Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost

Transcription

1 The Rev. Dr. Mary Abrams -- St James Episcopal Church Mark s Gospel Tells Us Not to Lose Hope God Is Still at Work, And God Will Win. An elderly lady was well known for her faith. She would stand on her front porch and shout, "Praise the Lord!" Next door to her lived an atheist who would get so angry at her proclamations he would shout, "There ain't no Lord!!" Hard times set in on the elderly lady and she prayed for God to send her some assistance. She stood on her porch and shouted, "Praise the Lord!! God, I need FOOD!! I am having a hard time. Please, Lord, send me some groceries!!" The next morning, the lady went out on her porch and saw a large bag of groceries and shouted, "Praise the Lord!!" The neighbor jumped from behind a bush and said, "Ha Ha!! I told you there was no Lord. I bought those groceries. God didn't." The lady started jumping up and down and clapping her hands and saying, "PRAISE THE LORD!!! He not only sent me groceries, but He made the devil pay for them!! I sometimes wish that I had that kind of faith. Blind faith; that I would never question. That I would always know that God is there. That I would always know that God cares. Most of the time it is easy to believe that. When things are going well or when something happens at the just right time that makes everything ok. But at other times when awful or tragic things happen, or when I get overwhelmed with all the bad things going on in our world, like war, diseases, hunger, I may wonder why? and ask Is there a God? Does God really care? If there is a God and if God cares, why doesn t God stop all the bad in the world? Or we ask the question Why does God let bad things happen to good people? Well, believe it or not, the ugly story we read today from Mark is more than a story about the gruesome death of a martyr. More than about the murder of a good man whose only crime was speaking out against sin. It is also a story of hope, an encouraging story that can help us through those difficult times in our lives when our faith wavers. The Gospel

2 reading today helps us with those questions about whether God is there or if God really cares. But we have to dig into this story in a little to find the hope. We first hear about John the Baptist before he is even born. His father, Zechariah and his mother Elizabeth, had prayed for years for a child. Then suddenly, in their old age, the angel tells Zechariah that Elizabeth will bear a son and his name is to be John. The Angel said to Zechariah, You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. We are told that John leaps in his mother s womb when Elizabeth greets the visiting Mary who is pregnant with Jesus. We don t really meet John until he is a grown man. He is a wild man, hair and beard uncut, dressed in camel s hair, eating locusts and honey. His was the voice that the prophet Isaiah said would be crying in the wilderness, saying Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. He baptizes Jesus in the river. That s that last we hear of him until today when we have this flashback as Herod recalls his experience with John. Now there are several Herods in the New Testament. The Herod in today s reading is not Herod the Great, the one who was king when Jesus was born, the one responsible for the massacre of the baby boys in Bethlehem following the visit of the Wise Men. The Herod we meet today is Herod Antipas, one of Herod the Great s sons that survived. Herod the Great killed some of his sons because he felt threatened by them. Another son who survived was Herod Philip, Antipas half-brother. Another half-brother was Aristobulus. He had a daughter named Herodias. Herodias married Herod Philip. Meaning that Herod Philip married his own niece. Philip and Herodias had a daughter named Salome. Did you get all that? It s beginning to sound like a modern day soap opera doesn t it? But it gets even worse. On a visit to Rome, Herod Antipas met his brother Philip s wife, Herodias Page 2

3 Aristobulus daughter and also Antipas niece. Herodias was a very ambitious woman and apparently not very good person. She saw that Herod Antipas had more power and influence then her husband Philip. So the two of them, Herodias and Herod Antipus, left Philip behind, got married and went back to Galilee. This was not a problem according to Roman law, but it was a problem according to Jewish law, and Galilee was a Jewish land. This is when Herod Antipas meets John the Baptist. John who speaks his mind confronts Herod Antipas saying It is not lawful for you to have your brother s wife. This made Herodias very angry and she wanted Herod to kill John. As much as Herod may have wanted to please his new wife, he was even more afraid of John. Herod liked to listen to John. He saw something good, something holy in John something true in what John said, and wanted to protect him from the wrath of Herodias. So as protection, Herod had John arrested and put in prison. But, then, one night Herodias gets her change for revenge. At an apparent wild party with lots of wine, women and song, daughter Salome dances. She danced a dance that pleased Herod her stepfather a lot. We don t know, of course, what kind of dance it was but we can probably guess it was a dance that a father should have put a stop to quickly but not Herod. He told her that she was wonderful, and offered her anything she wanted, up to half of his kingdom. You know the rest of the story. Salome asked for her Mother s advice and was told to ask for John the Baptizer s head on a plate. And keeping his rash promise that is what Herod did. Why did Mark put this ugly story in his Gospel and why is this ugly story a story of hope? To answer those questions we need to look at what comes before this passage and what follows it. This is a story set inside another story. Last week we read that Jesus sent his twelve disciples out, two by two, on a mission a very successful mission where the disciples had called people to repent, had cast out demons, and had anointed and cured sick people. Page 3

