Lenten Lament

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church on Sunday February 28, 2010, the Second Sunday in Lent.

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

“The sky is falling.” This cry is heard from many different stories, but its most usually cited source is the Aesop fable of the same name; though we commonly call that story by the name of its main character, Chicken Little.

Oh, yes, the sky is falling. Chicken Little is beaned by an acorn while eating her lunch under the shade of an old oak tree. Being civically minded, she decides she must inform the king of their impending doom. Along the way, several other animals come to help Chicken Little spread the word including Henny Penny, Cocky Lockey and Goosey Loosey and others. Finally, they come across Foxy Loxy who offers to help spread the word. All the while, it’s Foxy Loxy’s intent to lure the gang down into his den where he will eat them for his dinner.

Now, a jester can tell a king things in story and song that no one else would ever dare say aloud. So when the storyteller would get to this point in the fable there would be several different directions the tale can be taken depending on what moral the teller intends to share.

In this tradition, there are several different endings to this fable. In the most famous ending,[1] Foxy Loxy eats Chicken Little’s friends, but the last one, usually Cocky Lockey, survives long enough to warn her and she escapes. In this ending, we learn the dangers of making poor decisions based on worse information and believing everything we hear.

In the “happy ending” version,[2] all of the characters are saved by an unnamed little gray squirrel who has seen the fox’s game before and warns them of a more likely doom than the sky falling. To free the unknowingly trapped menagerie, the squirrel hurls a rock into Foxy’s skull creating enough of a diversion to free the captives. One of the lessons we take from this ending is to be brave like the squirrel and not, well chicken.

Reading these tales with all of their characters and all of their voices conveys a level of energy that creates a sense of confusion. In a manic rendering of this story with its sudden climax, we are trapped much like all of the animals in Foxy Loxy’s den. Comparing this fable to our gospel reading, I would say that, the Pharisees would fulfill in the role of Chicken Little and the gang all too well.

“Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you!” It has a nice “the sky is falling” ring to it, doesn’t it? There is terror in the wings, the apocalyptic sign of the ages, sure and certain death is on the way and running is your only salvation.

If in my recasting of this fable, the Pharisees serve as Chicken Little and her band of followers, and Jesus serves as the King, of course; it looks like Herod appears in the guise of Foxy Loxy having his eyes on something bigger than small livestock.

So as we read of Jesus calling Herod “that fox,” we can tell he means business. Let’s begin with the fact that the biblical witness on foxes is hardly favorable. As it was for Aesop, the fox Jesus refers to is sly, cunning, and voraciously destructive. Yet Jesus isn’t worried. Jesus knows what time it is and his Blackberry is up to date with his schedule from now until Passover and beyond.

Jesus is warned that Herod wants to kill him. Jesus gives a warning in return. Jesus tells Herod and the Pharisees and the world that he will not be hindered. His work will not be impeded by Herod or by anybody else. He will cast out demons. He will perform cures. Then on the third day, he will finish his work.

Finish, this is the same word Jesus will use upon the cross as he commends his spirit into his Father’s hands. On that Good Friday Jesus will say “It is finished.” Today he says, “On that day I finish.”

Jesus knows his fate, and he knows that today it has nothing to do with Herod Antipas. He knows it so well that he knows that his fate will be met down the road in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, this is a city that does not live up to its name. The Hebrew word for “City of Peace,” Jerusalem kills the prophets and stones those sent to it. This is where Naboth[3] and Zechariah[4] were stoned. This is where Stephen[5] will be stoned. This is a city that has been besieged over forty times and razed to the ground seventeen.[6] City of Peace? Not so much.

As Jesus warns the Pharisees that he will not be rushed, as Jesus warns Herod that he is not finished, and as he warns Jerusalem that he is coming; Jesus laments. He doesn’t lament his fate, no; he laments the city where his fate will be sealed. He laments the city where his fate will be unsealed.

In the City of David, in the City of Solomon’s Temple, In the City of God, Jesus laments how often he has wanted, longed to gather the people. As a hen gathers her brood, Jesus longs to gather the children of Jerusalem. As Jesus longs to gather the children of Jerusalem, Jesus longs to gather the children of God in this day and time.

I would like to share two stories with you:

Victor Shepherd is a Canadian minister, theologian, and author.[7] In his seminary training, he had a course with Dr. James Wilkes, a Toronto psychiatrist. During one class, a student lamented that in this age of agnosticism and secularism we were no longer sure of the church’s vocation. Wilkes stared at the student for the longest time as if the student were half-deranged and then remarked, “Are you telling me that you can have a suffering human being in front of you and you don’t know what the church’s vocation is?”[8]

A professor laments that seminarians can believe the church has difficulty finding its place in a world of pain and suffering. Vocation lays in front us in poverty, hunger, and despair. Here in Lapeer County, the unemployment rate is 9.5% and 8.5% of families live below the poverty level. Poverty numbers shoot up to 14.4% of families with children under age eighteen and 21.7% of families whose children are all under the age of five.[9] Some of these numbers are in line with national percentages, some higher, some lower.[10] We don’t have to look far to see that the church’s vocation to show compassion and be the light of Christ in the world is all around us.

The second story comes from the Landisville, Pennsylvania Mennonite Church where every Sunday members pray for a son of their congregation. Every month they send him a small sum of money, and every month some of them visit him.

