Sermon for July 15, 2012 Proper 10 B RCL
Mark 6:14-29
King
Herod heard of the demons cast out and the many who were anointed and cured,
for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, "John the baptizer has
been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in
him." But others said, "It is Elijah." And others said, "It
is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of
it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."
For Herod himself had sent men
who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his
brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling
Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And
Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not,
for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he
protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to
listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a
banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his
daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the
king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give
it." And he solemnly swore to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give
you, even half of my kingdom." She went out and said to her mother,
"What should I ask for?" She replied, "The head of John the
baptizer." Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, "I
want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter."
The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the
guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of
the guard with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the
prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl
gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took
his body, and laid it in a tomb.
The Homily
Todays readings are quite the mixed
bag! We have King David and the company
dancing in front of the Ark of the Covenant as they lead it back into
Jerusalem. Back from where it was left
for nearly 20 years sitting in the house of a Levite. It is a joyous celebration. The return of the seat of God to its rightful
place in the city of David. In
Jerusalem. It must have been quite a
spectacle. Contrast that with the
passion of John the Baptist. First we
hear that Herod is convinced – being a quite superstitious fellow, that this
Jesus of Nazareth must be John the Baptist come back form the dead. And then we have the story of how John came
to be killed. The story of the weak
leader Herod following up on a promise to a dancing girl who’s mother had it in
for John. The beheading of a charismatic
leader. What is a preacher to do! It is tempting to avoid the Gospel lesson in
its entirety and preach on King David.
And perhaps that is what I will do!
But first it is interesting to
think about why is this story in Mark anyway.
Mark is what another preacher referred to as the “Readers Digest
Version” of the Gospel. It is so short
and this section on the beheading of John the Baptist is the only story in the
Gospel of Mark that is not about Jesus or the Disciples. So why is it here? It must be important. Perhaps if we look at it in context? This comes right after the section of Jesus
sending out the twelve disciples to heal the sick and to cast out demons and
just before the story of the feeding of the 5000. It seems odd to me and Lynell asked the
question how do we explain a story where evil seems to have the upper
hand? I honestly don’t know. It does seem like evil triumphs in this
story. Is it a cautionary tale that
discipleship has inherent risks? Is this
a concrete example of what can happen if we take up our cross to follow Jesus?
That is what a number of preachers that I look to seem to indicate. But I am not buying it. I believe that evil
does not win.
It seems to me that one of the recurrent
threads in the Gospel is that God does not act as humankind expects God to
act. If we think back to the birth
narratives we have Mary. A single unwed
young women who bears God’s son in a manger. A Messiah born among the animals and not in a
palace. We have Jesus healing the
outcast and hanging out with sinners. We
have stories of forgiveness. A Messiah
who is willing to suffer death to prove that love cannot die. So I don’ t think this is only a cautionary
take of what might happen if we take of the prophetic role. It is true that prophets both ancient and
modern are looked at askance by a society that still – over 2000 years after
the death of Jesus values power and position over healing and love. But I think that is what we are called to do. We are called to show love to the
loveless. To follow the example of a God
that does not take death as a final answer.
I think our God would much rather we dance in joy like David did leading
the Ark back to Jerusalem.
In the next couple of months St
Paul’s is going to develop a Strategic Plan.
Now I bet I know what some of you are thinking? How does developing a strategic plan relate
to the Gospel mandate to Love God and Love our Neighbors? Well one answer is that we are not just
planning. We are also going to look at
vision and mission. St. Paul’s recently
got a new permit for the temporary building that serves as our Parish
hall. The city said that we can keep
using the building for ten more years.
After that we have to do something else.
We can let the space revert back to a parking lot or we can plan to do something
else. We can plan on how we can serve
our neighbors and each other. We can try
and discern where God wants us to be and wants us to do as a people on this
corner of 15th and J streets or we can go on auto pilot and let 10
years go by without any planning. Your
vestry has decided that we would rather not be surprised in 10 years and would
like to work towards figuring out what might replace the current temporary
building.
So the first step is going to be
some visioning. We want to hear from all
of you. What do you value being at St.
Paul’s and where you would like to see us grow?
Where and how is God calling us to bring his loving reign to this
corner? Now I know that some of you may
feel that we have done this before. You
are right. We have looked at vision and
mission in the past. This time we are
doing it with an eye to creating a plan for how we are going to deal with the
loss of our current parish hall. We
want to explore where you the people of St. Paul’s see us going. What is it about St. Paul’s that keeps us alive? Our demise has been predicted before but God
seems to want us on the corner. We are a
healthy congregation and I see many wonderful ministries being done by you the
people of St. Paul’s. The process of
visioning and planning will let us capture where the energy is in this
place. The process of visioning needs
all of you to participate. We have
enlisted the help of Rick Larkey – Alex’s dad – do assist us in this process
Peter Steinke, in his book on
grounding change in mission and hope, reminds us that we are here to help mend the
world. That “[e]ach person participates
in the mending assignment in his or her own way. Also, each congregation subscribes to a
specific way of mending. Thus, some
people seek to change policies that disregard people’s dignity. Yet others become quite helpers and caring
friends. A portion of the congregation
enjoys teaching the gospel. A smaller number
serve with prophetic voices. [God]
embraces small gifts and large ones. Your
response of mercy, generous offering, or shared witness makes a difference. In no way is God’s future dependent on out offerings,
but the new creation is open to all gifts of our hands and hearts. We are part of God’s creative scheme when we
care for something larger than our selves.
What could be more creative that to see the image of Christ in the face
of the stranger or hear Christ’s voice in the cry of the starving Child?”[1]
So that is what we are going to
do. We are going to see where our gifts
and passions are as a parish. We are
going to come up with a plan to see those gifts and passions grow. It may mean that we partner with an other
organization who also needs space to build a multi-user building where our
parking lot is. Perhaps we decide that
we don’t need a building. It is all up
to the people of St. Paul’s. To start
this process we are going to have a series of all parish meetings. To that end on August 5th we will
have one service at 9:00 followed by a parish meeting. Rick Larkey will help us explore where we
have been, where we are and where we are going.
We will have 2 additional Sundays where we will have one service
followed by facilitated discussion. They
will be on September 5 and September 30th. We really want to hear from each and every
one of you. For those of you who “don’t
do meetings” or prefer to provide input in other ways we will have multiple opportunities
for you to share your hopes and dreams.
For example we are planning on using on-line survey tools as well for
people to provide input.
As I see it we do have a
choice. We can choose to live in a world
where we react to events. Where we react
to the evil that we see happening or we can choose to help facilitate God’s
dream. A dream where we see
reversals. Where the hungry are fed.
Where the loveless are loved. Where
nothing, not even death can stop God’s
love. Lynell said “St. Paul's is facing the removal of a
building and the costs of replacing it bigger than our cumulative wealth.
The voice of evil says, "it can't be done". The call is to
place ourselves before God and ask, “What would you have us do?” How can
we be the prophets voice in our generation?”
I invite you to join together to show the world that evil does not
win. To listen to each other and to find
ways that we can continue to be Christ’s hands, feet and heart on this corner
of 15th and J and throughout our lives.
[1]
Steinke, Peter L. “A Door St Open –
Grounding Change in Mission and Hope”
The Alban Institute 2010. pg 108
