Sermon 17th March 2019 – 2nd Sunday in Lent Text: Luke 13:31-35 – Under the wings of God’s care

Sermon 17th March 2019

Text Luke 13:31-35 – Under the wings of God’s care

If you’re a cyclist or walker, magpie swooping season which always hits around September, just when the weather is starting to fine up.

It’s a horrible sensation as you’re riding and you see the dark shadow of a magpie with its wings outstretched and you brace yourself for that nip around your ears.

The reason they swoop is to protect their little chicks in the nest being cared for by their mother.

It’s no wonder that Jesus uses the example of a mother hen with outstretched wings protecting her children as a symbol for how God cares and protects us.

At some point those little chicks will need to learn to defend themselves but until they’re ready they are under the protection of their loving parents.

Those who are parents know that you never stop caring for your children even after they have left school, started work, gotten married and had children for themselves.

It’s part of our built in instinct to care for our children.

That’s the nature of God also.

Even those who reject God or who don’t believe in him are loved and cared for by God as Jesus says:

He gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the believer and unbeliever alike. (Matthew 5:45)

Not everybody sees God that way.

Some see God in a very different way  – with Judge probably being one of the ones that a lot of people associate with God.

He’s up there making sure we don’t do the wrong thing otherwise he’ll punish us.

They don’t see God as loving and protective but as authoritative and harsh.

But that’s not the image that Jesus reveals in our bible reading.

He shows us an image of a loving and emotional God – weeping over his children who have turned away from him rather than being angry at them.

Not wanting to judge or punish them but to embrace them under his loving, caring and protective arms.

Sometimes God’s care for us seems harsh, just as a parent’s care of her children sometimes requires discipline that seems harsh an unfair – we may see it has being “hen-pecked” rather than nurturing.

But we can understand why some people struggle with the image of a loving and caring God.

They look at the world and see a world full of trouble, war, sickness and disease.

They ask questions like, if God is all powerful and all loving then why does he allow evil things to happen, even in the church, as we are seeing with the outcomes of the Royal Commission into sexual abuse of children.

Anyone who has lost a loved one can reasonably question how a loving God allowed them to die.

But that’s not to do with God.

No, that’s to do with us.

We are the ones who chose to separate ourselves from God and fly the coup.

But God has never stopped loving us, just as a parent continues to love their child even when they disobey or move away.

But sometimes it looks as if God has forgotten us.

Abraham certainly felt that way.

God had promised him a child.

And now, in his 90s, Abraham is questioning God because he seems to have forgotten his promise.

Maybe it seems that God has forgotten you at times.

What we see in Abraham is the need to keep trusting God.

We too need to keep trusting God even if it seems that God has completely forgotten about us.

He never does.

Maybe we have hoped things would be better in our life.

Maybe we have asked over and over again for something in our prayers.

Abraham trusted God and was blessed by his trust.

Paul calls on us to have patience too.

He says to stand firm in the Lord.

And what we need to remember was that when Paul wrote that he was actually in jail because of his belief in Jesus.

Believing in Jesus doesn’t always mean that our life is rosy but we know that it will end up being truly blessed.

Paul encourages us to remember that this world is not always going to deliver everything we hope for.

And even if we do everything right and according to the book, it doesn’t mean that it is going to turn out alright.

That’s why people keep asking – why do bad things happen to good people.

In life there are no guarantees.

But through faith in Jesus there is a guarantee – the guarantee of life in heaven when we die.

Although Abraham is a spirit filled man who is devoted to God, his vision is focused on what is immediately in front of him which leads him to focus on the fact that he is childless.

God’s promise of a child for Abraham is beyond his human understanding.

Abraham is still walking by sight and not by faith and sometimes that’s the habit we fall into.

So Paul reminds us: our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can look all we want in the world but we won’t find true answers there.

Citizenship is a hot topic at present.

We have thousands that are wanting to take up citizenship in Australia as asylum seekers.

They see the blessings and opportunities that our country offers and want to have citizenship here to enjoy all the benefits.

They are prepared to risk their lives and the lives of their families to get here.

As citizens we sometimes take for granted what we have and it’s only when someone else comes in and wants to take it that we become possessive of it.

Like a child that doesn’t want their toy until another child is interested in it and it starts a massive fight.

Likewise we should cherish our citizenship in heaven.

As citizens of Australia we have all the rights and blessings afforded to citizens.

We have access to healthcare – to government benefits – we can vote.

As citizens of heaven we have something even better.

We have rights to eternal life in heaven where there is no more suffering or death.

And we should cherish that rather than grumbling if things are not quite right in this life.

Life will never be perfect in this life.

There will always be something that is not quite right – or someone that has something a little bit better than we do – or a new gadget that makes us hate the gadget we have even though it works just fine.

That’s human nature – that what Paul meant when he said:

Their god is the belly; … ; their minds are set on earthly things.(Philippians 3:19).

But keeping our eyes on what God has promised us in heaven helps to keep our minds focused on what we have in heaven rather than what we don’t have here on earth.

As Paul once said: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us [in heaven]. (Romans 8:18).

So, as citizens of heaven, stand firm in the Lord and keep your minds set on heavenly things and until we are safe in heaven we remain safe under the protective wings of our Lord as Jesus promised in our Baptism – I am with you always till the end of the age. Amen.