| April 20, 2008
You are welcome to reflect on this message
Today’s text is unusual in that it shows an image of God as female. There’s a chapel to commemorate it halfway down from the Mt. of Olives called “Dominus Flevit.” It overlooks the most religious city on earth. But its religion made God sad. Jesus wept over Jerusalem because “they didn’t know the things that make for peace.” Jerusalem has always known the things that make for war. From the Golan Heights to Masada, the Israeli’s have war monuments commemorating battles they’ve won.
But somebody from Italy designed this shrine and named it “The Lord weeps.” We had devotions inside the chapel, where an altar is centered in front of an arched window looking out at the city across the Kidron Valley. The window has no stained glass, just black ironwork. And what’s special about it is, the subject is pulsating with the life of the city. The Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in clear view, surrounded by 10th century city walls. On the inside, below the window in front of the altar is a mosaic of a white hen, with a gold halo over her head. Her red comb is like a crown, and her wings are spread wide to shelter the seven yellow chicks that crowd around her feet. They seem content to be there near their mamma. The hen looks ready to spit fire if anybody should try to bother her babies. I’m sitting there thinking: “I ain’t never seen no chicken look at me like that!”
Luke’s Gospel words of lament are inscribed on the table below: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to save it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. But you would not.” It’s a gut-wrenching wail of one whose love was scorned, whose protection refused, and wisdom spurned. And how stubborn and unwilling to admit God’s desire to gather those whom we don’t like or can’t tolerate or disagree with; those whom we deem unworthy or unclean, unfit to be one of the brood. God is willing, but we’re not. It’s the helpless pain of wanting something for somebody more than they want it for themselves. But for them to have it, they’ve got to want it. And “wanting” is something you can’t make somebody else do. All we can do is manage ourselves.
Jesus went to a lot of trouble to bring the kingdom of God within reach of the city of God. But the city wasn’t interested in what he had to offer. Jerusalem had its eyes on the power of a fox because a fox commands more respect. When there’s a fox and a hen, it’s no contest: Jesus has disciples. Herod has soldiers. Jesus serves. Herod rules. Jesus prays for his enemies. Herod kills them. I'd put my money on the fox! It’s a safe bet every time.
Do you find it striking that Jesus would describe himself like that? He didn't liken himself to a lion or a bear or a pit bull, or even an eagle like the Psalmist. He didn't even choose a rooster! To resist the fox, Jesus chose a chicken! If you’re going to war, a hen doesn’t inspire much confidence. Especially when there's a “coyote in the hen house.” Then it would be nice to have a bigger defense budget for the chicken coop. This bird is equipped with no sharp teeth, no claws, no rippling muscles. Her only shield is “a towel and a basin.” That and God is on her side. But that didn’t seem to make much difference in the short run.
She would do all she could to defend the chicks from the fox...except become a fox in order to do it. She ignored the old testament adage “an eye for an eye,” where everybody loses, even if you win. No doubt it looked like a total wipe out to those who were there. But we now know the conflict between the fox and the hen had cosmic implications. The force of tooth and fang pitted against the power of a mother hen’s protective love for her chicks. That’s all. Just a big ol’ chicken! God didn’t provide Jesus much armor. Just hung him out there with minimum protection. Maximum support. Still God bet the farm on the hen!
Knowing what you know now, who would you bet on? To this day people still gather to worship the hen and nobody names their kids, "Herod." But she’s the one who won. Though it didn't look like it at first; but as time went on, it became clear what this big chicken had done. She would not run from the fox. And she refused to be foxy in order to lick the fox. So She died like a chicken too. But after 3 days she came back to show them the power of the fox couldn't kill her love for the chicks. If you’ve ever loved somebody you couldn’t protect, then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament. All you can do is open your arms. You can’t make anybody walk into them. One of our most difficult lessons in life is, you can't keep those you love from hurting or from hurting themselves. Jesus couldn’t do it with his brood and neither can we with ours.
What we can offer is “chicken power,:” maximum support, but minimum protection. That never seems to be enough when we’re a lot more interested in being protected. Who cares about support? Listen to our prayers. I don’t recall ever hearing somebody pray for support. No, when we pray, it’s for protection! We’re used to the biblical image of “a shepherd taking care of the sheep.” But Luke offers this unique concept of the church as a chicken. What is the Meeting House congregation, that’s been standing on this spot for 233 years now, resisting the world’s foxes. God called this place into being in a historical setting that birthed the American Baptist heritage. It sounds like this stuff is "for the birds." But if "his eye on the sparrow," we can be sure it’s on us too.
Why else would Mickey and Elsa volunteer to take communion to an assisted living facility? Or Deacon Donna spend time looking after her flock, when she could be doing something else? Sam Beachen’s over at Rhode Island Hospital, visiting and praying with the sick. It’s why we sometimes hear the church referred to as our mother in the faith. It's where we keep coming back to find encouragement and nurturing for growth. But it’s also where we come to stand our ground for those who need the same things from us. Church is where we grow from chicks into chickens, by giving of what we have received, teaching what we have learned, and loving the way we ourselves have been loved--by this big ol’ mother hen Jesus, who would give his life to gather us under his wings.
Based on what Jesus got from God, is what we can expect from God. No more, no less. Minimum protection, maximum support. I just think people expect more from our faith. In a world that’ll kill for maximum protection and could care less about minimum support, God offers it the other way around. I wish it were different, but that’s the way it is. At least according to the Gospel of Luke. The question is, are you disappointed?
Pastoral Prayer: Living Lord, the hope of all who seek thee, the joy of all who find, move in our hearts who gather now before thee. Some of us are low and need to be lifted. Some of us are high and need to be deflated. Some of us are angry at the world. Some aren’t angry enough. Some of us are sure of too much. Some certain about too little. Help us to master ourselves so we can be servants of others.
Our hearts unite in this Meeting House; sometimes too prone to cling to outworn practices...but still your people. Grant us an ability to dream dreams, along with the will to work to bring those dreams to fruition. For the power to challenge evil rather than accept it. The willingness to pass from words to real caring for the bent and broken, for all the back-door mercies you surprise us with, we give thee thanks. For an unwelcome illness that shifts the center of our trust God-ward. For new people who enter our lives to expand our horizons and makes us better for their friendship. For some prize we lost, just as we strained to get it, causing us to change the course of our lives and grow from it. For long nights of doubt that resulted in a wiser, stronger faith. For explosive arguments that aired real differences, routed sham, focused issues, and made authenticity possible. For challenges to our power that humbles the ego, leaving us with a more realistic estimate of ourselves.
Appear to all of us in a new vision today. Blind us that we might see you more clearly; deafen us that we might hear you more truly; inspire us that we might know Thee more fully. And because you know us for what we are and what we might become, bless each of us in this worship with what we need most, to the end that together, we might better do thy will...Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
