A Fox and a Mother Hen

2  Lent C        February 24, 2013             

Gen.15:1-12,17-18   Ps. 27

Phil.3:17-4:1   Luke 13:22-35 

 Lectionary Link

  When someone who has the power to exploit is given a position of power over the vulnerable and the helpless, we have an expression:  We say, “The fox is guarding the henhouse.”  It’s really means that the fox is plundering at will the ones whom he is supposed to be protecting.

  In our appointed Gospel today, we have a juxtaposition of the fox and the hen in the saying of Jesus.

  Jesus called Herod a fox.  And Jesus wished to gather up the vulnerable people of Jerusalem like a mother hens does her chicks.

  This imagery strikes me as images of resignation in the face of the inevitable.  Why, did not Jesus use the image of an eagle or some other bird of prey?  Surely a bird of prey would convey an image of strength and resistance.  Even if he had used the image of a rooster, at least a rooster would fight back and offer resistance to a fox.

  But Jesus chose the image of a mother hen, a feminine image.  And this is the image he associated himself with.  A mother hen in the dark of the chicken coop will hide her baby chicks under her wings and when the fox comes, she will not flee.   She will bare her breast and neck to the oncoming foe.  It is an unfair fight.  But the fox will find more than enough to eat in taking the mother hen, and so the little chicks are left alive but scattered after the attack.

  This imagery became the imagery for the early Christian community.  Jesus was the mother hen, who sacrificed his life so that those who followed him might live.

  Jesus, was a country boy from Nazareth in Galilee and his message and mission was at odds with the city of Jerusalem.  Herod was the foxy representative of the Roman authorities who wanted to manipulate the politics of Jerusalem to his advantage in power and wealth.  The Pharisees and Sadducees, too, wanted to manipulate the religious politics to their advantage and to their survival.  It was imperative that wise and foxy politics prevail to negotiate most favorable terms to the residents of Jerusalem who were trying to make the best of it in the midst of Roman occupation.

  Jerusalem, such as it was, had no time or place for a prophet with a message that they did not want to hear.  And for the most part, people who had political and religious power were not the ones who were won by the message of Christ.  The hearts that he won came from the people of the countryside and from the neglected and the powerless.  Those people were the “baby chicks of the mother hen Jesus.”

  The historical irony is that Christianity went from the countryside Jesus movement to a city religion in the Roman Empire, and finally to become a religion of the empire and of the many great cities in the empire.  So those who practiced Christianity learned also to be skilled practitioners of the foxy political arts.

  We know that even with the advance of Christianity the killing of the prophets did not subside.  We have a long history of the persecution and killing of heretics or reformers.  And it is not distant history either. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed by forces that did not want his message to continue and succeed.  We know in Anglican history rivalry between reform and Roman Catholic power bases created martyrs.  The person who wrote the first Book of Common Prayer, Archbishop Cranmer was burnt at the stake.

  It may be that Jerusalem and every city will always kill the prophets and the reformers who challenge the justice of those who hold power.  Because, it just so happens that justice works best on behalf of those who have money and power.

  The United States as a system of government tried to establish its form of governance to do away with the “killing of the prophets” mentality.  By separating church and state, no one is allowed legally to kill a prophet.  Any prophet has the freedom to gain their own followers and practice their own faith beliefs as long as they don’t impinge on the rights of others and do not break the law.  Our nation’s founders were filled with Enlightenment thinking and they were embarrassed by all of the religious wars that had plagued the continent for so many years.  They wanted America to be a new promised land where “no prophets” would be killed.   The America philosophy has been, it’s better that there be a thousand religions than any one religion be allowed to kill prophets.

  We, as Americans, should be proud about perhaps our greatest contribution to the world.  And yet we should not be so proud as to not keep up our vigilance when our laws and practices do not protect and promote the care of the vulnerable people in our society.

  If, we, in America have committed ourselves to the prevention of the killing of any prophets, how can these words of Christ have relevance for us today?

  First I think that there is a natural conservatism in everyone and every system that resists reform.  So the first impulse is to get silence the voice of the one who presents the need for reform.  Even on a personal basis, there are insight that each of us receive to change the direction of our lives.  And while we don’t actual kill a personal prophet, we may actually squelch the voice of reform in our consciences that is telling us to change the direction of our lives so that we can have more successful living outcomes.

  Also, I believe that there was a bigger fox than Herod that Jesus was addressing.  What was it that made Herod the fox?  Herod had the power to take the lives of those whom he wanted to get rid of.  In a sense, the fox that was bigger than Herod or even the Roman Empire was the fox of death itself.

  Just as the mother hen is easy prey to fox; so we too know that we and everyone are easy prey to death, because it is certain to come.  As pastors, friends and family we know the threats of that fox death in its many forms of disease and accidents.  We feel vulnerable and we know its power and we want to protect our friends and loved ones from its power.  And yet in our time we will have to offer up our breast and neck to that fox, death itself.  But we can do so in hope, because all that is good in our life that has been protected in the covering of our wings will live on forever.

  Jesus, as mother hen for his brood, offered his breast and neck up to that great fox, death, and yet his life continued strong in those who scattered yet who were drawn back together by knowing the continuing presence of Christ in his resurrection.

  The words of Jesus for us today, are sadly realistic, because unlike other religions that only allow positive thinking, we don’t try to whitewash the dark side of life out of the picture.  But in our sad realism, we know the great fox death does not win in the end; resurrection is around the corner.  Our sad realism is because our lives are such wonderful times to cherish that loss is poignantly felt.  And if loss is poignantly felt, how much greater will the gain of resurrection life be.

  And so today, we lament with Jesus, the sad realism of the apparent power of the foxes of this live to exploit and plunder those who are vulnerable.  May we, even like the vulnerable, mother hen, Christ himself, be ready to stand against the foxes in this life, so that what is good and right might continue and multiply.  Amen.