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Last week the Lenten journey began with Jesus propelled by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the wiles and the words of the devil. His wilderness experience over, Jesus starts preaching, teaching, and calling others to follow him. On this second week of Lent, We find Jesus on his way the way to Jerusalem, Caught up in his mission and the effect it is having on him and others around him. Let us listen now for the word of God from the good news according to Luke, the 13th chapter. Jesus is, as he says, on the way to Jerusalem. Determined and committed, it appears there is no stopping him. From the moment Jesus announces that he is going to Jerusalem – Back at the end of Chapter 9 in Luke – Jesus is determined about many things: Determined to complete the journey, Determined to make it to the city that is of deep religious and political significance to his people, If you were to read Chapter 9 up to the part in Chapter 13 that we hear this morning, You would see that Luke also shows us that Jesus is determined to send out others to proclaim the good news, to teach others how to pray, and to cast out demons. And, as scholar and story teller Richard Swanson writes, Luke shows that Jesus is determined to pick a fight with others along the way! He bickers with the Pharisees over healing on the Sabbath, and calls the leaders of the synagogue hypocrites. Woe to the Pharisees! he proclaims. Woe to the hypocrites! Oh! One more…woe to the lawyers! I have come to bring fire to earth he tells the crowds, and promises wailing and the gnashing of teeth. Some are last who will be first, And some are first who will be last. That’s good news if you’re among the last, But not so good news if you’re counting yourself among the first in society or the church. Jesus seems all too ready to dispute and disagree with others who get in the way of his mission or understanding of who God is and how God works in the world. And now, this morning, we hear him calling Herod a fox! In biblical terms, it seems to me that “them’s fighting words!” In a Lenten spirit, Let me confess that this past week, I found myself both tired and a little stressed, And Rose and I got into an argument. You might even say – and if you asked Rose, she could verify it for you - that I picked a fight! I can’t even remember now what it was – Something about doing homework or starting laundry, or picking up the shoes lying around the house. I mean, really, how many pairs of converse sneakers can – or should - a 15 year old have? After going back and forth, with our voices getting louder and louder, Rose, using her good judgment, stomped up the stairs to her room. I stomped around the kitchen, Seething and muttering to myself about how I’m the only one who does anything around the house. And then, inspired by the Spirit, or by the Scripture, or by something my own mother used to do, I called to my daughter. Rose, get down here! No answer. Rose, please get down here! Stomp, stomp, stomp. What do you want, Mom? I put my arms around her, and I feel her push away. I hold on even tighter, so that I can release my anger and remember the love I have for this daughter of mine, After a moment or two, we finally lean into each other, head on each other’s shoulders, grateful to God and glad for a moment of grace. In Luke’s gospel, after all the squabbling and bickering, I see in this morning’s lesson, I hear in this morning’s lesson, Jesus remembering the love he has for God’s people. It seems that on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus is just as determined to gather all God’s in a compassionate and tender embrace. “How often have I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!” Perhaps this is a surprising image for us – Jesus as a mother hen. Perhaps we’d be more comfortable with the image of Jesus as a rooster. You can count on a rooster, built to protect and defend: the people of Jerusalem – and each of us – with a feisty spirit and sounding a loud alarm when danger is near. And besides, In the way of story and in the way of nature, doesn’t the fox always kill the hen? But it is the image of himself a mother hen that Jesus offers to the people of Jerusalem. Perhaps not surprising to those who first heard his words, Jesus draws from his own Jewish tradition for this maternal image. Perhaps his own mother had taught him the words of the psalmist: Be merciful to me, O God, Be merciful to me, For in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by. Maybe his father told him about the blessing found in Scripture that Boaz gives to Ruth after all her compassionate care for her mother-in-law Naomi: “May you have a full reward from the Lord, The God of Israel, Under whose wings you come for refuge.” And finally, perhaps Jesus heard the word of God in the synagogue proclaimed in the book of Esdras, words that sound amazingly familiar: ‘Thus says the Lord Almighty: Have I not entreated you as a father entreats his sons or a mother her daughters or a nurse her children, so that you should be my people and I should be your God… I gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Jesus came to embody and share the love of God in the world, the love that reaches out and shelters us. Jesus came to dwell among us - moved into the neighborhood - to gather a community under the compassionate and warm wings of God. How disconcerting, then to hear Jesus’ next words, his lament: I long to gather you…and you were not willing! Friends, let’s not be too quick to judge those who were unwilling to come to Jesus in his day, Unfortunately, throughout hasty many Christians have blamed and harmed Jewish people for rejecting Jesus. For we are invited to ask: How willing are we to be sheltered under the wings of Jesus? A mother hen needs to gather her chicks under her wing when they are scattered all over the place. And isn’t that what we do in the barnyard that is our lives? We scatter in every direction – and not just because we’re busy – but we scatter in search of food for our spirits and souls, only to discover that we have spent our efforts for that which doesn’t satisfy. We scatter in search of shelter, Believing and trusting all too often in the wings of power or prestige instead of coming under Christ’s wings, with their promise of the joy and cost of discipleship. Friends, how willing are we to hear and respond to Jesus calling us to come under his wings, to know the warmth of amazing grace and salvation? I wasn’t raised on a farm, But I’m told a mother hen’s instincts also kick in when there’s a storm coming; Or - always on the alert - she senses danger is lurking right around the corner. Jesus longs to gather us when we’re afraid and anxious, When we’re grieving or going through a hard time. Jesus has a place for each and all of us under the motherly wings that grant us peace and companionship beyond all understanding. The episode we hear today in Luke’s gospel appears to be a watershed moment for Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, For in subsequent chapters we find him with the same determined spirit, but determined now to stretch out those motherly wings to encompass everyone along the way. In parable and preaching, In story, and in healings, and in encounters with folks along the road, Jesus gathers all God’s children: The lost, the least, and the left behind; the poor, the lonely, and the outcast; Martha and Mary; the prodigal son and older brother; the one lost sheep. Jesus gathers all of them like the mother hen, granting them and abundant and extravagant welcome in God’s kingdom, and sheltering them from the storms of life’s harshest moments. But the storms continue – they continue for Jesus as he makes his determined way to Jerusalem. And the moment comes in that holy city when he can longer shelter them under his wings. For on the Friday we call good, the love that gathers like a mother hen ends up on the cross/ And those people then, And we people now, And all people in the future, Stand under the shelter of the cross. It is there, Under the cross, We are sheltered by mercy, forgiveness, and healing; Freedom and hope and salvation. Sisters and brothers in Christ, We will continue to walk toward Jerusalem during these Lenten days. And as we go, may we be blessed with a determined spirit, knowing the love and grace of the One under whose wings we abide. Amen. |