TO BE HUMAN IS TO BE VULNERABLE AND COURAGEOUS
Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35
2nd Sunday in Lent, March 16, 2025
Pastor Ritva H Williams
For Lent 2025, I have chosen to build a sermon series around a Lenten devotion called “God is Still with Us.” This is a message many of us need to hear in the midst of the turmoil of this moment in history. This series is intended to help us recognize (1) that we are vulnerable, don’t know it all, misunderstand each other, are tossed about, and (2) that God is still with us as we carry each other through life’s challenges, grieve deeply, and experience surprising moments of joy.
On Wednesday I posted on REALM and FB group the first reflection, titled “to be human is to be vulnerable.” That reflection was rooted in Jesus’ experience in the wilderness, and asked us to ponder the ways in which Jesus was alone and yet not alone; where we might hear the tempter’s voice in our own lives; times when our doubt, fear, or need has connected us to someone else' and how is God with us in vulnerable situations. All these questions apply equally well to this morning’s gospel reading.
Some Pharisees come to Jesus and tell him that Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, is plotting to kill him. Just as a quick reminder, the Pharisees were a religio-political group that advocated for the formation of synagogues and scripture study. They were committed to an expansive interpretation of scripture applied to all areas of life. The goal was to hold themselves apart from the dominant Greco-Roman culture. The majority of Pharisees refused to collaborate with Roman authorities or with Roman stooges like Herod. Some Pharisees even joined the Jesus movement, e.g. Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, the group mentioned in Acts 15:5, and the apostle Paul.
So no surprise that when “some” Pharisees learn of Herod’s plans, they come to warn Jesus. This is a moment of very human vulnerability for Jesus. A moment when he would have felt very alone as anxiety and panic flooded his system, triggering that primordial fear-flight response. I wonder, did the tempter seize this opportunity to whisper in Jesus’ ear: Run!
To be human is to be vulnerable. To be vulnerable is to be at risk of physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual injury. To be vulnerable is to be afraid, uncertain, in doubt. To be vulnerable is to feel exposed as inadequate, as less than. Many, maybe even most, people regard vulnerability as something to be avoided, denied, and suppressed at all costs. Far too many of us have unknowingly bought into this dangerous fallacy that vulnerability is weakness.
What have we to show for trying to live out of that story? Brene Brown’s research reveals that Americans today are more over-worked, debt-ridden, obese, medicated, and addicted than at any time in history. We see people angry, frightened, divided, confused — all signs of vulnerability. Brown writes:
Vulnerability is not about winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness, it is our greatest measure of courage. (Rising Strong, p. 4)
To be human is to be vulnerable and courageous. Jesus shows us how. Last Sunday we heard Jesus respond boldly to the devil’s tests. This morning, Jesus learns of a death threat. He may feel alone and vulnerable, but he is surrounded by some Pharisees who show up as allies and protectors. Their presence and support evokes a courageous and witty response that is summed up by Professor Richard Swanson this way:
Jesus says, “After you go, tell that fox I’m a little busy right now.” This scene plays best if the allies laugh. “Okay, we’ll do that very thing,” they say, “as soon as we see Old Foxy Pants. Which will be, ummm, never.”
Jesus speaks truth by calling Herod a fox — a cunning, deceptive, predator hunting, bullying and feeding off the most vulnerable people. In response, Jesus could have compared himself to a more lethal killer such as a wolf or bear or lion or eagle that actually hunts foxes. But he does not. Instead Jesus laments:
O Jerusalem, O 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, but you were not willing.”
Jesus presents himself as a chicken — as one of the creatures foxes prey on. Jesus as Mother Hen doesn’t get much press. The icon on the screen is by Kelly Latimore and only one of three that paintings that I found online. As Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber points out,
A mother hen cannot actually keep a determined fox from killing her chicks. So where does that leave us? I mean, if danger is real, and a hen can’t actually keep their chicks out of danger, then what good is this image of God as Mother Hen if faith in her can’t make us safe?
[Bolz Weber answers her own question by saying] …a Mother Hen of a God doesn’t keep foxes from being dangerous . . . a Mother Hen of a God keeps foxes from being what determines how we experience the unbelievably beautiful gift of being alive. God the Mother Hen gathers all of her downy feathered, vulnerable little ones under God’s protective wings so that we know where we belong, because it is there that we find warmth and shelter.
What we encounter beneath the wings of Christ our Mother Hen is an almighty, all-knowing God who chooses to become vulnerable — as vulnerable as a hen hunted by a fox. We encounter a God who loves us so much that they become one of us in the person of Jesus, not to judge us or condemn us but to make us whole. By choosing vulnerability Christ shows us it is not weakness or liability, but the very foundation of a different story about who we are: God’s beloved children, bearing God’s image, endowed with the gifts of the Spirit in order to make the world a better place for all.
In our first reading, the Apostle Paul, reminds his audiences, ancient and modern, that our citizenship is in heaven. Our allegiance is to our Savior/Healer Jesus the Christ who is already now transforming us from humiliation to glory. We are citizens of heaven living in a society that seems to have turned its back on Christ our Mother Hen.
I feel intensely vulnerable these days. I watch with horror as transpeople’s civil rights are stripped away; reproductive health care is curtailed; government employees are terminated without cause; immigrants, permanent residents and even citizens are arrested, detained, and deported; social service agencies are defamed and their work curtailed; funding for scientific and medical research is denied; and the list goes on and on.
Let me share with you this bits of poems and prayers written that have brought me comfort and courage this week! They all come from Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes at unfoldinglight.net
God prays for you for ten thousand years before you are born!!!!
The bread, security and power that Caesar and Satan offer or withhold feel different now. Now, when the Empire threatens … our answer matters …The Emperor wants me to be afraid. I will not comply. My power lies not in what I fear, but in what I trust.
God, help me to choose empathy over Empire, to stand for love against the threat of pain, to disregard the kingdom of fear, and trust the ecology of your grace.
What guts!— to choose to be the hen of God in the kingdom of the fox—unmoved by the threats of the predator, choosing to be gentle and unprotected; surrendering self to claim the masses as family;
risking death, to give life. I am not a citizen of the Empire of Anxiety, nor fearful of the Fox. I belong to the Mother Hen of God. [Christ] be my love, my power and my shield, my hope and courage. Amen.
