Luke 13: 31- 35

Last night, with scopes and binoculars, a few of us watched the lunar eclipse.

Standing next to a cornfield, we talked about the age of the big, impact craters on the moon and the speed of bodies in space. Age and speed, as I listened made me think of way old jokes enjoy a life of their own.

Like "Knock, knock" jokes, elephant jokes and

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" jokes.

So I have one for you....

Don’t groan ahead of time....

 Q. Why shouldn’t the hen cross the road?

Answer: It would be a fowl proceeding.

I’m proceeding anyway.

And ...you were not willing.

The hen raises up and spreads her wings out and her babies take cover not just to be warm and sheltered at night when its cold or damp. She also does this to save their very lives when a fox is near, or she sees the shadow of a hawk circling overhead or if there is the threat of fire.

And ...you were not willing.

Many of us have experienced those hard times when you could not protect or shelter a loved one. You can stand on the porch looking down the road like the Father of the prodigal son. You can open your arms and wait... We can’t force love. All we can do is wait in vulnerability.

That’s Jesus.

Luke tells us that Jesus’ life is centered in Jerusalem. His parents take him there as a child and both Simeon and Anna make a fuss over him. Later, he will be found talking to the elders in the Temple by his parents who have searched for him for days. He will teach and preach and heal the sick in Jerusalem. And he will die, condemned as a criminal, just outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Remember God dwells in Jerusalem. Isaiah says God’s glory shall be revealed in Jerusalem. (Isa. 24:23) Nothing that happens in Jerusalem is insignificant. When Jesus dies, the sun’s light failed and the Temple curtain was torn in two.

Jesus has just spoken of the fox in Jerusalem.

Herod. The king who abuses and misuses power. The king who does not care for those under his care....

The chicks... the people of Jerusalem.

Chicks. Small. Delicate. Immature.

It’s a little surprising that Jesus chose to speak about such domestic animals when lions and leopards and any number of beasts were known to him.

In Ancient Greece, the chicken was considered an exotic animal.

Certainly, we know that the cock is esteemed for its strength and valor.

The Greeks believed that even lions were afraid of cocks. You can see this in some of Aesop’s fables.

In ancient cult worship, the cock was a symbol of divine light and a guardian against evil.

We remember how the cock crowed when Peter denied Jesus. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that the devil would flee at the first crowing of a cock.

Did you know that the Talmud also speaks of learning "courtesy toward one’s mate" from the rooster? Maybe this was because when a rooster finds something good to eat, he calls his hens to eat first.

So Jesus is talking about an animal with more character and more nobility than today’s factory farm grown chickens which are overfed and shot full of hormones on their way to our dinner tables.

He is also talking about chicks which have more economic value than just the novelty of being an Easter treat. I remember as a child wanting one of the pink or blue or pale yellow chicks that were for sale around Easter. In no uncertain terms, I was told the Easter Bunny would not be bringing dyed chicks to our house to die.

But it is not really a fox and chicks and a hen that Jesus is describing.

He is thinking of a people he loved and his desire to love them and protect them and his own willingness to give his life for them.

And ...you were not willing.

This is important, folks. Because in important ways we are those unwilling, willful chicks. St. Paul in his letter to Philippi describes us.

...their god is the belly

...their minds are set on earthly things

We hear Jesus describe himself as a mother hen and we are unwilling.

Unwilling to recognize that divine love is like mother love.

Unwilling to come undefended in God’s embrace.

Unwilling to admit we cannot save ourselves.

Unwilling to see the real dangers of losing our way.

And unwilling to be still and know that God is God.

We cluck and cluck and cluck.

You know what I’m describing. If you are unsure, think "Anna Nicole Smith". There, you’ve got it. We cluck and do not listen.

We do not hold this moment in Jesus ministry up.

Maybe we could borrow an idea from the Netherlands where families make dough chicks and hen from a popular bread dough recipe.

In the book To Dance with God, the author details how becks are pinched out of the dough and current eyes are added before they are baked. Out of the oven, the hens and chicks are skewered on dowels with red, purple and pink ribbons. Families process them with their palms and branches from their gardens to church on Palm Sunday for the community celebration. The festive hens and chicks decorate the church until the altar is stripped on Maundy Thursday.

The preacher Barbara Brown Taylor wrote an article entitled As a Hen Gathers Her Brood which was carried in the Christian Century about ten years ago. She described a mosaic on the front of the altar in a chapel on the western slope of the Mount of Olives where tradition says Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

In the mosaic tiles there is a white hen with a golden halo. Her red comb looks like a crown and her wings are spread wide to shelter the pale yellow chicks around her feet. Seven of them. They look happy to be there. The hen appears defensive and ready to act.

The medallion is rimmed with red Latin words....translated they read,

"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!"

The last phrase is set outside the circle, in a pool of red underneath the chicks’ feet: you were not willing.

"How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing."

"How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing."