As a Hen Gathers Her Brood (Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent: March 16, 2025)

Watch the sermon here. Listen to the sermon here.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text that serves as the foundation for our sermon for today is our Gospel reading, especially these words of Jesus in Luke 13:34, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

As people go about their lives, as they build their lives, there are things that become very dear to them. Yet you talk to anyone and to those to whom it has been granted, what is the greatest gift that any of them will say they have received? It is their children. Now, sometimes your kids may irritate you. Sometimes they may drive you a bit batty, especially maybe during the teenage years, but they're the greatest gift that parents receive. And, do you ever stop worrying about your kids? No matter how old they are, you never stop. No matter how old your kids get, you're going worry about them the moment they are conceived, the moment their life begins, until the moment that one of you enters into life eternal. In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus uses the imagery of a mother hen gathering her brood underneath her wings. A mother hen bringing her children in to keep them safe. and He uses this image about Himself. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” Today in our readings we learn God deeply desires and works to bring His children all together in His protection.

Let us pray: Almighty God our Heavenly Father, you have great desire to bring all of Your children whom You have made under your wings safely protecting them. Yet we, because of our sin, sometimes stubbornly run away from You. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts, be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, that through the work of your Son in His word and Sacrament, we may be gathered together under you, faithfully remaining in your brood, until at last we enter into life immortal. It's through your Son's name we pray. Amen.

No matter how much you try to train up children, do they always do exactly what you would desire them to do? If you're nodding yes, you obviously are a child yourself and your parents are sitting there shaking their heads no right next to you. Kids like to do their own thing. Kids like to think that they know best. They know the best way to handle things. The best way to get the job done. And, it's not always the case. You can certainly train your child. You can certainly bring them up, teach them things. But they're still going to make mistakes. They're still going to go their own way.

As children of God, as ones whom He has created, and certainly He has created all people. Scripture says that He knits us together in our mothers womb. As children of God, but also children of Adam, children of the fall, God desires to teach us, to guide us, to lead us in the right paths, and yet, like Adam, we tend to think that we know best. We tend to think that we know the best way to do things. We tend to think that we can figure it out ourselves. We don't need We don't need His word. We can do things on our own. And if things get in absolutely crisis situations, we might call on God for help. But for the most part, we're going to ignore our Heavenly Father. We're going to ignore Him, go about our lives on our own, do what we think is best. It's why, although God wants us to call out to Him in both times of sorrow and suffering when we need His help, as well as times of joy, we tend to forget calling on God's name in times of joy offering Him thanksgiving, focusing only on God when suffering occurs. To be certain both those in the church as well as those outside of the church, all of God's children formed in the womb by Him, God desires them to be saved. God wants all of His children to enter into life immortal. Just as an earthly Christian father or mother desires for their earthly children to stay in the faith throughout their lives, even much more so does God desire us, all of us, to stay in that faith. “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings”. And then what does Jesus add? “And you would not!” Because we are children of Adam, we like to go our own way. Because we are children of Adam, we like to try to think that we know best, to not be gathered under God's wings, protected by him. This leads to the problem. We often get so far away from the safety of our mother hen that it's hard for us to even know where to turn to. It's hard for us to even know where to look back to. And a baby chick all on their own is going to be quick food for the foxes and wolves.

We need someone to come and gather us together. Christ did just this. Christ came and He took on the mortal flesh. Christ came and H became like us and yet without sin. Christ came and He worked salvation for us. He came and He cast out demons and he performed cures today and tomorrow. And then on the third day, he finished his course. To make it clear that he's not talking about the actual third day from when He's speaking the next sentence, “Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). So if the third day is not literally three days from now, then when is the third day when Christ finished his course? When Christ hung on the cross suffering for your sins for my sins. When Christ took upon Himself the punishment that our disobedience deserves. Christ there, to gather His brood, suffered and died for you. Just as a parent does anything to protect their child, your loving Heavenly Father did the greatest thing possible to protect you. He gave His own Son to suffer and to die for you. He gave His own Son and put the punishments of all of the sins of all of creation upon His Son so that He could gather you to Himself. That's how great God's love is for you. That's how great God cares about you. That's how much He desires you to be gathered to Him. And the Son willingly did it. Because the Son desires to gather you to God as well. And so as a loving hen stretches out her wings to gather in her brood, so likewise Christ stretched out His arms, suffered and died, won for you the salvation that you so greatly need. And on the third day finished His course as He was raised from the dead on the third day never to die again. God's work of salvation complete.

And now God continues to work to gather you to Himself. God continues to work to gather his brood together so that all may come to have the sure and certain hope of salvation. And how does He do it? Right here. Through His word read and proclaimed, God is working to gather you to keep you in His brood. Through the waters of Holy Baptism, God made you a member of his brood. Through the Lord's Supper, God continues to strengthen you in that faith so that you may continue to walk in His paths, continue to be part of His brood. That's how great God's love is for you. God works each and every week, each and every day as we study His word in our homes to keep you under his wings, to keep you safe as one of his beloved children.

But He also has jobs for us. He doesn't just keep us all together, safely knit, bounded together. He says, “Okay, I have a job for you. I want you to go out and find more of my chicks who are lost. I want you to find those who are also hurting and take My Word with you so that My Word can bring them back so that they can also be part of my brood.” That's what God does for you. That's what God has given you to do, is to be his ambassador, sharing that good news with others, so that they also may hope and be part of His brood. And as we go out from this safety, from this sanctuary, are we going to get attacked? Are we going to get beaten and broken? Quite possibly. Satan wants nothing more than to drive us away from God's brood. And so God calls us back each and every week. Calls us back to be strengthened again through the Word read and proclaimed, through the forgiveness of sins pronounced, through the forgiveness of sins given us to eat and to drink in with and under the bread and wine. He calls us back so that we can be strengthened again. Going out, coming back. Each and every week. Until at last He grants to us life immortal. Until at last we don't have to worry about being separated from Him anymore, we don't have to worry about the impacts of Satan. For we will live in that joy and that peace for life immortal.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, do not let your own stubborn sinful flesh get the better of you trying to run away from God. Come, hear his word, receive the forgiveness of sins. Come be part of your loving God's brood. Come be in the protection of His wings, today and every day, until at last, He grants you life immortal. Amen.

Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.