If the Pharisees, who know a thing or two
about plotting to kill Jesus, are concerned maybe Jesus should pay attention.
After all the only hope a hen has is in hiding and praying the fox isn’t as
crafty as, well, a fox. And although the lament of Jesus, “how often I have
longed...” ends with a word of judgment, “have it your way” the image of Jesus
as a chicken should do more than cause us to chuckle. It is always surprising
to me, and not a little troubling, that we often miss all the ways in which
God’s self-revelation sets aside what we think of as God like qualities for the
less than majestic and powerful. None are more striking than Jesus as a mother
hen and Herod as a fox. But then if we miss the most obvious, God choosing to
die exposed and shamed, hanging naked between common criminals, then I suppose
it follows that we would gravitate towards what our youth and family director
Janelle might call a Big Dog God for that’s what we think we need to send foxes
into hiding. To be gathered under the wings of Jesus is to accept God as God
chooses to be revealed which is always different from what we expect and when
gathered under those wings we get it and begin to look less like foxes and more
like chickens.
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