Women hold tight to their children cramming onto trains. Mothers carry babies in one arm and hold tight to a suitcase or backpack with the other. Using a cane to keep her balance, an elderly woman walks across a plank laid in a river where a bridge had once been. These are the scenes that have become all too familiar as we watch the refuges from Ukraine stream across the borders to safety in Poland and other countries. Despite the uncertainty of where they are going, and despite the pain of leaving husbands, fathers, and sons behind, the women hold tight to their children, comfort them, cover them with blankets if they can and wrap them in their arms. Their one hope is to bring their children to safety – and for some of them ---their child is all they can carry with them. Leaving is heartbreaking – but staying is even more dangerous.
Unfortunately, this kind of danger, caused by war and violence is nothing new. The Psalmist describes an army encamped against him and adversaries who assail him. And yet, despite the danger, the Psalmist speaks a word of hope, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
Psalm 27 is one of my favorite psalms. I commend it to you and to those refugees and all who are facing challenges in their life – of any kind. The very first verse: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” provides a strong word to hold onto in the midst of trials and dangers. Underline it in your Bible, put it on your refrigerator, memorize these words. For this image of God as refuge, as a stronghold, as a shelter from all of the storms of life, is a strong word of hope and promise that will help give you the confidence to trust in the Lord, and not be afraid when trials, challenges and dangers come your way.
In our Gospel for today, Jesus is being warned by Pharisees that Herod is trying to kill him – and, as we know, their warning was not unfounded. But Jesus does not let this challenge – or any other - deter him from his mission. Instead, he tells the Pharisees to go tell that “fox,” Herod, that he will continue to drive out demons and heal people – he will continue his work. And then, when it is time, even though it is dangerous, and even though Jerusalem is the place where prophets are killed, that is where he is headed.
As Jesus was headed into this dangerous place, he could have claimed the strength and power of God as his refuge, his stronghold. He could have quoted Psalm 27, after all the Psalms were his prayerbook. But instead, Jesus compares himself to a mother hen –and laments that he cannot gather the people of Jerusalem, like a mother hen gathers her chicks.
So why does Jesus choose to compare himself to a chicken? There are so many other more majestic animals. But Jesus is looking to draw people in close. When a mother hen draws her chicks in close, she fluffs out her feathers – and the little chicks are hidden, tucked underneath her wings. And while mother hens are not the most powerful creatures, they are fierce in the way that they take care of their young. They will stop at nothing.
Have you ever seen a mother quail feigns a broken wing to lead the fox away from her chicks? Using this ruse, the hen sometimes ends up sacrificing her life for chicks. And that is just what Jesus did for us, when that fox, Herod, came after him, Jesus sacrificed his life and died for you and all of God’s children, that you may have life.
And so, like the Psalmist, you and I can proclaim that “The LORD is my light and my salvation…The LORD is the stronghold of my life” AND you can trust Jesus to be like a mother hen, drawing you close, and wrapping you in his loving arms -- because Jesus loves you and cares for you.
A great theologian was once asked, what is the most important thing that you have ever learned? He responded – without hesitation – “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
Jesus loves me. This I know. Jesus loves me. If that is all that you remember, then it is enough. For this is the message that Jesus has for you too. Jesus loves you. It is written in the Bible and at your baptism it was written on your forehead and on your heart. This is why you have nothing to fear. This is why you can rejoice – for Jesus loves you and has promised to be your light, your salvation, your rock and your mother hen, gathering you under his wings.
And… if you wonder how you can respond to this gift of love and care, you can begin by saying, “Thank you. Thank you, Jesus, for being my rock, my stronghold. Thank you for being my life and my salvation. Thank you for giving me the antidote to fear – and that is your love. And thank you Jesus, for being a mother hen to me, drawing me in close.”
And then, knowing who Jesus is for us, our rock, our salvation and our comfort in the storm, the mother hen we can run to, we can seek to be like Jesus for one another.
That is what I see in those Ukrainian women. They are holding tight, trying to be like Jesus and the mother hen for their children – despite the dangers around them. They inspire me – and I pray for them.
I am also inspired by the parents of other young children, children in Poland, who took action too. Anticipating Ukrainian mothers, weary from carrying their children in their arms and holding them on the train, Polish parents left their strollers at the train depot – free for Ukrainian mothers and their children. And then they bought diapers and food and left it for the families too.
We live too far away to donate strollers – but we can support our hurting brothers and sisters in Christ in Ukraine and in other places too far to reach through organizations like Lutheran World Relief. That’s who I’m supporting because Lutheran World Relief already has a program in place so all of the funds go to support those in need.
And we can support people in need right here. Our mission of the month, NEAR Foodshelf, supports hungry families in our neighborhood every day.
And, we can pray. We can pray for those mothers and children, we can pray for the end of hostilities and violence both in the Ukraine and on our streets. We can pray that Jesus leads us to become more like him.
In closing, I invite you to pray with me a prayer written by a pastor poet, Steve Garnaas Holmes:
Holy One, my Beloved, my Savior, my Chief,
you choose to be a hen in the realm of the fox.
You choose kindness in the face of evil.
Give me faith to do the same,
to heal instead of hurting,
to choose kindness even when threatened.
Give me courage to be a mother hen
in a world of foxes,
for always I am under your wings1 Amen.
1Steve Garnaas-Holmes Unfolding Light www.unfoldinglight.net