Scripture: Romans: 12:1–8 & Matthew 16:13–20
There’s that old adage: “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.”
There must be a different version of it for starling birds:
“If you want to go nowhere, go with everyone.”
Have you ever seen a giant clouds of starlings in flight?
Do you know the ones I’m talking about?
These bird formations have a beautiful name: murmurations. When a murmuration forms, thousands of birds appear to spontaneously gather as one body in flight, usually at the end of a day.
They appear to fly in circles over one spot, without traveling anywhere, but they do it in the most beautiful way.
How do the birds know how to keep together?
How do they avoid breaking off into two, or three, or a thousand smaller groups?
The answer, it’s said, is that each bird watches and responds to the micro-motions of the six or seven birds closest to it, and by doing that all the birds can fly together even as the overall collection of birds skews and warps its shape.
There is no single leader of starlings . . . rather the group is led by the overall effect of every bird responding to its neighbors —when the cloud of birds somehow all at once, decides to drop to the ground to roost for the night, it’s all the more impressive for not having been decided by a single bird; somehow it is decided by the collective that the day is done.
The style of leadership we see in the Bible reading today is a little different.
Do people know the term bellwether?
In New Hampshire, everyone used to talk about New Hampshire as the nation’s bellwether in presidential elections because Granite Staters claimed they were the best at parsing political candidates on behalf of all the other states.
At grocery stores, eggs are seen to be a bellwether because changes in their prices indicate that price changes may soon follow for other goods as well.
In biblical times a wether is the name for a ram, and a bell wether would be a ram with a bell around its neck. All the sheep know to follow the sound of the bell wether who is the leader of their group and makes decisions for them about where they will go and how they will act.
In the gospels, Jesus is the traditional bell wether for his followers. Where he goes the others go, and what he teaches the others learn and do. After calling disciples, he sets the tone for everything and the others follow him. He literally says, come and follow me.
But here in chapter 16 in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus the leader metaphorically takes off his bell for the first time and indicates that it’s time for his followers to start following the lead of other people. Here in chapter 16 he signals that it would be wise to follow Peter in the future (and it’s worth noting that in other gospels Jesus signals that Mary Magdalene and Peter have what it takes to lead).
Now, when Peter says “you are the Christ, Son of the living God,” this becomes the bellwether for all the other disciples to follow.
As Jesus begins to tell his followers that they must go to Jerusalem where he will be killed, I imagine that once Jesus had passed the mantle of his singular leadership, he then went to the back of his flock. Perhaps he treated his disciples like a murmuration, like the starlings, watching the six or seven of his friends who were nearest to him and responding to their movements.
Perhaps by following them to Jerusalem as a murmuration instead of clanging the bell around his neck for others to follow, Jesus is able to teach them the importance of being like a child, and of sharing your possessions with others, or that those who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Who are the six or seven people in your life who are part of your murmuration? Who do you watch to gain insight into how to live your life, and where to direct your time and attention. It could be family members, or neighbors, or friends.
For me, many of the people who are part of my murmuration, who I watch to learn from their example, are right here in this congregation. I watch and see the Holy Spirit moving in you and see how you respond to the world in generosity, and kindness, and grace, and service. I’ve seen people care for those who are grieving, give to those who have little, provide for those who are hungry, speak for those who have been silenced, act for those who have been detained, and accompany those who need connection. We are social beings who learn from each other and influence each other and channel the Holy Spirit for each other.
And so in Matthew’s Gospel we see Jesus practicing a new form of leadership by setting up more leaders to lead the beloved community into the future.
Paul picks up on this fact in his letter to the Romans
When he says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”…
He might as well be saying, don’t follow the bellwethers of this world. Don’t follow Caesar, or the mightiest person, or the people who are selling quick fixes, or the loudest one in a room. Renew your idea of who can lead … and then follow each other into the future.
In verst 6, Paul says, “we each have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” In other words, who you are is what God has made you to be, and so be fully yourself in all that you do. Teach, encourage, serve, give, prophesy, lead — whatever it is for you, it is a contribution to the whole.
This is a good lesson for us.
Each of us is part of a murmuration of faith. Each of us is an essential part of the body of God.
Let us take flight.
Amen.
