Peggy Cave

My dog does this funny thing almost every time one of us gets home from work. She’ll jump up off the couch or come rumbling down the stairs and greet us (not the weird part) but when we bend down to pet her she almost always tries to almost burrow underneath us. We call it her “Peggy Cave”. It’s weird because that’s also what she does when she is scared. If the fire alarm goes off, there is too much smoke from the oven, or she has puked she’ll come to us and try and get in her little Peggy Cave. In the second instance of there being something scary going on her reaction makes a little more sense to me.

                  I bring up the Peggy Cave because while I’ve never seen a hen gather her chicks under her wings, I imagine it looks very similar. This image of a hen gathering her chicks is the image Jesus employes in our Gospel reading for this week. Jesus while lamenting the state of “Jerusalem” and its relation to power and control wishes he could gather his chicks underneath him, but ‘lo the chicks do not want to come to him. Which is kind of confusing for those of us on this side of Christian history, I think. We have a long tradition of people turning to Jesus and God when they need comfort and safety and finding it. It’s something preachers have successfully preached meaningful sermons on for generations as well. It’s something that’s woven into the very fabric of our faith.

                  And I wonder if that’s become a problem somewhere along the way.  This knowledge and belief that we can always find comfort in Jesus has us turning to it as a solution to our ills when comfort is maybe not the appropriate response. Like with Peggy, seeking comfort when she is sick, or thinks there is fire or finds herself afraid going into “cave mode” makes sense, but when she is excited because we are home, it seems like an incongruous response. We see the world around us and go with comfort because it feels safe and easy instead of other faithful responses like rebuke, celebration or service.

Peace,

Corey