Sermon at Parish Mass Lent 2 2022
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| Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication |
Genesis 15.1-12,17-18
Philippians 3.17 - 4.1
Luke 13.31-35
In today’s Gospel Jesus is continuing on his way to Jerusalem, and there is a background of growing threat, which becomes explicit today when some Pharisees – so often cast as the bad guys – warn Jesus that Herod wants to kill him. But Jesus is not yet in Jerusalem, and he tells the Pharisees, who seem only to want to help him, that he can’t be killed yet, as it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside Jerusalem.
As so often in the Gospels, Jesus’s prediction of his suffering and death must have seemed bewildering and distressing to those who were following him.
And then he speaks words of lament over the city, like so many of the prophets did of old, speaking not just of his own time but with the voice of centuries, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”. But these words are in one way different from those of the prophets. They passed on the word of the Lord that they had received, “hear the word of the Lord!”. But Jesus speaks in his own person. He, himself, is the Lord who has lamented over Jerusalem down the ages.
And then comes a most extraordinary sentence. “How often have I desired to…” What? If we hadn’t heard this text before, what would we imagine the Lord would want to do to this violent city that kills his prophets and stones his messengers? Punish it? Raze it to the ground? Force them to obey? But no. “How often have I desired to – gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”
In the Old Testament, there are many images of God that evoke power and strength, but Jesus does not choose any of those. Instead he uses an image that does not appear in the Old Testament at all. A hen – which is weak, vulnerable, powerless. But totally committed to protecting her chicks regardless of the threat. Constantly gathering them together as they constantly try to scatter. The hen is an image of unconditional commitment and nurture that will not give up. But she is not an image of power.
God is totally committed to the human project. This is God’s creation and God will not give up on it. His mysterious covenant with Abraham will include all those who have faith in every age, who are more in number than the stars of heaven. God constantly desires to gather together a world that is constantly trying to fly apart.
But when Jesus ratifies this irrevocable covenant he does so in vulnerability and weakness. Jesus says that Jerusalem will not see him until you say “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”. The crowds will cheer on Palm Sunday. They will still be expecting a Messiah who appears in strength. Instead, God’s commitment to them will be shown in a man on a cross. Few will understand that this is how God’s love is shown to them.
The Church, like Jesus, is called to witness to God’s irrevocable commitment to humanity. The Church shares in God’s desire to gather humanity together like a hen gathering her chicks, in a world that is constantly trying to fly apart. But, like Jesus, this will so often be shown to the world in weakness, risk and vulnerability. In fragile acts of kindness and love that are always open to rejection. In the testimony of the martyrs down the ages whose weakness and death testify to God’s power. Even in the courageous witness of those Russian Orthodox priests arrested just last week for using their sermons to tell their people about the invasion of Ukraine, and to call for peace.
In the words of a great Russian Orthodox saint of a previous generation, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, “the Church must be as powerless as God”.
In the Diocese of London, we have a vision for the next eight years “for every Londoner to encounter the love of God in Christ”. We need to consider how we will do that in an age when the church has lost the power, prestige and privilege of former times. We can’t control much, any more. But encounters with love aren’t really something that can be controlled, anyway. A church that is in a position of weakness will find it much easier to be like a hen gathering chicks, than like a powerful lord telling people what to do.
We need to be attentive, then, to how our Diocesan vision is referred to or presented. There is nothing in it about power or control. There is nothing that says we want to turn every Londoner into a Christian, or to make everyone come to church. It is about people encountering the love of God in Christ, out there where the people are. Where Jesus has already gone ahead of us and is already meeting people with his love, whether they recognize him or not.
To encounter the love of God in Christ is a risky, weak and vulnerable thing. It is the desire of a hen to gather her chicks. Not the desire of the powerful to make everyone conform or become like us. The Church must be as powerless as God. Which means to reject the vainglorious delusions of former ages with their power and privilege.
It means, also, to see through the all-too worldly managerial language of success, numbers and growth. Encounters with the love of God in Christ can take so many forms. Acts of kindness for lonely people. Building bridges of understanding between the many cultures and religions in our diverse city. Prioritizing those who are marginalized by a privileged society. Supporting the local foodbank. Giving to refugees whom we will never meet. We can’t really quantify those things. We can’t add them up and report them in our statistics for mission. But they are part of the mission of the Church, nonetheless.
This is what it means for the Church in this age to engage in the risky, weak and vulnerable business of a hen gathering her chicks. Constantly desiring to gather together a world that is constantly trying to fly apart. Witnessing to God’s love persistently, unconditionally, with irrevocable commitment, come what may. And that is to follow in the way of Jesus, and to make real in our discipleship his covenant commitment to the world God has made.
