Tender - Luke 13:31-35 - Lent 2 - 3-13-22

 

Sermon podcast from the Second Sunday of Lent, 3-13-22 worship service - St. Paul's UCC in Downers Grove, IL. Luke 13:31-35

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"Tender" podcast

The whole worship service

Strong

Sermon podcast from today at St. Paul's UCC in Downers Grove, IL.  Luke 13:31-35. Includes a somber, dark acoustic cover of John Legend's "Preach"

Video sermon preview
"Strong" podcast

Her Wings

Sermon podcast from today at St. Paul's UCC in Downers Grove, IL.
"Her Wings" podcast

Christianity is under attack! Danger! Danger!

Too often folks who purport to speak for the whole of the Church decide to point the finger at all the alleged external dangers to our faith.

NBC aired an offensive parody movie trailer about Jesus coming back from the dead – out for vengeance.  
Christianity is under attack!
Spencer Gifts is selling ‘Fifty Shades of Grey” themed merchandise in their stores.
Christianity is under attack!
Health insurance companies will be forced to give women access to birth control medication.
Christianity is under attack!

Don’t stay silent while the networks, retail operations, and the government attack our faith and values!

If we don’t protest.  Our faith will wither up and die!

Malarkey.

• Many Christians have a sense of humor – and don’t see humor, even biting and offensive humor, as an affront to their faith.
• Many Christians have read and really like the Fifty Shades trilogy.
• Many Christians use and support the use of birth control.

Let me be even more cynical.

The fake danger campaigns aren’t about saving Christianity.  They’re about raising money.  They’re also about trying to gain more power.

Perceived danger campaigns are based on scare tactics and fear. There’s no real danger prior to the campaign.  But in the campaigns themselves, there is danger present.  Perceived danger campaigns threaten both the well-being of the Church as well as others’ ability to see the Church as a genuinely welcoming community of Jesus’ Love.

In this week’s Bible reading from Luke 13:31-35, Herod was out to kill Jesus.

That was real danger. It wasn't manufactured. 

There is a real danger to the Church today. But it's not from the kinds of places from the beginning of this post. It comes from within. Folks fight with folks from other denominations about who does it right. We argue with one another about doctrine and we forget to welcome people from north and south and east and west. We forget that the little chicks,  the ones Jesus talked about in this week's reading, and who represent the marginalized and vulnerable members of society like the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. Any who are among the excluded must be welcomed and valued in our church communities.

Make that your action alert item -

That Fox

This week's Bible study blog post for i.ucc.org (The fox and the hen) started the thought process -- and grew into Sunday's sermon at Union Congregational UCC in Somonauk, IL
"That Fox" text
"That Fox" podcast

The fox and the hen

Here's this week's Bible study blog post for i.ucc:

Jesus is hurling insults again.

He had already given it to the Pharisees. (Luke 11:37-44) And in this week’s Bible reading from Luke 13: 31-35 now he called a Herod a fox.

• Clever like a fox? Maybe
• Crazy like a fox? Perhaps
• Good-looking like a fox? That slang did not compute in Jesus’ time
• Lowly, slinking “not a lion” like a fox? Probably

Jesus wasn’t likely paying any kind of respect to Herod. He was sending a message – one that may of may not reach Herod through the Pharisees -- that Herod was merely a weak excuse for a ruler who couldn’t do anything without the Emperor’s OK.

If the message did reach Herod, Jesus was in trouble. If it didn’t, he was still in trouble. He just insulted someone the Pharisees thought was important.

And then Jesus lamented. He spoke with anguish about Jerusalem. They had a puppet ruler. They didn’t listen to God’s prophets. They killed them instead! And he wished he could gather them all up – not necessarily to protect them from a slinking fox, but to help them to experience what was truly important – love.

And he lamented that they weren’t willing.

What are your thoughts about this week’s Bible reading?

Danger

"That fox," the blog entry I posted at i.ucc earlier this week, has changed much as it has grown into this week's sermon for Union Congregational Church. You can read a preview of "Danger" now and then come back later for the podcast (unless, of course, there are technical difficulties)
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Update: It worked! Here's the podcast.

That fox

Here's an "Opening the Bible" blog entry I just posted at i.ucc:

This week’s Bible reading from Luke 13:31-35 is one that raises questions for me.

• Why would the Pharisees come an warn Jesus? Didn’t they think he was a threat or an impostor?
• Why would Jesus call Herod a fox? Had they ever met?
• Would the Pharisees have access to Herod to deliver the message?
• What’s with the days and the "third day" talk? Does it mean anything?
• Why would it be impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem?
• Why does the flavor of the passage switch so suddenly from "sparky" to "nurturing?"
• Was Jesus predicting his Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem in verse 35?

Here’s what I think:

• The Pharisees weren’t really warning Jesus. They wanted to make Jesus afraid of Herod so he’d leave town.
• Jesus wasn’t really addressing Herod – he was addressing those who were really threatening him – the Pharisees. They had no intention or (likely) ability to even have an audience with Herod. The Pharisees were the ones Jesus was calling crafty.
• The "third day" talk isn’t symbolic or foreshadowing at all. The sentence really means something like "a few more days."
• I have no ideas about the Jerusalem and killing of prophets thing.
• Jesus was speaking in somewhat caustic language to the Pharisees, but he had love for all – Pharisees included. When he spoke of himself in terms of a hen and Jerusalem as the brood, he was showing that genuine love – and genuine sadness that he was being rejected.
• Jesus was quoting Psalm 118 with the "Blessed is the one . . ." stuff. It turns out it is what the people said on Palm Sunday. I don’t know if it was a prediction or not, tho.
  

What do you think? Feel free to join the discussion at i.ucc and comment! (You can comment here, too, of course.)