{"id":1415,"date":"2013-02-17T08:28:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T13:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2013-02-17T08:28:18","modified_gmt":"2013-02-17T13:28:18","slug":"that-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/that-fox\/","title":{"rendered":"That Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The field tells none of its turned story\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

it lies under its low cloud<\/em><\/p>\n

like a waiting river<\/p>\n

The dead made this field<\/em><\/p>\n

out of their hunger<\/p>\n

out of what\u00a0they had been told<\/em><\/p>\n

out of the pains\u00a0and shadows<\/em><\/p>\n

out of turning<\/em><\/p>\n

and coming back singing<\/p>\n

about another time<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 W. S. Merwin<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Run Jesus!\u00a0 Herod wants to kill you.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In Scripture and in art there are images of Jesus doing so many things \u2013 praying, walking, knocking on doors, gathering crowds, climbing hills, calling disciples, writing in the sand with his finger, sharing bread, preaching, weeping \u2013 but never running.\u00a0 This is neither the first nor the last time someone will tempt him to fear.\u00a0 It is a temptation urged upon him by people who love him.\u00a0 It is a temptation to which Jesus does not give in.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean Jesus is impervious to fear, it means as he himself says, that he has work to do and he hasn\u2019t finished yet.\u00a0 He stays his course, in commitment to what he has to do.\u00a0 He does not let Herod distract him.\u00a0 He does not let Herod coopt him, in fear, in flight, or in fury.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Repalce<\/a>Herod is worth running from.\u00a0 His reputation as the foremost biblical bully has lasted for two thousand years.\u00a0 In fact, as a bully, he is iconic.\u00a0 The icon fuses several Herods, father and sons, all of whom lived in Jesus\u2019 lifetime.\u00a0 And the icon crosses cultures, living in all times.<\/p>\n

The Encyclopedia Brittanica\u00a0 describes Herod as rising to power on the shoulders of the Roman Empire, in an alliance forged by Herod\u2019s father in 63BC when Pompey invaded Palestine.\u00a0 \u201cSix years later Herod <\/em>met Marc Antony, whose lifelong friend he was to remain. Herod made his political debut in the same year, when his father appointed him governor of Galilee. Six years\u00a0after that\u00a0Mark Antony made him tetrarch of Galilee. Soon the Roman senate nominated him king of Judaea and equipped him with an army to make good his claim. <\/em><\/p>\n

In the year 37 BC, at the age of 36, Herod became unchallenged ruler of Judaea, a position he was to maintain for 32 years.<\/em> Unfortunately, there was a dark and cruel streak in Herod\u2019s character that showed itself increasingly as he grew older. He altered his will three times and finally disinherited and killed his firstborn son. The slaying, shortly before his death, of the infants of Bethlehem was wholly consistent with the disarray into which he had fallen.\u00a0 In\u00a0rhe end\u00a0he divided his kingdom between three of his sons, Arcihlaus, Philip, and Antipas.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>The article details his vast building projects, whole cities like Cesarea, which were mostly pagan and welcomed the world, aqueducts, bridges, roads, palaces, and the Jerusalem Temple, which he hugely expanded.\u00a0 Rome had not found the Israelites willing to adapt to the Empire or to adopt its ways. Herod, through a combination of brute force and public works construction, brought Israel to heel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Herod was not so much a despot as a manipulator, which is a bully\u2019s prime talent.\u00a0 His trade was quelling resistance and achieving a working order.\u00a0 Money, work, and opulence were among his weapons.\u00a0\u00a0 His works were huge, elaborate, costly.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 works are human, disarmingly simple, freely given, and liberating.\u00a0 Knowing this about himself, Jesus says that he is the hen, Herod the fox.\u00a0 He wishes he could gather Jerusalem as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.<\/p>\n

The homely hen, who has lived in the backyards of humans for thousands of years, is selfless in her devotion to her little ones, even more defenseless than she.\u00a0 She has no defenses against the arts and wiles of foxes except her courage and commitment.\u00a0 She will rush to their sharp teeth and long claws, their looming shadow, their fierce bloodlust, throwing herself upon the bodies of her chicks, extending her wings\u00a0over them, letting herself be devoured in the hope that\u00a0they may be spared.\u00a0 She does not run from her fears.<\/p>\n

\"Replace<\/a>Jesus names himself Hen when That Fox, Herod, is coming. Herod saw himself as builder,\u00a0 an enhancer of cities and the Temple.\u00a0 Jesus saw all of these as structures in which people were pent and devoured.<\/p>\n

I have gone out from my confinements, though with difficulty.<\/em><\/p>\n

I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart.<\/em><\/p>\n

I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.<\/em><\/p>\n

They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 somehow or another).<\/em><\/p>\n

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 Mary Oliver, in Evidence<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Herod cannot say this, but Jesus does, and invites us into that hope, those clouds.<\/p>\n

A conversation I have often had is this:\u00a0 someone will wonder aloud, if I had done something else with my life,\u00a0would I\u00a0have been happier, more accomplished?<\/em>\u00a0 Now I am\u00a0out of time and without great deeds.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are\u00a0quiet tears in this question, the scars of\u00a0 deep disappointments and the pall of pettiness that spoils too many days, fox bites that have dimmed dreams.<\/p>\n

The days like great black oxen tread the world, and I am trampled by their passing feet.<\/em> \u2013 Isak Dinesen, in Out of Africa.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Part of the way Jesus spreads his wings over us is that we, too, find in our work courage to face ugly dangers,\u00a0 to let life bite deeply into our flesh and shelter those in our care.\u00a0 Work is for us what it was for Jesus, a compass in the midst of the\u00a0devouring days in which we walk, pray, open doors, share bread, speak, weep, call out to one another, write something in the sands of time.<\/p>\n

Like Jesus, we have been able, through our work, to be faithful, not enthroned by it but true to its commitments, in our time.<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

Illustrations:<\/em><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Herod Antipas,<\/strong> St. Martin Church, Nohant-Vic, France.\u00a0 1135 \u2013 1140.<\/p>\n

from Art in the Christian Tradition, Vanderbilt Divinity School Library<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Herod Orders Martyrdom of John the Baptist.<\/strong> 1508-1519 Cathedrale dAmeins, France. Vanderbilt Divinity School Library, Art in the Christian Tradition.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0<\/strong> Herod Lies in Bed Dying.<\/strong> <\/em>Early 16th c. Roof Boss, Norwich Cathedral, England, Image from article on Medieval Imagination.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Herod.<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0by James Tissot. \u00a0Brooklyn Museum, NY. \u00a0Image from Wikipedia page for Herod Antipas.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0Herod Antipas Judges Jesus,<\/strong><\/em> Scenes from the Passion, Brabant Museum, Belgium, M. Leuven.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The field tells none of its turned story\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 it lies under its low cloud like a waiting river The dead made this field out of their hunger out of what\u00a0they had been told out of the pains\u00a0and shadows out of turning and coming back singing about another time. \u2014 W. S. Merwin \u00a0\u00a0Run Jesus!\u00a0 Herod […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2483,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bites"],"yoast_head":"\nThat Fox<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The field tells none of its turned story\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 it lies under its low cloud like a waiting river The dead made this field out of their hunger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/that-fox\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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