Second Sunday in Lent

February 28, 2010

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Marcus Pera

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (Luke 13:31‑35)

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He 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. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside 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! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’“

The Gospel of our Lord.

In the name of Jesus, sisters and brothers, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you. Amen.

I want to set the stage a little bit for a reference I’m going to make. All of us are familiar with Bible camp; for example, Green Lake Bible Camp, or Luther Crest outside of Alexandria; perhaps you have been there yourself. And almost every camp, I think, of this sort has a place that is somewhat secluded, sometimes in a scenic area. And usually there is a cross either in the middle or one end of it, with a kind of altar, and there are seats that are made and set up out there. And outside of the fact of once in awhile maybe a boy or a girl using that as a place to meet after hours, it’s primary purpose is there for worship, for meditation, for reflection. And I remember, for example, one particular area of that camp being titled “Inspiration Point.”

A woman, who is now ELCA pastor, recalled her days when she was out at camp at one of these places, and she recalled the song that they sang, and it is kind of somewhat typical, fairly shallow, if you allow my prejudice, lyric for the song. But anyway it went like this: “I decided to follow Jesus, I decided to follow Jesus, I decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. The cross ahead; the world behind. The cross ahead; the world behind. The cross ahead; the world behind. No turning back.” And she said she would have tears running down her eyes, and then this all stuck until about maybe two hours later, and then there was some turning back. And she uses this as an introduction to Lent. And how true, isn’t that, that no turning back isn’t the case very often with any of us. For example, we sit there and we veer off to the side and we go into the ditch, or we come to a fork in the road and we take the wrong fork, or sometimes we just plain do a complete U-turn. And it seems that as Paul said is true, that we are people, that “the good that we would, that we do not do; and the good that would not, that we don’t do. Who will save me from this?” And then, of course, he adds, “Jesus, the one that grants us the victory.” Or as Martin Luther said, “We are at the same time saint and sinner.” Even though we are redeemed, we continue to be this mixture. We continue to have competing forces that exist within our life, and those competing forces keep after us.

Now, in the Gospel Lesson for today, there are some competing forces that are referred to, and it’s interesting, it’s used with a metaphor of animals. On the one hand, there is the fox; on the other hand there is the hen—the good old fox and hen—but a little bit of a different story. The fox is the one that is symbolized of power, and of position, and of wealth and self-serving interests. And on the other hand is the hen, with the very self-sacrificing and unconditional love of a gracious and compassionate God.

If we look at that a little bit more closely, of course, the fox is King Herod. And if we take King Herod the Great, who died in about 4 B.C., that was the King Herod who ordered that all of the male children one year and younger would be killed, because he had heard from the wise men that they had understood there was a person who was born King of the Jews; rather insecure to take that kind of extreme action. After his death, that vassal state gets divided up in four ways. And so one of the sons is Herod’s Antipas, and he becomes—and that’s why the word “tetrarch” is used—Tetrarch of Galilee, that quarter of the kingdom. And this is the Herod that you recall took his brother’s wife. John the Baptist was pretty upset about that kind of behavior and called him on it; and you recall that King Herod then had him beheaded.

This is also the Herod that is referred to in this particular text. It’s the one where he hears and there is some rumor that maybe John the Baptist has come back to life. And Jesus is doing all of these healings and casting out demons. And so there is a rumor that he’s out to get Jesus. And notice the Pharisees come off good for a change. Some of the Pharisees tell Jesus, “You better look out. That Herod is out to get you.” And then Jesus responds, “You go tell this fox, you go tell this fox that nothing can deter me from the mission that I am on as I head to Jerusalem.”

Now, this is one where there is a symbol of power, there is a symbol again of wealth, there is a symbol of position, there is a symbol of self-concern, attempting to secure one’s own security in himself. All of those things get bundled together in that particular power. And then there is Jesus, and Jesus who typifies himself and uses the illustration of that of a mother hen. Now, that is an interesting symbol as well. And Jesus speaks that in relationship to the city of Jerusalem.

In Luke’s Gospel, Jerusalem is a very endeared not only term or symbol, but also reality and city. Luke mentions Jerusalem 90 times in his Gospel. It is only 49 times in the whole other New Testament, where Jerusalem is mentioned. It is Jerusalem where, you recall, he starts the Gospel and where the angel announces the birth to Zachariah and Elizabeth, the birth of John the Baptist. And you remember that Jesus is brought to the temple, which is Jerusalem, for circumcision. And that’s where Simeon and that’s where Anna meet him. You recall that 12-year-old Jesus is in the temple when the parents came there for the festival and the celebration. And, of course, you recall all these references now to Jesus being on his way to Jerusalem.

And it is also in Jerusalem that is the place where the Sanhedrin existed. And the Sanhedrin was like the Supreme Court, and they could make the decision about people teaching false doctrines. If a person paraded as a false prophet, a person could be put to death. In fact, you recall Pilate sending Jesus over to Herod, hoping for that kind of a verdict, and then he would not have to make one. But it is in this context that Jesus says those words, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft I would have gathered you together. You are the one who stones the prophets. How often I would have gathered you together, but you would not.” Here is a symbol of compassion. Here is a symbol of selfless love. And here is a symbol of unconditional compassion and graciousness for all of God’s people.