Prayer, money and visits: fairly typical examples of congregational care giving, one might suppose. What's atypical is that nine years ago, after a meal with relatives on a calm Sunday afternoon, 14-year-old Keith Weaver killed his parents, Clair and Anna May, and his sister, Kimberly. The inexplicable horror of the crime and the loss of lives rocked the Weavers’ family, church, and community to the core.

In the middle of their grief and disillusionment, however, members of the Landisville congregation got busy. They helped clean the house where the murders occurred, established a legal support committee to care for Keith's needs so that the surviving brother and sister wouldn't have to, and founded a seventy times seven fund to collect money for his expenses. They studied grief, forgiveness and victimization in Sunday school and sermons, calling on the expertise of area chaplains and counselors. A year after the tragedy, they held a memorial service to lament the loss of their loved ones and to recommit themselves to the journey of forgiveness.[11]

The Landisville story reminds us that in every crime there are countless victims who need to receive the peace and love of Jesus Christ. The congregation in Landisville continues that journey, through prayers and financial help and visits to Keith in prison. “Forgiveness is an act of God's grace,” says Landisville pastor Sam Thomas. “You don't forgive and forget; you forgive again and again and again.”

In the midst of every lament, there is a call to action. Jesus laments the victims and the victimizers of Jerusalem. He laments a city that is not willing to be called to serve as the heart and hands of the Lord in the City of God. Jesus continuously wants to gather the city and protect the children of Jerusalem.

Yes, we remember wonderful promises like “wings of eagles” which will make us able to run and not be weary; walk and not faint.[12] But instead of likening himself to the majestic hunter, Jesus likens himself to a hen. Jesus is not the bird that strikes terror into prey of all sizes; he compares himself to a maternal protector. This is the king who will ride into Jerusalem on the back of a colt, not astride a great warhorse. Jesus responds to lament in love and nurture, not in war and destruction.

The 27th Psalm gives us the image of a great king facing the greatest dangers of his civilization. Ordained and installed as the head of the nation of Israel by the power and glory of the Lord, he still has many enemies. Evildoers have come upon him to eat up his flesh. Armies have encamped against him. He laments that even his father and mother will forsake him, but it is the Lord who will sustain him. Let us hear the words of the 27th Psalm:

For on the day of trouble the LORD shall shelter me in safety;
the LORD shall hide me in the secrecy of the holy place
and set me high upon a rock.

Even now the LORD lifts up my head
above my enemies round about me.
Therefore I will offer in the holy place an oblation
with sounds of great gladness;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.[13]

There is woe, danger. Herod has been waiting at the door for thousands of years, and by the light of Christ that shines, the darkness is pierced. Jesus lives and works, praying for Jerusalem and for us in the midst of the things that cause us to lose sight of the church’s vocation.

In this, we can rest assured that in the grand scheme of life, nothing happens outside of the love and protection of the Lord God Almighty. Where last week we heard the story of Jesus and the devil in the wilderness, this week we hear the story of another temptation, Jesus is invited to run for his life. Jesus cuts through the worldly political twists and turns, knowing that his time will not come today or tomorrow. Jesus is in control even when it will appear to the world that he is not.

In the grand scheme, while we must let God be God who will act in God’s own time and in God’s own way; we must not allow ourselves to let this be our call to inaction. We must begin by being willing to be collected as chicks gathered by their mother, and then we must allow ourselves to be nurtured and grow into the people God calls us to be. As chicks will follow their mother hen, we must follow Christ seeking and finding the vocation of the church to share the good news with the world, using words when necessary.

We begin by hearing that the sky is falling all around us, and in many very real ways it is. Still, we cannot let ourselves be distracted by Herod or any of the other foxes that make their ways into our lives. In the fable, the king shows Chicken Little that the sky is not falling; it is just a tiny acorn. Let us go to the King of Kings, the one who protects us from every foxy Herod, and shows us the way to say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

[1] Chicken Little, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sky_Is_Falling_(fable), retrieved February 25, 2010.
[2] Chicken Little, http://www.edsanders.com/chickenlittle/, retrieved February 25, 2010.
[3] 1Kings 21:8-14
[4] 2Chronicles 24:20-22
[5] Acts 7:52, 58
[6] Tan, Paul Lee, “Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Sign of the Times.” Chicago: Assurance Publishers, 1979, entry #2593.
[7] Victor Shepherd, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Shepherd, retrieved February 25, 2010.
[8] HomileticsOnline.com, referencing Victor Shepherd, “Mandate for a congregation,” January 1998, Victor Shepherd Web Site, victorshepherd.on.ca. Found at Illuminating Illustrations, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords=lament, February 23, 2010.
[9] Census.gov website, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=05000US26087&-qr_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_DP3YR3&-ds_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-_sse=on, retrieved February 25, 2010.
[10] Census.gov website, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_DP3YR3&-ds_name=ACS_2008_3YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-_caller=geoselect&-redoLog=false&-format=, retrieved February 25, 2010.
[11] HomileticsOnline.com, referencing Valerie Weaver-Zercher, God's Crime Bill, www.christianitytoday.com. Found at Illuminating Illustrations, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords=lament, February 23, 2010.
[12] Isaiah 40:31
[13] Psalm 27:5-6, “The Book of Common Worship.” Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993, page 639.