Sermon: Lent 2 - Year C

So, Jesus the “lamb of God,” is now Jesus the “hen of God.” The hen who tries to pull the chicks away from their dangerous game of trying to be foxes, knowing that the game will destroy them in the end.

And Jesus didn’t pull this image from the air. After all, I’m told that chickens can’t fly. No, Jesus went down deep to find this image of himself as a mother bird. He went to the Hebrew Scriptures. He probably remembered singing from the psalms, “Hide me under the shadow of your wings, and God will spread wings over you and keep you safe.”

Then he probably heard from Sunday school the part from the prophet Isaiah, “I will protect Jerusalem like a mother bird circling over her nest.

In confirmation class he might have learned the passage from Deuteronomy that says “like an eagle teacher her young to fly, always ready to swoop down and catch them on her back.”

So Jesus is in good company when he compares himself to a momma-bird. And as I look at it, it seems a very appropriate image.

I’m reminded of a story about...(read whole thing here)