Fowl play

STORM LAKE, Iowa — The Rev. CeCe Armstrong continued with the bird theme during Synod School worship on Monday, leading a cluck-a-thon during children’s time and extolling the protection a hen offers her chicks when it came time for her homily.

“Hens protect their young by sitting on them before they’re born,” the Co-Moderator of the 226^th General Assembly and the associate pastor of St. James Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, told the children. “After they’re born, they communicate with them by clucking. I wonder if you can cluck like a chicken,” she asked the children, and they responded enthusiastically.

That level of protection reminded Armstrong of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and “Jesus Loves Me.” Separately, half of those in worship sang one and the other half sang the other. Then they put the songs together, to lovely effect.

“Even with all the sounds,” Armstrong told the children, “we can still hear that God loves us because we’re all in God’s hands.”

Her sermon was based on Matthew 23:37-39, Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

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She pointed out that hens not only defend their chicks and are “highly engaged in their care,” but are known “for their teaching skills, like foraging and recognizing a safe environment.”

Christ calls us say something when we see a system that’s oppressive, she said, adding, “But as Christians, we are the last to speak up.”

“Y’all got quiet. Am I stepping on toes or something?” she asked those in worship, who responded by adding "Preach" and "Amen" throughout the rest of the sermon.

In this reading, “Jesus is upset with those in powerful places. Jesus reminds them that being oppressors is not the way the system is designed. Jesus is saying those who are oppressed by the powerful need to speak up, ring the bell and show up to name the oppression.”

“Let’s learn from the hen,” Armstrong suggested:

• Hens are protective. We’re called to protect the vulnerable by standing up to the powerful, and the review must start with ourselves. “You are not always the most powerful and not always the most oppressed,” she said. “But you’re one of them in every situation you encounter.”
• Hens are communicators. Listen for the way Jesus exposes the powerful through his parables, she said. “We should read the Bible from the margins. Whose name is not mentioned? Who’s missing from the table? Did you go get them and bring them?”
• Hens are teachers, and we ought to be also, teaching ourselves to show others how to dismantle systems that oppress people. “The only way you can continue what you started is to teach somebody what you started and then get out of their way,” she said. “I don’t want another Cecelia D. Armstrong. When I’m in my rocker,” she said, pantomiming that vision, “I can say, ‘Look at that!’”

Armstrong had an easy-to-remember HEN acronym, for “help the oppressed and call out the injustices of the powerful,” “encourage the oppressed to stand up” and “nurture those who need to learn.”

On Sunday, “I asked you to tell folks you love them and you did. The next part is ‘’cause there’s nothing you can do about it.’”

“Love one another with no strings attached, because after all, there’s nothing they can do about it.”

The Synod School band added mightily to Monday worship, including on “My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout,” “Glory to God, Whose Goodness Shines on Me,” and “Este Momento.”