Second Testament Matthew.6:26-27, 23:37-39, Mark 1:9-11 and parallels
Humans have existed always with non-human animal species, and birds have provided ecological benefit to the environment. Birds pollinate plants, control insect population, disperse seeds, cycle nutrients, function as scavengers, maintain habitats, and assist conservation. Humanity reaps benefits from sharing the planet with birds.
Nature has been infused with spirit and aliveness, and birds have become a apt metaphor for Spirit in both testaments. The dove has been drafted as metaphor or even a symbol of the Spirit. The Spirit of God (ruach Elohim) in Genesis 1:1-2 hovers (merahefet, can also be translated flutters or trembles) over the deep to birth creation. The same verb is used in Dt. 32:11 where an eagle…hovers over its young.” The image of Spirit is an avian or bird Spirit hovering over the chaos waters at the start of creation. The dove appears in Gen. 8:11 when a released dove returns with an olive branch to signal the flood waters receding. These links between spirit, bird, and water with new creation echoes the new beginning or creation in the baptism of Jesus and the descent of the dove Spirit in bodily form (Lk. 3:22) Michael Trainor observes how Luke stresses the corporeality of the Spirit as dove links Jesus to “a world more-than-human.” He comments, “Jesus’ link to the wider Earth household is affirmed through his insertion or immersion into Earth water. This primordial being, watery subsistence at creation beginning, surrounds him like a womb, From Earth’s water, he is born into ministry.” God breathe the Spirit into the soil material body of Jesus to create a new Adam, a new Earth Child. His kinship with the Earth is confirmed by the Mother Dove Spirit. In Nazareth. Jesus proclaims, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor” (Lk. 4:18). Jesus carries on the avian Spirit’s anointing to preach the good news, restore the ill to community of creation, and practice God’s kin-dom.
The image or symbol of mother dove as Spirit is generally not understood as similar to the incarnation of the Spirit in Jesus. David Clough notes that the doctrine of incarnation is not applied to the spirit He cites an example of St. Augustine, who rejects the idea that the Spirit is incarnate in the dove at Jesus’ baptism. The distinction between the incarnation and symbol may reflect the anthropocentricism of the doctrine that distinguishes the incarnation in a human as different from a dove. However, is there an commonality of incarnation at conception and at baptism is the agency of the Spirit in embodying presence in various material forms in the both testaments. Is the presence of the Spirit at the beginning of creation, embodied presence materially, and in the conception and resurrection of Jesus. Is this presence and agency of the Spirit in creation differs as presence and agency at the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ?
Jesus draws example of God’s providence for young ravens (Ps. 147:9). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus argues against excessive concerns of disciples for material needs for food and clothing. He points to the witness of the “birds of the heaven”, who neither sow nor reap nor gather harvests into barns, yet God feeds them. He urges them not to be anxious but trust the sovereignty of God to provide. In another aphorism, Jesus uses examples of God’s care for sparrows, “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will” (Mt. 10:29). Just as God cares for the smallest of creature, Jesus encourages his disciples to trust God’s compassionate care and wisdom in providing for all of creation.
One final action of Jesus behalf of doves in the Jerusalem Temple demonstration. The Temple economy was based on factory farming of animals for sale and sacrifice. A.N. Wilson wrote, “The stench of the blood and of roasting flesh can hardly be drowned by the smoke of incense; nor the cries of traders or the uplifted voices of priests and pilgrims at prayer, have drowned the screeching of the beasts as they had their throats cut.” Animal sacrifice at the Temple was a thriving and profitable religious business. John 2:2, 22 notes that Jesus freed the doves along releasing the oxen and sheep. The early Christ community dealt with eating meat sacrificed to idols (1 Cor.8). For the Temples in the ancient world functioned not only a place to offer sacrificed animals but a portion of the roasted meat was sold in the open market. Stephen Webb argues that the eucharist was a vegetarian meal, often described as a sacrifice of praise. Jesus may not have been a strict vegetarian in his diet but had definite notion of caged birds and animals.
The Avian Welfare Coalition’s National Bird Day focuses on reducing the harm and suffering of birds in the destructive exotic bird trade, caged birds, and cruel breeding mills. Are these new temples of the religion of commodifying birds in pet trade for profit. Exotic bird sanctuaries serve are full of rescued of abused and unwanted birds. . Bird extinction has significantly accelerated over the last 50 years due to human environmental impact and climate change.
In the spirit of Jesus’ creation-centered spirituality, Franics of Assisi preached the following sermons to birds:
Birds, my sisters, you owe God a great deal. You ought to praise [God] always and everywhere for the freedom you have to fly everywhere, … for your ornate and colorful clothing, … for the song given to you by your Creator…. You neither sow nor reap, yet God feeds you. [God] gives you the rivers and springs for drink; the mountains and hills, the rocks and crags as refuges; the high trees for nests; and even though you do not know how to sew or weave, he gives you and your children the clothing you need. Therefore, your Creator who gave you all these benefits, loves you very much. You be careful, my little birds, don’t be ungrateful, but try to praise God always.
In his book, Reading the Hebrew Bible with Animals Studies, Ken Stone writes,
Rab Judah remarks in a Midrash on Genesis. “It is not written, “one the high mountains are the wild goats,” but “The high mountains are for the wild goats.’ Thus, for whose sake were the high mountains created? For the sake of the wild goats.” As he goes on to note, God created the world even “for the sake of unclean things.” (Bereshit Rabbah 12:9). Rab Judah reading of Psalm 104 seems to conclude that God did not create the world only for us, with animals in the background. God created the various spaces of the world for diverse species. We have our place, but it one place among many.
This is God’s vision for us!