Philippians 3.17-4.1; Luke 13.31-35

Philippians 3.17-4.1; Luke 13.31-35

The refuge and safety that Jesus offers in today’s gospel—shelter under his wing—is his gift of courage and comfort for us.

Of courage, because Jesus sounds like the sort of hero we expect in a story of rivals approaching a face-off. ‘Tell that fox that I’ve no time for him right now. I’m busy casting out the demons and healing the sick.’

There’s also courage in the way Jesus describes himself as a mother hen who wants nothing more than to gather her chicks under her wing. When fire sweeps through a farmyard, some animals try to flee and escape; others stay behind and do what they can to protect their young. A hen will stay put, spread her wings out over her brood, and use her body as a shield. There are stories of hens giving their lives against a fire, sacrificing themselves in order to be a place of shelter and protection so that the brood underneath can live.

On the cross, with arms spread out, Jesus takes the fury of the world’s hatred and sin on himself, gives refuge and shelter to the people he longs to gather to himself. “Jesus takes no account of human threat and violence,” says an early Christian named Cyril of Alexandria. Herod’s threats are real enough, and the cross awaits Jesus in Jerusalem, but nothing will stop him from the way he must go. In Jesus, the hen protects her own.

This courage is our comfort. The refuge Jesus offers echoes psalms that celebrate God’s shelter and protection. Psalm 57, “Be merciful to me, O God…in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until the time of trouble has gone by.” Psalm 36, “How priceless is your love, O God! Your people take refuge under the shadow of your wings.” When we face difficulty or danger, being gathered under God’s wing is a poetic image for refuge and safety made real for us in the Son of God.

Except that Jesus, as you heard, has been rejected—rejected by God’s own people no less. “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” In those words, Jesus laments ancient Jerusalem, the holy city, home to the Temple, the place where God dwells. The name Jerusalem means ‘City of Peace,’ but it has become a city of violence, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.” God’s own people have lost their way. And this lament for people who are disoriented, distracted, and destructive isn’t limited to the city of Jerusalem or only to the history and circumstances of today’s gospel reading. In today’s second reading, St Paul describes a world turned away from God. “For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” Many have refused the courage, comfort, and life given in Jesus.

To describe these people who have turned away, Paul uses a rather odd phrase” “Their god is the belly.” A similar phrase shows up in Romans where Paul warns about people who are “slaves to the belly.” Biblical commentators have wondered exactly what that might mean. All agree it is more than food. Paul couldn’t have imagined our endless scrolling through food pictures on Instagram or searching YouTube for ’45 Easy Recipes for Lent.’ “Their god is their belly” describes an appetite to be sure. But it’s an appetite for something other than food. It’s about all the things we put in place of God, the idols in our lives.

Tim Keller, in his book ‘Counterfeit Gods,’ describes how easy it is to take the good things of life and make them the ultimate things of life, to turn them into little gods—idols. Idols, then, are more than objects that we worship but can be ideas, too. “An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.’

There are things and ideas that tempt us to turn away from God and turned toward something else to find value and purpose. “Some people are strongly motivated by influence and power,” Keller says, “while others are motivated by approval or appreciation. Some want emotional and physical comfort more than anything else…An idol is anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God.” The subtitle of Keller’s book names three idols in particular: ‘The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power and the Only Hope That Matters.’

The phrase, ‘their god is the belly’ is a way to describe the world’s hunger for something other than the grace, peace, and joy of Jesus Christ at the center of life: when success becomes the defining factor in who we believe we are; when we look to politics to give us the assurance that only Christ can give; when we prefer our own wisdom to God’s wisdom; our desires to God’s will; even our own reputation preferred to God’s honor. Then, as a result, we walk away from the courage, comfort, and life gathered under Jesus’ wing.

“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’ hope and heartache are palpable and unmistakable in those words. Our Lord knows human foolishness and sin; his heart aches over violence and destruction; he laments the pride, hypocrisy, and unfaithfulness of our lives, the little idols we make for ourselves, the ways we turn from the life he offers. If you’ve ever loved someone you could not protect from the choices they’ve made, you have a sense of Jesus’ anguish. It’s like the father in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son who wants nothing more than to have the relationship with that son restored; or the Old Testament prophet Hosea whose heart is broken by an unfaithful spouse. You can open your arms and long for reconciliation. But you cannot make anyone walk into them or come back to you. ‘How often have I desired to gather you and you were not willing!’

Yet human faithlessness will not stop Jesus’ faithfulness. He will not be distracted from his mission to gather the world to himself. The Gospel of Luke wants us to see in the image of a brood gathered under a mother hen’s wing a picture of Jesus’ arms extended on the cross. At the cross, the hen dares the fox to do its worst. Yet even knowing that rejection and death await him in Jerusalem, Jesus has courage. He takes no account of human threat and violence. Nothing will stop him from the way he must go. In Christ and on the cross, the world is gathered and reconciled. In Jesus, the hen protects her own. His courage is our comfort and life.

In the south stained-glass window, near the very top, we have a picture of this life given in Jesus Christ. We have looked at various images in this window before. Today is an especially good time to visit it again. Near the top, just below the Risen Christ—to his right, our left—there are two triangle shapes. In one, you see a white bird with her brood under her breast. It’s not the hen of today’s gospel but a pelican feeding her young.

Medieval Christians borrowed a legend about pelicans to tell the story of Jesus’ love for us. In times of famine, the legend said, a mother pelican would wound herself by striking her breast with her beak. By doing this, she fed her brood with her very own life, her body and blood, so that they could eat and live.

You can see how this became an image of Jesus, arms outstretched on the cross, our refuge and shelter; how it shows the Messiah long-awaited for an described by Isaiah, “He was pierced for our transgressions…by his wounds we are healed.” This image also became a picture of Jesus feeding us with his body and blood in the Holy Eucharist. A hymn written by Thomas Aquinas sings of Christ as the “loving divine pelican, providing nourishment from his breast.” This is the gift of Christ for you in the sacrament of his body and blood. His courage is our comfort.

“How often have I desired to gather you together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” Jesus is like the mother hen who gathers her brood under her wing, the mother pelican who feeds us with her own body and blood. At the cross, the hen dares the fox to do its work. In the cross and under the shadow of Christ’s wing, we are forever welcome and safe, forgiven and given new life. No one else and nothing else can give this gift. Our Lord takes no account of human threat and violence in order to gather the people he loves and give them refuge, shelter, and life. This gift is for you. Jesus’ courage is your comfort and life. “How priceless is your love, O God! Your people take refuge under the shadow of your wings.”