Daily Devotional for Small Group Discussion: Classification and Its Discontents

Discussion Questions 

1. What’s your favorite weird biology factoid? 

2. Have you ever relied on a rule that worked really well until it didn’t? What happened then? 

3. What’s a church rule that makes good sense, and what are its exceptions? 

Our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. – 2 Corinthians 3:5b-6 (NRSV) 

TIL* that pigeons produce milk for their young. Milk! From birds! They make it in the crop, a structure in their throats, and deposit it directly into the mouths of their chicks.  

[*TIL: “today I learned”] 

I told our seven-year-old, who is very into animals. I thought he would think it’s cool, but he’s also very into Linnean taxonomy, so instead he was incensed. “Then they’re not birds,” he stated flatly. “Birds don’t produce milk. Only mammals do.” 

He’s not wrong. Then again, reptiles never give birth to live young … but rattlesnakes do. Mammals never lay eggs … but platypuses do. All plants make chlorophyll … but ghost pipes don’t. 

In the end, all rules are just heuristics, brain shortcuts that help us not be paralyzed by a world overwhelming in its complexity. It’s especially true for rules that group and classify: This is a mammal over here, and that over there is not, and here’s why. This is a tree, and that is not. This is in, and that is out. The usefulness and importance of these rules can’t be overstated. But life on earth is such that sooner or later every rule meets some magnificent weirdo that demands to be heard on its own terms. When it does, wise ones let the rules of classification fall away and let some deeper principle take over. 

If you don’t, you might find yourself insisting that pigeons are mammals. 

If you don’t, you might find yourself insisting that there’s someone on earth outside the clade of God’s love. 

Prayer
Confront me with the oddity and complexity of your world, God, and when rules fail, let me rely on the principle of love. Amen.

About the Author
Quinn G. Caldwell is Chaplain of the Protestant Cooperative Ministry at Cornell University. His most recent book is a series of daily reflections for Advent and Christmas called All I Really Want: Readings for a Modern Christmas. Learn more about it and find him on Facebook at Quinn G. Caldwell.