Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

I invite you to join me as we consider Christ’s words for Christ’s followers today.


It is hard for me to believe, but it is more than sixty years ago that Pete Seeger wrote the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”. It was originally a protest song during the Korean War. Later the song was resurrected for the Vietnam War. For those of you who don’t remember this song or are too young to know it, the verses go something like this.

Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls picked them every one.

When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?


Where have all the young girls gone? Gone for husbands, every one.


Where have all the husbands gone? Gone to soldiers every one.


Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards every one.


Where have all the graveyards gone? Gone to flowers every one.


Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls picked them every one.


When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?


This song speaks of a world that goes through cycles: from peaceful gardens and growing families to soldiers and war and the consequent casualties of armed conflict. When the conflict is over, the cycle begins again.


Why am I talking about an old song that spoke to generations in the past? Well, in part, it is because I am reading The Fourth Turning by William Straus and Neil Howe about cycles of history. In this book, the authors contend that within a century, roughly speaking, society experiences four social trends: Crisis, Nomadic Wandering, Hero, and Artist. Straus and Howe demonstrate that this pattern never changes although crisis alternates between armed conflict and social awakening.


For each the types of crisis, a different leadership style is needed. During an armed conflict, old men lead the people through the time of crisis while young men fight. During an awakening, young people direct the nation into new ways of living, and the old men protest because they feel devalued.


Now hold this information about the cycles for a moment while I tell you about movements. A few years ago, I went to a conference that talked about the life of a movement. The model that they used could be for any movement, but they were talking about the development of Christianity as a religion. This model was set forth as a bell curve. So, imagine, if you will, a bell that has just been dropped over my head. You will notice that there is a little flared lip at the bottom and then sides that angle up and then curve over my head (with hand gestures). Got it?


Well, this model shows that a movement starts at some point over here on your left side. At about my shoulder height the organization of the movement has gotten good enough to really speak about it. The people who extol or proclaim the advantages of the movement are sort of like those infomercial people who sell all kinds of stuff on late night TV telling you that if you get to be part of this movement, then your life is going to be infinitely better than before. Those who proclaim this new message are called roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo from those on my right).


On my other side at about shoulder height is another part of the movement. These people have been to the mountain and are now sliding down the side of the bell. These people talk about how great it was to be on top of the mountain and talk about their part in it. They may also talk about other mountaintop experiences that their ancestors were part of. They are sort of like the History Channel. These people are called owls (hoo-hoo from those on my left).


Now in between the roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) on this side, and the owls (hoo-hoo) on this side, is the active time when the movement is making a difference. In the church, we call that time, the time of ministry. This active time of ministry is when everything is working for the benefit of the people and the communities that surround them. It is that time of perfect balance when the rooster people (cock-a-doodle-doo) are crowing about the benefits of belonging, people are listening and joining, and the wisdom of those who have been part of the movement, the owls (hoo-hoo), are reflecting on how wonderful life is, “Remember those days when we were part of the beginnings of our time working together?”


The problem is that eventually the roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) begin to lose their energy. So many people have become part of the movement that there aren’t many people who haven’t heard the news. Fewer people are joining because the movement seems to be self-sustaining. Many people are part of the active movement or ministry and things seem to be sailing along. They have been talking up the program for a long time, and, because they are very effective, many people have been joining. Now there are fewer people that they can recruit. Since there are fewer people to recruit, the roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) have to work harder to get more people. Still the number of people joining the ministry are fewer. Now the roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) begin to get tired and lose interest.


At this time in the life of the ministry there are a large number of people involved in the ministry but no one joining them. The ministry continues with the efforts of those who are doing the ministry, but the number of owls (hoo-hoo) is getting larger. Now the model begins to tip toward the end time.


If we don’t get more roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo), the conversation within the organization begins to be more about what we have done, thus more owl-like (hoo-hoo). “Where are the people to join us?”, and “If those other people would do it the way we used to do it, we wouldn’t be having these problems.” “Remember all of the good things we used to do? Why aren’t these new people doing it the right way?”


