Philippians 3: 18-19For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you
of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction;
their god is the belly...
Luke 3:31-32 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".
Sermon for Second Sunday in Lent: Foxes and Hens.
I wonder if you are familiar with the fable
often read in childhood: The Sly Fox and
the Little Red Hen?
It was a well-loved Ladybird book and today
will set you back nearly £10 on eBay.
It told the story of how the sly fox coaxed
the little red hen out of her hidey-hole in the woods and caught her in a bag
from where he planned to take her home and cook her for supper.
But on the way he fell asleep and she
hopped out, filled the bag instead with stones and toddled off home.
The fox woke up, picked up the heavy bag and
proceeded to his house where he stoked up a big fire, above which boiled a
large pot of water.
As the stones, and not the hen, fell into
the pot, boiling water splashed out over the fox and killed him outright.
Today’s gospel is about a sly fox and a hen
– the sly fox is Herod Antipas, he who had John the Baptist killed and who
‘desired to see Jesus’ in Luke 9:9.
The hen, you might be surprised to learn,
is Christ.
However people might try to picture God,
whether as a bright light, or a kindly old man, or as glorious King, perhaps
not many will come up with the image of a hen.
A hen is not memorable, just ordinary,
small; trying to keep her chicks safe, waddling after them when they go astray
and squawking at predators.
Christ the mother hen, who wants only to round
up her children and hide them under her maternal wing, especially after they’ve
wandered off…
Page One. Trouble in the text.
Jesus is tempted to avoid the cross.
Today on this second Sunday in Lent, we see
Jesus being tempted to avoid the cross.
We were told at the end of last Sunday’s
gospel that the Devil left him ‘till an opportune time’ (Luke 4:13).
Here, it seems, is just that time.
His temptation comes in the form of what
initially seems like a sympathetic warning from the Pharisees, of all people.
‘At that very hour, some Pharisees came and
said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you”.’
Jesus’ reply is curt – even rude.
‘”That fox!”’
The advice of the Pharisees is merely a
temptation to avoid the cross.
Go away and hide somewhere, is what they
are really saying.
They cannot understand that Jesus
deliberately chooses the way of the cross.
He says ‘today, tomorrow and the next day I
must be on my way’, and immediately mentions his destination – Jerusalem.
In other words, his destination is the
cross and his way is the way of the cross.
It was the most difficult thing to choose
the cross – everyone was counseling against it.
The disciples didn’t understand; the
Pharisees said flee; Herod is simply a voyeur, and a violent man.
Yet though Jesus is clear about his
mission, his rejection by Israel pains him.
He laments over Jerusalem, capital city of the
chosen nation that is about to crucify its long awaited Messiah…
‘”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.”’
Jesus’ path is the hardest one, filled with
deep frustration, sadness and a sense of missed opportunity.
Yet he cannot force a following – this is
the theological conundrum of free will.
We feel his loneliness, his humanity, his
struggle, as he is tempted to avoid the cross.
Page Two. Trouble for us.
We are tempted to avoid the cross.
Are we, too, tempted to avoid the cross?
If we are tempted to avoid the cross, how
does this play out?
Let’s look at Paul, because he has a lament
too, in our reading from Philippians.
He laments those who live as enemies of the
cross of Christ.
‘I have often told you of them’, he says;
‘and now I tell you even with tears’ (Phil. 3:18).
Who are these people who live as enemies of
the cross?
It’s tempting (excuse the pun) to see them
as unbelievers – we live the way of the cross, and those outside the church do
not.
But the temptation to avoid the cross is
maybe a bit more insidious than that for us believers.
Because the way of the cross is not
particularly attractive.
The way of the cross involves my dying to
self, and that’s never comfortable.
The way of the cross is deeply contrary to
much of what passes for modern life today.
The ways we’re conditioned to think and
behave in society reveal a deep propensity in us to avoid the way of the cross.
Take an average Saturday Colour Supplement
– such as the one we bought over half term – I think it was the Guardian – but
the Times or Telegraph would be no different.
