The Persistence of the Wild Goose

The Wild Goose
The Way of the Wild Goose - Part 5
June 16, 2024
Matthew 18:10-14, Ezekiel 34:11-16, Psalm 139:7-12

What do you think? If someone had one hundred sheep and one of them wandered off, wouldn’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillsides and go in search for the one that wandered off?  If he finds it, I assure you that he is happier about having that one sheep than about the ninety-nine who didn’t wander off.  In the same way, my Father who is in heaven doesn’t want to lose one of these little ones.

 Matthew 18:12-14 (CEB)

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Craig J. Sefa

The Persistence of the Wild Goose

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Just like the scattered sheep in the days of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 34), Jesus saw the sheep of Israel scattered and abused in his own time.  Thieves continued to kill and destroy, but Jesus himself would go to any length to rescue even one who was lost.  In today’s culture, driven so much by numbers, profit and gain, the idea of leaving behind 99 for 1 seems absurd.  We are taught to appeal to the crowds, to get more views, likes and followers on social media, to get more people in the seats on Sunday mornings.  We put so much of our energy into keeping the 99 comfortable and happy.  In the process, how many have found themselves lost, ignored, and alone, even as they sit in the middle of the crowd?  And how many have wandered off completely unnoticed, or worse yet, been run out by the crowd because they didn’t fit in? 

When I consider the persistence of the Wild Goose, I think of Jesus’ parable.  Will the Holy Spirit not go to any length, even to the ends of the earth, for the one lost and lonely sheep to know that they are not alone?  In a culture driven by numbers and productivity, putting so much energy into the one may seem absurd, unless you happen to be the “one.”

Geese are communal by nature.  At least one or two will land with the one who is tired, injured, or weak, so that no one is left behind.  Like the good shepherd, they will do whatever it takes to restore the one to the rest of the flock.  What if we were more persistent about caring for the one than we were about trying to keep the 99 happy?  What if the church were a place not only where everyone was welcome, but where they truly belonged?  What if, instead of desperately protecting and clinging to what we have, or worse, what we used to have, we persisted in continuing Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)?

The Wild Goose shows us what it means to stay in formation, to keep our place, to rotate to the back as needed so that we don’t burn out, and to flap a little harder when others around us need a rest.  On the grand scale, we will never feel like we are enough to tackle the many existential crises in our world.  But if we zoom in and focus on the members of our flock, the ones in front of and behind us, the ones to our right and to our left, perhaps we are exactly the person someone needs us to be to make it through another day. 

Keep flying.

Keep honking. 

Keep caring. 

Keep loving. 

 The Wild Goose is all the strength you need.

~ excerpts from The Wild Goose: Embracing the Untambed Beauty of the Holy Spirit

The Bond of the Wild Goose

The Wild Goose
The Way of the Wild Goose - Part 4
June 9, 2024
Ephesians 4:1-6, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Hebrews 10:24-25, John 15:1—17

Craig J. Sefa

The Bond of the Wild Goose

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Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together.  You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope.  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.

 Ephesians 4:1-6 (CEB)

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The fundamental human need for relationship and community reflects the love which flows from the very God whose image we bear.  Here again, the image of the Wild Goose might have something to teach us about the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives and in our world.  Wild geese model a communal life of mutual support.   They honk in flight to encourage one another.   They fly in a V-shape and rotate the lead position so that when one bird grows tired it can move toward the back, allowing another to take the point position.  If one becomes too weak to keep up with the flock and falls out of formation, at least two others will land with it and remain by its side until it is able to fly again. 

Many people struggle to “fit in.”  “Fitting in” requires that we fundamentally change, or at least conceal part of ourselves to look or think like those around us for the sake of conforming to the group.  Underneath is the constant anxiety that we might be found out.  Especially in church, we worry what people will think if they find out we don’t share all the same beliefs, or if we have different political views, or if we struggle with doubt in our faith.  When we feel weak, are there people who will land with us and sit by our side, or do we feel like we just need to keep flying so that nobody will find out that we are not as strong as they think we are? 

