Sunday, July 12, 2015

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Where is God in the Gospel today?   Jesus doesn’t even make an appearance. That question really came to mind though; because I often hear it asked when good people die tragically. John seems to be having influence on Herod, but in the end did it matter? I believe it did matter, but to get to why we have to go beyond the text alone. I’ll explain as we go along.
Honestly today’s passage can seem like it’s only moving the story along. Certainly John’s death is an important part of Jesus’ story, and it of course the story prefigures Jesus own death. In fact this particular take on John’s death Herod seems remarkably similar Pilate who didn’t “really” want to kill Jesus, but was forced into it. There’s also the oddly negative twist on a common Hebrew scripture story about women who transgress for their own survival – but usually those stories are about being granted God’s favor.
In looking more closely at the passage, though, there’s a buried aspect that is very intriguing. It’s hidden in verse 20. “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.” Now what’s interesting to me in this passage – a passage that seems on the surface designed to gain Herod a modicum of sympathy – is the implication of what John is doing. John is talking to Herod.
Now you may think, what’s significant about that? John is a prophet, bound to speak truth to power. He knows his fate, so what does he have to lose in talking to Herod? At the very least it would pass the time. But isn’t that all forgetting that John was out in the wilderness, dressing and behaving in socially unconventional ways. And he was not terribly kind to authorities.
I imagine the John before prison as angrily lecturing Herod. If he were still doing that in prison, I doubt Herod would be listening, or if he did listen, I doubt he would be perplexed. No, I rather think they were actually in conversation. That there was, however slight, a breaking down of the roles of prisoner and captive.
That’s how I found myself reading the text, but in meditating on it further I started to wonder a few things. Though Mark doesn’t mention this (Matthew & Luke do) John sent Jesus a message from prison questioning Jesus’ ministry. It wasn’t quite what John had in mind. After all John was a bit more fire and brimstone than Jesus. And Jesus answers, “Blessed is he who does not fall into a trap because of me.”
Scripture does not report how John responded to that message from Jesus – at least not explicitly. That passage none the less crossed my mind when I contemplated John’s attitude towards Herod in today’s Gospel. Admittedly, to speak of John’s response is pure conjecture, but bear with me.
I’m influenced from this point by James Alison, who you may remember from the clip we watched of him during our Lenten discussions. Alison has a long series of arguments that in many ways can be summarized by his take on Matthew 23:9. Call no one on earth father, for you only have one Father in heaven.
Jesus is teaching a siblinghood of mankind. Anyone who takes a position of superiority over anyone else on earth is doing violence to that siblinghood. In fact to give up your power to someone, to ask favor of someone you believe to be superior to you, as if you are not deserving, is participating in that violence. I want to be clear that demanding your rights is not asking favor.
Now I’m certainly not saying that there aren’t people who have power or status or might that can harm you, even kill you. But as Jesus says in Matthew: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” If you’re going to fear that is, Jesus then reminds us that the one who could destroy your soul has caringly counted every hair on our heads. The point being there are bigger things at stake than your physical safety. And your physical vulnerability is not inferiority.
Perhaps the trap Jesus is referring to in his message to John has to do with that. The messiah is not going to free John from prison. The messiah is telling John that Herod is not intrinsically superior to John, nor is John morally superior to Herod. John is clearly MORE moral, it’s true, but not morally superior. And it is with this good news that John can converse with Herod as an equal, something that both intrigues and bothers Herod.
More and more I’m seeing superiority as a foundational sin. I admit I fall into moral superiority when it comes to certain subjects. I have empathy for John. No doubt it took John down a peg that the messiah was not what he had originally expected. John had predicted that he must decrease as Jesus increased – but like this? You might imagine that John could take advice from Amos, who did not even claim the title prophet. Speaking truth to power can come from a very humble place.

We may not all be called to speak truth to power. But I believe that we all need to recognize that temporal power is not superiority. Neither are we superior in our righteous indignation, our ideology, or our worship. We may be correct, but not superior. That truth - whether we speak it or not - is part of the revelation of the siblinghood of humankind. That truth is inherent in God’s love for us; God who counts each hair on each one of us. Love for all creation as Paul reminds us - it is God’s good pleasure to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Readings: 
  • Amos 7:7-15 and Psalm 85:8-13  • 
  • Ephesians 1:3-14  • 
  • Mark 6:14-29
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