Happy Fourth of July weekend. I am going to do something a little different this weekend for a homily. First of all, I don’t normally mention civil holidays. I am going to make this a bit of a patriotic homily. Not really. I want to talk about some of the places in the Bible that speak about eagles.
First of all the only book in the New Testament that speaks about Eagles is the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. So I am not going to focus on the New Testament but only on the major sightings in the Old Testament that speak of eagles.
The first one is from the book of Exodus and the idea here has become a very popular hymn that we know well in English: “On Eagles Wings.” The verse from Exodus reads: “you have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.”
Here is the point. From what I was told, when an eagle is trying to teach its young to fly, it will hover with food just out of reach for the young eagle so that the young eagle must reach over the nest to try to get the food. And inevitably the young eagle falls. But the parent will swoop down and catch the young eagle that still cannot quite fly ON ITS BACK and carry it back to the nest.
God brought the Israelites safely out of Egypt as on an eagle’s wing. God was not going to let the Egyptian nation recapture his people! God will also not abandon us! This is also mentioned very explicitly in the book of Deuteronomy where it says, “as an eagle insights its nestlings, hovering over its young, so he spread his wings, took them, bore them up on his pinions.” Can you trust that God will carry you? (Pause)
The second example comes from the prophet Jeremiah. “Look! Like an eagle he soars aloft and spreads his wings over Bozrah…” Eagles like to soar. They have been seen soaring above storm clouds at 10,000 feet. That is almost 2 miles! They catch the updraft of the storm and away they go. All other birds when they come upon a storm will head for the ground. We are called to soar like an eagle. We are not made to cower on the ground in fear and trembling because some storm seems to be raging around us. No. When things get intense, that is when we spread our wings, our arms in prayer, and allow the troubles to carry us to Heights that only God can lead us to. (Pause)
Now I have one more description of an eagle for you that is not mentioned in the Bible. An eagle’s nest is a tightly woven set of sticks that is then lined with feathers for the comfort of the young eagle. But another tactic that the parents have for getting the young out of the nest is to break the sticks so the nest becomes uncomfortable for the young eagle.
Sometimes God makes things difficult for us in our current situation, whatever that situation may be, so that we would have to move from where we are to where he wants us to be. So not all discomfort is a bad thing. It may just be that God is trying to push you out of your comfort zone to get you to begin to fly.
Despite the idea of the disrupted nest that is uncomfortable to stay in, one of the Psalms tells us “[God is the one] who fills your days with good things, so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Of course, this reminds us of the idea of soaring again. So that we come full circle in the descriptions of eagles.
The Scriptures teach us a lot about our national bird. God has made us to soar in ways that we probably still do not understand. I am not talking about the transformation that is our destiny in heaven. I am talking about trying to understand what it means to live in the freedom that God has planned for us. Do not mistake our culture’s idea of freedom for the freedom that God intends us to have. God’s intentions lead us to fly above the troubles of this world and to enter into the mystery of gliding on the wind.
Does that sound to poetic? I think we have lost some of the poetry of Scripture, the poetry of our nation, and the joy of being a child of God. I will not ask for a show of hands, but I wonder how many of you have thought about what it would be like to soar above the clouds.
I remember as a child having many dreams that I could fly. With technology we can “see” through the eyes of a drone, but that is not the same as the freedom of what I imagine flying would be.
The freedom that God offers us is so much more than we can possibly imagine, even though we have good imaginations. Here on this Fourth of July weekend as we celebrate the freedom of our country here, I think we need to keep in mind that the freedom God offers us is a much richer meal than any that has been spread before us in our current culture.
I do not think we can do our nation any better service than to remind them what real freedom means. It is not a freedom to do as we please, but is a freedom to do as we ought. God has made us his children, and even though we do not speak of royalty in our nation, we are princes and princesses of the King of the universe. In my way of thinking that is true freedom.
First of all the only book in the New Testament that speaks about Eagles is the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. So I am not going to focus on the New Testament but only on the major sightings in the Old Testament that speak of eagles.
The first one is from the book of Exodus and the idea here has become a very popular hymn that we know well in English: “On Eagles Wings.” The verse from Exodus reads: “you have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.”
Here is the point. From what I was told, when an eagle is trying to teach its young to fly, it will hover with food just out of reach for the young eagle so that the young eagle must reach over the nest to try to get the food. And inevitably the young eagle falls. But the parent will swoop down and catch the young eagle that still cannot quite fly ON ITS BACK and carry it back to the nest.
God brought the Israelites safely out of Egypt as on an eagle’s wing. God was not going to let the Egyptian nation recapture his people! God will also not abandon us! This is also mentioned very explicitly in the book of Deuteronomy where it says, “as an eagle insights its nestlings, hovering over its young, so he spread his wings, took them, bore them up on his pinions.” Can you trust that God will carry you? (Pause)
The second example comes from the prophet Jeremiah. “Look! Like an eagle he soars aloft and spreads his wings over Bozrah…” Eagles like to soar. They have been seen soaring above storm clouds at 10,000 feet. That is almost 2 miles! They catch the updraft of the storm and away they go. All other birds when they come upon a storm will head for the ground. We are called to soar like an eagle. We are not made to cower on the ground in fear and trembling because some storm seems to be raging around us. No. When things get intense, that is when we spread our wings, our arms in prayer, and allow the troubles to carry us to Heights that only God can lead us to. (Pause)
Now I have one more description of an eagle for you that is not mentioned in the Bible. An eagle’s nest is a tightly woven set of sticks that is then lined with feathers for the comfort of the young eagle. But another tactic that the parents have for getting the young out of the nest is to break the sticks so the nest becomes uncomfortable for the young eagle.
Sometimes God makes things difficult for us in our current situation, whatever that situation may be, so that we would have to move from where we are to where he wants us to be. So not all discomfort is a bad thing. It may just be that God is trying to push you out of your comfort zone to get you to begin to fly.
Despite the idea of the disrupted nest that is uncomfortable to stay in, one of the Psalms tells us “[God is the one] who fills your days with good things, so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Of course, this reminds us of the idea of soaring again. So that we come full circle in the descriptions of eagles.
The Scriptures teach us a lot about our national bird. God has made us to soar in ways that we probably still do not understand. I am not talking about the transformation that is our destiny in heaven. I am talking about trying to understand what it means to live in the freedom that God has planned for us. Do not mistake our culture’s idea of freedom for the freedom that God intends us to have. God’s intentions lead us to fly above the troubles of this world and to enter into the mystery of gliding on the wind.
Does that sound to poetic? I think we have lost some of the poetry of Scripture, the poetry of our nation, and the joy of being a child of God. I will not ask for a show of hands, but I wonder how many of you have thought about what it would be like to soar above the clouds.
I remember as a child having many dreams that I could fly. With technology we can “see” through the eyes of a drone, but that is not the same as the freedom of what I imagine flying would be.
The freedom that God offers us is so much more than we can possibly imagine, even though we have good imaginations. Here on this Fourth of July weekend as we celebrate the freedom of our country here, I think we need to keep in mind that the freedom God offers us is a much richer meal than any that has been spread before us in our current culture.
I do not think we can do our nation any better service than to remind them what real freedom means. It is not a freedom to do as we please, but is a freedom to do as we ought. God has made us his children, and even though we do not speak of royalty in our nation, we are princes and princesses of the King of the universe. In my way of thinking that is true freedom.