Perhaps the Spirit invites us to something more.  What if the community of the Holy Spirit is not about fitting in at all, but about genuine belonging?  John O’Donohue puts it this way:

We have fallen out of belonging… The commercial edge of so-called 'progress,' has cut away a huge region of human tissue and webbing that held us in communion with one another. 

What if belonging, like the belonging in a flock of geese, comes from simply being there?  What if we allowed ourselves to be vulnerable enough to show up and to be present with and for one another with no judgment or expectation?  This kind of unconditional acceptance, belonging, and love is the primary mark of one who calls themselves a follower of Christ. 

As those who seek to follow Christ’s example, we cannot pick and choose who we will love based on preference, affection, similar interests, or agreement of opinions.  We must love as Christ loved us.  We must be vulnerable, serve one another, and open our hearts to the stranger. As a popular benediction from the United Methodist Hymnal declares,

Go now in peace to serve God and your neighbor in all that you do. Bear witness to the love of God in this world, so that those to whom love is a stranger will find in you generous friends.

~ The United Methodist Hymnal: Book of United Methodist Worship, 7. print
(Nashville, Tenn: United Methodist Publ. House, 1998), 869.

~ excerpts from The Wild Goose: Embracing the Untambed Beauty of the Holy Spirit

The Call of the Wild Goose

The Wild Goose
The Way of the Wild Goose - Part 3
June 2, 2024
Acts 16:6- 15. Philemon 1:15-16, Galatians 4:6-7, Exodus 20:2

Craig J. Sefa

The Call of the Wild Goose

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Paul and his companions traveled throughout the regions of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit kept them from speaking the word in the province of Asia.  When they approached the province of Mysia, they tried to enter the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let them.  Passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas instead.  A vision of a man from Macedonia came to Paul during the night. He stood urging Paul, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 

 Acts 16:6-9 (CEB)

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Too often we act like believing in Jesus and following Jesus are entirely different things.  Following or answering God’s call is for church leaders or ministers.  That’s not for me.  I’m just a regular person, not some “super-Christian.”  The sheer number of people in churches, even among the leadership, who say, for example, that “Bible study is just not their thing,” speaks to this artificial distinction between “believer” and “follower”. 

If belief is about trust, then there is no difference between believing and following.  When Jesus says, “Believe in me,” it is the same as saying, “Come, follow me.”  Belief requires trust.  Trust requires action.  Action requires stepping out in faith.  I once heard faith defined as “risk with direction.”  Faith always requires risk, and it always requires us to move in a particular direction.  Remaining content with the status quo is not an act of faith.  Being comfortable with our “beliefs” and unwilling to be challenged or grow beyond our present stage of faith does not demonstrate genuine trust in the God who says, “Go to the land I will show you” (Gen. 12:1).

While God’s call in Genesis 12 was specifically to Abram, it is also the call of the Wild Goose to every person who puts their faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It was the call Jesus gave to his disciples when he said, “Come, follow me” (Matt. 4:19).  It was the call Saul received when he was blinded on the road to Damascus that set his life on a radically different path (Acts 9:1-19) and the call he later followed over and over again on his missionary journeys as the Spirit continually redirects his path the places where God was already at work (i.e. Acts 16:6-9).  It was the call of St. Patrick who saw a man from Ireland bearing letters that summoned him to return and proclaim the love of Christ to the very people who had enslaved him as a boy.

These calls, along with many others in scripture and throughout history, are not calls to comfort and ease.  They do not lull us to sleep or to a false sense of peace and security like the sound of a dove.  On the contrary, these calls startle us, awaken us from sleep in a cold sweat, blind us along the road, and tell us to leave our nets behind and take nothing with us for the journey. 

The Spirit calls us to wake up and stay alert to God’s work in the world.  The Spirit calls us together as one body with one hope, one Lord, one faith, and one Baptism (Ephesians 4:5).  The Spirit calls to give us clear direction and to help us know which way to go.  The Spirit calls to protect us and keep us from danger.  And the Spirit calls to attract or draw others into the flock where they can find love, peace, and rest.  The Wild Goose calls when we least expect it for all sorts of reasons.  Remember, geese tend to bite those who try to put them in cages. 

How is the Wild Goose calling you this week?

~ excerpts from The Wild Goose: Embracing the Untambed Beauty of the Holy Spirit