Luke 13:31-35
31 At that time, some Pharisees approached Jesus and said, “Go! Get away from here, because Herod wants to kill you.”

32 Jesus said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Look, I’m throwing out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will complete my work. 33 However, it’s necessary for me to travel today, tomorrow, and the next day because it’s impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’

34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who were sent to you! How often I have wanted to gather your people just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you didn’t want that. 35 Look, your house is abandoned. I tell you, you won’t see me until the time comes when you say, Blessings on the one who comes in the Lord’s name.” (Psalm 118:26)

Philippians 4:6-7
Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. 7 Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.

Before we moved to Portland, we lived on a 5 acre hobby farm and had a little farm stand where we sold eggs and herbs and veggies.  We had a flock of about 35 chickens and we always kept a rooster because if we didn’t have a rooster, the hens would hear the neighbor’s rooster in the distance and leave us for the neighbor’s rooster!

Chickens are very community oriented birds.  When one chicken finds a nice patch of bugs to eat, or the humans bring feed, she will immediately make a food call to alert the rest of the flock to the presence of food.  And while roosters will fight one another for dominance, the main way they court hen’s into their flock is to scratch up a nice juicy bug, make a loud food call, then jump out of the way for the hen to eat it.  I always imagined that the roosters were saying, hey, chick, come with me and I’ll take you out for a real nice dinner!

At one point we kept Phoenix chickens, which are a fancy chicken, who are smaller and able to fly short distances, unlike most commercial layers, who are bred to be too large to fly so they will produce extra large eggs.

The Phoenix were also really good at hiding their eggs from us, so we had chicks every spring.  One spring I was outside and heard a ruckus in the chicken yard.  Chicken calls have different meanings, and if you spend enough time with chickens you start to learn the difference between a food call, a mating call, and an alarm call, and this was an alarm!  I came running to the yard and got there just in time to see a hawk swooping towards the fuzzy spring chicks.  

Two hens were spreading their wings and scooping the chicks into the lower door of the coop with their stiff flight feathers.  

A third hen launched herself from the upper door of the coop.  Flap, flap, then wings folded back, beak forward like an arrow straight at that hawk. Simultaneously, one of the roosters took off from the ground aimed himself straight at that hawk.  Unblinking those chickens played chicken with that hawk and the hawk veered off.

Jesus liked to use metaphors and stories about ordinary things that most people were familiar with to explain God.  Things like yeast, seeds, and chickens that were a part of everyday life in the first century. But here in the 21st century, most of us haven’t tended a sourdough mother, grown a mustard shrub, or kept chickens, so we hear these metaphors and we don’t quite understand what Jesus was talking about.  We lack context, not only for the socio-political context of the Roman Empire, but also the context of chicken culture.  Both are important to today’s Bible passage.  You might want to have your bulletin handy with today’s reading, so you can follow along.

Verse 31.  How many of you were taught that the Pharisees were Jesus’ enemies?  

So if you were taught that they were enemies then verse 31 is a little confusing, right?  Because some Pharisees came to warn Jesus.

It’s closer to the truth to say that Jesus was a Pharisee.  Pharisees were teachers of the word – Rabbi’s and many people called Jesus Rabbi, or teacher.  It also wasn’t unusual for Rabbis, then and now, to criticize one another.  Kind of like different colleague professors criticizing one another’s academic theories.  They criticized  him, he criticized them – for the most part that was just normal public arguments between leading theologians.  It wasn’t any more personal than, say, Einstein arguing the finer points of nuclear physics with Oppenheimer.  They enjoyed a good debate and walked away, if not friends, then at least allies in the work.

And many of the Pharisees were also pretty anti-Herod and anti-Rome, so they shared Jesus’ political leanings, even if they might disagree with his interpretations of the Torah.  So it makes sense that some of them would warn Jesus, because they were also on Herod’s hit list.

Moving on to verse 32, this is an example of Jesus being salty, as the young folks would say.  Jesus basically asks them to give Herod his schedule.  Part of the saltiness is Jesus calling out Herod for being all talk – here’s where I am, out being super popular because I’m healing people mentally and physically, so go ahead and try to arrest me — knowing that Herod knows that if Herod tries to arrest Jesus while Jesus is healing people that Herod will have a riot on his hands.

But then in verse 33 and 34, Jesus shows that he knows that he’s on his way to the cross.  Jesus knows that when he comes to Jerusalem, a place which Herod controls, that Herod will be no better and no worse than any other king of Jerusalem who killed the prophets sent to help them.

And this brings us to the metaphor about chickens.

When the hawk comes, the hens do their best to gather all the chicks under their wings, scooping and pulling the chicks sometimes tumbling them off their little feet as she gathers them up and herds the chicks towards safety.  But chicks are new to being outside.  They’re so distracted by the scattered corn and the freedom of being out of the nest that there are always chicks who are too busy eating or seeing the sky, that they wander off and don’t get gathered under the wings of safety.

Most people aren’t evil, we’re just distracted.  Distracted by the desire for wealth and popularity and power and freedom and comfort.  Sooooo distracted that we don’t notice the hawk coming for us so we don’t notice God reaching out to gather us under Her wings.  

But even when we don’t notice what’s good for us, God is still reaching out to us.

Jesus launched himself at death and destruction like that hen and rooster, playing chicken with the hawk and Jesus didn’t blink.

So that those who are distracted would be safe.

Because sometimes people don’t get it…

Sometimes we don’t get it..

Until we see the hawk coming for us.

Then, we are finally ready to say, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, because God still loves us when we don’t get it and keeps reaching out to gather us under Her Wings.

So when we see people making bad choices.

People who just don’t get it.

Remember that God still loves them.

That God still loves us.

And remember Philippians 4: 6-7.  Replace that anxiety with prayer and thanksgiving and seek refuge in the peace of God.