Readings
Genesis 15:1-12,17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35
In today’s Gospel story we encounter Jesus in the midst of his ministry in Galilee. In it we are told that some Pharisees come to Jesus and encourage him to leave because “Herod wants to kill” him. And Jesus responds in the most interesting of ways.
First, he is almost defiant, saying “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’”
And then, after slipping into a discourse about Jerusalem’s history of persecuting prophets, he says “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
On the surface we can hear the foreshadowing of Jesus journey to his own suffering and death. And, if we are particularly attentive, we hear phrases and images that are familiar to us because of their use in our liturgical worship.
But, even while that is true. What are we to make of this passage? What is it that Jesus is saying? How does this apply to the world in which we live and our lives, both individually and collectively?
Well, for Jesus, the real issue at hand is one of power and how it is exercised. Is the use of power about control or is it about care? Do we gather unto ourselves power in order to coerce and command? Or do we do so in order to be able to protect and sustain?
Both Herod and Jerusalem stand as symbols of the ways in which the world exercises power. They stand as examples of a human system based on command and control that is willing to use deadly force to achieve its ends. Whether that is Herod wanting to kill Jesus because he is a threat to Herod’s sense of control, or Jerusalem killing the prophets because their message of God’s justice calls into question the legitimacy of how power and wealth are being exercised, the images are clear about how the world (read human systems) function when we live outside of God’s ethic.
In contrast, Jesus uses the image for God’s ethic as being that of how a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings. It’s an image of nurture and self-sacrifice. It’s an image that evokes the love of a caring parent. Using himself as the icon, Jesus is saying that we will not recognize or “see” the presence of God until we welcome such an ethic and the one who bears it.
We are living in an age when this message is especially timely. There are those within our social and political landscape who can tolerate no voice that exacerbates their insecurities. There are those who, for their own reasons, are ready and willing to use coercive power to control those around them and to exert force, even deadly force, to achieve their aims.
And let us be clear. While there are leaders at the national level who are exhibiting such thought and behavior, they are not alone. Such thinking can be found on every stratum of our society. We live in an age when compassion and empathy are seen by some as weakness and a trap. We live in an age when safety and prosperity are used as a reason for our inhumanity to others.
And lest we think it is strictly a secular issue, it is not. Just as Jesus named Jerusalem, a symbol of the religious establishment of his day, the church in the present age is a divided reality where such thinking exists. Yes, there are some who claim to follow Jesus, who use theology to justify a way of being that has more to do with the world and the flesh, than it does with the ethic of God.
Even so, Jesus does not shy away from naming this reality in his age and we must not shy away from it now. We, like him must be willing to name the fox in the henhouse. And we must be willing to choose a different path.
I need not do a laundry list of all the issues and woes of the present age. You and I are all too aware of what they are. The problem is that it is too easy to simply complain to the like-minded and to turn off the TV when it gets too overwhelming.
Beloved, we are called to a different set of behaviors and a different way of being in the world. When we look to the whole of Jesus’ life and teaching, the pattern of God’s ethic is clear. Like the hen with her brood, we are being called to be the ones who protect the defenseless and to use what power we have to nurture and care for those in need. But we are also being called to be agents of justice and reconciliation. We are being called to be a prophetic voice in the world that speaks the truth of the Gospel to those principalities and powers that seek to corrupt and destroy others and the whole of creation. We are being called to do nothing less than walk the path of Jesus and be the Body of Christ in the world today.
And let me be clear. That may well be costly. Jesus did not shy away from the reality he was facing, and we need to not do so either. But let us remember that our hope is not in security or control. Our hope is not in our safety or comfort. Rather our hope is in the promise of the Kingdom of God and eternal life with our Lord.
May we, like those who have followed him in ages past, even in the midst of fear, rise above timidity. May we find our voice and our call. And, when we see God at work in the world about us, may we be the ones who call out “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”