First Congregational
in Canandaigua, New York
“Thanks for Seagulls”
Philippians 4:4–7; Psalm 92:1–4
The Rev. Thomas Herbek
July 6, 2008
Ritual is filled with signs that point to something else, something powerful and important. Certainly we have to understand what the signs say and what the words and symbols mean. Otherwise we can get into big trouble.
Reverend Brown was the part-time pastor of one of the local rural churches and Pastor Smith was the minister of the church across the road. They were both standing by the road pounding a sign into the ground that read: "The End is Near! Turn Yourself Around Now Before It's Too Late!" As a car sped past them, the driver leaned out his window and yelled, “You religious nuts!" From the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash......Brown turned to Smith and asked, '"Do you think maybe the sign should just say ‘BRIDGE OUT"'?
When we don’t take the time to understand the signs, then we may miss something vitally important. Today we celebrate two important rituals of our church: we call them sacraments. The one is a celebration of birth and the new life of this baby boy, who will be one year old tomorrow.
The second is a ritual giving thanks for a child sent to us, in order that we might understand how to live life more abundantly. And both of these rituals are meant to remind us that life is special and sacred, and that we have each been blessed by God.
People who look at these rituals may think we are crazy, and because of the nature of ritual, each person here fills up these sacraments with their own meaning. Because of our individual experiences and life journey, each of us sees these rituals in a very special way. In these rituals, God speaks to each of us uniquely. And we each have our own rituals of thanksgiving for life and for God’s blessings. Here is the story of one such ritual:
It happens every Friday evening, when the sun is starting to dip into the blue ocean. Old Ed comes to his favorite Florida pier. Clutched in his hand is a bucket of shrimp. Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts....and his bucket of shrimp.
Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'
In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.
When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.
If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
To an onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant ....maybe even a lot of nonsense. But this ritual is important because this man is Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water.
They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft.
Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull! He sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it. And he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight men - of it. Then they used the inedible parts of the gull for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait.
Because of that gull, they were able to endure until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.
Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull. And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.
-(adapted from Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm)
We each have our own reasons to be grateful and our own ways of celebrating.
So let us come together as a church family to celebrate life in all its fullness, from the birth of a child to the gift of God’s child to us. And lest we look down on the rituals of another person or another church family, let us remember that meaningful ritual is filled with a personal response to God and to life.
And that is what makes it so special, whether it is feeding seagulls, baptizing a baby, playing a guitar prayerfully, singing a hymn of thanks for our nation, or eating a small piece of bread and drinking a tiny cup in remembrance of God’s love.
So let us give thanks and celebrate everyday the gift of life, the gift of God’s love to us- and let our rituals be full of meaning for each of us in our own unique way.
