At first blush, a sermon about rabbits may seem a little odd. After all, what is a rabbit but a little mammal with notably little strength at very near the bottom of the food-chain. How should we find inspiration from one such as this?
And they’re so common! Just Ask the people over at the University of Victoria. Last summer the population of feral rabbits at UVic was estimated to be between 1,400 and 1,600. As of January 20, however, the population is down to 50. UVic has promised that all rabbits removed to date have been done so humanely and were sterilized and released into appropriate places elsewhere in the province. They have a goal of zero rabbits by summer.
Since I was fourteen, I’ve been collecting quotes, and I have quite a collection now. Some 28 or 29 pages, single-spaced. One of my favorites is “If dandelions were rare and difficult to grow, they’d be welcomed on any lawn.” I guess the same is true for rabbits.
In just a few days, we will celebrate the Chinese New Year, and the year coming up is the Year of the Rabbit. Lynn Sabourin, she was pleased to tell me, was herself born in a Year of the Rabbit.
The fourth year of every cycle of Chinese years belongs to the rabbit. Rabbits are in folklore around the globe. One telling of the story of how rabbit was honoured with a year of his own goes like this:
Buddha, before he ascended, invited all the animals to be in his presence. He honoured the first 12 to appear by making them part of the zodiac. Of these 12, Rabbit was the fourth to appear.
Another East Asian legend tells us, that:
The ancient god of India, Indra, King of the gods, was weary and disguised himself as a lowly traveler. One of Buddha’s earlier incarnations was in the form of a rabbit, who kept company with a monkey and a fox. When Indra, as the beggar, entreated them for help, the three animals went searching for food. The monkey came back with a handful of nuts, and the fox also had something for the traveler, but the rabbit found nothing. So great was his sense of honor that he said to the beggar, “I have found nothing for you to eat, so I beg of you, so that you don’t go hungry, eat me.” And he jumped into the fire. Indra was so impressed at the sacrifice the rabbit made for him, that he placed the rabbit on the moon where he became the Rabbit or Hare in the Moon, unlike the Man in the Moon in Western traditions.
A little earlier, Lynn shared with us a story from Cameroon wherein Rabbit uses his wit to become the prince of a land, following his hearts affection, and employing his mind to achieve his goals.
In many lands, the rabbit is a trickster god. An almost direct link can be easily drawn from the story from Cameroon and in other parts of Africa, to the Br’er Rabbit stories from the southern United States; wherein Br’er Rabbit outwits his enemies, time after time. You might be able to see, without too much difficulty, how a population in slavery and historic oppression might find comfort in stories about a creature so seemingly weak, and it’s ability to thwart those with more power.
In Native American and First Nations tribes, the Rabbit is also a trickster god. With the rabbit trickster, here are two interpretations—one positive and helpful and the other devious and aggressive. Known as Cottontail to the Paiute tribe of the the Great Basin region, this rambunctious figure carried on a war with the North Wind. After seducing the daughter of his enemy, Cottontail then burned her alive with her brothers. Conversely, the Omaha tribe of Nebraska saw the rabbit trickster in a more positive light. According to Omaha myth the rabbit, known as Mastshingke, is a defender of early man. When the world was plagued by ferocious, man-eating bears and gargantuan snakes, Mastshingke arrived to show ancient man to safety. For this, he is viewed as a giver of life and protector of mankind.
We also have a modern version of the rabbit as trickster god: Bugs Bunny. How many times has he faced the barrel of Elmer Fudd’s shotgun and gotten away? How angry does he make Daffy Duck, because Bugs always turns the situation around?
What lessons, then, can we learn from our little furry friend with the big ears? Clearly from pre-history, humanity has been fascinated by this little creature who, well, breeds like rabbits, who survive and thrive even though they have seem to be so vulnerable.
There are times in our own lives when we doubtlessly feel vulnerable, no? When we feel as though even though we’ve made our best effort and did our best planning we find ourselves facing a metaphorical fox.
Perhaps it’s related to work, where you’ve been careful and diligent in your work, only to find that you’ve been made redundant. Or at home, parenting, where your kid seems to be more like a trickster god than you.
What does a rabbit do?
Pulling us completely out of myth for a moment, let’s look at what the rabbit, the real rabbit, does.
The rabbit has long ears, and they are for detecting the sounds of its predators. When a rabbit hears danger, she thumps her big long foot on the ground to warn others. And then, she runs like Hell to safety. And if the road to safety is blocked, and I think this part is amazing, and actually leads to so much of the mythology about rabbits, if her way is blocked, she can make a 90-degree left turn so quickly as to almost seem magical.
In the warren where she lives in safety and community, she keeps her individual “room” clean. She does not lay her waste in the warren, she goes outside to do that.
What can you learn from her?
Go about your business, and find the sweetest, most tender grass you can find and enjoy yourself. If you like sunshine, then go, eat in the sunshine! If you prefer a place more shady, that’s okay, too. While enjoying your food, or frolicking around with others, do keep an ear out for danger.
By all means though, do not stop enjoying your life for fear of danger.
