The hummingbird in a nearly worshipful pose surveys the tower that by his efforts he has prevented others of lesser strength or cunning from drinking their fill and becoming renewed. When the Church allows its main focus to shift to solving the ills of society, however noble and compassionate, without a foundation of the Living water that Jesus Christ provides, we become the hummingbirds who take satisfaction in guarding traditions, only allowing the ‘worthy’ to come in, and placing our righteousness on display as we tolerate the sin rather than engage those with the Gospel that heals all of mankind’s afflictions.
On a recent Saturday morning, the air was cool. The sky was overcast but not threatening rain-just a secure blanket of refreshingly inviting space to extend the early morning before the sun broke through. The faint but steady breeze called us to have our breakfast on the back porch where our attention was drawn to the activity around our hummingbird feeder.
Daily we are treated to a relentless display of aerial combat that would make any seasoned pilot feel the adrenalin rush of being back in the cockpit again. While we are normally treated to an airborne dance for dominance by three of more competing hummingbirds, this day’s display was curiously different.
There was one dominant bird that for nearly thirty minutes stood his ground gripping one of the six perches around our red feeder with its corresponding yellow plastic flowers that usually invite our neighborhood hovercraft to drink their fill.
Although this ace was small in size, he was tenacious in establishing his domain. Occasionally, he would fly to the top of the nearby fence and wait for another to attempt to challenge his territory. When the intruder would approach the feeder, he would dart in with his ferocious buzz to physically remove any interloper that would dare to stop for a quick drink of the sustaining sugar water from his fountain.
Each time this ‘king of the hill’ successfully defended his sanctuary, he would simply sit on his perch looking up at the glass-encased column of nectar in an admiring, nearly reverent manner. Amazingly, in the half an hour that we watched, he never once took a drink. This seemed odd as I had witnessed at least fifteen sorties in defense of ‘his’ fortress. The expenditure of energy must have surely demanded the taking on of more fuel. However, he seemed content to stand and admire the structure and his position as its high protector.
Likewise we may see a parallel between this hummingbird behavior and some of the socially activist churches and their members that I have observed over the years. How is it that some people can seem to be so busy ‘at church’ and yet appear to be so spiritually mal-nourished? It seems that this has been the way for at least the decades that I have been able to hold a thought in my head. In misguided attempts to remain relevant or simulating the culture instead of constantly reforming and renewing its people (Romans 12), they hold tightly to their facilities as monuments to a time when their pews were full but forgetting what filled them in the first place.
At times, the leadership seems to be filled with those that would ‘modernize’ their approach to ‘church’ by not only making sure that no one is offended but that those with views that weaken the Gospel are given a voice that sounds compassionate and inclusive while it stabs at the heart of Christianity. The inclusion and near celebration of openly homosexual practitioners is seen as being in vogue while omitting the recognition of this behavior as sin of the first order, an abomination (Leviticus 18:22).
Instead of becoming like the world and its focus on self in the fulfillment on anything that the mind can dream up (Romans 1:28, 32), these churches and members must be about their Father’s business. There is ample Living water for the sinner and the hummingbird if they would only ‘taste and see’ (Psalm 34:8). Both are so close yet their work keeps them admiring what they have accomplished and not what has been accomplished for them.
The hummingbird in a nearly worshipful pose surveys the tower that by his efforts he has prevented others of lesser strength or cunning from drinking their fill and becoming renewed. When the Church allows its main focus to shift to solving the ills of society, however noble and compassionate, without a foundation of the Living water that Jesus Christ provides (Song of Solomon 4:15; Jeremiah 2:23, 17:13; Zechariah 14:8; John 4:10, 7:38; Revelation 7:17), we become the hummingbirds who take satisfaction in guarding traditions, only allowing the ‘worthy’ to come in, and placing our righteousness on display as we tolerate the sin rather than engage those with the Gospel that heals all of mankind’s afflictions.
It is a fine line to replace the Object with the outcome, the Original with the counterfeit, and the Life Everlasting with the illusion of life.
I am waiting and watching, while I pray for the hummingbird to take a drink and drink his fill. When that happens, I expect to see him go and gather his friends to tell them of the source of life (Matthew 28:18-20). It is time for all to honor that call upon our lives to pour ourselves out as a drink offering so that others may learn to drink in the newness of life and share the same with others. Jesus Christ is the answer in all cases.
It is a rare sight but not impossible to see all the perches filled, with heads bowed, drinking in the truth that gives eternal life.
Roy Liddell is a Ruling Elder in the Christ Community Church (PCA) in Simpsonville, S.C.