Ole Mother Hen

Luke 13:31-35
Philippians 3:17-4:1

Wow -what to do with this scripture reading? Jesus derogatorily calls Herod a fox. Then he refers to himself as a hen trying to gather in her brood. When I take these pictures deeper with what they mean to me today, I do not at all get a favorable picture of either Jesus or Herod. Herod is a wily fox that uses its cunning and intelligence for power, conquest and control. Calling Herod a fox still sounds insulting today and would have been at that time as well.

But then - when I look up mother hen and think about it, that imagery has morphed in our world to not at all be a favorable thing either. A mother hen is an over-protective mom using what meager intelligence she can muster to coral and heard - yes control her offspring. This type of mothering is not something that we aspire toward today as parents.

Yet that same hen is sacrificial - willing to insert herself between danger and her children no matter the cost. And, here is Jesus using feminine imagery for himself! Imagery of trying to gather in those who refuse to be herded or protected. Ouch - let's turn to Philippians and see if the message for this week is any easier there.

Paul speaks with tears of those who live as enemies of the cross. That's not me - I cry indignantly. I am that little chick who may or may not be obediently huddling under the mother hen's wings. I am certainly not an enemy of the cross. Or, am I. What is an enemy of the cross? This morning's study group addressed that question, and we couldn't really come up with people in our everyday lives who are true enemies of the cross. Until I tried to define what that means.

When we go about our discipline for Lent, we focus STILL on the Easter. And, this is a good thing. But if you are a Presbyterian like me, or I suspect from many other traditions, we like to focus on the celebration too much. We are more comfortable with the mystery, awe and wonder surrounding resurrection that we are with the nitty gritty of crucifixion. We are enemies of the cross in its ghastly ugliness as a torturous means of death. Remember the outcry that the movie The Passion was just too literal?

I like the imagery of a mother hen rounding up her chicks and beating her wings in ferocious denial of the fox. Yet, I cringe at the imagery of the slaughtered hen with chicks safely hiding from the predator.

Jesus has that power of protection, the power from resurrection - power over death. The tears in Paul's eyes are from those who refuse to accept the gift of this power of protection. Jesus did not give us easy imagery or words that were simple to decipher. Our majestic, all powerful messiah - a hen! From the littlest of things to the grandest - God is there connecting us all, inviting us in. God works through all of creation to enter into relationship with you and me. Scripture forces us to face the imagery - ugly and beautiful that encompasses our God. As we go through Lent, the challenge is to remember the ungainly ole mother hen, let her into our lives and not leap too quickly to the sailing, swooping dove!