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A faithful presence of love in the absences of our city.

The Year of the Rooster

This year is the year of the rooster. It’s part of the Chinese calendar. Chinese New Year began on January 28th. What’s unique about this year is that it is not only a rooster year, but a fire rooster year. The way the system works is you get a combo of one of 12 animals and then one of 5 elements. So this combination is one that only occurs once every 60 years. The Chinese calendar acts as a type of zodiac, but it is celebrated by about one in every six people in the world. It is said that people born under the fire rooster are said to be trustworthy and have a strong sense of timekeeping and responsibility at work. They are also supposed to be popular, talkative and loyal.

Now, I’m not telling you this because I somehow love the Chinese Zodiac or that all your babies born this year will be responsible, have a great sense of time and be super popular and loyal. However, if that was true in about 20 years our church would be more timely and maybe grow to be really big.

I do love the rooster. One of my all time favorite books is The Book of the Dun Cow by Walt Wangerin. It is a story in part about a rooster. The rooster is named Chanticleer. He is the Lord of the land. He cares for his coop, his small part of the world, his congregation. This caring is his vocation. He is challenged daily with the task of knowing and still loving the meek animals under his care. And they are challenged with doing the same. Chanticleer does the work of keeping Wyrm, the antagonist and representation of evil or Satan, restrained. He regularly tries to keep dangers from entering the coop. Chanticleer pastors his community with strength, patience, bravery, and deep love - even as his community is full of fools, the weak, and the damaged, the broken and hurting. His main work is in the three types of crows that he crows, full of blessing and wisdom. They are the canonical crows that order and make the day, the occasional crows, and the crows potens. And what is a pastor if he does not faithfully crow these three types of crows? Chanticleer preaches, prays, sings. He speaks blessing and cursing into his world. He is regularly discouraged, and so often full of pride. He can get angry and struggle with bitter resentment. But he day after day goes about his work with courage, passion, sadness and strength. I resonate with him, with his call, with his struggles, with his sadness and deep brokenness. He is an exemplary rooster.

The rooster is also important in the history of the church. It is symbolic and representative of God’s grace to sinners. It has been identified with Peter and his failure, and Christ and His triumph. The church is a place for sinners. It is where sinners belong. They meet together week after week, failure after failure to find comfort and victory in Jesus and His death on a cross and His resurrection from the dead.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells the disciples that they will all fall away from Him because of the events about to happen, namely, His death. Immediately afterwards in Matthew 26:33–35, “Peter answered him [Jesus], “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.” Then in Matthew 26:69–75 we watch Simon Peter three times deny any relationship to Jesus. It reads, “Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.”After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.”

The rooster crowed three times that night, the night Peter denied Jesus. This event is recorded in all four Gospel accounts. My friend Greg reminded me that the three times emphasizes how complete that denial was. Peter is and was a failure. He was a denier, a deserter, a doubter. Diabolically all the while, proclaiming his faithfulness, justifying his efforts. At times he was magnanimous in his example and at other times in his failure…a glorious ruin…just like us. We are prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. We are prone to greatness, a word, an action, a faithful confession. And we so need Jesus.

One of the best parts of Peter’s story is that after Jesus death, Jesus restored him. In spite of his incredible failures…he was not out of the reach of Jesus and His grace. We too share in restoration. In the Gospel of John, Jesus shows up on the shoreline while Peter and the others are fishing. He cooks for Peter over a charcoal fire on the shore. The place of Peter’s greatest moment, coming to Jesus after the great catch and his lowest, his denial around a charcoal fire. When Peter sees Jesus, he runs to him. No more running away in the darkness of the night. Jesus has come to him and Peter responds in the face of guilt and shame by running to Jesus. To Him…not away.

This exchange ends with three questions. Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Each time Peter responds, “You know that I love you, Lord.” Jesus replies, “then feed my sheep.” Peter is grieved at the third and final ask. Reminded of the pain, sadness and shame of his failure. But Jesus doesn’t disqualify him. He gives him his vocation. His place in the world is one of shepherd. Like Chanticleer he will go into the world and be a part of the redemption and renewal of God. He will be a faithful presence of Jesus with the church stepping into all the absences of the world. 

Jesus leaves Peter with a picture of the future and the words, “follow me.” And then we see in Acts, Peter stepping into the absences and declaring the Gospel in word and deed, clinging to the cross. The rooster is the symbol of this story. It’s the story of all failures and disciples. It’s a story of the church. It’s the story of the people of our world. We are after all “Glorious Ruins.” I love the rooster, because it reminds me of my need of Jesus, my call in the world, the glory of grace and the wonder of the Gospel. Historically the church has remembered this event by placing the rooster atop it’s steeple. It is a symbol of the weakness of man and the triumph of Jesus. Through the cross even the man who three times denied the Savior was forgiven, loved, restored and sent out to zealously live for the glory of God. There is hope in the Gospel for sinners everywhere. My hope for you and our church is that we all cling to the cross of Christ and be commissioned into our worlds, despite our great failures, our great shame, our great sadness, our great loss, because we serve a great savior who went to hell and back to redeem and restores us. We cling to Him, and He makes us into who we are to become.

Rooster Crop

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"Chinese New Year: What Does the Year of the Rooster Mean?" The Week UK. N.p., 23 Jan. 2017. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.

From George Edema

Hough, Brian. "Why the Rooster Symbol?" Manhattan Presbyterian Church. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.

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