Sermon Thursday 29th October 2015 Luke 13 NIMBY
I expect you have all heard that term NIMBY, which stands for not in my back yard, usually applied to people who are happy to have affordable housing, wind turbines, or the like as long as they are built far enough away from them so it doesn’t disturb their particular routine, as long as it doesn’t affect the value of their property.
Well in today’s gospel reading we see people reacting to Jesus in much the same way. Jesus was healing people, freeing them from demonic oppression, teaching with power and clarity, telling people what God really wanted of them rather than the stale religious rituals their worship had become. He was a breath of fresh air compared to their leaders, and earlier in the chapter we read that many people were rejoicing at the wonderful things he was doing.
But not everyone. The Pharisees simply saw him as a thorn in their side, stirring up the people, making them question their authority, their edicts, disturbing their comfortable routine. So they try to make him move on, in the guise of warning him that Herod was out to get him. Look you had better leave they say – Herod wants to kill you.
But of course Jesus is fully aware of the true state of affairs. He knew that Herod thought of himself as a lion, as someone to be reckoned with, but to Jesus he is just a fox, cunning and sly of course, but not the grand figure he liked to portray.The fox was also a symbol of a worthless and insignificant individual.Herod was just another tyrant with an overblown sense of self importance, so Jesus tells the Pharisees to pass a message back to him – he has work to do and nothing Herod can threaten will change his plans.
But after this defiant response Jesus mood changes to sorrow as he thinks about his ultimate destination, Jerusalem, the city that is so close to his heart.
If you were to travel to Jerusalem today, and you went to the heart of the old city, but passed by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus was crucified, and skipped the temple mount, and continued past the stations of the cross on the Via Dela Rosa, and if you kept walking out the Lion’s gate, crossed the Kidron Valley, and if you skipped the crowds admiring the Ancient Olive trees in the garden of Gethesemne, but instead kept climbing up the Mount of Olives, you would find a small chapel named Dominus Flevit.
In this chapel you see two pictures of life in the city of Jerusalem. The first is a window into Jerusalem; directly behind the alter a large window opens on to the Old City- the effect is that of a live action stained glass window illuminating the alter. Just below this great window, in front of the Alter is another picture of Jerusalem; a picture of what never happened in the city. There is a mosaic of a white hen with her wings spread wide to protect the yellow chicks at her feet.
Surrounding the Hen are the Latin words, which translated, read “”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,” Set apart, and written in red, is the rest of our verse “and you were not willing!”. Here, lying below the Hen, which lies below a vista of the actual city, are the words of today’s text that remind us of Jesus’ unrealized hopes for the city.
Now the mosaic of chickens might not first appear to be a picture of Jerusalem, and Jesus’ choice of the Hen as the protector might seem strange, but as we let the image play out, Jesus intention becomes clear. A hen is not a particularly powerful protector; one would think that Jesus would choose the image of the lion of Judah, or a bear, or more or less anythingbut a hen. But if you look closely at the mosaic in Dominus Flevit, you see a Hen cloaked in white with a halo around her head, and you would seedifferent kind of protector. We can imagine a hen clucking and scurrying about trying with all her might to call her chicks to her. The fox is coming, and though she longs to keep them safe, she cannot bring them back against their will.
This is an experience we can relate to - many of us know the pain of loving someone who we could not protect, we too have stood with arms open and offered our love, but knowing that we could not force anyone to accept or return that love. And this is the image of the Hen, Her breast exposed, her wings spread, as she calls her chicks to her. Her chicks may have forgotten her call, and the fox is advancing, but she stands firm. Her power is not in her deadly teeth or dangerous claws. She will do her attackers no harm. Her only protection is her own body, the fox will have to kill her to get to her chicks, and the fox will kill her, but her chicks will be saved.
And of course that is a foreshadowing of Jesus sacrifice on the cross to save humanity.
Jesus heart breaks for Jerusalem, and for all who reject Gods every attempt to protect and bless them. Its happened throughout the history of humankind. But whatever the response we cannot avoid our responsibility to take the word of God to our neighbors wherever and however we can in our Christian lives. God has sent us as his ambassadors to speak to everyone who will listen, in every place, at home, at work, in society, and in the church. We are to tell the good news and build one another up in the faith. That’s our mission. Not to count the number of converts or people in the pews, because how each person responds to what they hear is down to them and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.