May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our
hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our redeemer.
To love is to be vulnerable. To love is to be courageous.
Which is true?
When we love we are both courageous and vulnerable. After all, in loving we allow someone to see
parts of ourselves we don’t share with just anyone. We share secrets and memories that belong
only to us. This is true not just of
romantic love, but of love between a parent and child, among siblings, best friends…
If we love, we are less on guard with those people we love. And sometimes, we get hurt. So to love is to be vulnerable, and also
courageous because we do risk getting hurt.
Generally speaking, though, we don’t talk about the
specifics of love much. We say the word
and assume we are all on the same page.
Often times, when we try to explain love we must
resort to metaphors because it is easier to say what love is if we don’t have
to explain exactly what love is to us.
For this wife, love is how her husband smells after a
long day working, knowing they each labor for the life they share. For this sister, love is a brother who
defends her against bullies and faithfully takes her side in all matters. For this man, love is that friend who calls
every single night for a week just to make sure that this week of hard memories
doesn’t defeat him. Love has its private
moments for everyone.
For Jesus, on this day, love is a Hen guarding her
brood beneath the shelter of her wings.
This beautiful and powerful image speaks of the love of a mother for her
children. We often talk of God as a
loving and giving father. Rarely do we hear
Jesus referred to as a faithfully sheltering mother. Some people would probably even be offended
by a feminine image being used to speak of Jesus. Except Jesus doesn’t mind one bit being
thought of in this feminine image, because he said this of himself.
“How often have I desired to gather your children
together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…”
Jesus addresses Jerusalem, the place where many
prophets met their deaths, the place he is being warned against because a fox
awaits him there. He knows the
history. And this is the place where the
devil issued his third temptation. Throw
yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple and you shall not be harmed, so
says the devil. Jesus would not throw
himself down to live, but he would walk into the fox’s den in order to
die. Jesus is going forward because he
loves even the children of Jerusalem who have rejected him. He would shelter and protect them even to his
own death.
Talk about being vulnerable…but can you imagine
anything more courageous?
He is not a superhero.
He probably wouldn’t think himself any kind of hero at all. No, just a man who loves so deeply that he
will be strong by being weak and meek and sacrificially giving himself.
How often have we looked upon vulnerability as a
feminine quality? Women can so often be
seen as soft and fragile. Yet the
strength of women has brought life into the world for as long as we humans have
been here. The strength of women is the
mother, sister, friend, neighbor, coworker who has fought her way back from
cancer or heart disease or abuse or loss.
Women are part of the story of God’s creation. God knows.
Jesus here reminds us that love is both vulnerable and
strong. Like a mother hen protecting her
brood.
Are there places in your life that you are being
called to be both vulnerable and strong out of the love you have for
Jesus? Jesus told us to love our
neighbors. Can you stand with those
neighbors and speak for those neighbors even at the risk offending other people? That is vulnerable and strong. Can you stand up to bullies who tell you it
is okay to hate this group of people because they hated you first? Can you risk the rejection of some people to
defend the lives of others, even if those people may never love you in
return? That is vulnerable and strong.
Can you go out in the world and proclaim the good news
through your actions, and, when someone asks where your strength comes from, be
vulnerable enough to say, “I am strong because Jesus was vulnerable for me.”
Can you offer shelter to those who have never done a
thing for you?
Jesus did.
Jesus does.
And thanks be to God for that.
Amen.
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