2nd Sunday in Lent

Good Morning!
It is so good to see everyone here on this second Sunday of Lent!
And you may have noticed in our biblical texts:
And our lack of music:
That it definitely feels like Lent.
A little bit more somber:
A little bit quieter.

But it’s also a joyous day:
As we celebrate

It feels slightly disjointed:
To have a celebratory baptismal day:
In the midst of the somberness of lent.

But Last week:
I shared with everyone that historically:
The Sunday’s of Lent were not actually counted in the 40 days of lent!
Each Sunday was (and still is!) a sort of “Mini-Easter”
A mini-celebration of the resurrection of Jesus:
And therefore:
A perfect time for a baptism.

But then I hit another bump in my preparation for today.

Generally:
I take this time to preach on the Gospel text.
And today’s gospel text doesn’t exactly scream “baptism.”

The story begins with the Pharisees coming to Jesus and telling him that Herod wants
to kill him.

Jesus responds by calling Herod a “fox”
And then he wails about Jerusalem: the city that kills prophets, stones people, and will
ultimately lead to Jesus’ own death.

I’m not really getting Baptism Vibes from that.
But then Jesus says this:
(speaking of Jerusalem)
“How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and you were not willing!”
And this metaphor struck me:
God trying to gather God’s children together:
Just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.

God: the mother hen:
Calls us to the safety of the nest:
Underneath those downy wings:
Behind the heart the beats beneath her vulnerable breast:
Gathering up ALL the children:
Under the safety of her wings.
It feels a bit more baptismal than I initially thought.
Today we’re celebrating Byer’s marking as Christ’s own forever:

Byer’s welcoming under the big tent of God the hens comforting wings.
The same tent of wings that all of us are held under.

But it’s also more than that.
It’s not just about safety in a cruel world.
It’s not just about protection.
It’s not about a contract.
It’s about a covenant.

Which is where we get to our first lesson today.
When Abram (not even yet named Abraham!)
Creates a covenant with God.
A covenant is not a contract.
It’s not like a contract for services:
Or a contract for a job.
Or a prenuptial agreement, or even a will.
Contracts can be good.
They hold people accountable.

But they’re not the same as covenants.
A covenant is all encompassing.
It’s not transactional.
If you were to make a covenant with your best friend today,
It would mean that everything that belonged to them, also belonged to you:
And vise versa.
If your best friend happened to have a mansion and a heap of creditors hounding them:
Guess what?

You’ve got that too.
A contract would protect you from the bad,
But a covenant guarantees that you are in relationship:
And if one goes down:
You both go.

On the flip side,
That also means that if one succeeds:
So does the other.

So when God makes a covenant with Abram:
It’s a big deal.
God promising that Abram:
A childless man:
Will have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

And we’re told that when God said all this to Abram:
“Abram believed the Lord.”

When Abram believes:
He joins in the covenant:
The covenant in which God will give to Abram all that God has.

It’s like God taking Abram under his mother hen wings.

And thing about it.
What happens:

When a fox gets into the hen house?
The mother hen herds her chicks under her wings:
She bares her breast so that the fox must kill her first before it can get to her chicks.
There will be a flutter of feathers,
And motherless chicks running around: but they have the chance to live.

This is the image that Jesus chose to bring to us:
Our covenant with God means that everything of God’s is also ours:
Even Jesus: God’s own son.

This fits perfectly with baptism:
When as children of God:
We are taken up into the wings of God:
Where God is willing to die to save each of us.

And it also fits perfectly with the season of lent:
Which is a season where we remember and contemplate the vulnerableness of God
through the persecution and death of Jesus.

When we received the cross of ashes on our forehead on Ash Wednesday, it reminded
us exactly how vulnerable and human we are in this world. We are called to something
more than living for ourselves and satisfying our contracts. Our God is not the belly, as it
says in Philippians. We are called to be the chicks that lead the way to our mother hen:
our God.
In our baptism, we are marked by the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit as
Christ’s own forever. We are charged with an imperative call to love like that mother hen

who opens her wings wide and exposes her heart to the foxes of the world in the hope
that our loved ones may live in the light of our vulnerability. Called to love like someone
who is in covenant with God. A fierce and trusting love that encompasses all that which
God possesses. When we live this way, we will know the reign of universal peace
described in this Franciscan blessing:
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial
relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with
anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for
justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer
from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort
them and to turn their pain into joy. May God bless you with enough foolishness to
believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others
claim cannot be done. May the peace of God and the God of peace be with you for
evermore.
Amen.