4 This week we read that Herod is worried about what he is hearing concerning Jesus. Something powerful is happening, and everyone is talking about it. But no one understands it. Some say that Jesus is Elijah reincarnated. That would mean the Messiah was about to arrive, because Jewish legend said Elijah would come back to announce the coming conqueror. Others were saying it was John the Baptist come back to life. Herod believes that this may be true and it terrifies him because he is the one who killed John. That s when Mark inserts the flashback of the ugly story we read today of John s murder. Next week we will hear the ending of the success story when Mark says "The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught". In the middle of the mission story Mark interrupts his happy story and tells story the horrid death of John. Why would he do that? Why would he start telling a big success story, and interrupt it with a terrible story? Why would he include the gruesome details, Herod and his guests passing around John's head on a platter at their banquet? Mark is helping us with our questions about God. Is there a God? Does God care? The church in Mark s time was suffering terrible persecution. Christians were being imprisoned and killed not because they had done something bad, but because they had done something right. Mark was reassuring them that yes, bad things are happening but they needed to remember that good things were happening also. God was at work in the world, and everything would come out all right in the end. We need to hear this message also. Life was difficult for Christians in Mark's day; it is often difficult for us today. 9/11 reminded us that we live in a dangerous world, a world where we can no longer take it for granted that we are safe from attack. Page 4

5 Many of us grew up in a time when we didn t always lock our doors. Now we are afraid to walk down a street without fearing danger all around us. We hide behind our security systems at home and always carry a cell phone when we are out so we can call for help. Mark is telling us that, yes, terrible, horrible, gruesome things happen! But don t lose faith because that is not the only story! That is not all that is going on, because behind the scenes, while John was being martyred, and while terrible things are happening all around us, God is conquering evil, disciples are casting out demons. He is saying, Yes, terrible things happen, but wonderful things happen also! And the wonderful things are better then the terrible things. God is at work in the world through God s followers, and we never have to wonder who is going to win. This story of John's death, sandwiched inside the story of the apostles' successful mission, promises that God will win, and that those who follow God will win. ` Mark is reminding us that bad things happen, that bad things happen even to good people like John the Baptist and like us. And that the bad things that happen, are not God s punishment for our sins. John the Baptist wasn't doing something wrong when they murdered him. He was doing something right. This ugly story of power, jealousy and murder is surrounded by the ministry of Jesus. Mark s message is that nothing in this world, not even in the palaces of the powerful or in the walls of government, nothing is beyond the reach and impact of the gospel. Yes, there are times that we may wonder about God. Yes, terrible things happen in our world. There are people who do evil things; terrorists, sociopaths, mass murderers, child and spouse abusers. We have created evil systems and policies that we all participate in where people are without food and shelter in a nation of abundance, where people cannot get the medical care they Page 5

6 need because they can t afford it. There are diseases and natural disasters. There are times we make stupid mistakes that end up disastrous for us, maybe like Herod s rash promise to Salome. The message of our faith says that evil does not have the last word. Herod did not win. Herodias did not win. Hitler did not win. The terrorists that flew into the twin towers and the Pentagon did not win. Cancer does not win. Divorce does not win. Abuse and violence do not win. EVIL DOES NOT WIN! When faced with danger or pain, it is difficult to believe that there is anything right about the world or in our lives. This story reassures us that, if we walk with God, in the long run, all will be well. It is an important promise to remember when we are in danger or when we are suffering. Mark is telling us not to lose hope because God is still at work, and God will win. With joy we can shout like the elderly lady Praise the Lord. The world does not end with the cry of a starving child or the destruction of a bomb or a death from cancer; it ends with the Lamb upon the throne and the victorious song of a massive choir singing The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, And he shall reign forever and ever. HALLELUJAH! Amen! Page 6