Change

Luke 13:31-35

February 21, 2016

Some Pharisees are trying to help Jesus

Joshua Tree National Park
Photo, Paul Siebert

to tell him to go away and hide,

but Jesus tells them that he’ll continue

to do his work and he will end

up in a town that was very dangerous for

prophets like him. Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was a beloved city,

it was the center of religious activity for Jewish people

a place where the temple was built and

where people came to worship and pray.

But like many cities like that,

it was also a center of commerce,

it was a successful thriving place for business,

tourism and trade and it was always doing fairly well for itself.

So when prophets would come in to tell them

to do things differently,

to stop worshiping consumerism,

to care for the poor among them,

to change their ways for God,

they tried to shut up those prophets and teachers

and they would kill them if they needed to.

They didn’t want them to ruin a good thing.

Jerusalem did not want to change.

Change is hard.

It is hard enough to just

change our personal ways -

diet, exercise, stopping smoking.

Sometimes we make changes happen,

But sometimes our lives change without our intention

they become unbearable or stuff happens

and we have no choice but to change.

Those changes can be scary.·    

•      What has been a big change for you?
•     Do you resist change or thrive on it?
•     What future change makes you worry?  

Change is going to happen, even if we don't want it to.

And the bottom line is God needs us to change.

Things are not okay in this world,

and it’s not just someone else’s problem.

If everything were okay just as it was,

why would we need Jesus?

Jesus looks at this rebellious city of Jerusalem

and he says he has felt like a mother hen

who gathers her chicks under her wings.

The preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor said:

“If you have ever loved someone you could not protect,

then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament about Jerusalem.”

All you can do is open your arms and keep reaching out again.

And God does the same with us.

When faced with children who reject, deny, scatter and self-destruct

God does not close herself off to Jerusalem

God doesn’t look to punish or toss us aside.

God opens her wings one more time like the mother hen.

Richard Rohr another great theologian said:

“Most us were taught that God would

love us if and when we change.

In fact, God loves you so you can change.

It is the inherent experience of

love that becomes the engine of change.”

God’s love makes change possible

in Jerusalem and here in our lives.