What are the themes?
Just at a glance, looking at the 13th
February edition, we have an article about finding romance on specialist dating
sites; an article about living with the guilt of having been the mother of a
mass murderer; an article about the latest adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and
Peace, which doesn’t refer once to any of the spiritual themes; a piece from a
stay at home mother who feels trapped and one form a woman who went on a trip
to visit all her old boyfriends; 4 pages on property, 6 on travel and ten
devoted to food.
‘Their god is their belly’, says Paul.
Nothing, in short, on the spiritual life;
nothing about the inner life or how to develop it in humility, truth or self
sacrificing love.
We cannot be unaffected by this complete
emphasis on what Paul calls ‘earthly things’.
Of course we need to eat, we sometimes
travel, we all look for love, but we have neglected the spiritual, even though
‘our citizenship is in heaven’ (Phil. 3:20) from where we expect a Saviour.
If we truly expected a Saviour to show up
this morning, in the midst of our worship, would we be half attentive, would we
have a hand casually in the pocket as we stood to sing…?
We have neglected the spiritual; we have
been tempted to avoid the cross.
Page 3. Grace in the text.
The way of the cross is the only way.
So we return to Jesus – walking that
literal and figurative path that we also share at Lent.
He has set his mind towards Jerusalem, and
he keeps faithful to it.
He is the mother hen who, even when her
chicks stray, goes after them and brings them back.
In a hot Middle Eastern culture, fires were
commonplace.
It sometimes happened that in the fire
ripping through the buildings, a mother hen would hide her chicks under the protection
of their wings, and in the resulting smoke, she would die, but her chicks would
survive.
It is not for nothing that Christ compares
himself to a hen
The abiding image of these verses in Luke
is of Jesus moving forward towards Jerusalem, towards the cross.
He knows that the way of the cross is the
only way.
He hears from either side the voices of
those who think they know a better way: avoid the pain; go into hiding; turn
these stones into bread; impress us with a miracle.
But the way of the cross is the only way.
It’s the way God redeems us, and redeems everything
that’s gone wrong for us.
Jesus holds fast to it and blazes a trail,
as it were.
The long days of fasting in the wilderness
have developed in him a quick ear for God’s voice, and the habits needed to
obey that voice.
He doesn’t put a foot wrong along that
dusty, bumpy, hot and crowded road to Jerusalem.
In fact four chapters back, in Luke 9:51 we
already have a very revealing verse for Jesus’ frame of mind here.
It says, he set his face towards Jerusalem
– the verb is to resolutely decide on something and not be dissuaded from one’s
end.
We might say he steeled himself for the journey (the Message) or that his face
was set like flint (cf. Isaiah 50:7).
Flint is a hard material, so hard that
other things, when hitting into it, are set on fire.
Jesus journey to the cross is tough, and in
it he shows us his tough love.
And he never loses hope.
His last words over Jerusalem hint at hope.
Yes, they have missed their Messiah, but
there will come a day when they will say, miraculously, ‘Blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord (verse 35).
Salvation history is in his hands, and is
achieved through the way of the cross.
Page 4. Grace for us.
We can continue on the Way because of
Jesus.
As we look around the world this Lent, God
reminds us that salvation history is in his hands.
We keep on going on the way whenever we
come to church together to share, to pray, to sing, to gather around the Word
and around the Lord’s Table.
God keeps us going because God has provided
the way by reconciling the world to himself on the cross.
Even when we look at the news and wonder
what will come of war and displacements of peoples, referenda on the EU and the
various scandals that plague our public life, especially those involving
vulnerable children and those whom society has forgotten.
The way of the cross gives us hope.
Jesus did not give up – he kept going so
that we could keep going.
Thanks be to God who keeps us on the way –
the way of the cross.
And to return to the Ladybird tale where we
began…
Avoid the crafty foxes and snuggle up under
the mother hen.
Amen.
(Initial idea from The Word is very near you, John Pridmore.
