Luke 13:31-35
“Under God’s Wing”
March 13, 2022
It was the Swiss theologian Karl Barth who wrote “Take your Bible and take your newspaper and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”
As the news of all that is unfolding in Ukraine and the countries in Europe that surround it as well as the response of the rest of the world it feels like this particular story about what Jesus has to say about foxes and hens and never giving up on people has something powerful to teach us in these frightening times.
It was a late spring day and it happened so quickly my husband Roger, who was sitting on the front porch, had to do a double take.
Bolting across the road from the Hosley’s driveway right next door, it raced across the yard of the parsonage in the blink of an eye.
The fox was escaping with the latest of its half dozen victims in its mouth. It was one of the very chickens that so often could be seen on the lawn here in front of the church pecking away on the grass and behind the shrubs.
We no longer see any chickens out there because after that and a number of other encounters with the fox, the few remaining hens were kept contained within a pen to prevent future abductions.
Today’s account of a stop on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem begins with a surprise.
The Pharisees, those sticklers for the law, who so often were opposing, and belittling Jesus have seemed to switch sides for now and are actually warning Jesus of the threat he faces from Herod, the fox.
Maybe they recognize how dangerous Herod is and they are looking for an ally to be able to face wily Herod with.
Or it could be that whatever differences the Pharisees have with Jesus they still see in him as a fellow teacher who also has respect for God’s law and God’s people.
In a world that pits us against each other so often it might be that we forget that would-be enemies are human. It is possible to discover that we have more in common than some of the issues that separate us.
We also feel Jesus’ deep sadness for Jerusalem who has disappointed him but he also hasn’t given up on them.
So often we focus our attention on the divine part of Jesus but this is a focus on the human part of Jesus that can be painful.
He is on his way to Jerusalem and on this journey and he is all about casting out demons and healing. This is not going to stop until he reaches that fateful place where all that goodness will end up with his terrible and unfair death that will, in turn, have the power to heal the world.
His love is unending, like that of a parent for a child, or a hen for her chicks and when Jesus is rejected, we can hear his anguish and despair.
This short passage sheds light on what Jesus’ purpose and mission are meant to be.
He is warned that he may be killed by Herod who represents the powers that be as well as the power that death possesses.
But Jesus doesn’t let this stop him.
At what point do we face down the terrible and stand on the side of love?
For Jesus, he is keeping his eye on the prize always and that prize is the resurrection – the culmination of his purpose on earth.
He is meant to stand up to death and show ultimately that the Way of Life will win out over death.
And when Jesus arises, he ends up in – guess where? – Jerusalem.
So, the place that the Pharisees are warning Jesus to steer clear of as it is where prophets are killed will ultimately be the site of a new and glorious day.
The resurrection may be the fantastic ending to Jesus’ story and ours also but it all plays out in the meantime with gentle and kind mercy as a constant theme.
Jesus could have become fed up in his sadness and disappointment in Jerusalem but he doesn’t become jaded by it.
He still holds these people, all of them, in his loving mercy.
Jesus has a greater mission and he knows that love has more power than hate.
Jesus sees himself like a mother hen who is sheltering her children from the powers of death and destruction.
Sheltering – it is hard to get the images we’ve seen these past two weeks of sheltering out of our heads.
Images of women and children and dogs and cats sheltering in underground train stations with their few earthly possessions in a bag or two.
Pictures of thousands and thousands of vulnerable people attempting to get just over the border of their beloved homeland and there on the other side is the shelter of food and water and medicine and hope.
We’ve seen examples of sheltering with the handmade signs held up at train stations in Germany offering frightened and exhausted Ukrainian strangers rooms in their own homes while these refugees figure out where they will ultimately land.
To be sheltered unconditionally not because we have earned it or have paid for it somehow but only because we are human is how we are loved by God and what Jesus wants those in Jerusalem – the followers and the naysayers to know.
Our God is that expansive in mercy and love.
The wideness of God’s wings and ability to stay close regardless of the danger is our promise.
Those outstretched arms will take us this Lent once again to the devastation of the cross and then beyond to the new day offered by the resurrection.
These are the arms that hold us all.
Let us pray then these words from Unfolding Light:
Gather me, Mother Christ.
Gather me in from my fears and doubts.
Hold me under your tireless wing,
shield me from hungers that wander,
guard me from flighty desires.