Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
Luke 13:31-35
February 28, 2010

The Fox and the Hen

We first heard about him at Christmas time. His father, appointed King of the Jews by the Romans, was a brutal ruler who terrorized the nation. You remember him as the one who ordered all baby boys to be killed following the visit of the Magi, the reason why Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt....

And 30 years later, it’s his son who beheads John the Baptist. Jesus is well aware of Herod Antipas, the “fox.” Herod will stop at nothing to maintain his status, power and control. It’s always politics, isn’t it?

We are not immune from politics, 2000 years later we have... Politics at the office where employees jockey for credit for the great new idea. Politics in the church where we debate budgets, and programs, and positions. I am still amused by two books which were published a number of years ago by United Methodists: One was titled, “How to Become a Bishop Without Being Religious,” which counseled clergy on such important matters as how to dress, what house to buy, what car to drive. The other was, “The Stained Glass Jungle,” about, you guessed it, church politics.

And this week – indeed for months – we have watched a close-up of politics at work in Washington as Senators postured over health care reform. We’re no strangers to politics. Human beings are political animals.

Jesus was as astute as anyone. He was not the timid, self-effacing, meek and mild Savior that some, who have not read the Gospels carefully, would have us think. He was prone to saying such things as, “Indeed [when the kingdom of God arrives in its fullness], some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:30). Jesus was always turning the social order upside down, upsetting the political apple-cart.

No sooner had Jesus uttered these words, than some Pharisees show up. Luke, too, you see, is political about how he pieces together the Jesus story to make his point. The Pharisees have come to warn Jesus that Herod wants to kill him, no surprise.... Jesus had been traveling through one town and village after another, teaching and healing, working his way toward Jerusalem, toward the seat of power; clearly he has captured the imagination of the people, and Herod is threatened.

But what of these Pharisees? Weren’t they working hand in glove with Herod, concerned for their own position among the elite? Now it sounds as it they are Jesus’ friends, coming to warn him.... Or is this just more politics? Perhaps, they think, if they drive him out of Herod’s jurisdiction, Pilate will have to deal with Jesus. Herod and the religious establishment will be off the hook.

Jesus is not fooled. “Go and tell that fox for me ....” For three years, Jesus has been presenting a counter-cultural reality of the world, one in which demons are cast out, people are cured, the poor are cared for, the vision of Isaiah is fulfilled. Jesus is on a mission that will take him to the very seats of power, and he will not be diverted from this mission, foxes or no foxes.

Jerusalem and Washington, Baghdad and Tel Aviv, Port-au-Prince and Kabul, and all the capitals of this world, where dreams of a more just world go to die – watch out! Jesus is on his way, and he will not be diverted.

I can imagine Jesus lamenting over Washington. The media’s top story of the week is, “Is our government broken?” The Wall Street Journal explains,

The reason ‘things don’t get done’ is that there is no longer
any middle ground. In the highly partisan environment created
by the Web’s 24/7 new cycle, the vitriolic blogosphere,
and cable TV news, Republicans and Democrats have purged
most of their centrists, and moved further to the Right and Left,
respectively.1

But The Washington Post lays some of the blame at our own feet:

People want balanced budgets but no tax increases or cuts to programs
that benefit them; job-creation programs that do not involve government
spending; and a better health-care system without any threatening change.
No wonder Congress gets away with doing nothing.2

We collude by wanting it all. Perhaps we, too, are part of the problem! We have forgotten the old adage, “No gain without pain.” It’s time we insisted our leaders sit down together, and put aside politics, ambition, and foxy maneuvering. We need leaders who will take the hard stands, develop a coherent and courageous policy, and find middle ground that will serve the people.

I can imagine Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem – and over Washington. I can imagine Jesus seeing our Congress – and leaders in London and Paris, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, and in capitols all over the world – not as the imperial masters they think they are – but as frightened barnyard chicks in a storm.

Jesus might have responded to the fox with hate or rage or vindictiveness. But he does the unexpected: He responds with a lament – and with love. He offers a strong and tender word of both challenge and promise.

How often have I desired to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
and you were not willing!

Jesus “broods” in the same way that God brooded over the waters of creation in the Genesis story, the way the spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep on the first day of creation. In Jesus, there will be a new creation – a day of shalom.

Jesus sees these barnyard chicks – the Herods and the Pharisees and all the masters of this world – even us – lost in the storms of our own political machinations, our own hunger for power, our own greed and self-interest, for what it is: fear, insecurity, neediness, weakness, vulnerability.

One writer of a Lenten resource told the story of a young man who was having difficulty at work in a very demanding job. One evening his wife found him sobbing in bed, and as she wrapped her arms around him, he cried out, “Will you love me if I fail?”3

God loves us, even when we fail, and seeks to draw us close under feathered wings. God loves us and will not stop loving us, ever, no matter who we are and how broken we are.

Jesus’ lament would be good news to the fox and to his cohorts, good news of peace and justice and love, if they understood that they, too, are called by God whose passion is to draw them close.

Can we trust the hen who is on her way to Jerusalem – to challenge the fox and his den of thieves? Can we trust Jesus who will lose his life to make all things new?

May it be so!
Amen.

1. The Week, March 5, 2010, page 4.
2. Ibid.
3. John R. Pritchard, Jr., Breathing New Life into Lent, page 20.