Ryan Gunnells is an incredibly talented photographer. If you’ve followed my blog, Ryan took the picture of the lost bird who joined us three miles out to sea on Santa Teresa. That picture is also in my first book, Changing Tacks: Lessons I’ve Learned from an Old Wooden Boat. Ryan then created the cover picture for my second book, The Wind from the Shadows (both books are available on Amazon.com) as well as the author picture on the back of the book.
Last fall Ryan helped me take Santa Teresa for her annual inspection and a little day sail on the bay. I knew he was up to something when he disappeared up on the bow with a camera and a bunch of bungee cords. Now he presents his amazing short film, a time lapse series of pictures strung together in a really fun video.
Thanks Ryan! You are welcome aboard anytime. I’m glad to not only call you my friend, but also my brother.
Need a photographer? Check out his website: http://reveriebyg.wordpress.com
Pelicans are funny looking birds. They have long thick bills with a pouch for catching fish beneath. As they dive for fish, they thrust their heads into the water at the last minute to catch their prey before their whole body follows it with an awkward crash into the sea. On the other hand, nothing is more magnificent than a flight of pelicans skimming together in close-packed formation inches above the waves with their fantastic wings barely moving. They are a familiar bird to most Southern Californians but did you know they were also an early symbol of Christianity?
Detail of the 1611 Title Page of the King James Bible
Most people know the cross is a Christian symbol. Some know the same is true of the simple fish, but starting in the second century, the pelican also became a Christian symbol. They are common in stained glass windows and carved into massive cathedral doors. There is a line in the 12th century hymn “Humbly we adore thee” that describes Christ as the “loving pelican divine.” Queen Elizabeth of England chose the pelican as her symbol and at the top of the title page of the very first King James Bible (1611) there is an etching of a pelican feeding her young. (See the illustration.)
We can understand the symbol of the cross – that’s where Jesus died. We understand the symbol of the lamb, since the gentle, sacrificial lamb often represents Christ in the Bible. What about the fish? The letters from the Greek word for fish (ichthus) represent the first letters of the phrase “Jesus Christ God’s Son and Savior,” but how did the pelican come to symbolize Christianity?
For the answer to that question we need to visit Alexandria, Egypt in the Second Century. A Christian author penned a book of morals for children. In it he described various animals, birds, plants and even stones. He would describe one of these and then its special attributes and encourage children to imitate them. The book is called the Physiology. It’s still available. (Although originally written in Greek, it’s been translated into Latin, Syriac, English and a host of other languages. See Amazon.com.) It’s richly decorated and was very, very popular.
So how does this relate to the pelican becoming a symbol of Christianity? Have you ever watched a pelican at rest? Her beak often lays on her breast and they characteristically rub it up and down. The Mediterranean pelican’s pouch is blood red during mating season. Thus the legend was born that a mother pelican, in times of famine, will pierce her breast and heroically feed her children on her own blood. As a result, the pelican came to symbolize the sacrifice of Jesus who gave his blood that we might live.
Procrustes was very friendly, but he may have been the worst host of all time. He invited all passersby on their way from Athens to Eleusis to stop and spend the night at his house. He even graciously offered them the use of his famous iron bed. There was only one problem: if the guest was too short, Procrustes would stretch them out until they fit his bed and if they were too long he would simply cut them down to size.
Of course there truly is no such thing as “one size fits all” in clothing or in congregations. Churches are such a diverse lot aren’t they? At my congregation, Canyon View, we have old and young, rich and poor, people with strings of degrees after their name and those without. We speak English, Spanish, Tagalog and Texan. We love spicy food and bland. Our diversity is our strength, but it can also become our greatest vulnerability. I truly fear those who would, like Procrustes, insist we all fit the same mould.
Think about the church in Corinth (chapter 1). Some people loved listening to Paul. He wasn’t a trained orator and often talked too long (ask Eutychus), but the depth of his understanding has never been equaled. On the otherhand, there were those who loved the “Eloquent Alexandrian” Apollos. Others were entranced by the sincerity and first-hand knowledge of Peter. How did they ever get along? It should come as no surprise that the Corinthians struggled in this area. What advice would you give them? I like this oft quoted maxim from Rupertus Meldenius (circa 1627):
“In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”
One of the oldest churches in Christendom is the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. It is a UN World Heritage Site – the first in Palestine and Israel. Constantine the Great’s mother, Helen, was responsible for building it in 339 A.D. It was constructed over the traditional site of the birthplace of Jesus, a cave below the church.
If we were to climb down into the cave by the circular staircases on either side of the altar, we wouldn’t recognize the grotto below the church as a cave. Today it is hung with tapestries and lit with lamps. There is a simple altar and there on the floor, supposedly over the very spot of his birth, is a fourteen pointed silver star. While it is likely that Jesus was born in a cave (they were used as stables in those days), it is highly unlikely anyone would remember exactly which cave much less exactly which place in the cave was the exact location of the birth of a carpenter’s son almost 400 years earlier!
What is fascinating for Bible students is why they would choose a fourteen-pointed star to mark the place? Why not a six pointed star of David or even a five-pointed star of Solomon? If you’ve been following our suggested daily Bible reading plan for 2014 (copies are available in the foyer), last week you read Matthew chapter 1. Do you remember verse 17? At the conclusion of the genealogy of Jesus Matthew writes:
“So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.”
Thus the silver star has fourteen points, but even that raises more questions. Matthew was wrong! For the fourteen generations from Abraham to David, Matthew had to count both Abraham and David. The make the next group of fourteen generations, Matthew had to skip three kings and conflate Jehoiakim and Jechoniah. The last group had to include Jechoniah and Jesus to get fourteen but since it covers a period of 500 years, Matthew may have omitted a few people.
To our western way of thinking, the genealogy is wrong but Matthew wasn’t one of us. He wasn’t trying to give us an accurate genealogy at all. He was trying to emphasize Jesus is the Son of David. Ancient people used their alphabets to count with. (Do you remember Roman numerals from school?) So the Hebrew name for King David, dwd, has a numeric value: (d = 4) + (w = 6) + (d = 4) = the number 14!
Matthew is trying to emphasize to his Jewish readers: Jesus is the son of David (14), son of David (14), son of David (14). And now you know why there are fourteen points on the Star of Bethlehem.
