1 It is said that if you go up to anyone and in sincerity say flee all is discovered there isnt one person who

would run. Well we cannot tell whether the warning that Jesus got from the Pharisees was well meant or malicious. But either way its result could have been the same that he could have done a runner. Since, because of that wake up call, Christ now

2 could not hide from the fact that what he was preaching, what he was doing, who he was inspiring was coming to the ears of the secret police. He could not insulate himself from the fear that he was under surveillance. In fact, he could not disguise the fact that he was in mortal danger. For, we tend to see the Herod regime as the epitome of evil. But they really werent. They were just pragmatists,

3 they were survivors, they were puppet rulers sandwiched between a totalitarian Roman state paranoid about people calling themselves kings and a stiff necked people only too willing to be violently independent. So in the great game of politics being played out in this hip pocket state, the life a rural carpenter was worth absolutely nothing at all. And just as it is in many countries today, Jesus would be wasted without a second thought. Yet what was Christs reaction?

Well, it was to rush towards the danger, nearer to his murderers and into the political killing ground. In other words, he travelled on willingly to Jerusalem and his rather too foreseeable fate. In todays parlance he felt compelled to book a fight to Kabul or Damascus or Mogadishu. It was as if he was going all out to be the equal of that fearsome duty expressed in a poem by Alan Seeger

5 which is the anthem of the French foreign legion: God knows 'twere better to be deep Pillowed in silk and scented down, Where love throbs out in blissful sleep, Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath, Where hushed awakenings are dear... But I've a rendezvous with Death At midnight in some flaming town, When Spring trips north again this year, And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous.

Well all of this to some extent

6 is stating the obvious. More instructive maybe is how he perceived the approaching slaughter house of his martyrdom. Indeed, we hear it clearly laid out in our lesson. Since he says to the rich and powerful of Jerusalem. I have some good news and some bad news for you. We can then imagine the Pharisees present saying -

7 go on then what is the good news. And that is a message from God saying look you have killed all my messengers and ignored what I have to say. Yet I still love you you are still my chosen people. I love you to the extent I want give you a cuddle and stop your pain. This can be made no plainer than Jesus likening Herod the front man with the Roman legions behind him as the fox.

8 And himself as the mother hen trying desperately to save her chicks a gainst overwhelming force and hunger.

Of course, they just had to ask the next question what is the bad news? Well, the ultimate bad news was of the Jerusalems elites own making. It was that their real politique would fail. The hellish forces of Agrippa dynasty would unleashed against them and Jerusalem and their lands

9 would be lost to them for nearly 2000 years. And all because they rejected God ultimatum. They could not see Jesus for who he was. They could not accept this dramatic yet gentle divine intervention in humans affairs.

So what does that tell us for our Lenten journey. Well first of all it reminds the Church across this land that it too continues to be held

10 to the same tradition of willing sacrificial duty the same requirement to speak God's message. The same rendezvous with offering both good and bad news despite its consequences. The same demand to be part of Gods ongoing intervention. That means helping in the rejection of real-politique, of the nasty compromise and of the deal held at arms length because of its stench. It means calling

11 a fox a fox. This is not easy in a time of recession, when dangerous groups are abroad and when the world seems to have more intractable problems than usual. Yet it remains our bounded duty to do so at least in our own consciences, in our own prayers and in our own circle of friends. Yet I hear you murmur that wont change much. Maybe you are thinking I will change nothing!

12 Well that is to think like Napoleon. Let me explain! Robert Fulton, an artist and engineer was responsible in the early 1800's for putting sailing ships out of business. He made the steam ship a standard on the open seas. It is said that he presented his idea to Napoleon. After a few minutes of this presentation Napoleon is reported to have said, "What, sir,

13 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." You see that Napoleon was overcome by the vastness of the possibility to grasp a simple fact. And was this. All that Fulton was proposing was a relatively simple change. The ship would still be broadly

14 the same shape and construction, steam was a developing technology rather than science fiction and the seas were still the seas. Put in our context, we need to see that a few simple and feasible changes can chase the fox away. A few uncomplicated steps can break the log jam for the safety of Gods most vulnerable chicks. Indeed, we could provide a truly protective mother hen for just a little sense of duty, just a tad of Sacrifice and just of a smidgen

15 towards the Jerusalem of risk and opportunity. And what could these be? What good news could be bad news for the fox? To whom or to what do we need to give a gypsies warning? Well, I dont know but Christ does. So why not ask him? Amen Offering HYMN...

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