Shelter Offered Under His Wings

Text:   Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!    INTRODUCTION:  My dear friends in Christ, In the dramatic movie, Ulee's Gold, Peter Fonda plays a tired man who is a beekeeper. He runs the family business of collecting and selling the golden honey. It is exhausting work for a man now past middle age. Ulee does most of it by himself because he cannot afford to hire someone to help him. He maintains and moves the hives, gathers and separates the honey from the wax, spins the final product into jars, and ships it off to market. He worries about the flow of money offered in the business and doesn't sleep well at night. You can almost watch the spirit drain out of Ulee as the movie progresses.     But what really causes Ulee to worry is his daughter-in-law and her children. His daughter-in-law is a drug addict and long ago left three children with Ulee. In one scene where the oldest girl, around sixteen, is about to leave on a date with her older boyfriend.  Ulee has worried about her for weeks, not knowing exactly what to do.  A car is honking in the background. Ulee is exhausted from a fourteen-hour day. [Video: Before she steps through the screen door, Ulee says, "Remember -- curfew is 11:30." His granddaughter stops at the far end of the kitchen, turns, and says with a face that is half sneer, half smile, "I'd like to see you make me get home by then."] The screen door slams behind her and Ulee knows she is right. He is powerless to make her do much of anything anymore.  But he loves her anyway.
I.  One of the popular images of Jesus in many religious circles is that he is a man who can do anything. Walk on water. Turn a couple fish and a few loaves into a feast for thousands. Even raise the dead. "That's our Jesus, he can do anything."
	A.  Today's Gospel lesson seems to refute that claim. Jesus does do many impressive things. I'll not argue that.
			1.  But one thing he does not do is make us love him. He does not legislate love nor force Himself on a person.
					a. "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing."  He has tried to gather this particular flock many times. "Often," he says. You see Jesus doesn’t force Himself on the people of Jerusalem.   b. He'll walk out of a tomb after a few days, but he won’t walk into our hearts.
			2.   I suspect Ulee knows exactly how Jesus feels.
					a. I suspect anyone who has loved someone deeply and knows they can't shelter them from harm's way understands the pain in Jesus' lament over the city.   b. Jesus can do a lot of amazing things.  But he watches sadly as his sons and daughters go through the screen door saying, "I'd like to see you make me." He does not overpower our wills. He is off the chart with a lot of things. But Jesus does not apply His power to make us love Him.
	B.  Unrequited love is tough enough one time around. Jesus was about this love "often." I daresay he still is about it. It's tough to put any type of love on the line and have that love rejected.
			1. I remember a scene from the movie “Hitch” that gives us a glimpse of this. [Hitch]  Unrequited love for a young person is as close to the end of the world as one may ever come.     2. Jesus' desire for us, no doubt, is a bit different than Hitch’s desire for that young woman. But it is similar in this regard: Jesus is willing to make a fool of himself to get our attention. Similarly, it seems foolish that He likens himself to a hen.
					a. To a chicken. Out of all the animals that Jesus could have chosen, a veritable Noah's ark of biblical metaphors, he chooses a chicken.  He could have chosen the powerful eagle of the book of Exodus (19:4). "I bore you on eagles' wings."   b. God is likened to a lion elsewhere. But a chicken? Really now, what kind of confidence does a chicken instill? When we send our children out the screen door to face the perils of this world, wouldn't you prefer "God the ravening lion" at your child's side rather than Jesus "the mother hen"?
II.     And to make matters worse there are a lot of foxes, like Herod, out there. And what kind of chance is this hen going to have against the likes of a fox such as Herod?
	A.  Some seemingly friendly Pharisees warn Jesus that Herod wants to kill him. No surprise there.
				1. Herod has already chopped off the head of John the Baptist at a wild party where anything went.   2. A chicken's head won't matter much. Put it on the chopping block and be done with all this squawking about the Kingdom of God. How annoying.
	B.   But this is the world we live in. Foxes have always had a certain allure over God's children, in this or any century.
