Sunday Homily - March 17th, 2019 - Foxes and Hens

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

I.

There is an old rock wall at the house I grew up in.
 It's a retaining wall that keeps the damp earth in place
  held in place under the house that my Dad and my Grandpa built on the side of a valley hill.

It is made of large quarried stone,
 set in mortar,
  about 5 feet high, give or take.

And, as it would happen, walls
 whether they be made of stone, iron, or concrete
  eventually degrade and fall apart.

At least, that's unless you let your 10 year old son
 drive the large Kubota work tractor to mow the lawn
  and you take a turn a little too quickly
   and the front end loading bucket plows through the endcap of the wall.
    Walls tend to fall apart more quickly if you give them some help!

Well, later that year in the early spring time,
 as we are walking outside in the crisp air,
  we look across our front lawn,
   and right there, as clear as day, is a red fox!

We lock eyes with this red fox, and it looks over at us
 fur bristled, waiting for us to make a move.
  Then, as quick as a flash, it darts INTO the rock wall!

We had a fox living in the rock wall!
 And it was a somewhat regular sight for us to see that spring.

But, if anyone has had to deal with foxes before,
 they sometimes aren't the cutest things
  when they are hunting for their next meal.

You see, one of the foods that foxes search out are nests of eggs.
 So, while it is cute and red and fluffy and it lives in your rock wall,
  it ain't so cute and fluffy if you own chickens or have birds that roost in low hanging places!

Luckily, we didn't own any hens or chicks,
 but there were plenty of bird nests for those foxes to live off of.
  And we lived in an area of the Ozarks where there is certainly no short supply
   of small game for foxes to find.

And the way that foxes hunt
 has even given them a reputation with us humans
  who have characterized foxes in our mythologies
   as tricksters, endowed with cunning
    and at the very worst, are deceitful and deceptive.
     [https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/quick-fox-powerful-demon-legendary-foxes-and-their-trickstertemptress-ways-008112]

To be referred to as a fox, in the modern context,
 may not carry with it the same kind of meaning that it used to.

And it is no small thing for Jesus to invoke the name "fox"
 when speaking about Herod.

II.

Jesus's contemporaries,
 the Pharisees who he rubs elbows with
  who he goes to the Synagogue with each week
   come to him with no small amount of anxiety.

They fear for Jesus's safety in Jerusalem,
 as they are also stinging from the fact that Herod had executed John the Baptist
  and they saw that Jesus was becoming more and more of a target.

So, the Pharisees come to Jesus and urge him to flee,
 because they don't want him to suffer the same fate as John.

"Leave this place, quickly!
 Please, go somewhere else fast!
  Herod wants to kill you!"

And Jesus, hearing the warning of the Pharisees,
 replies with one of the strongest and most sorrowful images
  in all of the Gospels.

A fox, a hen, and her chicks.

And Jesus said,
 "You tell that fox,
   'I will keep on driving out demons,
    healing people today, tomorrow, and on the third day
     I will fulfill my goal.

'...I must press on,
 today, tomorrow, and the next day,
  for it is clear to me that no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!'
   [but instead they die INSIDE it,
     the place that is supposed to be the safe nest
      where the chicks hatch and are watched over by their mother].

"Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
 you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you:
  how often have I longed to gather your children together,
   as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
    and you were not willing.
     [rather, you have been a den of foxes].

Can you hear the heartbreak in Jesus's heart
 for Israel, the chosen people!
  for Jerusalem, the city of the Temple of the Lord Most High,
   and for the people living in the broken walls of Israel's most glorious city!

"How often have I LONGED to gather your children together,
 as a hen gathers her chicks..."

Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
 where prophets are killed for speaking the truth
  and where the sly and the sinister steal the eggs and kill the chicks
   that have been cared for by the Mother Hen
    even when those chicks didn't want their mother.

And, in a moment of excruciating foreshadowing,
 Jesus, in sorrow, looks toward Jerusalem and says,
  "Your house is left to you now.
   I won't be back until My Hour,
    until you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord."

Jesus isn't coming back to Jerusalem
 until he joins the company of the holy prophets
  and gives his life for the chicks
   at the paws of the foxes.

III.

Have you ever felt the kind of sorrow that happens upon you
 when someone you dearly love and cherish,
  someone you have cared for and sacrificed so much for,
   continues to break your heart?

Have you ever felt like a mother hen whose chicks are scattered by a fox
 and there seems to be no hope in getting them back together,
  and yet you ALSO know that there is nothing in this world
   that will make you give up on them?

Even though it may seem hopeless,
 even though it may seem impossible,
  you know that it would be MORE impossible
   for you to give up on that person you love?

That's the exact same kind of unshakable,
 unchangeable,
  tenacious love that God has for all of us.

Just like Jesus said, in reply to "that fox" Herod,
 "I must press on, today, tomorrow, and the next day,
   I will keep on driving out demons,
    healing people today, tomorrow, and on the third day
     I will fulfill my goal..."

SO ALSO you, friends, are called to that same kind of unshakable,
 unchangeable,
  tenacious love of God that calls each of us to walk in the way of the Cross,
   the way of our own death,
    so that the world may know that there is a God who saves.

Though foxes come in all shapes and sizes,
 varying in shades and hues of deception, destruction, and murder,
  we here are called to continually return,
   to repent,
    back to God, the Mother Hen
     whose chicks we all are
      and to bring others with us!

Even when you see the absolute worst that evil can do,
 such as when 50 people
  50 people's lives,
   husbands, wives, grandparents, and children,
    are killed WHILE AT WORSHIP in New Zealand
     by ONE person
      ONE.

Even when you see things like that,
 and your sorrow is made as full as Jesus Christ our Lord,
  will you still look into the face of the Fox
   and say,
    "I will not give up"?

Will you say,
 "I will not stop repenting and returning to God who loves me
  AND I will not stop reaching out to all who are suffering and in pain
   until all see the Glory and Love of the Lord at the last day?"

Will we all be able to say that our faith is beyond what we can merely see
 and that there is coming a day when all will be set right
  and that all the brokenness of our sin
   and the hurt in the world
    will be healed?

"Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem."
 Y'all, we are no different than Jerusalem.
  But, if we believe Jesus Christ this morning,
   if we take our Lord at His Word this morning,
    God also will NEVER give up on Jerusalem.
     And that means God will NEVER give up on us.

Lent is about repentance and returning to the Lord.
 In spite of the foxes.
  In spite of our brokenness.
   In spite of the hopelessness in the world.

There are very few things that I can promise you in this life, friends,
 but this one thing I can promise:
  God NEVER gives up on us.

I beg you, friends:
 ask God for the strength
  to NEVER give up
   until we see the day where everything is made right.

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