These are the competing forces that are there. And the way I want to illustrate that this morning is to do it through, of all things, Black History Month. This is February 28, the last day of the month of February and Black History Month. And I even Googled a little bit of background that I wasn’t familiar with myself. At the beginning of Black History Month, an African-American by the name of Carter Woodson, who had the first Black History Week, and it was a week at that point, in 1921. He had gotten a Ph.D., the first Ph.D. that was awarded out of Harvard to an African-American person.

Now, why February? Well, there were two people who were born in February that he wanted to lift up. One was Lincoln, and we understand that for sure. And the second person was Frederick Douglass. I don’t know how many know of Frederick Douglass, but, born to slaves. And, interestingly enough, also a person who in Sunday school, or under the auspices of Sunday school, was learning the language, was identified very early on as somebody who was extremely intelligent. And he, in turn, when he was 16, was trying to teach some other slaves to read, which, of course, was outlawed at that particular time. At any rate, he makes his way through a couple of places when he had left home and left where they were indentured to, and ends up in New York, where he experiences freedom. And he is one that actually served as a counselor or an advisor also to Abraham Lincoln, the first black who had reached that kind of level of position in this country.

And, of course, in 1976, after the bicentennial of this country and after the Civil Rights Movement, there is a different intentionality given to Black History Month. And the purpose of it, of course, is to lift up and acknowledge the great contributions that individuals and black people as a race have made within this particular country.

As I was looking through some of the stuff as I was getting ready for this morning, I recalled a few kinds of documents. And one of them that I recalled was the letter of Martin Luther King from the Birmingham jail, and it was to the white clergy in Birmingham. Perhaps you remember that he went to Birmingham to march with the garbage workers who were very grossly being treated unjustly. And he was put in jail, along with other protesters. And it is from there that he wrote this to the white clergy in the city. And he acknowledges, among a whole variety of things in that particular letter, but says he was disappointed in the white church. He thought the white church would be an ally of theirs in this particular effort. But obviously that has not happened. And then he said that they are more cautious than courageous, and seek their security behind the stained-glass windows within which they hide.

I also, in this gathering of material, saw a sermon from somebody that I know, Thomas Streeter, that was preached on Maundy Thursday after Martin Luther King was killed. And he used this particular text, “Oh, Jerusalem, Oh, Jerusalem; you who stone the prophets.” Yet, he stated in there and quoted also Mike Royko, who some of you probably remember, the person who was a very sharp syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune. And in that Mike Royko had pointed out how Christian hypocrites, who were people who were in church on Sundays mouthing messages of Jesus, only to go outside and read the papers and look at ways in which they might string Martin Luther King up.

Well, those were some of the dynamics that were involved. And it isn’t very difficult to see how that applied to the forces of evil that are around and within us all the time; those that are typified by that fox, and those that are typified by Jesus, the one who is compassionate love.

Now, we might ask ourselves the question: How does Jesus, the compassionate one, the one who would gather the people under his wings, relate to this? And I first want to point out in here the security that is there in a loving savior that gathers us under his wings; such beautiful imagery that is used. In one of the psalms, and it’s also an evening prayer, it says: “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your almighty wings.”

We used to, in my home that I grew up in, have devotions every night, and we would always sing a hymn. But one of the hymns that got repeated a lot was the hymn, “Lord Jesus, Who Does Love Me.”

Lord Jesus, who does love me,

Oh spread your wings above me,

and shield me from alarm.

Though evil would assail me,

your mercy will not fail me.

I rest in your protecting arm.

And it is that security that we find in a gracious and loving God that opens up his wings for us to come underneath in order that He might guard and keep us.

Barbara Brown Taylor uses the reference and imagery and says—and it’s all the more poignant on the part of the fact that she is a woman that says it—she says, this hen, when opening their wings for the chicks to come underneath, opens her body to her most vulnerable self. And that body of Jesus, as you recall, in his vulnerability, yet,was put to death in the loving attention that he gave his people. But God raised him again, and because of that the continued security of us in the loving wings of our God is one that is secure for us and is the final word for us today as well.

But there is another message out of that in terms of the wings. Jesus is not living, walking with us today anymore; but what is here is the body of Christ, which is the church. And the church is here to do a couple of things, and that is also to spread its wings in Christ-like fashion, so we might give protection and help to those who are working for justice and equality in society and the world, who are not to be deterred by the mission that God has also sent us on. We, the church, the body of Christ, are also to be there in our efforts to see as part of our mission reaching out in this way into the world, which continues to be so sorely needed.

Martin Luther King, the night before he died, as you recall, was in Memphis. And it was in Memphis that he had heard rumors, and they had talked a little bit about how people were wanting to kill him. And he said these rather well-known words:

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I have been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would love to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I am not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I have looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any person. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

We, too, have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, and what is empowering us and sending us forward on our mission as well. This day, once again as every Sunday, we gather around this table, the table where all of God’s people are invited. And we sing that song that this is the foretaste of the feast of what is to come. That is the mountaintop. That is the kingdom in all its fullness. And empowered and tasting once again of the power of this vision and reality, we are catapulted forward, to not be deterred from our mission.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.