Grace and peace to you from our sheltering God, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen.
If you are on YouTube or Facebook, or maybe just watch the evening news, you may know about the social media couple of the year so far: Jackie and Shadow. They are a pair of bald eagles who nest each year at Big Bear Lake in Southern California, about 10 miles from the Bear Mountain Ski Area.
Jackie and Shadow’s eggs did not hatch for the past two years, so their clutch of three eggs, all of which hatched this year, have drawn tens of thousands of views daily on the Friends of Big Bear Valley webcams. When the smallest of the trio perished in the two-foot snowstorm Thursday night and was confirmed dead yesterday, the outpouring of grief was unbelievable.
The most endearing thing to watch is the parents’ dedication to their young. Fighting off ravens, covering the nest through all kinds of weather, trading off fishing and warming duties – the pair have a rhythm that is just a wonder to watch. One or the other rested their “brood patch” of featherless skin on their abdomen over the eggs throughout the incubation, and one or the other covered the chicks until they were old enough to maintain their own temperature.
Mirroring Jackie and Shadow’s story, we read in today’s gospel this tender metaphor from Jesus, who wishes he could cover Jerusalem like a hen covers her chicks. Jesus can heal and cast out demons, but here he laments what he CANNOT do: that is, to guide people to a new understanding, to love God and one another, that God’s deepest desire is to be reconciled to them. God wanted that so much that God came to earth as a human being, to live among them.
“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 is not talking about the citizens of Jerusalem only. He is not talking just about the powerful Roman leaders or the temple leaders. Jesus is talking about all of this and more --- Jerusalem, the heart of all that is Jewish.
This is not his hour. This is not Jesus coming into the city for his final time. Jesus is still in the middle of his teaching and healing. He’s already healed people and been confronted several times by the religious leaders, who believe he’s a rogue rabbi, ignoring the law. He’s showed up on the Roman and Jewish leaders’ radar screens – those who are in charge of keeping anyone from upsetting the status quo.
Today he’s responding to a group of Pharisees who have strangely come to warn him that Herod wants his head, much as Herod took his cousin John the Baptizer’s head. They want Jesus to get back in the box, to speak diplomatically like all the other rabbis do. They want him to tell people to worship at the temple, pay their temple tax, and be quiet about life under Roman occupation.
And in response, they don’t get what they want. Jesus calls Herod a fox. A cunning predator who wantonly kills everything it can. That is a fox’s nature. Jesus tells them to tell THAT FOX that he has business to do. He’s going to continue casting out demons and healing people – AND feeding people and raising up the widows and orphans and all the forgotten ones. Because that is what HE’S about. That is HIS nature, his calling, his very purpose. And no one, not his family, not his religious leaders, not Herod, the king of Judea, or even Caesar himself, is going to stop him, until it’s his time.
If you’ve been paying attention lately, the Lutherans have been in the news. The Lutherans, of all people. Apparently, we aren’t staying in the box, either. According to some, we’ve gone rogue.
Through our advocacy arm, Global Refuge, formerly the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, we have received federal funds to ensure that people coming to this country as Legal Refugees became productive, integrated citizens. Housed. Employed. Educated. Community members. Our neighbors. This didn’t start yesterday. The agency has been doing this since 1939. 1939. We’ve been doing this since people began fleeing Europe at the start of World War II.
And nobody puts Lutherans back in the box. We’ve been kinda out-of-the-box people since, well, about 1517, when Luther went rogue against the Church itself. We’ve been doing humanitarian work since the very beginning.
Perhaps you’ve seen our Presiding Bishop’s response to those who have been hammering on the Lutherans and the other faith-connected agencies doing similar work. She didn’t tell us to turn our backs. She didn’t tell us to run.
She quoted the Apostle Paul: "So let us not grow weary in doing what is right. For we reap at harvest time if we do not give up."
And she addressed you and me, the Lutherans watching all over this nation. She said, basically, as Jesus said in the Gospel, that today, tomorrow and the next day, we should be on our way. To finish our work.
From her response: “You are a superpower. They don't expect thousands and thousands of ordinary people in our pews and in our communities to join together for this action. So get motivated and get organized. We are church together, and together we will continue to defend the most vulnerable communities and people among us as Jesus taught us.”
I don’t know if you’ve been involved with refugees coming to this country. I hope you have, because only then do you see the lengths people go to come to the U.S., for a safe home. For a future that didn’t exist in their nation. Two years ago, my contextual education congregation was involved in rehoming refugees from Ukraine and Venezuela.
The first Sunday I preached, my supervising pastor’s wife walked in with three refugees. They had walked from Venezuela to the Texas border, a trek of three months, 2,500 miles. They engrained themselves in the life of the congregation, and even though they didn’t speak a word of English, they began serving as ushers and greeters, then cooking for the Saturday hot meals program. These three men who had nothing couldn’t wait to do everything they could to serve others.
But even if Our Savior’s doesn’t do direct refugee work, we know the work we are called to do. Feed the hungry. Provide clothes, beds and bedding for those who need it. Make quilts that go all over the world with Lutheran World Relief. Provide funds to the ELCA that goes to good work throughout the nation and world. Advocate for just policies with our elected officials. I’ve seen your reports and photos. Our Savior’s is on our way, today, tomorrow and the next day.
In that vein today, I’d like to try something. During the prayers of intercession – the prayers of the people, there is a place for our own prayers. When the prayers say “Care tenderly for those who are ill in body or mind, and for people living in fear or need (especially)…” I would like you to have someone or some situation on your heart. Today, my especially is my internship community, outside St. Louis, which had severe storms and tornados touchdown Friday night.
In short, we are called to cover those in need with our wings. To be shelter and a shield to those who God puts in our path. To protect the vulnerable around us, as far as our broad wings will reach. And, God willing, in time, that care that we provide, the nurturing we give, will allow the vulnerable ones we’ve covered the ability to fly.
The Psalmist said: “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” I see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living every day among you. So keep on your way, Our Savior’s. Finish the work.
Amen.
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