From the Pastor’s Desk
COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO
Mention the word “rooster,” and our mind goes to the barnyard. The word recalls images of corncribs, chicken coops, and clucking hens. We see different weathervanes on rooftops (my father-in-law who is a carpenter has one of a large saw), but the original weathervane was a rooster. The weathervane is known as a weathercock.
The first weathervanes took the form of Triton, the Greek god of the sea. Christians didn’t feel that it was appropriate to have a Greek god on their rooftop so they replaced it with a rooster. “Why a rooster?” you ask. While we associate the rooster with the barnyard, the early followers of Jesus understood it as a Christian symbol.
A rooster played a part in the story of Jesus’ own passion and death. When Peter said that he would never reject Christ, Jesus spoke to him and said, “Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” (Mark 14:30) Later in the night upon hearing the rooster, Peter went out and wept bitterly.
The rooster became a symbol of St. Peter’s fall. Peter, in weakness, denied Christ, and was reminded of his sin by a rooster. But roosters also remind us of forgiveness and what Jesus did for Peter after he had denied Him. As roosters are known as the first bird that calls out at the rising of the sun, so the women gathered to go to the tomb at the time of the crowing of the cock. At the tomb, the message that Christ was risen was to be given to all the disciples, but especially to Peter. (Mark 16:7) The rooster reminds us therefore not only of Peter’s sin, but also of the resurrection of Jesus and the calling of Peter back to faith in Him.
Because of these reasons, rooster weathervanes made their appearance on church steeples. It seemed to Christians that there would be no better symbol than a rooster for the top of their churches. We think of rooster weathervanes as something for the barnyard, and yet we have evidence of roosters on churches going back even as far as 820 A.D.! If you are counting, that’s twelve hundred years of roosters!
I first heard stories about rooftop roosters two decades ago as I watched a mission video about Lutheran churches in Eastern Europe. In my former congregation in Wisconsin, a parishioner alerted me to a church rooster in the neighborhood, high on top of the steeple… a true weathercock rooster! Down the street from my sister’s home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I noticed one atop a congregation. It might seem to be the LAST place you would see a rooster, and yet, understanding its history, now you know why! (I have yet to see a church rooster here in Pennsylvania.)
“You mean a rooster is a Christian symbol?” my friend said to me when I explained these things to him. “I don’t think that I will ever quite look at my rooster weathervane the same way again!”
And that’s why a rooster, ten years ago, was the image of choice to adorn a new stained-glass window in the congregation that I served. The window serves as a lasting tribute to the farming history of the community and also as a remembrance of St. Peter, the call to repentance that came from a rooster, and the grace of the Lord who rose from the dead so early on that first Easter morn to call sinners back to faith in Him.
Jesus used the example of the rooster also when He talked about His second coming. “Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning.” (Mark 13:35) As the rooster waits every morning for the new day, roosters remind us of vigilance. As the rooster watches carefully for the morning, so all Christians are to be rooster-like by waiting for the Lord who will one day return to bring them home to heaven. The call of the rooster is a reminder to heed Jesus’ voice. The rooster reminds us of Jesus’ call.
Like Peter, we have denied the Lord. Yet Jesus Christ died at the hands of the worst of doubters and deniers, and did so willingly. So we are called to leave behind our many treasons, to believe in the work of Christ’s redemption, and cling to it. We must never forget who we are and yet what Christ has done for us. The fallen Peter was made new by the grace of the cross as we are also. The rooster reminds us not to put too much reliance on our own strength, yet that Christ welcomes all who have doubted and denied to receive grace and forgiveness in Him.
Each new day as the sun rises and we wake up, we are reminded of the rooster’s call. We are to remember what Jesus did for Peter, and how, because of Jesus’ resurrection, every day is truly a fresh start. May God keep us watching, like the rooster, until the joyful dawn of His return.
A blessed Easter celebration to you all.
In Christ,
