Refusing the Grace of God

Luke 13:31-35

March 8, 2004

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

In the fateful winter morning of January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger stood poised for launch. Overnight, the temperature had plummeted into the twenties. At liftoff it was a crisp 36 degrees F. Four-foot icicles still clung ominously to the launch tower. [1]

Allan McDonald, an engineer employed by Morton-Thiakol, the manufacturer of the solid rocket boosters that straddled the shuttle, shuddered, but not because of the cold. Research had shown that the O rings sealing the sections of each booster might be more likely to leak as the temperature dropped. In fact, the rings had never been tested during an actual launch below 51 degrees F.

The project engineers back at the headquarters of Morton Thiakol in Utah had all recommended that the shuttle not launch until temperatures rose above 53 degrees.  The managers who oversaw those engineers overruled them.[2]

Allan McDonald, the lone voice of dissent at the shuttle launch pad, the only one who had spoken in support of those ignored engineers stood virtually alone as he opposed the launch that icy morning.  He to was overruled. The launch went ahead as scheduled, and 73 seconds later six brave astronauts and one enthusiastic school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire lost their lives when those O rings failed.

Refusing the truth…

What do you think it felt like to be those engineers who knew the dangers but were ignored?  What must it have been like to be the managers who put aside the adamant protests of their engineers and recommended to NASA to go ahead and launch, once they found out that they had been so wrong?

As the time was nearing for Jesus to enter city of Jerusalem, a few of his friends, who happened to be Pharisees came to warn him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you."

Jesus had been slowly inching his way closer and closer to the capitol.  Having begun in the northern regions of Galilee, he was moving from town to town, preaching and healing and gathering a following.  Word had begun to spread of the man who was saying brash things about God’s love and grace and about repentance and about a new way of life to be available to all who wished to live it out.

As popular as he had become, his message wasn’t popular everywhere.  He was becoming as controversial as popular.  The religious and political leadership, the powerful folk who controlled the temple of the very God that Jesus kept saying was angry at the sin in the world, didn’t want to hear anybody say anything on behalf of God.  That was their privilege.  Speaking for God was their right and their power.  If they wanted to charge money for something and could convince the people God commanded it, they didn’t like anybody telling those people that God did not agree, even if the one doing the telling was God himself, the Messiah, the promised Savior. 

Not only did they not like it, they could not tolerate it. They could not accept this voice coming from the outer regions of the countryside.  The could not allow this blasphemer and rabble rouser to gain power to the point where he could unseat them or somehow weaken their power.  They would have to act.  They would have to cajole him and threaten him and if necessary silence his strong voice.  They would have to kill him.

Jesus knew this was the case, he knew how his message would be received in the highest echelons of the leadership in Jerusalem.  He knew that once he entered the gates of the City, his days would be numbered, that he would not last long and that he would soon be shut down.

So when his rare Pharisee friends came to him and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you."  He was not surprised.  He was expecting something like this to happen.  Perhaps he was surprised however that it was Herod that was looking to kill him.  Herod was a Roman, his threat to power was the Temple hierarchy.  But he probably smiled through his surprise and realized that he should have expected the Pharisees of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem to hook up with the Romans to do away with him.  They were so alike in their cruelty and needed each other in order to keep their powers strong.  So he smiled and said with irony in his voice, “Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way.” 

In other words, “Tell that guy not to worry, I’m coming!  I’ve got a few things to handle here today and tomorrow, but I’ll be on my way to Jerusalem on the third day…He’ll have his wish then.” 

Full of irony and sarcasm, Jesus must have also been full of rage.  How dare these people ignore the wisdom and truth and grace of God.  They were sealing there own fate! 

Not only anger and irony, but sadness must have filled his heart. 

Jesus ended his reply to the friendly Pharisees with these words, “Jerusalem.' Jerusalem, 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!”

In Mission, British Columbia, a fellow tells the story about his Grandpa's hen house which burned to the ground one day. This young man arrived just in time to help put out the last of the fire. As he and his grandfather sorted through the wreckage, they came upon one hen lying dead near what had been the door of the hen house. Her top feathers were singed brown by the fire's heat, her neck limp. The young man bent down to pick up the dead hen. As he did the hen's four chicks came scurrying out from beneath her burnt body. The chicks survived because they were insulated by the shelter of the hen’s wings. [3]

Who would refuse such love and care?  Who would refuse the wisdom of the Son of God?

But refusing God is not hard is it?  It is no different than refusing help out of pride or truth out of disbelief, or wisdom because of a lack of time.

Robert Fulton, an artist and engineer was responsible in the early 1800's for putting sailing ships out of business. He made the steamboat a standard on the open seas. It is said that he presented his idea to Napoleon. After a few minutes of this presentation to Napoleon, the celebrated world leader and notorious egotist is reported to have said, "What, sir, you would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense."[4]

God calls to us even today.  God calls out to a world with his message of nurture, grace, challenge and repentance even today so many refuse to hear.  How has God called out to you asking you to allow the loving, motherly, canopy of her wings to spread over you head and you have refused?  How have we seen God pulling and pushing and moving in the world around us with the movement of the Holy Spirit and we have been unable to participate?

In England in the 1940s a young woman entered Oxford University with little focus. She had no idea what to do with her life. She soon came under the influence of a colorful professor of English, a writer with a gift, named C.S. Lewis. She became a Christian through much of his influence. She left Oxford, against the advice of friends and family, and began to study nursing. After five more years of rigorous training, she was certified as a nurse.

But her story doesn't end there, for her questing, Christian spirit would not let her rest with the way things were. You see, she ended up working on a cancer ward in a London hospital. Gradually, she came to realize that most of the doctors ignored the patients who were deemed terminally ill. As a result she watched many of them die virtually alone.

Greatly troubled she felt that Christian compassion needed to be expressed to these patients in a visible way. She approached the hospital administration with an idea she had for surrounding those dying of cancer with friends and loved ones during their last days, rather than isolating them in sterile rooms with strangers. Her radical ideas were quickly rejected. But undaunted, she decided to enroll in medical school to try to make a difference even though she was already 33 years old and would not graduate until she was 39. This she did and later a movement soon grew around the ideas that made it possible for dying patients to live their days in a setting of love and support.

The hospice movement came into existence. Cicely Saunders, out of Christian compassion and a sense of calling to help in a specific way, began this movement in England in the 1950s. It later moved to the Americas and is now used everywhere and in every town. It is called the Hospice Movement, and it draws its inspiration from Jesus' own passion and compassion for his children -- "as a hen gathers her brood under her wings."[5]

Cicely Saunders wished to reach out her strong and nurturing wings and cover with a canopy of love those who were isolated, ignored and given up as dead.  She spoke out against those who would refuse her wisdom, her love and her care.  She bucked a system which wanted to destroy her voice and ignore her gracious love.  Yet her Christian spirit, fueled by the Holy Spirit of God would not accept the refusal of this fallen world. 

She did what she was able, which was far more than anybody around her would have imagined.  She moved beyond the failure and refusals of the world around her and she created a corner of that fallen world where the triumph of God’s heavenly Kingdom could thrive.

On the Second Sunday of Lent, we take communion together.  We remember how they refused and rejected the Messiah, our Lord and we remember the victory that is possible as we are raised from the ashes and tomb with him.

Join me now as we hear his challenge and receive his grace in the sacrament Jesus gave to us.

Amen