Gospel reading: Luke 9:51-67
“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
This line really spoke to me. I was recently thinking about that “duck in a chicken coop” sense I am so familiar with and then I heard Jesus’ words. When it comes to what seems to be the dominant social culture, at least around these upwardly mobile middle-class parts, I feel like a duck that has somehow wondered into a chicken coop because the emphasis placed on material success is so abundant and seems so soulless. One of the questions I often get is “How much square footage does your house have?” I haven’t a clue. I’m sure I could find out easy enough if I really wanted to, but I’m just not that kind of a bird.
On the other hand – when I wander into that chicken-coop we call the Church my experience isn’t always all that different. True, no one asks about the square footage of my house, but in one way or another I seem to be getting quite a few questions about the “square-footage” of my soul- as if the depth of a relationship with Christ can really be categorized by the degree to which one conforms to the way of doing things in a particular parish or other Christian community. Well, I’m not that kind of bird, either.
And so, often I feel like the Son of Man seems to feel in this passage today- always waddling around but never finding a place that I can really call my own. This side of the kingdom, anyway.
How about you? Have you ever felt like a duck in a chicken coop?
Jim Philipps (3rd millenium pilgrim)
P.S. If you wish to read more extensively in my reflections on the Bible, you’ll find my books at: www.twentythirdpublications.com
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