| The Rev. Catharine Montgomery | 2 Lent |
| Grace Memorial Episcopal Church | Year C |
| March 4, 2007 |
| Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 | Psalm 27 | Philippians 3:17-4:1 | Luke 13:31-35 |
Last year Bobby and I were vacationing on an island where chickens ran free. I was sitting on a patio early one morning watching the harbor when around the corner came a mother hen and her flock of tiny chicks. The little ones came running to my feet to get crumbs. They were all pretty domesticated. But it was fascinating to watch the fierce looking mother hen flap and spread her wings and call the chicks back if they strayed too far or were threatened by the other birds or if they came too close to me. You don’t mess with a mother hen. She is fierce, as well as loving and protective spreading her wings like a mother’s loving arms to hold her children close.
Have you ever grieved in helpless frustration over someone you love who has made bad choices and suffered the consequences? I imagine we could all share many stories. So I think most of us can relate to Jesus lamenting like a parent over his disobedient people who will not hear his warnings. Jesus looked at the city of Jerusalem and thought of all the people who gather there …. How often have I desired… how often have I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings… and you were not willing!
For those of us who were taught from the cradle to think of God only in masculine terms, this tender feminine imagery of Jesus as a mother is one to which women can relate. Our new Presiding Bishop Katharine caused a furor among some church people when in one of her first sermons at General Convention she used mother and birthing imagery in describing how we can make peace through the blood of the cross.
She said, “That sweaty, bloody, tearstained labor of the cross bears new life. Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation and you and I are his children.” Men and women know that mothers are fierce and strong when it comes to giving birth and protecting their young. (http://www.episcopal-life.org/26731_5280_ENG_Print.html) …. How often have I desired… how often have I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings… and you were not willing!
When we encounter Jesus, he is on his way to Jerusalem trying to prepare the crowds for the bloody cross that lies ahead. He is inviting the people to repent to get ready for the coming Kingdom of God. If we back up a few verses in Chapter 13, we find that Jesus has just issued a stern warning to his own people – his brood - and he uses the image of a narrow door. His people want to know who will be saved in the day of judgment. Since they are the chosen people of God – surely they will be first through the narrow door that leads into the Kingdom.
But then Jesus shocks them by saying the evil-doers who think they have rights by being blood kin will be left out. All through the Gospel, Luke emphasizes the fact that Jesus’ own people rejected him thereby opening the door for the mission to the Gentiles. This mother hen will welcome all who come to the shelter of her outstretched wings.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus grieves over Jerusalem more than once. When he finally arrives in Jerusalem, Jesus will weep over the city, “If only you had recognized the things that make for peace.” (19:41) On the way to the Cross, Jesus will say to women wailing along the road, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me but weep for yourselves and for your children…you will be praying that the mountains fall on you.” (23:28, 30)
Over and over we are told that the Kingdom of God is just the reverse of what you imagine. Jesus tells the crowd; “The ones you consider the last – the least worthy - will move to the front of the line to get through the narrow door, and anyone who thinks he is first and entitled will be the last.” I’ll bet you could hear a pin drop as the crowds digested that news.
It was at that very moment that some of the Pharisees came up to warned Jesus about Herod, the fox, who was out to kill him. Some people have asked why the Pharisees would warn Jesus. Is it a little like a school yard fight where eager little bullies say with delight, “You better watch out! Johnny’s going to come beat you up!” Herod was known to be sly, cunning and ruthless – already a killer of prophets like John the Baptist. And who do you think has the odds in a battle between a cunning fox and a chicken?
Instead of a barnyard fight with feathers flying, what we get is a Jesus who is really not concerned about that sly fox. There is an ancient rabbinic meaning to the word “fox” as one who is just not important – one who is contemptible. And that seems more in keeping with Jesus’ attitude. Jesus is not going to run and hide, and Herod is not going to keep Jesus from his destiny. He will go on to Jerusalem and be killed there as the prophets before him had been killed.
It is so ironic. In Adult Forum we have talked about Jerusalem and its significance as the Holy City. It was the gathering place for the people of God – the place where God made a home. By the time Luke wrote his Gospel, Jerusalem had been destroyed and her inhabitants killed or scattered.
In this world in which we live, the symbolic images Luke used of fox and hen – predator and protector are still valid. It is no secret to us that the powers of evil and destruction often target the places that are our symbols of strength and power. One of our greatest strengths and sources of power is in the Church and by that I do not mean just a building. I mean all the people everywhere that form the Body of Christ. We are the brood and blood kin of Jesus by faith and baptism and we form a strong community that has a specific mission to bring all people into the shelter of the wings of the Most High.
That means that we will always be a target for the predatory foxes of the world. You heard last week about Satan the tempter who tried to tempt Jesus to live by the world’s standards. But he would not. Satan is the tempter that tries to break up the family and scatter the people of God. Satan tries to take away our hope. Satan tries to distract us from our mission. You see if Satan can get the church family arguing and fighting – get our minds away from the teaching of Jesus – that old fox will have a chance to raid the hen house – so to speak.
We will be too busy trying to decide who is going to be saved and who isn’t – who is in and who is out. And there will be consequences for that. The real work of our mother the church is to bring people in and love them and care for them like we have been loved and then send them out to find others. If we stay together in the shelter of the Almighty, we can face with courage and hope whatever trials and tribulations come our way. We are called in love but we have the freedom to refuse.
Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem tells us something very important about God. God’s love for us is like a divine mother hen. God wants us to survive and have life; even if it means chasing after us and trying to get us back under his wing. God’s love does not back down in the face of danger. The bloody sweat of the cross did produce new life and continues to give birth to a new creation. As we walk the road to Jerusalem in the coming weeks, may we keep the image of Jesus before us. May we see Jesus holding out his arms on the cross to all of us. May we hear him calling… How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings! The life or death question for all of us is this….Are we willing?