Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on March 4, 2007
(Year C, Second Sunday in Lent, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Genesis 15:1-12,17-18
Psalm 27 or 27:10-18
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:(22-30)31-35

Today we need to begin with the end and work our way backwards. In the second half of today’s Gospel we find some Pharisees who appear to be on Jesus’ side of things by warning him that Herod Antipas wants to kill him, and commanding him to leave immediately! I say, “appear to be” because their motive is unclear. Yes there are Pharisees who are favorable towards Jesus: Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea to mention a couple of names, and yes, Herod has already beheaded John the Baptist, and therefore is capable of murder. But earlier in the Gospel when Herod is inquiring into the real identity of Jesus he states that he merely wants to see him. And indeed, later on during the passion of our Lord, Herod did see Jesus but sent him back to Pilate when he was through. So perhaps these Pharisees were truly concerned for his welfare or perhaps they just wanted Jesus to get out of their district in order to keep the peace. Galilee was already a boiling cauldron of political unrest, and Jesus was just stirring up the pot with his presence and activities. After Jesus left, they still had to live under Herod’s rule

But Jesus, in a prophetic response tells the Pharisees to go and tell that old fox, Herod to buzz off. Tell him that I have work to do. Today and tomorrow I’ll be casting out demons or healing people or perhaps I may be traveling to my ultimate destination but on the third day I will arrive in Jerusalem and complete my work in this world and not a minute before. Besides it’s Jerusalem, the city of Peace that kills the prophets not some backwater Galilean village.

And then he immediately paints a mental picture of himself as a mother hen who has longed for the opportunity to gather her chicks beneath her wings in order to protect them.

Now there are two things noteworthy of this imagery. The first is that foxes and hens are metaphorically befitting to a quasi-agrarian culture such as rural Galilee. It is not hard for Jesus’ audience to imagine a brood of little chicks scurrying about this way and that looking for shelter beneath the protective shield of a mother hen’s wings. The second is that this passage is often used in today’s culture to illustrate the feminine side of Jesus because he is likening himself to a mother hen. And this is certainly a level of possible discussion to be explored but only after the original context has been established.

This is not just a picture of the fox getting loose inside of the henhouse and wreaking havoc. Jesus is contemptuously calling Herod Antipas a fox because he has continued the ruse begun with his father, Herod the Great. Herod the Great was king over the Jews because he married into the ruling family and he wasn’t even Jewish. In reality, both Herod the Great and his sons were just the most effective thugs around that could be controlled by the occupying Roman government.

Now by referring to his work for today, tomorrow, and its completion on the third day, Jesus is prophesying his own death and resurrection in Jerusalem, which is a clue to the next section.

When a farmyard catches fire, and animals can’t escape the ensuing danger, certain species of animals have developed ways to protect their young. One commentary tells of stories where after such a fire, the people who clean up have found dead hens, blackened and scorched with live chicks sheltered beneath their wings. The mother hen has literally given her life in order to save them. Jesus is saying that not only does he have to go to Jerusalem to die but he is also going to die in order to save his chosen people. But all he could see at the present was his chicks scurrying off in the opposite direction, confused by the fire and smoke of a farmyard fire, taking no notice of the approaching danger or the urgent warning from the only one who could give them safety.

You see the context of the first part of the Gospel is an urgent warning to the people of Israel. Someone has asked him the question, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” And instead of giving the crowd statistics and specifics, he warns them. “Strive to enter through the narrow door. Many will try to enter but will be unable. And soon the door will be closed.” Throughout history, God has sent many prophets warning the Israelites to live by the covenant and to heed God’s commandments, and they have consistently failed to do so. They scurried about confused by false prophets and the outside culture. This is why Jesus laments, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” It is not the first time that he has mourned over his chosen people. Jesus Christ is the last prophet to be sent, and he is God incarnate. As a prophet, part of his mission is to hold the door open and urge his people to enter into the covenant and to partake of the heavenly banquet. As God, He is calling them all to safety under the protection of his shielding embrace but once again they are not listening to him. The door is narrow, and it takes concentration and commitment to get in. One doesn’t just stroll in by chance. Once the door is closed they will look into the banquet hall, and they will see the Patriarchs and the prophets as well as people other than themselves coming from all four corners of the earth, sitting down to the feast, and therein lays the paradox. Jesus is showing them that the Gentiles from whom they had been trying to keep separate, the same people who had been trying to destroy them for centuries, the people for whom they were supposed to be God’s guiding light, may be the first to enter into the kingdom of God before the Chosen People. Jesus is trying to tell them that with rank comes responsibility not automatic privilege.

That is the context of today’s Gospel but as one of the “other people who have been invited to the banquet, what can we learn from the text? One message is from the old hymn where we sing, “In Christ there is no East or West, in him no South or North, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.” Another message is that from now on Jesus is no longer holding the door open but becomes the door by which to enter. This is reinforced in the Gospel of John where Jesus says, “I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” The door is still narrow but it is accessible to everyone. All we have to do is knock and the door will be opened.

Let’s look at the image of the door from a different perspective. Remember the famous picture of Jesus standing in a garden knocking on a wooden door built into a wall of stone. If we look at the door closely, we will notice that there is no handle and there are large hinges on the outside facing Jesus. This is symbolic of the door to our heart. In this picture Jesus is knocking and willing to enter but we have to open the door from the inside and let him in. This calls to mind the passage from Revelation where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” From either perspective, He is no longer urging us with a warning but offers us a choice. And the result is the same: to be gathered into his loving embrace like chicks beneath the wings of a hen. All we have to do is believe in him, and follow him with determination all the way to Jerusalem because it is at the foot of the cross whereby our lives are transformed by the merciful grace of God through the unchangeable Truth of His Word.

During this time of Lent, let us not be confused by the attractive lies of the culture or by the false prophets and idols of the new age. Instead, let us turn to the Lord with penitent hearts and steadfast faith, and one way or the other open that door so that we may be united in the love of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Gloria Patri