The Fox & the Hen

Luke 13:31-35

 

When I read this scripture I must say I was not excited to preach on it, but that probably means I should. I finally realized I needed to add another animal; the goat. I then read from Leviticus explaining the presence of the scapegoat. I then explained that almost every ancient society had a system of sacrifice to rid people of sins and guilt. And if we are honest, we certainly have made others scapegoats and have been victims ourselves.

Jesus calls Herod a fox as an insult. Foxes are in it for themselves and are cunning and manipulative for their own survival. They do not hunt in packs like most of their dog cousins, but I believe when foxes to run in packs you hear things such as "crucify him, crucify him!" A scapegoat is made.

Jesus laments over the city, but also over the fact that his desire to gather us under his wing is does not happen because we are not willing. It seems Jesus knows what will happen in Jerusalem, but his desire is for humanity to gather under his love. However, all the prophets before him, often with similar messages had been handled in the same way. It seems that humanity has a difficult time dealing with the reality of following the Divine Love.

It is true that Jesus' time on the cross reconciled us to God, however that was not the desired plan. It was known what would happen, but the desire was not to sent God's child to die. If it was, would it not been appropriate for the baby Jesus to have died. The wise men knew he was the new king, Simeon knew, the shepherds knew, many could have known and fulfilled the plan 30 years earlier. The fact is it was not simply a sacrifice, but rather we made the hen into a scapegoat.

Well God flipped it and I will share the flip after I share how when I hear "fox" I think of God. See when I would go into my Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Supervisor's office it was filled with foxes. Sister Mary Anne Gallagher would often say in her Irish Brogue, "God is foxy." See CPE was part of my preparation for ordination in which I worked as a chaplain at Saint Elizabeth's Hospital. It is a large hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and the program included a lot of reflection on our work both in groups and with our supervisor. It is considered by some to be "boot camp" for pastors. And I can see why some would say that, as our job, was to walk into a hospital room with just the patient's name, gender, and age, and attend to their spiritual needs. I was among, nurses, attendants, physical therapists, nutritionists, case workers, social workers, family, not to mention interns as it is a teaching hospital. Most of the time as a chaplain I was simply a companion for someone sick and lonely, but there were many God moments. These moments were powerful and numerous. I know of these moments outside the hospital as well, but it was daily in such a circumstance. Mary Anne was simply highlighting how God uses us and or moments that we could barely imagine sacred, as the most sacred.

God is not a fox, but God is cunning. God then used our sin of being foxes in a pack to scapegoat our sin and guilt on the perfect Jesus, to save us and demonstrate Divine Love for us.