February 21, 2016

The Second Sunday in Lent

In a world of run by foxes, who would want to be a chicken? Yet this is how Jesus refers to himself. Perhaps with good intention, some Pharisees warn Jesus about Herod (a son of the Herod the great who tried to kill him years ago.) There were some religious leaders who listened to Jesus and wanted to hear more. Instead of gratitude or fear, Jesus is defiant and then a little sad. Herod is a mere fox - a shifty and calculating animal that snatches what it can. Jesus is like a mother hen, who wants to gather her brood around her.

Jesus could be anything. He could have strength or speed. He could imagine himself an enormous or noble animal - immune to anything Herod could do. Jesus chooses the common hen and he chooses to appeal to love and mercy. Even though Jerusalem is the city that kills the prophets, and the city that will one day kill him, Jesus wants to love and embrace that city. He wants to reach every person. He wants to bring all the people together in a relationship of love with God.

It is easy for us to lose sight of God's intention for us. We are so worried. We have so many problems that are beyond our power to solve. No wonder we want to run and hide. Even when we can hear the words of assurance from God, we have trouble believing. God is love, but our bills are real. The dangers of this world are real. People still get sick. The news never gets better.

Abram is promised a family and a land to live in. He is old. He is making a living in a foreign land, encountering enemies and famine. Even with material success, he still grieves that he has no son. God appears to Abram again and makes an agreement. This ancient ritual binds the agreement in that the participants would swear that they would be killed just like the sacrificed animals. What is unique is that God alone passes through the midst of the sacrifice. God alone agrees to abide by the covenant. Abram must only believe.

God promises that Abram's descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. That's a lot of stars. As Abram looks up at the night sky, he is reminded that whatever God is doing, it is much bigger than Abram. This is difficult for us to do. We try to apply God's promises so locally, so personally. Of course, God wants us to prosper and live well. More fundamentally, God wants us to become new people, growing in new life.

We are invited into a relationship of eternal love. God wants to gather us and draw us into a place of life and love. It is a form of safety and a kind of protection. God's desire is not merely our comfort and care. God's deep desire is for our transformation so that we can live joyfully in awareness of God's love. The sign of this change is how we are able to live together as God's people. Are we jockeying for position or quarreling over resources? Or are we serving each other so that we can become our best selves? Paul is concerned that members are comparing each other, and some are proud of their devotion to sets of rules. In lent, we do well to remember that we are not better or worse in how we follow a particular devotion. We are better if, in the end, we are better able to love.

Perhaps this is the best way for us to show our trust in God. We are promised so much. We are asked to believe so many impossible things. It is not easy to believe the promises when all the particulars of our life together are difficult and unclear. The work of faith is not to ignore these worries. We are asked to act on what we believe in the midst of all our worries.

Faith is not holding onto an unassailable argument, nor is it living with a kind of logical certainty. Faith is a choice to live in love despite all the noise and confusion around us. We are not called to somehow make ourselves better or to improve our souls through hard work and sacrifice. God calls us to follow. We are called to follow into the promises. We are called to live as if God's love is true. We are called to lift up those beside us and keep on the path of new life and salvation. God's love is as numberless as the stars. Even when we cannot see, we can look up and know it’s there.

Herod is the fox. He is always calculating the best way to snatch up anything he can find. Jesus is the mother hen. He does not seek the easy path. Jesus loves us and gathers us. Somehow, this is ultimately more powerful than all our calculating and planning. God doesn’t need us to fix everything or to force anything. God wants us to live into the power of love. As God gathers us, God also urges us to reach our arms around a hurting world – and seek something better.