“Too Busy for This Nonsense”
March 17, 2019
Late afternoon Friday when I walked out of the parsonage and into the downright balmy 70 degree weather that had the power to transport us to the month of May, especially if you didn’t look down at the patches of dirty snow still on the ground, my sight was immediately drawn up toward the sound of a multitude of birds doing their best to sing their pleasure at that treat of a day. The tall tree next door to Bailey Hall was the place where dozens and dozens of birds sat way up high, joined every so often by a swooping swarm of more noisy birds and the sound of all that singing, not exactly harmonically but certainly making up what they lacked in quality with quantity. And then within minutes of standing in the parking lot, my very being mesmerized by this amazing sound, they took off in small groupings, perhaps on to their next gig in another tree down the road. I got into my car wanting more but recognizing that I cannot control the behavior of our feathered friends. The wings that carried them away are the same wings under which they will offer protection to the young and vulnerable from the dangers of the world.
Today’s Gospel lesson is not an easy listen. We have the Pharisees, the religious leaders, expressing concern for Jesus’ safety as he makes his way to Jerusalem. The Herod they are warning him about is the son of the Herod that pronounced the death sentence on babies under the age of two when Jesus’ birth announcement was shared by the three wise men. This Herod doesn’t have the same level of power as his father and is controlled by the Roman emperor but he could still make trouble for Jesus. Maybe the Pharisees just wanted to hurry him out of town and on his way to Jerusalem so that he would then be Pontius Pilate’s problem.
Jesus is on a mission and nothing will deter him, not Herod’s threats nor the knowledge that he will meet his doom in Jerusalem just as those others scattered throughout Hebrew scripture, like Uriah and Zechariah, had before him. Jesus recognizes that the motivations of the Pharisees and the intentions of Herod are devious at worst and disingenuous at best. He has no time for threats when he has healings to offer and teachings to share. The protection under the safety of God’s wing has long been known by the Jewish people for it was the Psalmist who declared, “Hide me in the protection of your wings, away from the wicked who are out to get me, away from my deadly enemies who are all around me.” (Psalm17:8) They would also know that it was Boaz who offered God’s blessing and protection from harm to the immigrant widow Ruth as she worked in his fields with the words, “May you receive a rich reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you’ve come to seek refuge.” (Ruth 2:12) The offer of God’s protection is never made lightly.
Friday was also the day we awoke to the terrible news from New Zealand when we would ultimately learn that 50 men, women and children had been killed and dozens injured while gathered in God’s name to offer prayers, just like we are doing here and now in the city, ironically, named Christchurch. The shootings at the two mosques during Jummah, the Friday prayers were aired intentionally live over the Internet, with the alleged shooter using this most sacred of times to violently take lives in the name of white nationalist hate. As we once again ask why, just as we did a few months ago after the Tree of Life Synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh and before that the Mother Emmanuel Church shootings in Charleston and the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin and the Sutherland Springs, Texas shooting at the First Baptist Church, we seek to understand how to protect those of us who wish to come together as communities of faith from those who hate because their vision of God is threatened by those with a different way of viewing the God of us all. In this case it was Muslim believers whose perspective on the great mystery of God is represented in the crescent moon which speaks of the fact that we mere humans can only know a sliver of all that God is. The sheltering wing that Jesus spoke of God offering sometimes comes not with feathers and a beak but in human form.
Mother hens are fierce in their protection of their chicks and may defend them to the death. Jesus is pointing out that so many are unwilling to rest in that protection. These words speak of God’s disappointment in Jerusalem and its people: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.” And yet God does not stop trying, the safety under those wings is an assurance for us when we’re ready. And that protection may take the form of someone who, in the blink of an eye, saves our life.
The sheltering wing of God in Christchurch on Friday looked like 71 year old Daoud Nabi who was filmed welcoming the would-be shooter into the mosque telling him, “Come in, brother.” Nabi had fled to New Zealand from Afghanistan during the crisis with Russia 40 years earlier and had devoted his life to helping other refugees start new lives, making sure they were fed and protected. He was to be the first one killed even as he threw himself in front of other worshippers to save them. The sheltering wing of God also took the form of Husne Ara Parvin a 42 year old woman who moved to shelter her paralyzed and wheel chair bound husband and was shot in the process. Her husband survived.
The sheltering wing of God to which we are beckoned is something we are drawn to as well as something we may offer others. When we ask what can we do in the face of such hatred and violence perhaps we can be a sheltering wing to those traditions that are scared and demonized by the haters. As Canadian minister and religion writer David Hayward offered yesterday, “Religions ought to protect one another. Stand for one another. Vouch for one another. Support one another. Validate one another. Particularly, today is a day when Christians can love, care for, and protect their Muslim neighbors.” (Facebook post on 3/15/19 by nakedpastor)
As Jesus heads to Jerusalem, he’s talking here about looking danger in the face and saying that he has too much healing and helping to do to be deterred. In the face of a world where hatred takes lives in unfathomable ways, we too cannot be deterred from acting on the love we know in Jesus Christ. We can speak up on behalf of those who would be attacked for how they worship, the color of their skin, their nation of origin, their lack of money or education or who they love. As we move ever closer with Jesus to Jerusalem, preparing a better way, one where we can say confidently, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” let us face down hate, starting this day and following through with all of our days. Let us pray these words then from Steve Garnaas-Holmes:
Crucified and Risen One,
give me your courage to hope in the face of evil.
Give me your patience to serve under stress.
Give me your faith to work for justice
in the face of threat and opposition.
Give me your pluck to persevere when it is hard.
Give me your love, for our love itself
changes the world.
May I meet fear with healing and hate with love,
side by side with you,
who die and rise daily with me.
Amen.
(unfoldinglight.com)