			1.  They may not be quite as bizarre and murderous as Herod, but foxes still slyly woo away the hearts of God's brood.   And in our sinful blindness we all have a strong compulsion to follow them rather than a lowly hen.   2. And this is the thing: Jesus does not stop it. He can walk on water and raise the dead, but he will not make us love him. He desires such love, but he does not force it.
					a. He does not keep us from slamming the screen door in his face, while we are defenseless against the many Herods waiting in the shadows.   b. One of the hardest things in life is loving someone you know you won’t allow your love to surround them.
III. So what is Jesus' plan? What's he going to do now?
		A.  Herod, the Pharisees and even the loveless people of Jerusalem don't make Him go away. He sets his path toward Jerusalem and the cross. He still goes forth in love.
				1. And He does not die on that cross because of Herod's strength or the plottings of the Pharisees. Nor is He scourged and crucified because of the power of the Romans. He goes to that cross willingly, because this is His plan for your salvation. This is the all-powerful Son of God, and He will not be denied your redemption.  His love put Him on that cross and His love is more relentless than that of any hen. 2. This is our comfort and hope: Our Savior is not a weak man who is overpowered by evil. No matter the hatred of His enemies, He goes to Jerusalem for us.
					a. No matter the plots and plans of man, nothing keeps Him from suffering the full judgment for our sin.  He looks weak on that cross, but there He shows His greatest strength, His greatest love.   b. In Mission, British Columbia, a fellow by the name of Ike tells the story about his Grandpa's hen house which burned to the ground one day. Ike arrived just in time to help put out the last of the fire. As he and his grandfather sorted through the wreckage, they came upon one hen lying dead near what had been the door of the hen house. Her top feathers were singed brown by the fire's heat, her neck limp. Ike bent down to pick up the dead hen. As he did the hen's four chicks came scurrying out from beneath her burnt body. The chicks survived because they were insulated by the shelter of the hen’s wings. We survive under the shelter of His love.
		B.  Strangely, his plan is also to keep offering the love of a mother hen. Keep spreading his wings.
				1. He will offer his life to Herod on our behalf. He will follow us into the darkness we have chosen for ourselves, over and over again. He will place himself between that darkness and us.
					a. And if you look closely at this man hanging on the cross, his arms eternally outstretched, the span of his reach on that wood will begin to resemble the loving wings of a mother hen, gathering up her chicks in a love that doesn't make sense but breaks our hearts if we look long enough.     b. Jesus does not count on the world ever seeing or understanding such love. And even as he hangs there with wings nailed to a tree, he does not make us love him. He does not make us accept his love.  But his desire for us is there. Always, eternally there. "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,…." He said that 2,000 years ago. He says that today.    c. Jesus showed tenacity – no Pharisee, No ruler like Herod could deter him as He moved toward the cross.  He shows tenacity in spreading arms in love for us.  And yes, many did not listen, but for some the love broke through.  It is the same today.  His word of love goes out today.  He spreads out his wings like a mother hen through His Word, through Baptism, through the Lord’s Supper to gather his chicks in.  And for some His love breaks through.  Some are brought to receive His love.  You and I have been brought to see His love.
				2. But in spite of receiving His love we are still not out of danger.
					a. There are still foxes in our day too seeking to steal us away.  Today one fox that threatens us is our distracted lives.  We multi-task and we celebrate it. We eat and watch TV. We drive and talk on the phone. We go to class and text message. We go to church and write a grocery list.   b. But so often Multi-tasking makes for shallow living. You can do a lot, but none of it goes very deep. There's a cost.  Moments of grace, epiphany, insight, are lost to us because we are in such a hurry. Jesus Christ, savior of the world, savior of your life, the peace that we pray for, can stand right in front of you and you will never even notice.   c. And in a greater way than Ulee continued to love and reach out to his granddaughter, Jesus continues to spread out His arms in love – showering us with his love to get our attention.  It’s there in Word and Sacrament – not forced, but relentlessly offered over and over.  His love is there for us continuously, relentlessly.
CONCLUSION:   In our sin we slam the door on Jesus’ love.   He does not force us to love Him.  But Jesus’ love comes after us relentlessly and sacrificially.  Like a mother hen He spreads out His wings on a cross, showing a love unlike any other.  And that love is powerful – in Word and Sacrament it breaks though our resistance – not forcing us but winning us.  And He makes us His.  And then He keeps us His chicks forever.  Amen.