2nd Sunday of Lent – morning
Sunday 17th March 2019
Lent 2 – morning
Genesis 15.1-12, 17-18
Luke 13. 31-35
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Have you ever played that game where someone asks you, “If you were an animal, what would it be?” it is sometimes used at parties or on training courses as an ice-breaker. A harmless bit of fun, perhaps, but it can also be quite revealing of people’s character traits.
How about us doing a bit of that now?……
I have never really understood why comparing someone to a particular animal is often a way of delivering an insult. I think that is particularly unfair when most of the animals I have had anything to do with are a lot nicer than many humans!
Even Jesus it seems did this from time to time. In today’s Gospel we find him on the road to Jerusalem, knowing he is heading for trouble. Probably feeling apprehensive and stressed about what is coming when he arrives there, yet also knowing in his heart that he is fulfilling his destiny. He is answering God’s call.
And on the way he is met by some Pharisees – apparently for once trying to help him. Now we hear the word Pharisee and immediately think ‘bad guy’ probably….
But that too is not really fair. The Pharisees were like many of us. God-fearing and God- worshipping individuals who took their faith seriously. And now this group seem to wish Jesus no harm, rather they pass on a message intended to protect him. Herod, they have heard, is out to get Jesus.
And Jesus responds calling Herod a Fox. It is intended as a insult but also perhaps to let them and anyone else around know that Herod does not scare Jesus. He is much too busy doing God’s work; casting out demons, and healing people; transforming lives for the better.
And Jesus knows that Herod, however scary he is, will not get the satisfaction of killing him at this point, because he needs to be in the Capital, in Jerusalem, before the climax will come.
Jesus then goes on to utter this famous lament over the city of Jerusalem in beautiful words that compare himself to a hen with chicks, nurturing and protecting and defending them. An extraordinary image when you think about it. A Jewish man comparing himself to a female animal!
Now, I don’t know how many of you have kept chickens? Probably there are a few here this morning. I can’t claim to be one of you, but I do know that like most mothers, a hen with chicks will try to defend them if she can and can become even quite fierce – attacking a perceived predator if they threaten her brood. And she will try to shelter them from extremes of cold, wet or heat – even if that means she perishes in the attempt!
This gives us an inkling that – for a man of his time – Jesus had a quite extraordinary appreciation of the strength and qualities of the female.
Over the past few weeks I, whenever I have been on a longish car journey, I have been listening to the audio-book of Michelle Obama’s autobiography “Becoming”. It is an excellent account of a young woman growing up in relatively difficult circumstances – an Afro-American girl living in a deprived area of Chicago. But Michelle had the advantage of a close and loving family around her and parents who brought her up to believe she could achieve anything she chose to if she worked hard enough. Parents who sacrificed a lot to provide the best education they could, for their son and daughter equally. Both benefited from a college education and have done well for themselves, escaping the threat of the ghetto to join the upper middle classes. And in Michelle’s case of course, rising to become America’s First Lady – and first black First Lady at that!
Michelle qualified as a lawyer (before Barack did interestingly!), but then left a promising law career to be a passionate advocate for equal opportunities and community action and she speaks often about how important it was for her – at key points in her life – to come across other strong women who had done something similar, making their way in a world of white male privilege, and how much she wants her own daughters to build on this heritage of strong female role models.
This past week has seen the 25th anniversary of the first ordinations of women to the priesthood in the Church of England. That may have passed many of you by, but you will understand and I hope forgive me for drawing your attention to it. I was not among the first to be ordained – although my own time was not long afterwards- 2 or 3 years later. And there is part of me that does not want to make a big thing about it, because surely now – after 25 years and with lots of women now ordained as Bishops as well as priests, – it has become thoroughly normalised. No longer should we be referred to as women priests, (and never, please, even in jest as vicaresses or priestesses – not unless you want a violent response!). We are just priests. Priests who happen to be women.
If Jesus could see himself as a mother hen – one who could be fierce, but would always be vulnerable to the foxes of the world, then that is good enough for me, and I hope for you too? Our task as Christians, male and female, is to bring to birth new life and teach that fallen and broken lives can always be transformed through God’s strength and help.
So however you see yourself, wily fox, or nurturing hen, the call to Christ requires all of our strength and a change of character. An honest, open assessment of ourselves and the ability to let go of self and allow God to lead and guide our being. What better time than Lent to allow that to happen?