Us Chickens

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.’”

Every summer, my grandparents would move their family from the house in the “big city” of Escanaba, Michigan out to Camp for the summer. With new buzz cuts and a large box of .22 ammo for both my dad and his brother they were set for the summer. This was before helicopters, let alone helicopter parents, so there was a ton of unstructured time, but still, my grandparents had plenty of projects and chores to attempt to keep Ben and Bob busy and out of the most serious, life-threatening sorts of trouble... which in hindsight did work... but based on the stories, it was never a sure thing. One of those projects involved raising chickens and one summer that meant painting the chicken coop. My uncle Bob was sent out to start the project while my dad finished up something inside. Before long however a giant commotion was heard coming from the direction of the chicken coop and as my dad and grandma looked out the window, they saw Bob chasing the chickens around the yard with a paintbrush full of green paint, painting not the chicken COOP but the chickens… it was a lovely shade of green as the story tells.

Chickens, it turns out have the reputation of taking a coat of paint well… but not cheerfully. A chicken’s reputation does NOT, however, usually include being an animal of great power and might. But here we have the power and might of God, made flesh in Jesus Christ, living in the world… like a chicken! Jesus isn’t acting like a lion, intimidating the countryside with a mighty roar and razor sharp claws. Jesus isn’t describing himself as an eagle, soaring high above the earth with piercing vision. No, Jesus identifies himself with the animal most likely to be painted green by my Uncle Bob on a summer day in the late 1940’s… a chicken.

Jesus… the Christ… the Son of God… Savior of Creation… is… a chicken? It’s not where you might have expected Jesus to go when he was picking an animal avatar for himself. Chickens are not the most majestic creatures.  Most do not sport particularly colorful plumage. They are neither strong and mighty nor sleek and stealthy. They don’t have a soaring wingspan or powerful claws… they are…. well… chickens. But leave it to Jesus to identify with the underdog. Born to a poor, unwed mother, he ate and spent his time with social outcasts and religious rejects. He constantly healed and ministered to the people that society wouldn’t even look at, let alone touch. Jesus never hung out with the popular or the powerful but, like the hen, he was faithful... even to death, to those whom God put in his care.  

The Pharisees who came to scare Jesus away from his mission with a bogus death threat from Herod were trying to expose Jesus as a fraud. They figured with a death threat from the King, Jesus would turn and run, rather than take the chance of coming face to face with that sneaky fox-like King Herod and his deadly set of razor sharp teeth, otherwise known as the Roman army. But Jesus called them on their bluff and told them he would leave, but only when it was time and not a moment sooner. Jesus knew THIS threat was a bluff. He also knew, however, that if he kept to his calling… walking toward Jerusalem, healing people, teaching crowds, casting out demons and proclaiming a VERY different Kingdom than the kingdom of Caesar, the threat would eventually become all too real.

Jesus deeply desired that all of God’s people, and indeed all of creation would come to him to be cared for, and just like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings for safety, Jesus wanted to gather all of creation into the peace, safety and justice of the Kingdom of God. Like that hen though, Jesus had no real defense. What he did have was an incredible willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of the people. When a fox comes into the barnyard, a mother hen covers her chicks and bares her breast to the fox, enticing the fox to take her and leave her chicks alone. She can’t fight. All she can do is die for her chicks. Jesus too, we’ll see later, would not take the path that would lead him to fight. He would not return violence for violence. He would only offer himself to be killed, so that God’s children might live.  

The Good News for us is that each and every one of us are one of God’s little chicks! The fox of darkness, pain, meaninglessness and despair has already made it’s way into the human chicken coop and in response, Jesus has already gathered all of us and all of creation under his wings and sacrificed himself to make sure we all have life and not just a get-by life, but an abundant life, filled with meaning, purpose and hope.  

The question for us little chicks is not IF we have been given this gift of abundant life, but rather HOW will we now live into the gift of abundant life we’ve each been given through this sacrifice? We are alive! Even though, by all the laws of nature, we should have been eaten, digested, and left in a pile of fox poo long ago! God’s hope for us, and our calling by the Holy Spirit, is that by knowing and understanding that we have been saved from the sneaky, sly, fox of sin and death; we might live our lives from here on out, thanking God for the gift we have been given by passing God’s love… the love that first gathered us under those wings, to everyone around us. 

That’s the kind of life you and I have been called to. That’s the kind of life we have been saved FOR! That is the kind of life that would fill our Divine Mother Hen with the greatest amount of pride and joy a Divine Mother Hen could ever have!  

May each of us live more deeply into the gift of life we have been given… joyfully, abundantly, and thankfully… and may we do that TOGETHER as the coop of chickens known as the people of Christ Trinity church! And may we share that love of God which first saved us… with just the same sort of reckless abandon as Jesus first had for us.  Amen.