Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
After these things the world of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Then he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming worth passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.”
Psalm 27
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers close in against me to devour my flesh, they, my foes and my enemies, will stumble and fall. Though an army camp against me, my heart will not fear. Though war rise up against me, my trust will not be shaken. One thing I ask of the LORD; one thing I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life; to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek God in the temple. For in the day of trouble God will give me shelter, hide me in the hidden places of the sanctuary, and raise me high upon a rock. Even now my head is lifted up above my enemies who surround me. Therefore I will offer sacrifice in the sanctuary, sacrifices of rejoicing; I will sing and make music to the LORD. Hear my voice, O LORD, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me. My heart speaks your message - “Seek my face.” Your face, O LORD, I will seek. Hide not your face from me, turn not away from your servant in anger. Cast me not away - you have been my helper; forsake me not, O God of my salvation. Though my father and my mother forsake me, the LORD will take me in. Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me on a level path, because of my oppressors. Subject me not to the will of my foes, for they rise up against me, false witnesses breathing violence. This I believe - that I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD and be strong. Take heart and wait for the LORD!
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ 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! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
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A few years ago there was a song making the rounds on the internet, which I discovered on an episode of Ellen when she asked the singers to come on and talk about this little piece of nonsense they wrote. They wrote it just for kicks, to be entirely ridiculous, and it completely surprised them by becoming a huge hit, even being spoofed by medical students as a study aid on the mystery of the spleen.
I’m talking about that internet sensation: “What Does The Fox Say?” It’s been stuck in my head all week after a Facebook conversation with other young clergy about this morning’s Gospel reading. Because Jesus gets sassy with the Pharisees and calls Herod a fox. The Pharisees, who have been trying to save their seats of power and authority in the religious establishment, tell Jesus to head for the hills because Herod is out to get him, and Jesus compares their head of state to a weasel-y yapping dog of a predator, telling them he has work to do, and he knows he will die for it, so let’s get back to it already. Nothing will knock Jesus off track from his mission to set people free and restore them all to community, not even death threats from a guy who is so insecure in his position as to threaten a small-town local faith leader. Besides, when were the Pharisees ever looking out for Jesus’ best interest?
Because sometimes it feels like the people in power have absolutely no idea what life in the trenches is like, and the talking heads sounds more like that ridiculous fox song than like people who actually know what’s going on in our lives or care to do anything about it. Sometimes leaders get overwhelmed with keeping their positions and misplace their mission. We’ve seen this happen, we’ve known times when those in authority seem to overstep their roles or ignore our needs. Sometimes we even are these people in authority. Jesus is basically reminding the Pharisees to tell Herod that the work of casting out demons and performing cures is more important than paying attention to Herod’s opinion on such matters, which is what the Pharisees themselves ought to be about, anyway. Both the religious leaders and the political leaders have missed the point, and Jesus isn’t about to let that stop him from what’s most important.
It used to be the way we saw God, too, as a higher authority, the highest authority, who sure couldn’t be bothered with the day to day problems of simple people, farming and trading and going about their business. As though our pains and struggles weren’t worth the attention of an almighty higher power watching over the world from a high and lofty throne in the clouds. We made light of our problems and stopped asking God to care about us, because we stopped expecting God would bother with a cow who didn’t give milk or a child who was unruly at school, and we began shaming our neighbors for not taking care of their own problems. Many people turn away from an idea of God because the way God is painted is as too high and mighty to be bothered with little old us. After all, if God cares more about who we sleep with than with who is going hungry in our neighborhood, well, what is there to worship in that sort of character?
Back in the day, when Abram was learning to trust God’s promises, Abram learned about God’s character by way of a very strange sounding ritual involving animals cut in half and watching over them all night long. I remember my first Old Testament class professor telling us about this particular story, that it was a very intense rite, because by passing through those bisected animal carcasses, God was essentially invoking a curse on Himself if He failed to keep this promise to Abram for land and offspring. Kings would take promise of revenge in much the same way, saying things like “may God do twice as much to me if I don’t kill your entire village!” or something like that. But here is Abram crying to God about feeling abandoned and cut off at the end of his long and unfruitful life, and God essentially responds by telling Abram “may I end up like these sacrificed animals if I do not follow through with my promise to you!”
It’s like Noah and the great flood, when God places a bow in the clouds as a reminder never to destroy the earth by flood again, because that bow, you may notice, is pointed heavenward, toward the sky where God lives, so as to strike God if this promise is ever broken.
As we see in Jesus snubbing the threats of Herod today, God would rather die than see us cut off, killed, or destroyed. All of the threats we post against God are just like the yipping of a fox compared to the enormous love God has for the world. I imagine Herod as a great fox coming to the henhouse of Jerusalem and finding Jesus as the irate mother hen pecking out his eyes to protect her chicks. The hen will die in the process, but what mother wouldn’t lay down her life for her children? Ideally, anyway. We know the world is too broken for every mother to love so perfectly and selflessly, that some mothers are too self-absorbed or addicted or otherwise sick, to give much more than they’ve already given in the basic act of giving birth. But even though we’ve cleaned up birth in hospitals with those antiseptic gloves and gowns, we know that giving birth tears a woman’s body, and that, too, is part of our image of Jesus today as a mother hen. Of course, it’s not the same for birds as for mammals when it comes to all of that, but the cross has long been seen as an image of God’s heart and body being torn open to give birth to a new creation, to the church.
We are the gathered ones, today, in this place. We proclaim at the Eucharistic prayers “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” and we see Jesus, hold him, drink him in, at this Table where the Body and Blood of Jesus are given and shed for you and for the world. God, who is the ultimate power of life in the universe, has come to dwell with us, to feed us with himself, to remain with us always. God is so focused on this passion that no threats of death can deter God from this course. The fears of this world, the anxieties about failure and success, the struggles to save ourselves from worst case scenarios, are but idle chatter or the barking of a fox compared to the power of the presence of the love of God. We see that love most clearly on the cross of Jesus, which he knew was going to be the outcome of his ministry, but his love for us would not let him turn away from it, no matter what pain and heartache it would bring him. For the heartache of betrayal and crucifixion was not to be compared with the heart break of a people who turned away from his love again and again and would not let him gather them. To be near to us, then, he came among us to cast out demons and perform cures and proclaim liberty to the captives. Even Herod, one day, even the Pharisees, even the rest of us, gathered into the love of Christ around this Table, fed by the love of the cross. Now not even death can part us, not ever again, for the mother hen has defeated every fox.
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