Now the remaining roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) and the ministry workers are just getting annoyed. Their part of the conversation is, “We know that is the way you used to do it, but it doesn’t work anymore. We aren’t getting any more people no matter how hard we work!”. The people working in ministry begin to drop out because the work itself becomes a drudge and there is no longer any fulfillment or joy in it. In the meantime, the owls (hoo-hoo) continue to talk about the good old days, and there are getting to be more and more owls (hoo-hoo).


At this point, it is the responsibility of the owls (hoo-hoo) to either become roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) again or to find people outside the organization with a new vision to become the roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) because, if it is all about the owls (hoo-hoo), they will continue to slide down the side of the bell curve until they shoot out over the flare at the bottom and completely disappear.


Now the conversation is about disillusion, desolation, despair, and dissolution. It is not inevitable that the organization is going to die at this point, but the odds are good. The primary activity of the organization is to collect memorabilia and build shrines to remind those that will come of the work that was done here. If roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) show up at this time of the model, they are just annoying. It is more likely for the owls (hoo-hoo) to prey on the roosters rather than pray for them.


So, armed with the information from the Fourth Turning and of this bell curve model, let us listen to the words of our Gospel today. (Read Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30.)


Now, let us consider Jesus’ words for Jesus’ followers today. In the midst of a world that is experiencing great change, Jesus comes proclaiming a new way of living. It is the time of a Great Awakening. The old people are pushing back. They feel entitled—they control 98% of the wealth of the empire; they own 98% of the land; they are the 2% of the population of the empire who are literate; they have the power, and they do not want to give it up.


John the Baptist, a rooster (cock-a-doodle-doo), has come, and they have put him in prison. Jesus has begun a new movement in ministry that is raising up the dead, that is claiming the people who are not recognized by the rest of the world. These people are part of a long catalog. Jesus is now recognizing the blind, the lame, the maimed, the deaf, the widows, the orphans, the diseased, and the poor—claiming them as being important for the society while the rest of the world is saying that they just want them to go away and leave them alone. Jesus is saying we need to have a health care program that includes everyone. Jesus is saying those we think of as dead need to be part of the living world. They need to be raised up and claimed as valuable. There is cleansing that needs to go on in the world. There are demons of greed and hate and sexualism that have to go. No wonder they wanted to get rid of him.


As I read this text this week, I thought, “My gosh, this could have come right out of the newspaper.” Then, just this morning, I read in The Fourth Turning that we are living in a time that parallels second century Christianity. The second century begins in the year 100. The book of Matthew is written between 80 and 120 ce. So, it seems that Matthew really is writing about our time.


Here is a crisis for us in the Christian world. When we read from this book we call the Bible, we tend to think that this is an historic book that bears testimony to what was. In doing that we kill it and take the authority of it away. But, we are the people of the resurrection. We believe that God’s word for us is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, not dead but alive, and that God’s Word continues to speak to us just as it spoke to God’s people when Jesus first spoke. This is a living word, a resurrection word, a word of commission and calling, that continues to raise us up. So, these words of commissioning that Jesus gave us these many years ago are not isolated in history but claim us in the very work that we do today.


So, hear these words, these word of challenge, “The roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) raised up the movement and they advertised it. They played the flute for us, but we would not join in the dance of ministry. They wailed and lamented the injustices of the world and the loss of dignity of so many, and we would not mourn.


So, it was, in the wisdom of God, that the words of new life were not given to the elders, to the older people who wanted their entitlements, but to the young people, to the children of God, to the infants, that they might be the roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) of the new world and the new movement. For indeed, if the owls (hoo-hoo) have their way, we would only be able to talk about what has been.


Thanks be to God, even in the midst of the death of a movement, Christ continues to speak and resurrect it, so the movement, Christ’s ministry can start again. And that we might rise, hearing those words of commission and be involved in the process and duty of ministry.


In the context of Matthew, John is the rooster (cock-a-doodle-doo), the temple priests were the owls (hoo-hoo), and Jesus’ ministry was the new way they could not embrace. The culture rejected the ministry and condemned Jesus and his movement to death, but, thanks be to God, the empty tomb of Easter opens new ways to be roosters (cock-a-doodle-doo) and ministers together again. “What you have heard in the dark, speak in the light. What you hear whispered, proclaim from the roof tops.” For we have been called to be God’s roosters (ALL cock-a-doodle-doo) for all of God’s kingdom.