I Am the Wings of God
The Pharisees. They often get a bad rap in the Church. They are often portrayed in the gospels in disputes with Jesus. And why not? They spent much of their time studying, arguing, and discussing the texts of their peoples’ history and relationship with God. Jesus seems to share those same interests – with ferocious intensity. He is a lot like them. They are a lot like him.
Beginning with chapter 9 in Luke, Jesus “set his face toward Jerusalem.” That is where he knows he has to go. Along the way he is teaching, sharing meals with people, healing people, and generally bringing people – anyone really – closer to his Father. Closer to God. Passing through a town, he has just spoken about who can and cannot get closer to his Father, and finishes saying, “people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” [i]
“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’” Not the same Herod the Great who had already tried to kill him when he a baby, but that Herod’s son, Herod Antipas. The one who had recently beheaded John the baptizer. Jesus tells them to tell “that fox” for me that I have much still to do, casting out demons, curing people’s dis-ease, and must be on my way to Jerusalem. The point being, the Pharisees may have disagreed with Jesus on any number of things, but here they are to warn him. To urge him to seek safety from “that fox,” that tyrant, Herod, who will not stop at anything to finish the work his father had set out to accomplish – kill Jesus, feared as a pretender to the throne, King of the Jews. We need to cut the Pharisees some slack. In fact, a lot of slack. They are not the bad guys. If we believe what we pray on this Second Sunday in Lent, “God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son,” then we need to repent of all the bad things that have been said about the Pharisees and the Jews throughout the history of Christ’s Church. [ii]
Besides, Jesus knows Jerusalem will be even more dangerous than Herod’s kingdom of Galilee. Jesus laments, “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.” And there it is. Jesus, who embodies the attributes of God’s mercy and God’s fierce protection of God’s people, likens himself, and God his Father as well, as something like…well, a chicken. A mother hen. No doubt as he has traveled through the countryside through largely agrarian towns and villages, he has more than once see a mother hen gather her chicks under her wings to protect them from the fox that has made its way into the hen-house. She is not afraid. Jesus says to those urging him to hide, I am not afraid. I will keep doing what I have come to do: gather the my Father’s lost chicks, feed them, heal them, and cast out the demons who threaten them – be they foxes, so-called kings, politicians, the rapacious landowners. Yet, even in Jerusalem I shall stand my ground to protect the least of these, my sisters and brothers of my Father’s world. My Father’s kingdom. Those who are last will be first, as those who are first will be last. Be not afraid.
Jesus, and by the associative property God, is likened to a mother hen. We need to ponder this, and then honor the fact that he is not afraid to describe themselves as feminine. A hen, tucking her chicks under her wings. And we know, as soon as five are gathered in, two more escape. It’s a metaphor for our own on-again, off-again, on-again relationship with God in Christ.
On the west slope of the Mount of Olives outside of Jerusalem is a chapel called Dominus Flevit: The Lord Wept. On the front of the altar is a mosaic of a mighty and courageous hen, wings wide open, yellow chicks huddled under neath, a halo over her head denoting a sacred person, and a determined look on her face. Determined to gather all people – as in making our promise in baptism to seek justice and peace for all people – under her wings. The chicks look happy. The mother hen looks ready to spit fire on any and all foxes who may try to snatch even one of us. The chapel of Dominus Flevit memorializes this moment in the life of Jesus when he is face with danger unto death. And yet, like the mother hen, he is raised on the third day to continue to shelter us under his protective wings.
Lent gives us a time to ponder just when do we want to get under her wings again? And this time, will we stay there? And will we strive to love people as Jesus loves them? Can we make room under God’s wings for others to join us? Can we find ways to gather others, any and all others, to join with us under his protective and loving wings?
Jesus says, I am … I am the wings of God. Come live with me forever. For you too can become the wings of God to serve and protect others. Just come in under my wings and walk with me to Jerusalem and beyond. For life with me will be never ending.
I am the wings of God
I am the wings of God
All you hunger, all you who thirst
I am the wings of God
Life lived with God never ends
Life lived with God never ends
All you hunger, all you who thirst
Life lived with God never ends
We are the wings of God
We are the wings of God
All you hunger, all you who thirst
We are the wings of God
Words and music, Kirk
Kubicek, Sounds Divine
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