Foxes and Hens

Common English Bible Chapter 13

31 At that time, some Pharisees approached Jesus and said, “Go! Get away from here, because Herod wants to kill you.”

32 Jesus said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Look, I’m throwing out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will complete my work. 33 However, it’s necessary for me to travel today, tomorrow, and the next day because it’s impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’

34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who were sent to you! How often I have wanted to gather your people just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you didn’t want that. 35 Look, your house is abandoned. I tell you, you won’t see me until the time comes when you say, Blessings on the one who comes in the Lord’s name.”

Introduction: The War

I, like many folks, have been following the events coming out of Ukraine in the last few weeks is disbelief and horror.

A global nuclear super power is trying to lay waste to a country it wishes to claim for itself, and doing some unspeakable things along the way.

But what they didn’t expect was how much resistance they would face.

When this thing started, it was believed that Russia would take over Ukraine in about 2 days.

That was 3 weeks ago.

Part of it is that Ukraine has a surprisingly good leader, human quote machine Voladimeir Zelensky.

“I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition.”

“You know where I am. Come and get me.”

“It is obvious: We will be. It is obvious: We will be free.”

How does someone summon such courage when facing down the barrel of one of the world’s super powers threatening violence and death?

It turns out, this isn’t a new story...

Bible Breakdown

The Fox- Herod Antipas

Competing Kingdoms

Herod the Great is the Herod when Jesus was born.

When he died, his kingdom was divided between his three sons.

Philip got the east.

Herod Antipas got the Galilee

Archelaous got Jerusalem.

Archelaous blew it pretty fast, so Rome gave his area to an up and coming star Pilate.

Philip too got in to trouble, and so now Herod Antipas has everything that isn’t Jerusalem.

This is an uneasy alliance to say the least.

How do you keep a kingdom together?

Lions

Pilate relied on brute strength and sheer force of will to keep things in order.

Pilate routinely crucified anyone who came anywhere near Jerusalem and threatened his rule.

As a matter of fact, historians record that shortly after the Good Friday story, the Roman Emperor recalled Pilate for killing too many people, and causing unrest among the citizens.

The image for this kind of leader in this culture was that of a lion.

A lion doesn’t hide, isn’t afraid.

A lion is the king of the jungle, and knows it.

A lion is a brutal and vicious killer.

Pilate is a lion.

But not everyone is a lion...

Foxes

Foxes in the first century mind are people who are sneaky, caniving, scheming, and well…whimpy.

These are the kinds of leaders that keep their kingdoms together by making deals in the shadows.

These are the kinds of leaders who find unique ways to torture their opponents, and blame it on someone else.

These are the kinds of leaders who are master manipulators of the people, gaslighting them to think that the only truth is whatever the leader tells them is true.

Herod is a fox, to be sure.

And in fact, what we see here is Herod working on a scheme to get rid of Jesus and not have blood on his hands.

It’s the Pharisees that come and tell Jesus to get out of town, unless he wants to be killed.

When was the last time you remember in the Bible the Pharisees being on Jesus’ side?

Herod is working with the Pharisees to try to push Jesus out of Herod’s region, and in to Jerusalem.

Herod is trying to make this Pilate’s problem, not his.

Fear

In either case, whether you’re a fox or a lion, when you have power and you want to keep it, the best thing to do is to instill fear in people.

You can puff up your chest and put your lion’s mane on display for all the world to see, and be just a brutal dictator.

You can crucify enough people that the most brutal regime on earth pulls you back a little bit.

You can bomb hospitals and maternity wards.

You can hype up news stories to make sure that loyal viewers will be shaking in their boots.

You can push people in fear to be someone else’s problem.

You can make veiled threats.

You can ponder worst case scenerios out loud.

You can keep people in a suspended state of fear without ever firing a bullet.

Whichever type of leader you are, the kingdoms of this world are fueled by division and fear.

I wonder if there’s another way

Mother Hen- Jesus

I don’t have time for threats- I’m about healing work.

Lately I’ve been talking with a whole bunch of folks about how busy we all are.

The pandemic seems to be on the way out, and all of the activities we used to take part in are starting to make up for lost time, doesn’t it seem?

We’ve got soccer and band and plays and musicals and meetings and lunches and...

Jesus in this passage is busy too, but it’s interesting what is keeping him busy.

Essentially Jesus says to these Pharisees “Go tell that fox...”

A) Jesus knows exactly what kind of leader that Herod is.

B) Jesus also knows that the Pharisees aren’t speaking for themselves. He sees right through them.

I don’t have time for the fox.

I have people who can’t walk that need to be healed.

I have people who can’t see that I can restore their sight.

I have people who have demons and darkness in them, and I can bring them light.

As always, Jesus is all about the healing work.

Jerusalem- This thing goes all the way to the top

Luke’s gospel is interesting, because it keeps Jesus on this trajectory towards one place and one place only.

Over and over and over again Jesus keeps saying that he’s going to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, the capital city.

Jerusalem, the center of religious and political life.

Jerusalem, all the way to the top.

This would essentially be like Jesus making trouble with the Governor in Harrisburg and then saying “You know what, let’s take this down to DC.”

Once again, this might sound like an empty thing, not that important for our understanding today.

But you have to hear the political threat that Jesus is making underneath all this.

This is a big time threat to both lions and foxes alike.

Mother image for God- Does this make you uncomfortable?

Jesus does something that I think most of our modern world gets squeemish with.

He uses a feminine image of himself, and therefore of God.

So many folks think of God as a white guy with a big beard in the sky who is looking to zap anyone who gets out of line.

First of all, I’ve got nothing at all against white guys or big beards, clearly!

