A Message from Pastor Rick
MASCOT TIME AGAIN
Every group seems to have a mascot. Election time brings out the Republican elephants and the Democratic donkeys. The stock market has it’s Bulls and Bears. Every sports team has a mascot - the Pirates Parrot, the Penguins, the Panthers, the Lions, and lots of Rams, Bears, and Cardinals. The Post Office has the Eagle, England has it’s Bulldog, Australia has the Kangaroo, and France it’s Poodle.
But what does the church get stuck with but the Donkey! It is not like the Democrats’ donkey which is more like a mule than a donkey. Yes the Bible is full of donkeys. Someone was always saddling up his donkey to go out and anoint a king or visit a prophet. One of the strangest donkeys in the Bible was one named ‘windbag’. She belonged to a fellow named Balaam and must have been related to Ed The Talking Horse. Check out Numbers 22:21-36 for this wild story.
Of course the donkey wasn’t the only animal that figured in the life of the church. There was that snake in the Garden, wolves and lions in the desert and baskets of fish! Even a huge fish that swallowed a prophet named Jonah. There were camels and sheep of course and who can forget Noah’s floating zoo. We could have a menagerie of mascots for all aspects of the church’s life down through the ages - a thrush for the choirs, a lion for fearful Sunday school teachers, a stallion for the Elders, a teddy bear for the Deacons, a busy bee for the crafters, a beaver for building and grounds committees, an owl for counters, an assortment of pew potatoes, and of course a big mouth bass in the pulpit. There are also lots of ‘mugwumps’ in the church (a bird that sits on a fence with its’ mug on one side and its’ wump on the other) - actually this is an old Republican term, look it up.
Yes, we could have a variety of mascots in the church, anything but a donkey! Even a camel would be OK, at least they carried wise men and kings, but a donkey? Whom did a donkey ever carry?
See you in church, Pastor Rick