"MOVING FORWARD WITH TEARS IN OUR EYES"

A mother was in the kitchen when she heard a scream from her four year old so she ran into the children's play room to see what was wrong. Tommy was sitting in the middle of the floor crying while his baby sister pulled his hair with all her might. Prying the baby's fingers loose, the mother said, "Tommy, don't be upset. She didn't know that would hurt you." A few minutes passed and soon there was another scream...this time from the baby. The mother ran back into the play room. "Tommy, what happened?" "Not much," said Tommy, "except, now...she knows!"

There are a lot of things that hurt us in life. Disappointments. Rejections. Lost love. Failures. Death. The unexpected...the unwanted...the undeserved...and, sometimes, the rightly deserved but still painful consequences of human living...all will touch us at times.

In an ideal world, good intentions would always bring good results. Deep desires would always be fulfilled. Love extended would always be returned. But we do not live in an ideal world. And when the hard realities of our broken world come into our personal lives, the pain is great.

And that brings us to Jesus. Standing there on the summit of a mountain outside of Jerusalem, he looks out over the city and weeps. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" His heart breaks like a good mother's would who longs to love and protect her children...but they will have nothing to do with her.

Several years ago, Cybil Shepherd was asked by her home town of Memphis to name two hippopotamus babies that were born at the Memphis zoo. She was honored but had some trouble choosing names...because no one could get close enough to the twins to determine their gender. When anyone tried, their mother became very threatening, and no one wanted to tangle with a mamma who weighs more than a luxury limo. The babies never wandered far from their mother, so Cybil's naming just had to wait.

That really shouldn't have been surprising, though. Why should those babies stray from the one who gave them life, who nourished them and who protects them? That's generally true with most newborns. Regardless of the species, they stay close to the one who gave them life and who cares for them.

Except for humans, of course. We who are children of God tend to wander away from the very One who gave us life. As Christians, we talk about having been "born" of the water of baptism. God births us and pledges to us the fierce devotion we see only dimly mirrored in even the strongest maternal love.

Now admittedly, even a mother's strong love can't protect her children from everything and even God's love doesn't prevent hard and painful things from happening to us in life. Jesus said, "The rain falls on the just and the unjust." The difference is that, when we stay close to the shelter of God's love, the rain that life sends can make us grow rather than wash us away. Jesus didn't want to see Jerusalem washed away. That was the source of his lament on the mountain as he looked down at the city, longing to draw those people close. Jerusalem was a city occupied by the Roman army, a city expecting a Messiah - a Savior - who would conquer the military and political rulers of Rome and restore their freedom. Jesus came, instead, to overthrow death and to heal the brokenness that rules humanity. Jesus came to free us from sin. But that's not the kind of God the people in Jerusalem were looking for. I don't think that's the kind of God we're usually seeking either.

We want a God who will give us some advantages in this life. We want a faith that gets us the parking places right in front and an edge on the lottery. We want a God who loves us more than anyone else and will protect us from all of life's hazards and pain. But hazards and pain are a part of life. Jesus came to protect us from the hazard of spiritual death and to end the pain of being bound by sin.

One of the titles the historical church attributes to Christ is "the lion of Judah." Now, there's a powerful image. Imagine the fierce roar of a mother lion protecting her young. Just let anyone or anything try to attack us now!

But isn't it interesting that, of all the animals Jesus could have chosen, the image He applied to himself is the last thing we would want to discover our God to be: a chicken! It's hard to feel protected by that! But Jesus never would be what the world wanted Him to be. Jesus won't be the "king of the jungle." He is the One who overcomes His enemies by turning the other cheek, consuming them with love and grace.

Jesus does what a mother hen would do. She has no claws, no fangs, no rippling muscles, no secret weapons. All she has is her own body with which to protect her babies. If the fox wants to consume them, it must be over her dead body. That's how it is with such a mother's love.

Early one morning, a farmer jumped out of bed with a start. It took a moment to get oriented after his wife had awakened him. Finally, he understood what she was saying. The barn was on fire. Pulling on his jeans and boots, the farmer ran toward the well to draw water, but it was too late. The fire was too far gone when they discovered it. The barn was lost.

Most of the animals had gotten out. Even Bessy, the old milk cow, managed to break down a gate and escape. As morning dawned and they surveyed the damage, the farmer walked among the charred rafters which were all that remained. He almost stumbled over the body of a chicken and wondered why it hadn't made its escape.

As he bent down to remove the remains of the bird, four lively chicks suddenly popped out from underneath the dead hen's body. Their soft yellow down looked pure and clean there among all the soot and ashes around them. That's when the farmer realized that the mother hen could have escaped. It wasn't the gate of the barn that had trapped her. It was her love. She laid down her life for her babies.

Which, as it turns out, is what happened with Jesus. As night fell, Jesus tried once more to gather people together under His wings of love. Instead, they assembled around a table arguing over who was the greatest among them. They still didn't get it.

Jesus took them out to a favorite place to pray, and they fell asleep. When at last His enemies took Him, it was one of his own chicks who led them to Him. In the end, all Jesus could do was to put his own body between the attack of evil and the ones he loved. There He stood, wings outspread, breast exposed, but not a single chick took shelter beneath those wings. They ran away, every one for themselves. Love: ultimate, self-less, redeeming love poured from the heart of Jesus but there were no takers. It might seem that evil won.

But, you see, through the pain and disappointment and death that Jesus faced, the love of God ultimately won...because three days later, Easter came. And in that Resurrection Love, we are offered true protection and true security. Rather than some empty promise that nothing bad will ever happen to us, the promise of God's love assures us that whatever does happen to us, whatever pain or problems may plague us, whatever fear may face us, whatever doubts come over us, we will never be found defenseless or alone. We stand under the protection of God's wings, shaded by God's forgiveness, strengthened by the body and blood which was given up for us in a supreme act of love.

There are times in our lives when we stand, with tears in our eyes, facing a hard place, feeling paralyzed by fear. That's when we most need to think of Jesus. Even as he stood weeping for Jerusalem, knowing he was headed for his death, still he said, "In any case, I must keep going...." He was "on a mission." A mission of love. And nothing could stop Him.

St. Paul wrote that, as for you and I, "...our citizenship is in heaven." Therefore, he said, we should "stand firm in the Lord." Paul wrote, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on...."

We must "press on." Even when human love falters. Even when we encounter rejection and disappointment. Even when we have been wronged; even when we have done wrong to others. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and weighed down, and I will give you refreshment and rest."

Even if we are moving forward with tears in our eyes, as -- no doubt -- Jesus did, we can still move forward knowing that we have God's Resurrection Love to shelter us and to strengthen us. The hard rains of life will come...but they don't have to wash us away. Not as long as we stand close and cling to the One who truly loves us. Amen.

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