The Fox and the Hen

Scripture Lessons: Philippians 3: 17 – 4: 1 and Luke 13: 31-35 Sermon title: “The Fox and the Hen” Preached on March 13, 2022 In this second Scripture lesson, Jesus uses two animals as metaphors. We might call this passage from the Gospel of Luke “the Parable of the Fox and the Hen.” Wise teachers are known for using animals this way. Think of Aesop’s fables with the Tortoise and the Hare, or the Scorpion and the Frog. Do you know that one? The Scorpion and the Frog is an animal fable that is said to have emerged in Russia in the early 20th century. In those days, powerful leaders made grand promises to common people. They tried to forge a new partnership between the government and the working class, but like a scorpion riding on the back of a frog across a pond, eventually those powerful politicians who stood on the backs of working people stung them in the back. I find myself frequently thinking about Russia these days, don’t you? More precisely, I find myself frequently thinking about Ukrainians as another scorpion stings them in the back. When Chick Freund, dedicated member of our church choir, comes across something interesting on the internet, he often emails it to his friends. I was honored to receive a message last week. I don’t think it was original to Chick but is likely a message being sent all over the place. It’s just a simple message: If you went to church this morning, maybe you felt uncomfortable because the pastor picked a hymn you don’t know the words to… again. Or maybe you went to Sunday school and your teacher said something you don’t agree with. Or maybe they changed the bulletin again, or maybe the sermon was boring. Whatever it was, just remember that today a congregation of Ukrainian Christians gathered underground and praised God together. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately: The orphans, evacuated on a 24-hour-long train ride, and how their caretakers reported that none of them complained. The children undergoing chemotherapy, whose parents were terrified enough, but then they had to take shelter in a hospital basement until their doctors led a desperate run for the Polish border. And did you hear about how when some parents reached the Polish border, they were greeted by rows and rows of strollers left by Polish parents? There’s still so much love in the world, and so much resilience. Have you heard about the sunflower seeds? When I hear stories like these, these stories about suffering children, compassionate adults, resilient and fearless women passing out seeds to Russian soldiers, I feel for these far away people so much more deeply. The news becomes personal. Maybe it’s like being a mother hen, for compassion grows with proximity. It’s easy to disregard people you don’t know, but the closer they get, the more we care. Jesus described Himself this way while looking over the city of Jerusalem: 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! That’s how Jesus describes Himself: as a hen. What do you know about hens? I don’t have much experience with chickens. Most of the chickens I come into close contact with are already boneless, skinless, and wrapped in plastic, except for when we lived in Decatur. We lived there when it was first popular to raise chickens in the back yard. Have you heard about people in cities raising chickens? They’re doing it even here in Marietta. Our next-door neighbor in Decatur had chickens, and occasionally they would jump his fence where they’d be introduced to our dogs. Two of our three dogs would make short work of them, but the third would just ruffle their feathers or maybe break a wing, so I found one that our dog Ramona had injured huddled under the car. I decided to try and put it out of its misery. In an attempt to ring its neck, I grabbed it by the head and swung it around my head. Laying it back down, I realized I had just made it really dizzy. Needless to say, to prepare for this sermon, I had to research hens to understand why Jesus would compare Himself to one. Here’s what I learned: Sitting on her nest, a mother hen carefully turns each of her eggs as often as thirty times a day. She uses her body, her feet, and her beak to move each one precisely to maintain the proper temperature during the three-week incubation period. Even before they’re hatched, the embryonic chicks respond to soothing sounds the mother makes. Two or three days before the chicks are ready to hatch, they notify their mother with peeps from inside the egg. Once they are hatched, the hen will protect them under her wings. While she might run from a dog or a fox on her own, if she’s protecting her chicks, she’ll stand her ground, sacrificing her life if need be. Jesus says that He longs to be like a hen to Jerusalem. Can you understand what He means? It’s as though Jesus is saying: I am like a mother who gathers her children to the dinner table to hear how they’re doing. I am like a grandmother who knits each grandchild a sweater and makes each stitch a kiss. I am like the father who prays over his children as they sleep in their beds. I am like the grandfather who delights in his granddaughter as she plays volleyball. I long to hold them. I want to smell the top of their heads. I just want to hear their voices on the phone. If they’d make me a card for Valentine’s Day, I’d treasure it more than all the chocolate in Belgium, and I’ll peck the eyes out of anyone who would dare hurt them, yet they are not willing to be gathered by me. That’s what Jesus says about Jerusalem. He’d love to gather the whole city up under His wings to protect them and keep them warm, but they are not willing. Why? Is it because Jerusalem is full of teenagers? No. It’s because we can’t always tell the difference between hens and foxes. In our second Scripture lesson, we read: At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to [Jesus], “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” [Jesus] said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.’” What does He mean here? Why call Herod a fox? For one thing, He means to remind those pharisees and anyone listening that Herod eats chicks. Herod already killed John the Baptist and served his head on a platter. Herod kills all kinds of people, yet some believe that they can avoid his wrath by telling him what he wants to hear. Have you heard that about Putin? Have you heard that those who cross him meet their end sooner or later? He has so insulated himself that he’s surrounded by what we call “yes men.” The great Old Testament scholar, Dr. Walter Brueggemann calls this “the royal consciousness,” for once one has been royal for too long, he’s so insulated from real people and real life that he gradually loses touch with reality. When that happens, rulers say things like, “Let them eat cake if they’re starving”. Even still, notice that these Pharisees believe they have found a way to live with the fox. Notice that they encourage Jesus to keep His distance, as though a fox could be mollified. That’s no way to live, for once the fox is in the henhouse, every chick will be eaten sooner or later. That’s the nature of a fox. Rest then under the wings of the Savior. You’ve heard about those Ukrainian Christians singing hymns and praying in Kyiv just days before their country was invaded. Their song was a prayer for their homeland, asking for salvation, mercy, forgiveness, and protection. This week I call on you to join them in prayer. Each week of Lent this year, our kids are being asked to learn about a different spiritual discipline. Last week was fasting; this week is prayer. How is your prayer life? Do you know how to pray? Prayer is a discipline in the sense that we must practice it. Not that there’s a right and a wrong way to do it, but the feeling you get when you are called on to pray at the end of a meeting or before Thanksgiving dinner is different from the feeling of finding a quiet place to rest under His wings and let the noise and anxiety of this world slip away for just a moment. A story I love to tell is how I once broke out in hives and went to see my doctor. He said, “I could give you medicine, but what you really need to do is relax. Yes, you must find a way to relax. You’re a preacher, aren’t you? Have you ever heard of prayer?” What is prayer but resting for a moment to remember that there is a Force in this world stronger than the power of the fox? While evil rears its head in the course of human history, evil will never overcome what is good. While the sound of bombs blasting and buildings crumbling terrorizes the face of the earth again and again, there is a Voice calling out to us reminding us that we are precious. We are beloved. The light still shines in the darkness. Hope shines forth like the morning sun. My friends, anxious and afraid is how the fox wants us, for that makes us so much easier to eat. Rest again under His wings in prayer and be renewed by the power of His love. Amen.