Lent 2C –RCL
2016
The images in this little bit from the Gospel of Luke are some of my
favorite images in the bible. Herod
being described as a Fox – which by the way was not a compliment! And Jesus as the hen. This is one of the few places where we have
language that describes God in feminine terms in the New Testament. And the imagery – for me – is very
comforting. Also how Luke deals with the
Pharisees in this passage is also very refreshing…. Let me explain my thinking
here.
In Luke’s gospel Jesus is going about
healing and casting out demons. He has
started to get the attention of the powerful in Israel and Herod in
particular. Herod has a sketchy hold on
power through his marriage. He does not
want to have anything upset the peace of Rome.
And the shock waves of Jesus ministry are getting big enough that Rome
will notice. And the enforced “peace” that is only peace if you obey the
Romans, pay your taxes, and behave, looks like it could be upset by this
itinerate Rabbi who is breaking all sorts of rules. Not just Jewish rules of eating and healing
on the Sabbath but rules about maintaining the status quo of who holds the
power.
Word about Jesus’ ministry has reached Herod and he doesn’t like what he
is hearing. Herod sees Jesus as a real
threat to his power. Not necessarily
because Jesus will directly overthrow his “kingship” over the Jews but because
if there is a revolt or upraising Rome will remove Herod and put someone else
in charge. And from what we know of
Herod he will do anything in his power to maintain his position.
The word is on the streets that Herod wants Jesus to be gone – and the
easiest way to make him go away is to kill him.
So the Pharisees – the religious Jews – who so many times in our Gospels
can be interpreted as enemies of Jesus – or at least certainly not his allies –
go to Jesus. They go to Jesus to warn
him about Herod. They tell him to hide –
to lie low while everything calms down.
The Pharisees are Jesus’ allies here.
Trying to save him from the power that they know Herod possesses. My guess is that even through they criticize
Jesus for working on the Sabbath and for not following all the rules they also
like the way he interprets scripture with authority. They like his preaching – although they are
uncomfortable with the way Jesus is revealing a side of God by his actions. A
side of God that sets Love above rules.
A side of God that wants the dream of Love to come to completion in
their and our broken societies. It is
extremely unfortunate that we have used Jesus’ sparring with the Pharisees as
justification to anti-Semitic behavior by Christians over the centuries.
But Jesus rejects the Pharisees warning and pokes at Herod – calling him
a fox. Jesus then goes on to say that he
has a calling. A calling to heal and to
spread God’s love and that he will not stop doing it openly until the
completion of his ministry on the cross – and ultimately in our commission to
continue his ministry in the resurrection.
Our calling here is to look at our ministries and the gifts that God is
calling us to use. And those gifts are
many and sometimes they too go against the grain of society. When the other church I serve – St. Paul’s – lets
people sleep on the porch – or technically doesn’t’ chase
them away – we make our neighbors at the convention center upset. They don’t want to see homeless people
hanging out – and it doesn’t help that we have sack lunches that we give out
everyday that brings the hungry to our doors.
We could stop – and some in the congregation want us to stop letting
people sleep on the porch. But not me. At least not right now.
I walk to work most days and I see at least 4 to 6 people sleeping in
business doorways in a mile along H Street.
A few of them I have gotten to know and I know they would rather not sleep
on the streets. But because they have a
dog, or perhaps because of bad experiences in shelters they feel safer in a
doorway. And until the powers that would
have the homeless disappear figure out a better way to provide housing I
believe that we need to allow people someplace to sleep. I would prefer a safer place than on the
porches of our churches or in doorways but until then I feel called to treat
these people with love and respect.
We all are called to ministry.
Not just those of us who have been ordained. Your baptism calls you to ministry. Your walking in the doors of this church
calls to you ministry. I know a homeless
man who – although with several disabilities that make it hard for him to do
much - will scrub the porch and stairs of one of the doors at St. Paul’s on
Sunday mornings. I see people here
welcome folks that other more “proper churches” might ignore. I see you welcome those with different
languages, incomes and sexualities openly into our worship – as I believe Jesus
calls us to do. We are called to
continue to heal and cast our demons even if the Herod’s in our midst would
want us to stop – even if the Herod’s in our midst would want to have us close
our doors.
And Jesus reaction to being threatened?
It is to mourn for the very power that threatens his ministry. Jesus mourning over Jerusalem is more than
mourning a city. Jerusalem is bigger
than the city – here it is a character in the story. We are part of that character.
We all – even when we are trying hard – have moments when we deny the
ministry of Jesus. We are the ones as
the story continues that will become uncomfortable with the radical love of
Jesus and deny him and ultimately crucify him.
Jesus mourns for Jerusalem – Jesus mourns for us too when we deny our
calling. But what does he want to do?
He wants to gather us all under his wings like a hen gathers her
chicks. One of my favorite images in the
whole bible – and as far as I can remember the only direct feminine image of
God that we have directly attributed to Jesus (perhaps one of the few that
survived the church becoming a unyielding patriarchy in the years after
Jesus!).
Every time I read this passage I have a flash back – in a good way. I flash back to the very first time I saw
Tchaikovsky’s ballet the nutcracker in San Francisco. One of the dances is of Mother Goose. And the character of mother goose comes out
with a large old-fashioned dress on and suddenly all of these children pop out
from under her dress and dance all over the stage. And during the rest of the dance the Mother
Goose character is trying to get them back into safety under her dress. That is how I see God in this image from
Luke.
God – in Jesus
desires to keep us safe. But we keep
running around. We keep doing things
that we should not. But our God of love
wants nothing more than to gather us all – and by all I do mean all – even
those we would exclude. Our Mother God
wants to usher in a reign of Love. But
we keep running around – just like the kids do in the Nutcracker ballet. Sometimes when we run around we do a lot of
good. That is when we are acting as
Christ’s hands, heart and feet in our world.
That is when we are agents in bringing people into God’s love.
But sometimes we act against that Love.
Sometimes we work to exclude and to condemn. Sometimes we condemn individuals and
sometimes whole groups. It is then that we are acting like Herod. Desirous of our own power. When we are worshipping the idolatrous gods
of power, safety and the individual over the planet then we are working against
God. That is when we are setting the
trap that Herod ultimately sets for Jesus.
That is when we are leading Christ to crucifixion.
The good new is that God never stops wishing to gather us under her
wings like the hen gathers her brood.
That is the promise of resurrection – the promise of Easter – that God
loves us so much that God proved that the Love that was hung on the Cross will
never die. We cannot kill it. And our calling – our ministry – is to help bring
God’s dream of love to a reality here on the corner of Edison and Bell – and
indeed in all of the world.
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