NOTES: 1] Pharisees wouldn't normally be interested in saving Jesus' skin, but they hate Herod even more than they hate him. 2] 'Fox' meant not just 'cunning', but 'of no consequence', 'not the real thing', i.e. Herod's no real king! EZEK (13:4) calls false prophets 'foxes'. 3] By 'third day' (32/33) Jesus may mean his Resurrection. 4] MT places Jesus' 'lament over Jerusalem' when he is actually in the city (MT 23:37+). This seems to make more sense than LK. 5] In 35, 'house' probably means the Temple.

WARMING UP: Are there aspects of life where we have trouble telling the 'genuine article' from 'not the real thing'?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Afterthoughts from, follow-up to last week’s Group, or since?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

31         Do we ever find ourself in a position where we make, or are tempted to, alliances with people, interest groups, we wouldn't normally want a bar of, because they are a lesser evil than someone /something else? What about in our community,  church, other groups we belong to?

32-33    Do we ever give up on, or fail to pursue, some Christian goal because of real or perceived  danger? Is it OK for us to have goals that are not specifically Christian? What about if they clash with Christian goals? How clear are we as to what our goals, as a Christian, are? How well defined are these goals? Do we have any kind of time-line on achieving them? If not, is that a bit slack of us? How will we know when we've finished our work / course? How strong are we at 'driving out demons' & 'performing cures' today? Or are those not today's kind of thing? Someone else's business, or nobody's? What are today's 'demons' so far as we're concerned? What kind(s) of healing is it OK for us to get involved in? How far?
             Why was it clearly so important to Jesus to go to Jerusalem & die there? Wasn't that courting self-destruction? Or was it rock-like determination, incredible bravery, or what? If many of the people of that day found it too hard to go beyond seeing Jesus as a prophet (misguided or not) do we find it any easier than them to go beyond his being a Prophet to being the Saviour? Mustn't every genuine prophet (as opposed to the 'foxes') suffer to some extent to prove / preserve their authenticity? How far are we ourselves prepared to go in becoming even a 'minor' prophet (if there's any such thing) today?

34-35    If we were somehow given the opportunity to address our own town / community, would we want to say anything at all like Jesus says to Jerusalem here? Would we be likely to actually bring ourself to say any such thing? Would this have more to do with our theology (i.e. the way we think about God & us), how people would react, the way the media would report us, etc.? How much would what we might want to say from our heart reflect the compassion Jesus shows here? Can we grasp the  significance of the feminine imagery (the hen) Jesus uses here? Are we as aware of this side of God as we might be? Are there things we're conscious of God wanting to do for us today, but like the Jerusalemites of old, we won't let him? How come we're so reluctant to let God 'gather us up under her wings'?
            Is 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' part of our approach to daily life, or just something we reserve for the liturgy on Sundays? Are there ways we could make that 'Blessed is he....' proclamation more part of our daily life?