Good Friday and Easter - Mammals vs Birds in New Zealand


Good Friday and Easter – Mammals vs Birds in New Zealand

            The only mammals in New Zealand before humans came around 800 years ago were bats. Birds were the predominant species, occupying the place of mammals in the ecosystem.  The kiwi bird of New Zealand evolved to be a flightless bird because it had no reason to fly.  Nothing was chasing it or trying to get its eggs.
            The first humans were the Maori, a Polynesian people.  With them came rats. Rats quickly multiplied, began wreaking havoc on the finely balanced ecological system.  The moa, a large flightless bird weighing around 500 pounds was hunted to extinction by the Maoris.
Europeans came in the late 1700’s when Captain James Cook circumnavigated and mapped New Zealand. Settlers began to arrive in the early 1800’s and New Zealand joined the British Commonwealth in 1840. Most of the settlers came from Great Britain and imported rabbits for hunting. Rabbits do what rabbits do and quickly multiplied.  With no predators on the islands, there was nothing to keep the population in check.  The rabbits became a threat to the farms spreading throughout the islands. The answer the Europeans came up with for this rabbit overcrowding was to bring stoats and weasels. The stoats and weasels did not control the rabbit population but had a devastating effect on the bird population.
Australia has a possum that is different than the American possum.  It has fur on its tail and its fur can be used to make clothes. The possum was introduced into New Zealand for the fur trade in the mid-1800s.  The possums did well in New Zealand, reproducing rapidly.  Today, fewer than 5 million people live in New Zealand.  New Zealand has around 50 million sheep.  The possum population is between 40-80 million. 
Many of the New Zealand birds nest on the ground.  The stoats, possums, and weasels eat the eggs or the young birds. Possums also eat the vegetation birds depend on and take over trees birds use for nesting. The dogs that came with humans would kill and eat the adult birds as would feral cats. Today only 5% of kiwi birds survive to adulthood. These are the unintended consequences when human introduce new animals into an area.  Many New Zealand birds have become extinct and many more are threatened with extinction.
I write this on Holy Saturday.  Jesus has been to the cross and lies in a tomb.  The violence of this world has been poured upon him in rejection and condemnation, in a bloody beating and crucifixion. “Man’s inhumanity to man.”  Is Jesus’ death for all humanity or for all creation?  Does Jesus die on behalf of kiwi birds who don’t make it to adulthood?  Does Jesus die on behalf of native New Zealand birds who have now become extinct?  Does Jesus die on behalf of the destruction of rabbits, possums, and stoats who are simply doing what they do to survive?  Does Jesus die on behalf of humans who have ideas that seem good yet have such destructive consequences? Does Jesus enter into destruction and death wherever it maybe in order to bring something new?
The resurrection happened that first Easter long ago and continues to happen today.  New life comes forth in dead places.  The invitation comes to us to live in this resurrection.  To give up ways of death and trust the Life that flows.  We have a choice to make every Easter and every day.  Will we be Good Friday people who embrace violence as the way to solve our problems or will we be Easter people who see new life breaking forth from dead places?  What will we choose?  We live in a world that embraces violence.  To be Easter people requires a whole new, tomb-shattering, life-choosing way of seeing and living and loving life and even death.
In New Zealand, the people are working hard to eliminate rats, possums, stoats, and weasels.  They have set a goal to be predator free by 2050.  This will not be easy.  This requires lots of Good Fridays with the deaths of these invasive mammals. Humans are seeing the destruction they have caused and are seeking to right this wrong. Sanctuaries have been established throughout New Zealand that are predator-free where birds can live as they did before the mammals came.  The smaller islands around New Zealand have become safe zones for penguins and other birds to thrive again.  A resurrection is slowly happening.  This resurrection requires a lot of dedicated activity. What is the resurrection asking of you in your life, in your community, in your society, especially during this coronavirus pandemic?

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