Jesus, the Mama Hen, the Reign of God, and the Church

"At risk of his own life, Jesus [brings] the precious [reign] of God, like a  mother hen [protecting] her brood. She doesn’t have many resources herself. The mother hen has" nothing much in the way of a beak and nothing at all in the way of talons. At the very least, she can hope that she satisfies [the foxes] appetite so that he leaves her babies alone."

[Yet,] “After the "cosmic battle of all time, in which the power of tooth and fang was put up against the power of a mother's love for her chicks. God bet the farm on the hen." 

And victory comes."Having loved her own who were in the world, she loved them to the end. [Jesus] died a mother hen, and afterwards came back to them with teeth marks on her body to make sure they got the point: that the power of foxes could not kill her love for them, nor could it steal them away from her.” We are to follow. We “might have to go through what [the hen] went through in order to get past the foxes, but she [will] be waiting for [us] on the other side, with love stronger than death." 

So, like Jesus, we must go. We must willingly let God shelter and protect us and we must do the same for one another, continuing that work in the world. The "Church [is like] a big fluffed up brooding hen, offering warmth and shelter to all kinds of chicks, including orphans, runts, and maybe even a couple of [odd] ducks. The church of Christ plant[s] herself between the foxes of this world and the fragile-boned chicks, offering herself up to be eaten before she will sacrifice one of her brood." *

* Episcopal Priest and Preacher Barbara Brown Taylor (modified)