Second Sunday of Lent, March 16, 2025
Sunday Morning Worship
Sermon: The Fox and The Hen
Accompanying Scripture: Luke 13: 31-35
The Fox and the Hen
If you were to open the Bible and start reading, perhaps you would begin with the first book of Genesis. Genesis 1 would be a pretty good place to begin. What we would find is this amazing creation. God creates the Lesser light and the greater light; there’s evening, and there’s day. God separates the waters so that we have dry land. A couple of days later what he created in terms of flora and the fauna is incredible. We’re still figuring it all out. We are still trying to understand this ecosystem that God created.
In our scripture, we read about Herod. Herod Antipas has been diminished by his father, Herod the Great. He had a lot of land that he ruled over but Herod Antipas only inherited a part. The emperor would not permit him to be called King; he would be called tetrarch. His position has diminished, which probably made him even meaner than his father.
He’s in cahoots with the emperor; he does not care about the people he rules. He’d rather kill them than save them. And that is the fox.
The hen, on the other hand, won’t be intimidated. He stands up to Herod and says I’m doing Ministry: healing, exorcising, teaching, and preaching. He cares about these people that Herod cares nothing about. He so badly wants to shield them, to gather them together as chicks under his wings. It’s a tender moment of protection and love.
The dichotomy is that we think of the Fox as the strong and the hen as the weaker. Yet the hen will eventually absorb death and take the sting from it strong.
The sly fox versus the vulnerable Jesus: the one who is out for the disenfranchised, the one who defied Satan, the one who broke the bonds of death. We tend to view God as powerful and as mighty, but in this reading this morning, it’s hard to put that into perspective, isn’t it? That God could be tender. God could be vulnerable.
This is the same God who not only created the heavens on Earth but also went on to release the Hebrew captives and take them out into the Wilderness. He led them with fire by night and clouds by day. He protected them and challenged them. They grew up to be strong people. This is the deity that we love and serve to this very day.
Can we see God as a tender hen? Can we trust this vulnerable God in this place of worship?
When we put our values in the right place, we see God in a new light. When we Face God with our idols, we put those Idols at God’s feet. Everything changes. What is most important to you in your life? Give them to God? What worries you the most?
Give them to God. What is getting in the way of your relationship with God? Put it at God’s feet.
When we do this, we make ourselves vulnerable, and we become the chick under the hen being protected. We are made strong by a savior who went to the Cross for us. He could have saved himself, but he didn’t.
The creator of Heaven and Earth, who has done so many great things, is with us today. We are made strong by a savior who went to the cross; the one who cared for humanity for thousands of years is still with us.
Say yes to the vulnerable God.
Say yes to the loving router of hell.
All glory and honor be to God. Amen.