Lent II – The Fox and the Hen – Marilyn Zehr – Feb. 28, 2010

There’s nothing cute about the Scripture texts for today.
 
Today’s text is all about dangers both real and perceived.
And in readings and conversation this week, this text led me to consider the nature of danger and how one might view danger and respond to it.
 
In the Gospel of Luke, starting explicitly in chapter 9:51,
Jesus has turned his face toward Jerusalem.  He is on his way.   And during Lent, as we look towards Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter we are on our way with him. On his way, Jesus is not oblivious to the danger this journey poses for him.
As early as Luke 9:21ff he tried to tell his disciples what was in store for him there in Jerusalem, when he said, “the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Between Luke 9 and Luke 13 where our text is found for today, more than once Jesus confronts and insults the Pharisees and scribes and lawyers who have gathered around him trying to understand what Jesus is all about and why the crowds are so attracted to him.
And though, they would have reasons, justifiable reasons, not to care what happens to this bold and abrasive man from Nazareth, at the moment of our text for today, they, the Pharisees, run up to him to warn him that Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee, the one who has already beheaded John the Baptist, now wants to kill him.
Jesus responds in his characteristically bold way, (characteristic of these chapters and characteristic of Luke’s presentation of him), and he says, “Go and tell that fox, that I have work to do.  I’m healing and casting out demons and I’m on my way to Jerusalem.  Nothing will happen to me outside of Jerusalem, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.”
And then Jesus turns his attention towards the city of Jerusalem in lament,
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing!”
Apparently the chicks are too busy scratching away at the dirt to recognize the danger they are in and what is perplexing is that Jesus who recognizes the danger and is willing to become a hen in front of a fox in order to protect the brood is more worried about the danger the chicks are in than the danger that he himself is in.
 
Let’s look at this danger and the different levels of danger here.
What about the danger that the fox represents?

I read about foxes this week.
Apparently on Isle Royale National Park in the middle of Lake Superior there are populations of wolves and moose and foxes and all other types of animals that make up a delicate balance of predator/prey relationships.  Hikers like this island and are warned not against wolves but against the foxes, who pose no real threat to life, but can make a camper or hiker’s journey complicated if they happen to mischievously steal a hiking boot.  One sign on the campground reads beware of foxes – how far can you hike with just one boot?
 
But downgrading the danger of the fox changes the metaphor doesn’t it?  In the scripture, if not actually Herod, it will be the Roman political system in collusion with the fears of the Jews in power that will combine forces to be the fox that takes the life of the Hen who longs to protect her brood.
 
 Loss of Life is more than loss of a hiking boot is it not?
 
But this is precisely where Jesus’ life, his words, his actions, and his determination to continue the journey to Jerusalem despite his knowledge of what will happen there demonstrates that there are dangers greater than loss of life.
Jesus’ boldness in the face of the fox invites us to take a second look at danger, and at the things we fear.
 
We live in a world full of real and perceived dangers.  There are many things that we fear.
These fears have the potential to creep into our psyches and affect not only how we see the world, but also how we behave in it and react to it.
If we fear our neighbours, we won’t interact with them.   If we fear random acts of crime we lock our doors at night.  If we fear that it is a capital offense to smell bad we make sure we have proper deodorant and mouthwash.  If we fear growing old we will do everything in our power to mitigate its effects, and if we fear that someone will electronically steal our identity we will make sure we have proper security measures in place on our computers. If we fear we will not have enough money to live on when we get old we make sure we try to save some money in RRSPs.  I checked on my RRSP’s on Friday just before Monday’s deadline.
 
Now part of taking care of all the things I’ve just mentioned, you might argue, is
simply exercising wisdom.
Locking our doors at night, securing our computers, saving money in RRSP’s if we can and taking care of our minds and bodies as we age – are good things.  And I won’t disagree with you.
But what do all of these things look like if we are invited to be on the way to Jerusalem with Jesus; if our primary concern is discipleship rather than making sure we stay in a safety zone? Are worrying about these things just time spent scratching in the dirt, oblivious to the things that really matter?
What is it that really matters?  What matters so much that for Jesus even his loss of life in Jerusalem is not as dangerous to him as not completing the journey would have been.
For in Jerusalem his loss of life is a stepping-stone to Life (with a capital L) – resurrected life for himself and for all the chicks he longs to protect.
 
I have to go back to the Olympics for a moment – for like many of you I have vicariously lived through their stress and pressures, their highs and lows and their tears and victories this week.  
The athletes take risks, they live on the edge of danger – danger of serious cuts by skate blades, frequent broken bones, overuse injuries, stress fractures, and on extremely rare occasions the risks they accept result in death (the young man from Georgia who died after an accident in the Luge Run), but all of this is not as dangerous to them as not living out their sense of identity would be.
And despite the foxes, they inspire us because they regularly demonstrate that they have what it takes even to hike without a boot if necessary.  They sometimes compete with injury or in the midst of grief.

But let’s take this one step farther.
Let’s take it out of the realm of sport into the realm of politics and the possibility of greater threat and danger to life.
As I was preparing this sermon, I remembered the story of the White Rose, a very small group of German students who bloomed briefly in Munich Germany in 1942-43.  Following the way of Jesus, inspired by the wisdom of the Bible they could no longer live lives of integrity without resisting Hitler and National Socialism.  Their goal was to alert others to the truth of what was happening in the Third Reich and the concentration camps.  In order to achieve their goal, they prepared and distributed leaflets that called their contemporaries to join a passive internal resistance to the war machine that they alleged could continue to exist because its propaganda exploited the nation’s fears. These young students, Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans and Christoph Probst, aged 22, 24, and 25 were arrested and executed for High Treason in 1943.  Their story is documented in detail by the investigation records and a letter written by Sophie’s prison guard.  Hans and Sophie’s younger sister Inge gathered the information and wrote their story in 1952.  She says about them, “They did not seek martyrdom in the name of any extraordinary idea.  They were not chasing after grandiose aims.  They wanted to make it possible for people like you and me to live in a humane society.  Perhaps their greatness lies in the fact that they committed themselves for the sake of such a simple matter, that they were strong enough to give their lives in defense of the most elementary right.” The book, the White Rose, by Inge Scholl is both a disturbing and powerful read about what’s possible in the face of real danger.

May we be equally inspired by all who live on the Way with Jesus, whose battles are less chosen perhaps but whose victories are none-the-less real.
I think of
the Haitians who continue to wake up each morning and praise Jesus for another day; the ones who still love and laugh and pray despite the uncertainty of whether some of their most basic needs will be met.  (and this morning let’s also remember our Chilean brothers and sisters in the same way)
I also think of those for whom the thought of having enough money for rent and food let alone savings in an RRSP, still generously give to others who have need.
I think of persons who have struggled with mental health issues and addictions who have discovered the joy of living authentically and invite others to do the same.
 
And so, on our way through Lent with Jesus towards the cross and Easter, we are invited to beware of the foxes, but to know that their threat to us as to Jesus is not the kind of threat that can have the final word.  Like Jesus we may be asked to take up our cross and be prepared with Jesus to shelter others with our wings, but there will also always be part of us that like the chicks need to be called in from scratching in the dirt.  There are times when we too will need to be called in from the fears and other things that distract us from following Jesus on the Way, so that we too may find shelter under the wings of the One who was willing to lay down his life for us that we might have life and have it abundantly.