"While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping..."

My household is under assault. Every morning an incessant banging upon the house awakens us. Seriously, as I write this, there is a masked marauder lurking about our domicile. Earlier this morning he was flinging himself with abandon upon our humble abode.

"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December... "

For six months now, we have endured his peering in the windows, and brazenly beating against our windowpanes.

"And the silken sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain..."

I have observed him from behind the curtains daily, as he has stalks our home, disrupting our routine. Just a few weeks ago, our daughter Heather let out a Hitchcockian scream one morning in the bathroom….seems the perverse prowler was peeking in the window.

"Deep into that darkness -peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing..."

Just last night, at dusk, like a bird of prey he was perched hauntingly in front of the window in our living room, staring at me with malice intent.

"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance, at my chamber door…"

This Imposing prowler that plagues our tranquility is nothing other than a bird, a bright, red-crested cardinal to be exact. He took up residence last summer at our bird feeder, and promptly chased away another male cardinal who had nested here for a few years. This bird has a chip on his shoulder, a score to settle and territory to mark. Heather calls him crazy and while he has proved entertaining, he is certainly annoying. What would possess this young macho cardinal to spend literally hours a day crashing into our windows with the abandon and accuracy of a stealth bomber?

"Prophet! said I, 'thing of evil - prophet still, bird or devil-"

What can it be? Seriously, what is the lesson here? I've pondered the 'what-cheer, cheer, cheer' call of this little devil-bird. What is he saying?

"Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly… "

Then I figured out what he was saying one day last week as our feathered friend circled about like a vulture while I was mowing the lawn. I watched him as with great aplomb he dove into the living room window (his favorite target) and fell back, stunned on the front porch. Andrew has always said the, bird would break his neck. And I thought that perhaps Andrew was a prophet as the bird lay still on the walk. No luck. He sprang from the ground and flew into the crab-apple tree.

"What-cheer, cheer, cheer'' he sang. Another foe vanquished, another score settled, and another rival to his territory put in its place. He sat in the tree preening his ruffled feathers, victorious yet another day and singing his song when it hit me--nothing of great spiritual consequence mind you, but at least I can sleep at night now.

"Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling..."

Whoever acknowledges that God alone is right in his dealings with man, that individual has come into the right position before God, has become rightly prepared to stand before God, has become righteous through faith in God's righteousness, and has therefore found peace with God.

"... We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ... "And so also has God's struggle against us been brought to an end. God hated the will that would not submit to him. Countless times he called, admonished, pleaded, and threatened, until there was no longer any patience in his wrath with us.

He swung at us and struck down the only innocent person on the entire face of the earth. It was his beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ died on the cross, struck down by the Father's wrath towards sin. God himself had taken upon our sin and rebellion in the form of the cross. God Himself sent him to the end. And God's wrath toward man was stilled when the Son bent to his will in obedience, even unto death. Miraculous mystery this-God made peace with us through Jesus Christ.

"This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease, reclining...."

If I could use one utterance to describe this Cardinal who has come from the Night's plutonian shore it would be, "contentious". The bird is unsettled, divisive, arguable, and touchy to say the least. This is where it gets a little close to home for us. There are many Christians who kneel before the cross of Christ, who yet reject and struggle against every trial, discipline, and splinter in their lives.

They are contentious with God. They believe they love the cross of Christ, yet they hate it at work in their own life, and go to great lengths to escape it. They have not found peace with God at all, and have merely peace with the world. Some believe, erroneously, that by means of the cross of Jesus Christ they might at best come to terms with themselves and with all their questions and find inner peace of the soul. But when trials and dark birds of doubt and despair begin to roost above their chamber door, they find they have no peace with God at all. And in turn, they find no peace on earth.

Those who love the cross of Jesus Christ, those who have truly found peace in it, understand tribulation as an invitation into the holy wild--for this is where we find maturity and spiritual growth. Then we can say with Paul, "We also boast in our sufferings."

We know when we have peace with God or have entirely lived in a worldly peace. How much grumbling and unwillingness, how much contention and contradiction comes out of our heart. How much denial, stepping aside and fear when the cross of Christ begins to cast even the tiniest shadow over our personal lives!

Finally, Paul continues by saying that "suffering produces patience". The Greek word for patience literally means to "stay underneath, to endure, to bear rather than to cast off". Today we in the church know far too little about the unique blessing of enduring and bearing. To bear, as Christ bore the cross; to endure beneath it, and there underneath, to find Christ.

When God imposes a burden, those who are patient bend their heads and believe it is good to be humbled, thus, to endure beneath the load. To remain firm and strong as well-- that is what this word means, not anemic, giving in, shrinking back-- but rather to gain strength, wisdom and understand God's grace. God's peace is found with the patient. The scripture instructs us to be patient with one another, and to bear one another's burdens.

"Is there-is there balm in Gilead? Tell me, tell me, I implore!"

"God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." Luther said that for one who has worldly peace, trials produce impatience, and impatience produces obstinacy, and obstinacy produces despair, and despair disappoints completely.

But God's love has been poured into our hearts. Those, to whom God does this, begin to love God for God's sake rather then for the sake of their lives and even for the sake of peace. The graduation from tribulation to hope is no earthly truth. We have peace with God. We boast in our tribulations. God's love has been poured into our hearts.

There is no need to be like this contentious cardinal, yet often we fly into the face of what God is trying to accomplish in our lives. Instead of submitting, to God's and his will for us we wave our arms about with anger and strife. In refusing to look intently into intently into the things, of God, we bang our beaks on windows of worldly peace. We find no satisfaction with anyone or anything.

"Quote the raven, 'Nevermore."

Nevermore do we have to strive with God. Nevermore will there be enmity between our Creator and us. The peace of God entered our world through a wooden cross. Therefore, we can find peace, not as the world knows, but as a disciple of Christ. Nevermore do we have to be contentious with others, we can live peaceable with one another.

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door! Quote the cardinal, 'Nevermore.'

I still have to deal with the contentious cardinal, and even as I was typing this, he flew off the fence and into the window here at the table. I'm sure it was just to let me know he's still out there. But you know, whatever he represents--trials, burdens, rebellion, pride-any number of things, whenever I see him now I am reminded of the love of God, in that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." We have peace with God, and that makes all the difference in the world. I feel sorry for the cardinal, he'll never have peace, but there's a song in my heart.
"Cheer, cheer, cheer!"

Art Wiegand

Quotes from: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mark Buchannan, Edgar Allan Poe and one Contentious Cardinal.