“Oh Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, How often I have desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings . . . “ Luke 13
These words are part of Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem just a few days prior to his death. These words struck me hard these days as we watch mothers in Ukraine gathering their children in their arms. Mothers holding the ones they love so close as they board trains or wait in shelters or sleep in underground subway stations. Our God still laments, along with all the mothers and fathers clutching those they love.
Part of the awkward power of this lament is that Jesus calls himself a chicken. I think about chickens a lot differently than I did as a kid, thanks to Lucie Amundsen, farmer and author of the book, Locally Laid. Lucie wrote in her book just how much work it was to start their farm. She shares also just how much work it was to teach their chickens how to be chickens. We have so domesticated the heck out of them that they even had to teach their first chickens how to roost. Each night her husband Jason had to carefully lift each chicken up on the long sticks that they had in place for them. O yes, we have caged them and factory farmed them, so much that they have forgotten how to be. Some of our church youth learned a little about caring for chickens during a work camp trip to an urban farm in Atlanta. (pic above)
Jesus calls himself a chicken and perhaps we have domesticated and caged him too. We have to go back and really see what he means when he calls himself a hen. Why would he choose that bird? As Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor wrote, “Given the number of animals available it is curious that Jesus chooses a hen. Where is the biblical precedent for that? What about the mighty eagle of Exodus or Hosea’s stealthy leopard? What about the proud lion of Judah, mowing down his enemies with a roar? Compared to any of those, a mother hen does not inspire much confidence. No wonder some of the chicks decided to go with the fox.”
“But a hen is what Jesus chooses, which – if you think about it is pretty typical of him. He’s always turning things upside down, so that children and peasants wind up on top while kings and scholars land on the bottom. So of course he chooses a chicken, which is about as far from a fox as you can get. That way the options become very clear: you can live by licking your chops or you can die protecting the chicks.’
“O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, how I long to gather you together.” Jesus can not force us to love one another, all the others. All he could do was show his deep love and open his arms to everyone. He took the most vulnerable position in the world, wings spread and breast exposed. Jesus took this position once and died. But in this death the Spirit of love was released for all to breath in. May we dare to take this same stance of vulnerability, even if just occasionally. Dare to be a chicken.
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