The Fox is in the Hen House

Imagine that you are a billy goat, and you are placed in the territory of a massive Siberian tiger, given up for food. Well, that's exactly what happened a few months ago at a safari park in Russia, except it didn't exactly work out as planned. Although the zoo keeper regularly feeds this tiger, Amur, billy goats, this one was different. Instead of hunting and eating the billy goat, they seemed to become friends...They ate together, slept nearby one another, and even played together---they were seen head butting each other, just for the fun of it!

Staff at the park say the male tiger, who has been given live animals to hunt and eat twice a week for three years, did not touch the billy goat when it entered the enclosure because the goat did not show any fear.

"No one had taught the goat to be afraid of tigers," the park said in a statement.

The zoo chief said that this friendship was nothing short of a miracle, and went on to say "People, take a look at yourselves. There are wars everywhere -- Ukraine, Syria. While such different animals can live together in peace."

We come this week, our second week of Lent, to Luke 13:31-35. The "fox," Herod, is in the "hen house," the kingdom of God to which God has invited all people, "as a hen gathers her brood under her wing."

But it didn't quite turn out the way it did for Amur the Siberian tiger and Timur the billy goat. Or did it?...

There's an old African-American spiritual song that describes the Kingdom of God like this: "There's plenty good room, plenty good room, plenty good room in my Father's kingdom."

In the gospel of Luke, this is a central and reoccurring theme; what a great message for this gospel to keep hammering home! In this gospel reading for the second Sunday in Lent, Jesus speaks in tones of abject disappointment and downright heartbreak at the refusal of his own people to grasp this concept. Jesus' tone of anger and frustration is directed to the disappointment in his people to draw near, to gather, and to come home. 

Jesus' ministry is driven by his desire, his dream, to gather God's children together and closer to God's embrace. The gospel of Luke tells the stories of all kinds of people drawing near to God:

Shepherds (Luke 2:8-20) are the first to hear the good news of Jesus' birth. (Shepherds were not only low in status, but they were also seen as dishonest; herdsman often grazed their flocks on other people's lands). They represent people on the fringe of society.

A peasant girl named Mary sang a song of revolution to the Savior's coming: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden." (Luke 1:46-47). Here, God shows that those on the edge of the social order are drawn in to the kingdom of God; Mary shows us that anyone, regardless of their social status can worship God.

In Luke, Jesus tells of a prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32) welcomed home by a father whose compassion is extravagant and whose love seems reckless.

In Luke, Jesus tells of a good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) to folks that often thought that the only "good" Samaritan was a dead one. 

The gospel of Luke remembers a "good thief," who is welcomed into God's Kingdom while dying on a cross next to Jesus (Luke 23:39-43).

And God has invited you to be gathered in. You, in all of your brokenness, confusion, doubt, and sin, are welcomed to God's embrace.