Genesis 15: 1 - 12, 17 & 18 (New Jerusalem Bible)

Luke 13: 31 - 35 (Common English Bible)

In Luke chapter 13, a group of Pharisees went to Jesus and told him, “Go! You must get out of here because Herod Antipas wants to kill you.” Herod was one of the rulers in the Judean area. Jesus called Herod the “fox,” because he was sly and cunning like a fox. And there were some good Pharisees who agreed with Jesus.

But Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox that I will keep on casting out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will accomplish my purpose.”

Jesus compared himself to a mother hen and cried out, “Oh Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen that protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you didn’t let me.”

This is a beautiful picture of Jesus. The fox couldn’t defeat him, and Jesus willingly gave himself to save his children, even though they had rejected him.

Jesus was popular among the masses, especially those who were poor and oppressed. But the elites of Jewish society, with a few exceptions, hated him. Herod was one of the elites who hated Jesus, but he was afraid to kill him because of his popularity. He wanted others to get rid of Jesus.

When Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, he showed us how to act courageously. Jesus didn’t flee from any challenge, he met it head-on. Jesus showed us that being vulnerable is essential for courage. Courage gives us the strength to be open to the needs of people around us. Just look at the courage of Dorothy Day. Her concern for the poor and opposition to war, sent her to jail several times.

Jesus is connected to the prophets in the Hebrew Bible, but he was much more than a prophet. He inherited a tradition that continues today. Prophets are not necessarily predictors of the future, but rather address the problems within their society. Martin Luther King Jr. is a good example. But like Jesus many are rejected by those satisfied with the status-quo.

But true prophets are supposed to challenge the elite and the world’s power structures. Prophets teach others about God’s message to humankind. If you want to be a prophet, if we want to show Christ to the world, our lives have to be grounded in the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus warned the elites in Jerusalem what they would face. The rejected Jesus knew that God was going to abandon them and leave Jerusalem to its enemies. The result of the hardness of their hearts was their destruction by the Romans in 70 AD.

When it comes to our relationship with God, no amount of technology and material things can do that. The season of Lent invites us to realize that we’re more dependent on God than we realize. Lent is the time to realize that, just like the helpless chicks in Jesus’ story. The chicks needed their mother hen to be saved. And there have been cases during a barnyard fire when the mother hen covers her chicks with her wings to save them from the flames. Often the mother hen dies, but her chicks survive.

The promises God made when we were baptized are larger than the ones made to Abram, later renamed Abraham. In my opinion Abraham was the first real historical person in the Bible. God’s promise to Abraham was about land and having descendents. Christ’s promise is about eternal life. Every Sunday we recite something similar to this from the lectionary. The forgiveness of sin, the resurrection, life everlasting and a life that blesses all people.

Unfortunately, we still find the families of the earth at each other’s throats. And this goes beyond the genocide being done by the Netanyahu Regime to the Palestinian people in Gaza. Often it's misery that overshadows much of the earth we live on. One group is obsessed with how much money they have. And others judge people on what skin-tone they have. Other people wonder where God is, and why God promises good things which they expect to receive immediately. Is God absent they think?

But God does things in God’s way as the prophet Isaiah wrote and said, “God’s way is not our ways, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts.” We look for signs of God’s presence like we look at stars on a dark night. More often what we see of God’s gracious activity is as murky as the smoking fire pot in Abram’s second vision.

In the reading about “birds of prey” more than likely they were vultures. You can see a lot of them on rural roads in the Spring. As a matter of fact, I saw a flock of those nasty birds on Thursday. Spring is the time when animals are on the move and often cross the road at the wrong time. That means roadkill for the vultures.

Abram deals with vultures in this strange story with the torch and smoking firepot. The reading has Abram laying out the carcasses of the slaughtered animals he sliced and diced. Of course the vultures wanted to eat them, but Abram drove them away. The dead animals were necessary as a sign of God’s commitment. 

The Apostle Paul dealt with the vultures in his day. But they were the kind with no wings. They had legs and feet. Paul called them enemies of the Cross of Christ. They’re like the people in Jerusalem that Jesus grieved for. They want nothing to do with a Messiah who dies on a cross. To them the Messiah was supposed to be a conquering hero who destroys the Romans. Their way was based on material success and not service to God. They believed God would bless their success, but that is not what Jesus taught.

We should keep our focus on Christ and the crucifixion of Jesus. That is where faith begins. The same faith Abraham showed. It’s the same type of faith that moves Almighty God to say, “Don’t be afraid, I Am here.”

Lent is the time in the church year when we can practice the spiritual gift of “letting go.” Lent is the moment to shed tears over the losses we have experienced. And Lent is the time to pick up a good habit, maybe one that will help people. 

AMEN