When danger appears, warn those with whom you share your life. Thump your foot, let them know something is wrong, and then run to safety. Once there, regroup.
As I spent the last couple of weeks thinking about rabbits, one image kept returning to my mind. And that is one of the rabbit’s ability to make a 90-degree left hand turn, seemingly at a full-speed run.
Even if we’re not running away from a hawk in the sky, or a fox in the shrubbery, we are living our lives at full-speed ahead, aren’t we? Even if one has retired, or works in a non-9 to 5 job, still we are living our lives non-stop.
Do you ever feel trapped by the pace of your life? Do you ever feel like you’re just trying to get quickly to the warmth of your own warren, so you can rest? And on the way home, all you can focus on is the path in front of you?
What can the rabbit teach you? She can teach you that it’s okay to make a sudden right turn, because that ability is part of survival.
When is the last time, while driving home from work, you just made a turn and did something unexpected? Went down an unfamiliar street, or popped into a store to have a look-see?
Obviously, we are not all rabbits here in this church. Our lives have become complicated by more in our live, than any rabbit has to worry about. After all, we have mortgages or rent to pay, our education to pay off, or helping our children get theirs, and the list goes on. But still, humanity has for eons watched the lowly rabbit for clues about how to live a better life. There must be wisdom for us in the modern age in there somewhere.
It’s rare for me to re-read a book of fiction. There are already so many to choose from, going back and re-reading seems to be a missed opportunity for some new adventure and universe of characters. One book I have read, over and over, about once a decade is A Brave New World. I first encountered that book at age 11. As a boy from Detroit, the very idea that people would worship Henry Ford and the Model T religiously was fascinating to me. Also, from that first reading forward, I’ve never really trusted government completely.
As I’ve read it, like I said about once a decade, each time I re-read it, I’ve gotten something new from it.
I first read Richard Adams’s Watership Down in grade 6, in Mrs. Kramer’s English class. At the time, I didn’t know how old the book was. It was published in 1972, making it less than 10 years old when I read it. I didn’t know the importance of contextual things like when a book was written back then, and I’d like to publicly thank Mrs. Kramer now for introducing me to such a book, which has become a classic of juvenile literature. When I first read Watership Down, it seemed like an adventure story.
I read the book again about 10 years ago in a book club. My second reading of Watership Down was all about relationships and community.
Briefly, and I hope not too briefly, the novel Watership Down, is the story of 5 younger male rabbits in a warren who venture out on their own to create a new warren. They are inspired into action because one of the smallest rabbits has a vision, which shows him that human developers are coming and the warren they currently live in is doomed.
They try to warn the Chief rabbit, but because they are young, not even 2 years old yet, their warning is not heeded, and they strike out on their own. Along the way they have dealings with two other warrens, neither of which is suitable for various reasons. Once they arrive in the place where they will create their warren, two of the smaller rabbits start digging, which is work that only does, or females do.
This by the way, caused a great discussion in my book club.
Eventually, their leader, Hazel, begins to understand that in order for Watership Down to continue, they must find mates. Find mates they do, suffering losses and gaining allies along the way, and the book ends with an elderly Hazel looking out over what he helped to create.
When I told my teaching pastor, Steven Epperson, that I was doing a sermon called “The Rabbits Are Coming,” he shared an article with me written by Stanley Hauerwas, an orthodox, conservative Christian about the book Watership Down and Christian Ethics.
In this article, Hauerwas examines the little band of rabbits not as the rag-tag group of friends that I’d read about in 1981 or even in 1999. Instead, draws parallels between the story and communities of faith. Of course, he means the Christian universal church as he understands and promotes, it. But I see easily how this relates to any group gathered together to practice their faith. Written in 1981, Hauerwas’s article is available through google books. Google books is both terrific and frustrating because the site offers so many resources, but unless the resource is in public domain they must redact it, meaning that every so often a page or two gets skipped in their reproduction. But if the article captures your attention from google books, perhaps you’ll pursue it further.
Hauerwas writes that the little band of rabbits does not start off as a community. It’s the trials and tribulations that the rabbits go through together, and the learning of their own limitations and the strengths of their compatriots that forge them into a community.
Look around you at this community. See the strengths of the people around you, and know that they can see yours. Know that this community is made stronger not just by your ability to excel at tasks, but also your ability to stand back and let others share their abilities. Learn that it’s okay that you can’t do everything, and that relying on others, within your community, helps to make that community stronger for all.
At first blush, a sermon about rabbits might seem frivolous and potentially silly, I know. I mean, what after all do we have to learn from them?
Enjoy your daily tasks in the sunshine. Keep an ear out for danger. When danger appears, warn others. When it’s time to do so, run for home. As you’re running for home, if the way is blocked by danger, don’t be afraid to turn quickly in a new direction to save yourself. If you have to strike out on your own and form a new home, know that it can be fraught with danger, lessons, loss, and successes.
Once you’re home, don’t leave your waste lying around and be respectful of the others you live with. Work to make your community strong.
And then go out and enjoy your daily tasks in the sunshine.
Repeat as necessary.
Many blessings for our shared journeys.
Amen.
