mocking,” as some might say. Of course, it stuck, and here we are today as “United Methodists.” United? Well, those of us who stayed are working at it, but the former United Methodists who chose to disaffiliate, not so much. Are we still “methodical” in our approach to social issues, spiritual formation, and prayer? I might suggest that the centuries of embellished polity, systemic, hierarchal posturing and politicking, and “spreading thin” of way too many good goals have eroded our “method” into a kind of mish-mash of great expectations and good intentions. We HAVE done many good works to the glory of God, and we HAVE helped many people with their human needs and fostered much discipleship, but some would say we created an overly bureaucratic structure that is not “taming well” after the loss of almost half of our denomination. Am I mocking this predicament? Perhaps. But I digress…

 

The Northern Mocking Bird is an interesting creature. It is able to duplicate the calls of neighboring birds, and even the human-made, mechanical sounds of society, I am told. I have an Audubon app on my phone that picks up a bird call and can tell me what specific bird produced it. From time to time, it will hear a call that I KNOW is of a Cardinal or a Chickadee, of some sort, but the app says it’s a Northern Mocking Bird, obviously displaying a keen, technical ability to discriminate “real” from “Memorex,” as the old recording tape used to say. Amazing. I looked up the Northern Mocking Bird, and all of the science on the little beast says that it does not “mock” the calls of other birds for any nefarious reason. It is not a predator, it is not trying to steal their mates, or anything like that. It just does this because it can, and possibly to entertain itself. Of course, it, too, is looking for a mate, and being skilled at mocking other birds’ calls may also demonstrate its abilities for a female of its species, who would otherwise be unimpressed with its dull, gray appearance. I guess some are show-ers, while others are, well, mockers. 

 

Humans who mock others may be showing off, too, but mostly lesser skills and possibly even displaying an inferiority complex. To paraphrase an old line, Those who can, DO, while those who can’t, make fun of those who DO. Human mocking birds are not attracting females in spades, either, and the few who may be “attracted” by the male mocker are sparing another, more gifted male a miserable existence. The prophets of God like Jeremiah—or Jerry Flanders, for that matter—may not like the mocking they endure, and may pray that God give them their comeuppance, but in the end, those with the REAL “good words” prevail with truth as their shield and buckler. The “mocking birds” who attack the messenger and eschew heeding their message wind up with egg on their beaks.

 

We live in a day when those “mocking birds” among us deride truth, embrace empty boasts and broken promises, and proclaim themselves superior to the immigrant and the downtrodden. Perhaps this makes them feel superior, in some way, but in God’s eyes, they are hanging a millstone around their own necks, which will silence their stolen song, in the long run. The prophets among us who speak the truth, even in the face of the mockers and the oppressors, will have the final say, but it won’t puff their egos, for they know that ultimate truths belong not to them, but to the Divine. Jesus wound up on a cross for telling the truth and calling out the “mocking birds” of his generation as “whitewashed graves.” All of the remaining twelve disciples died as martyrs, history tells us, for they dared using their words and deeds to keep the truth of Jesus alive (might this be the “second resurrection” Jesus spoke of?). Paul lost his head because he refused to stay silent about the inbreaking Kingdom of God. And down through the ages, countless “mocking birds” have taken the sword, the flame, and the lynching tree up against those who speak and live God’s rightful truth. They, too, will have their feathers ruffled at the judgment seat. To quote Jeremiah: They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. May we be “birds of a different feather,” Dear Ones, and may our song be that of the Mourning Dove that pines for peace and justice. Amen.