Fly high or scratch the ground

STORM LAKE, Iowa — Tuesday’s bird at Synod School was the eagle, and both worship leader the Rev. CeCe Armstrong and the Rev. Dr. Matt Sauer, who led the children’s time during worship, used the national symbol during their messages aimed at worshipers big and small.

Sauer donned a signature red cardigan reminiscent of Mister Rogers before addressing the children. When one child grinned and beamed at Sauer, the pastor pointed and said, “You lost a tooth today? Awesome.”

Sauer pulled a pair of stuffed toys, a hen and an eagle, out of a paper bag. “You learned a little about hens on Monday,” he told the children before launching into a story about an eaglet who hatched in a chicken coop and learned how to be a chicken, scratching on the ground and eating up worms rather than soaring high in the sky.

One day, the eagle looked up and saw a large bird flying overhead. His fellow chickens told him it was an eagle. “We’re birds of the ground, and that’s a bird of the air,” they told their friend.

“That eagle never knew it had giant wings that could spread out so it could fly really high. You have choices,” Sauer told the children. “You can choose to be a chicken or choose to be an eagle, but you never have to accept someone else telling you who you have to be. You can choose to be an eagle and fly high in the sky, or be a chicken and take care of people right here on the ground. Isn’t that neat?”

Armstrong labeled her sermon “Eagle Lessons,” continuing on the Tuesday morning theme of “Love in Between Patriotism and Faithfulness.” Her preaching text was Isaiah 40:28-31.

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Over the objection of Ben Franklin, the Second Continental Congress adopted the eagle as part of the Great Seal of the United States in 1782. “It’s majestic and it’s loved by those who call themselves patriots, people who love their country and support its authority,” Armstrong said. “Here’s where we can introduce faithfulness. We’re all residents of the city where God resides. Our permanent residence is not on this Earth.”

It’s possible, she said, to be a patriot — so long as we consider this world our temporary home.

We use terms like “majestic” when we see an eagle in flight, but “when it’s flying, it’s looking for food and tending to its family,” Armstrong said. “Maybe that’s what we’re supposed to do.”

She called God “the cornerstone that joins patriotism and faithfulness.”

“How can we be patriots of the City of God,” she asked, “if we fail to be good citizens on Earth?”

Armstrong assured those in worship that we rise when we loose the chains of injustice, when we set the prisoner free, share food and provide shelter, and clothe the naked. “And when we rise, we will see the light of dawn like a new day,” she said. “When we rise, righteousness will go before us. When we mount up with the wings of an eagle, that’s where we get our greatest lessons.”

“Just talk to any Boy Scout,” she said, asking those who’d risen to the rank of Eagle to rise. About a dozen Synod Schoolers stood and were applauded.

“In order to become an Eagle Scout, there were chores to complete, criteria to go through and people who had to endorse your work,” she said. “That’s the case for every Christian. There are things that you have to do and people around you to endorse you.”

“Truth be told, there is nothing you can do about that,” she said, repeating part of a benediction she’s known for.

Once again, the Synod School band added greatly to worship, leading hymns including “Come to Me, O Weary Traveler,” “Glory to God, Whose Goodness Shines on Me,” and “How Can I Keep from Singing.”