Trust and Obey

Second Sunday in Lent – Year C

February 24, 2013

Luke 13:31-35

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. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' 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! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

This week has honestly been tough for me.  As most of you know I find tremendous strength when I see people overcome obstacles.  I think I’ve mentioned before how if you want to see me cry you make me watch the Special Olympics.  When I see people who are succeeding in their own unique way, in the face of the obstacles that their body, or their mind, or that society has placed in front of them it makes my heart sing.  There have been multiple times my wife has seen me sitting literally inches in front of the television with tears streaming down my face watching the Special Olympics.

This week has been tough for me because of the events in South Africa involving Oscar Pistorius.  The tragic story of his shooting of his girlfriend has caused a rather large blemish to appear on his otherwise inspiring life story.  His story of being a double leg amputee who would not allow his condition hinder him from becoming a world-class sprinter was one of the great stories of the London Olympics last summer.  Now, all his previous history no longer seems to matter; he has been accused of shooting to death his girlfriend.

The actual events of that tragedy are still be determined, with the prosecutors putting forwards one story; while Oscar and his defense team have presented their own account of the evening.  The defense story is dependent upon a sense of fear and insecurity.  They claim that Oscar’s girlfriend slipped into the bathroom when he got up to close the balcony door in his bedroom in the early hours of February 14^th.  Hearing noises and gripped with fear that someone had broken into his home, Pistorius says he grabbed his gun, yelled for the intruder to leave and shot through the bathroom door before realizing the person inside might have been his girlfriend; thus, leading to her tragic death.  Being gripped by fear for his life and the life of his girlfriend caused him to make the most terrible of mistakes, according to the defense.

Fear is a powerful thing.  All of us have been afraid at one time or another.  Hopefully, few of us have truly been in fear for our lives.  We might have been scared of being hurt, or suffering in some way; but I would wager that for most of us our fear was based in the world of emotions rather than in potential bodily harm.  We get on a roller coaster and are scared.  We go through a haunted house and scream in fear.  Even if we were to stumble when we are walking, and as we fall fearfully throw our hands out in front of us, I don’t think many of us would be in fear of our lives.  Afraid?  Scared?  Without a doubt.  But in fear of dying, not very likely.

I wonder what it would feel like to truly be in fear for your life.  I wonder what it would be like to have someone come up to you in a public place and declare that you were marked for death?  How would you react?  How could you?  Would you be able to function?  Would you run and hide, try to get away?  Would you spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder nervously wherever you went?  Would you even go anywhere?  Would you lock yourself away behind closed doors, refusing to come out (like the disciples did following Jesus’ crucifixion)?  Me, I have no idea how I would react.  And hopefully I will never discover how I would.

Today in our gospel lesson we see how Jesus reacts.  Some of the Pharisees come to Jesus with the news that Herod is seeking to kill him.  Jesus gets the news and rather than running and hiding, rather than cowering, rather than all sorts of things that I think most of us would probably have done, he reacts angrily to the news.  He’s doing stuff, he’s too busy to be killed right.  His time is coming, but not now; “Don’t bother me.  I’m busy.”

Jesus seems to have little or no fear when told of his being on Herod’s kill list.  But, Jesus had a much closer relationship with God than anyone else has ever had.  And, if there is anything we can take from the Bible it is that those who trust in God have no reason to fear; that God will take care of them, in this world and the next.

In our lesson from Genesis this morning (15:1-12, 17-18 ) we heard the story of Abram and God, and God’s promise to Abram that a great nation would be made from his descendants.  Abram scoffs, yet God continues, “Trust in me, put aside your doubts and fears.  Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” It couldn’t have been easy.  There Abram was well-advanced in age, his wife getting up there as well.  The realistic hopes of a child being born were, well, zero.  There was no way.  Even if it were to happen, do you think Sara would have survived the pregnancy much less the birth?  There Abram was, he wasn’t even sure who this God was that was speaking to him.  He had worshipped other gods before.  Why should he trust this one?  “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  

In our Psalm (the 27^th), the psalmist begins by saying, “God is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  God is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”  In verse after verse the psalmist puts forth his trust in God; when the worst is happening, what is to be feared?  God will take care of him.  Even as the words shift in the middle of the Psalm to a lament, it is still based in trust.  We see that trust expressed in words from the psalmist of not giving up, of searching for God’s way.  Trust that in the midst of the turmoil that the psalmist is experiencing, God will act, God will deliver.  The goodness of God will be seen in the land of the living.

In our reading from Philippians (3:17–4:1), Paul writes how our faithful trust and dependence on God alone, in the face of the difficulties and humiliations we may be experiencing, will allow those same burdens to be transformed into something for the glory of God.  Trust in God leads to blessings.  Our citizenship is in heaven, and God cares for his own.

God cares for his own, and Jesus laments with the voice of God, of how often God has desired to save the people of Jerusalem.  Seeking them, gathering them together, walking with them.  Yet, they turn away again and again.  The image of the hen and her chicks is hauntingly beautiful.  Anyone who has been around animals has seen parents defending their children, putting themselves between their children and oncoming danger.  The image of the mother hen sheltering it chicks is just such an image. 

One of my favorite theologians, N.T. Wright, paints a beautiful picture of the mother hen and her brood.  He makes mention of how following a fire in a barn, it is not uncommon to find the roasted carcass of a mother hen with her still living chicks gathered under her protective wings.  The hen literally gave of itself so that its chicks might live.  Is this the type of image that Jesus is hoping that we can connect with?  Is it this image of a mother who will literally do anything and everything in her power to ensure that her children will survive? This is the most clearly stated vision so far in Luke as to how Jesus views his coming death.  He will be like the mother hen who sacrifices her life so that her chicks will survive.  Jesus will give his life so that God's children may live.

One of the aspects of this image that I find most powerful is how the survival of the chicks is dependent on how close they are to the mother hen.  In order for the chicks to survive though, they must trust in the hen.  They must come as close as they can together under her wings.  If they wander too far, if they are not tight against her body, they will not survive.  The survival of the chicks comes about only if they give up their own wants and desires, and trust fully in the hen.  They must have faith that the hen (the source of their life) will be able to protect them from the fire.

That is a truth that we also must learn.  It can be tempting to go our own way, to trust in our own abilities, our own strengths.  But, one of the truths that we all learn is when we trust in our own ways, our own strength, we will all eventually fail.  Placing our trust in our own abilities, over that of depending on God for our lives will bring about failure.  It happens every time we walk away from God’s desires for us.  And it’s not just when we wander away from God’s desires, it happens when we shun even the loving protection and embrace of resting under the shadow of God’s wings.

The season of Lent is a time when we are called to become more aware of our way of life.  It’s a time when we become more attuned to how our footsteps are in line with, or not in line with the ways of God.  The faithful walk – the Lenten walk – is to seek out the desires of God, and rest under the shadow of his protective outstretched arms.  It is when we place our trust in the Lord above all other things that we may be confident that our reward will be great and we will be able to declare with confidence: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”  Amen.