Stand Firm in the Lord. 3/16/2026

Contemporary theologian Shane Claiborne is a prominent speaker, activist, and best-selling author.  Shane worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, and founded The Simple Way in Philadelphia.  He heads up Red Letter Christians, a movement of folks who are committed to living "as if Jesus meant the things he said.”

This week Shane posted online: “I keep thinking about the prophets - how fiercely they advocated for the most vulnerable people in their land, and how fearlessly they spoke truth to power. We all need that prophetic courage right now.”  And then Shane shared the prophetic words from the 10th chapter of Isaiah: 
Doom to you who legislate evil,
    who make laws that make victims--
Laws that make misery for the poor,
    that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
    taking advantage of homeless children.
What will you have to say on Judgment Day,
    when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?
Who will you get to help you?
    What good will your money do you?   (The Message translation)

In today’s Gospel I see God doing, at least, two things— using prophetic courage to name evil and then, also, staying the course of  Kin(g)dom living. More than once in the Gospels, Jesus calls out evil for what it is. One time was when he turned those tables in the temple, a story told in all four Gospels—calling out a corrupt institutional system (of the religious institution and society nonetheless) that was exploiting the poor to line the pockets of those who were more well off, those who had some status and influence. And again, the story we hear in both Matthew and Luke of the widow who gave her two mites—all that she had—to provide the temple offering. 

Now often, this story of the widow’s mite is told during stewardship time as an example of generosity. I don’t negate that this widow is faithful and generous. But, I don’t think that is why Jesus points out her offering. The Kin(g)dom truth Jesus is pointing out to the disciples, and to all of us who will listen, is that the system is corrupt. This religious society is letting the rich pay a pittance while the poor have to give all that they have—even if it is a measly sum. This “taxation,” if you will, that calls for very little from the rich but an overwhelming amount from the poor only serves to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Jesus is pointing out that this is not God’s way, the Kin(g)dom way. This is the world’s way. And it is evil.

Today too, a bit more overtly but still critically, Jesus is pointing out evil to those who have ears to listen. Some Pharisees come and warn Jesus: Careful, Jesus, you better take off because Herod is looking to catch you and kill you. And Jesus tells them: Well, you go and tell that Fox I’ve got work to do: healing, casting out evil, making folx whole and well. I will not be distracted. I’m gonna keep doing me.

Did you hear the evil called out? It came in the form of one word: “Fox.”  Now, even back in Jesus’ day, the fox was thought of as sly and conniving, but this one word is much more layered than that. According to Randall Buth, director of the Biblical Language Center and a lecturer at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, another common usage of “fox” in Hebrew had to do with one’s value. Lions and foxes were contrasted with each other to represent the difference between great men and inferior men. The great men (of greater power) are called “lions,” and the inferior men (of lesser power) are called “foxes.” Buth further explains that “The word “fox” can also have moral connotations, as a saying from the Mishnah demonstrates: “Be a tail to lions rather than a head to foxes.” This saying could be paraphrased, “It is better to be someone of low rank among those who are morally and spiritually your superiors than someone of high rank among scoundrels.” 

Jesus knows Herod for who he is: a human who has allowed evil to enter his heart and control his actions. Beloved, maybe you don’t know this, but Herod was a Jew. As was his father, Herod the Great—you know the dude who wanted to kill the baby king in the Nativity story so he has thousands of innocents killed. Well the Herod in today’s story is Herod Antipas, Herod the Great’s son, and like his father, he is the Roman Empire’s puppet.  Oppressing his own people so that he can live a life of wealth and luxury—at their expense. Bowing to the Emperor to make himself richer.

But, according to Jesus, Herod—-this person who seems to have all the power, the one who has the authority, who enforces corrupt laws—Herod is a small fry. A Fox, not a lion. And Jesus refers to himself as a hen. This is not a slip of the tongue, but a deliberate message to the ones listening and to us today. For the hen, after all is a chicken—-the prey of the fox, the one foxes eat for breakfast. And, interestingly enough in that patriarchal culture, Jesus identifies himself with a female image. Jesus, this Son of God, identifies himself in feminine form. Even though we still resist this truth and we have failed to make it clear in our texts, prayers, liturgies and music:  God is not male nor female, but both and every other bit on the gender spectrum. But, here’s the other important Truth we may very well miss in this story: Jesus is also declaring: God—and therefore whatever is good and whatever is love— God is not the predator. God is not the fox. God is the hen. Because what is good and what is love— what is righteous, what is just, what is moral—-belongs to those who gather up the endangered under their wings.

And that’s where God makes God’s second move in today’s story. Not only does Jesus stop and call out evil for what it is with the intention to disrupt and overturn evil systems—whether they be political, institutional, religious or all of the above—Jesus then says: And this evil will not stop me from living the Kin(g)dom. This evil will not put an end to the mission of Love in the world. I’m going to keep on healing, casting out evil, making folx whole and well. I will not be distracted. Because, Beloved, Jesus knows and trusts that Love is a greater power, a greater force, a greater energy than evil. The answer to Evil is Love. The answer to evil is to unveil it for what it is.

We hear Jesus’ lament in today’s Gospel; a lament I currently feel deep in my bones: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem….you will not see me….how I long to gather your people safely under my wings. Jesus laments that God’s Beloved people do not see him for who he is, that God’s Beloved refuse to be gathered in, that God’s Beloved allow themselves to be the people of the Fox instead of the people of the One who Saves.

In the book The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny, the protagonist Armand Gamache, a homicide investigator who has seen his fair share of the inhumanity of humanity, realizes this: “How easily humans could adjust to darkness. To dark thoughts and darker deeds. Until finally, the darkness became normal. And they no longer missed, or looked for, or trusted the light…..If so-called men of God could turn a blind eye to those atrocities, and so much more, then anything could be done by anyone.” (180)

In the Gospels, Jesus calls out wealth, greed, and apathy as our greatest weaknesses—as the traits which are most dangerous to humanity and Creation. We live in a society that  idolizes wealth, a society rewards greed. Elon Musk—an ultra wealthy, unelected person with great political influence and power—has recently said that empathy is a fundamental weakness of Western civilization. But Jesus calls out wealth and apathy as pathways to evil because wealth allows us to create buffers around us. Yes, it can give us more security and safety, but also when things go south in the economy, wealth (and by this I mean having leftover money after we pay for basic needs), wealth gives us the ability to lessen the effects that economic downfall has on us. This means, and this has been historically true, that the ultra wealthy become extremely reckless when they feel there is economic instability. Since they are so well buffered, they can afford to be extremely reckless. And when they are apathetic, they become reckless with the lives of others—especially those to which they attribute no value, the ones Jesus names as “the least of these.”  Typically they become reckless with others’ lives for the sake of keeping their wealth and/or increasing their wealth. So when you put power into the hands of ultra wealthy who have a disregard for empathy then what comes out of that equation is evil.

Like Jesus—not only is it our job to be light and to point to light, to be love and to point to love, but it is also our job to call out evil. To name it for what it is so that we do not become immune to the dark. So that we —nor our neighbors—stop looking for or trusting the light. 

Therefore, my sisters and brothers whom I love…., who are my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord. Stand firm in Love. There is no other way forward.