And any quick examination of the Bible will show images of a God that is masculine, powerful, and even sometimes vengeful and punishing.

But...

In Genesis 1, when God creates humanity in God’s image, both male and female are part of that equation.

God has a feminine side.

God has a caring side.

God looks after our wounds and our hurts.

God can be Father and Mother at the same time.

And Jesus in this image chooses to contrast himself with the powerful lion and the sly fox by taking on the image of the mother hen.

One of the commentators I read this week made a little parable out of all this:

Brer Fox is on the prowl to devour Mama Hen. Mama Hen’s little chicks are scattered and weary, so she has been tirelessly seeking after them. Brer Bear warns Mama Hen that Brer Fox is tracking her, she should hit the road. But mama Hen continues scooping up her brood in her long wings in open defiance of Brer Fox.

“But aren’t you afraid?” Brer Bear asks. “Sure,” she replied with sorrowful indignation, “But I’m a mother first.”

The key to this Kingdom: Gathering

And there in lies the point of this story I think...

The kingdoms of this world, they are all about dividing us.

Russians versus Ukrainians.

Democrats versus Republicans

Gay versus Straight.

Clean versus Addict.

Penguins versus Flyers.

If you can imagine a way to divide us, Lions and Foxes are already on it.

But the Kingdom of God, that’s about something else.

Jesus lament is not that Jerusalem is going to kill him.

He could do some easy division that way.

His lament is that he can’t gather more folks together.

The Jesus movement is a place where everyone belongs.

The Jesus movement is a place where both the Ukrainans and Russians are welcome.

The Jesus movement is a place where Democrats and Republicans lay down their arms.

The Jesus movement is a place where straight folks and gay folks can sing hymns together.

The Jesus movement is a place where clean folks are welcomed to NA meetings, and addicts teach them a new way to see the world.

The Jesus movement may even have room for the Flyers, but I’m still working on that.

And isn’t that the point?

Jesus badly wants to gather us all together.

It’s us that get in the way.

It’s our biases, our fears, our insecurities that get the better of us.

We’re built for the Gathering Kingdom, but we’ve been far too influenced by the Kingdoms of Fear.

Apprentices

Leave Fear Alone

When I was nervous as a child, I used to twist my hair until it became a big knot.

Other kids used to make fun of me and call me Alf Alfa.

But it was such a habit and so ingrained in me that I couldn’t stop.

Eventually my parents learned that if they cut my hair, I wouldn’t be able to twist it.

Some times when you’re addicted to something, you just have to get it out of your life.

We in our culture are addicted to fear.

Whether it comes from the lions of the world or the foxes, there are folks that have discovered that they can do a lot with fear.

You can win a lot of votes with fear.

You can keep a lot of viewers with fear.

You can make a lot of money with fear.

And so we have come to a place where we’re always on the look out for our fears.

They even made a term for this, have you heard of doom scrolling?

It’s when you’re addicted to just scrolling through your phone looking at bad news.

Friends, let’s cut our hair, I mean leave fear alone.

When you sense yourself falling in to a constant state of fear, remind yourself that fear is not the way of the Jesus movement.

Remind yourself that someone else probably has a vested interest in keeping you afraid.

Remind yourself that people tried to make Jesus afraid too.

And remind yourself, over and over again, that love is bigger than fear.

As it says in 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love.”

Let Ourselves Be Gathered

Like me and the Flyers, I think that the biggest obstacle to Jesus gathering us under his wings is…well…us.

Whether we like to admit it or not, each of us come with presuppositions and biases.

Each of us comes with reasons why we feel we’re better than our neighbor, whoever we’ve identified our “inferior” neighbor to be.

Each of us knows that if Jesus is all about gathering everyone under his wings, there are people in there that might force us to think we’d be better off outside.

We need to allow ourselves to be gathered.

We need to let go of our presuppositions and biases, and we do this best with compassionate curiosity.

We need to let go of our pride, and welcome others to the table of Christ.

We need to let go of the walls that we keep building for ourselves and our world, and realize that the Jesus Movement is absolutely for everyone everywhere.

And the best way to do this is to open ourselves up to love.

You are worthy of love, no matter where you’ve been.

You are worthy of love, no matter what you’ve done.

You are worthy of love, no matter the color of your skin.

You are worthy of love, no matter where you live.

You are worthy of love, no matter how little you feel worthy of love.

Be About the Gathering

What I think is so interesting about the Jesus movement is how much what he does is what we are called to do.

When we see Jesus being busy with offering healing to the world in the face of fear, that’s what we’re about.

When we see Jesus pushing back against the lions and foxes of fear and war, that’s what we’re supposed to do too.

And when we see Jesus promoting a kingdom that is all about gathering, that’s what we should be about as well.

Who are we called to gather?

There are those out there who don’t know the tremendous love and grace of Jesus Christ.

There are those out there who think that fear is the only reasonable response in our world.

There are those out there who think that the Church is only a place of judgement and ridicule.

There are those out there who think that God thinks the way they were made is wrong.

We need to go get those folks.

And I can’t stress how active this activity needs to be.

It’s not enough to throw open our doors and hope that these folks show up.

We have to go hit the pavement, pound the streets and find them.

And I’m excited, in recent days and weeks I’ve been having some pretty exciting meetings to open up opportunities for us to do just that as a church, and you’ll hear more about that soon.

But in the meantime, I bet you’re sitting here and someone’s name is coming to mind who could use some love in their life.

I’m betting that you know someone who needs perfect love to cast out fear.

I’m betting you know someone who needs to be in here, in the room where it happens.

Let’s be about the gathering my friends.