The Rev. Canon Kimberly Reinholz
Cathedral Church of the Nativity
July 12, 2015
Proper 10B
Cathedral Church of the Nativity
July 12, 2015
Proper 10B
Mark 6:14-29
This week some of you on social media may
have seen a Meme (a Meme is a picture with a caption super imposed on it) of an
Inspirational Bible Quote of the day calendar.
This photograph is of a passage of scripture which reads: “If thou
therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine” Luke 4:7. And the caption reads: “Less inspirational if
you know who said it”.
Just in case you were wondering, who said
that quote, it is Satan, when he tempts Jesus in the wilderness. Context is everything.
I forgot that simple statement that context
is everything for about half the week, as I found myself totally wondering what
kind of crazy pills the people who compiled the Revised Common Lectionary were
taking when they chose this Gospel reading.
The first 5 times I read the Gospel this week all I could think was,
really? Why on earth did you include
this story in our Sunday Lectionary? The
whole story seems to focus on the gruesome the death of John the Baptist.
Why does this matter? What good does it do to hear about the drama
between Herod, John and Herodias? What
on earth does murder have to do with the Good News?
Context is everything.
I kvetched a bunch early in the week about
how this Gospel message was un-preach-able.
I’d preach on Ephesians or the Psalm or Samuel. David dancing in front of the arc that’s a
good last sermon to preach here at the cathedral. In one of my many conversations with Andrew
about this Gospel I said, how we are supposed to hear about the Good news, of
Jesus Christ, if Jesus isn’t even mentioned in this passage?
Oh wait, Jesus is mentioned. Briefly, in the first sentence of the
passage. Jesus is the context of the
entire story. This entire account of
John’s demise is told is to explain why it is that that Jesus became known to
Herod because of his exorcisms healings and anointing and Herod feared the
Jesus was John resurrected.
It’s all about the context.
Knowing what happened to John the Baptist
gives us a sense of perspective as to why Herod was afraid. A Roman official with great political power,
and military strength shouldn’t be afraid of a man who is traveling throughout
the countryside healing the sick, casting out demons and anointing those who
come to him for aid. Unless you know
that this seems to be history repeating itself.
Remember what we know about John the
Baptist? He started out in the
wilderness preaching repentance, offering baptism and anointing, promising
healing and that there would be someone who was more powerful than he coming
after him.
If you don’t know that John spoke out against
Herod’s marriage to Herodias, or that Herod was perplexed and challenged by
John’s teachings you might think that Herod has nothing to fear. If you didn’t know that Herod only executed
John the Baptist because he didn’t want to lose face in front of honored
guests, and that he couldn’t deny the wish he promised his daughter then you
might not understand why Jesus possibly being John reincarnate would strike
fear into Herod’s heart.
We know that Jesus isn’t John
reincarnate. We know that John wasn’t
resurrected, but Herod didn’t know that.
Herod therefore has every reason to fear that the man who he had
beheaded at the request of his daughter, the man who proclaimed that his
marriage was unlawful, the man who perplexed him and challenged what he
believed had possibly and even in his mind probably come back to life. After all if this man was in the wilderness
was healing people, casting out demons and preaching about repentance and his
message sounded a lot like the messages John had preached about repentance it
would seem that anything was possible. That’s enough to scare anyone right?
Imagine being in Herod’s shoes. I don’t honestly think that any of you have
done exactly what Herod did, it was pretty horrific but all of us have done
things that we regret. All of us have
hurt someone either intentionally or unintentionally and we’d rather not face
the consequences of these actions.
Think about it. Is there someone you know, someone who you
disagree with, someone who perplexes you, someone who challenges you, someone
who makes you uncomfortable that you have stood in judgement against?
How would you feel if they walked in the room
right now? How would you feel if you saw them in the aisle at the grocery
store? How would you feel if your son or daughter brought them home for
Thanksgiving dinner?
I
doubt you’d welcome that person into your home with open arms. I bet you would be suspicious about their
motivations, you’d probably wonder if they are seeking revenge or if they are
holding judgement against you for the things you have done. I bet you would be carrying some baggage
around whatever it is that you were challenged by, perplexed by or disagreed
with. I know I do.
I know that personally I have a lot of guilt
that I carry for sins that I have committed and sins that have been committed
on my behalf. I cannot forgive myself
for some of my trespasses. I live daily
with the debts I owe to others and more importantly I wrestle with how I might
be able to “pay back” God for all the goodness which has been given to me. Emotionally I struggle with this. I find myself asking, “How can Jesus love me?”
This is where Herod and I find common ground
because where Herod is afraid of Jesus because of the sins he committed against
John. I am afraid of Jesus because of
the sins I know I have committed against God and my neighbor.
It’s part of why I love the Eastern prayer of
the Heart practice, the recitation of the Jesus Prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It’s
one of the prayers I use when I pray the rosary or walk the labyrinth. I also pray “Lord I am not worthy to receive
you, but only say the word and I shall be healed” When I receive communion. I don’t know how, but I do know that Jesus
loves me.
It’s actually easier for me to accept that
Jesus loves you, than it is for me to accept the love of Jesus for myself.
I blame philosophy because, as a former
philosophy professor I intellectually know how a simple syllogism
works. If premise A is true and premise
B is true, then the conclusion is true.
It’s a matter of definitions usually one example of a syllogism is: If a
bachelor is an unmarried man and Mark is an unmarried man then Mark is a
bachelor. The intellectual part of my
brain understands the following to be true: If Jesus died to forgive all sin, and all
people sin, then because I am a person, Jesus died
for my sin. Even Spock would abide with this argument.
I think this is where Herod and I, and I
think most of you, stand when we hear about Jesus’ miraculous healings, and
exorcisms, and anointing. How can this
be? What is going on here? And what does it mean for me?
For Herod, when he heard about Jesus, and he
connected the dots- incorrectly- he thought this man is following the footsteps
of John, he is preaching repentance, and offering healing and anointing like
John. If he sounds like John and acts
like John he must be John.
The Good News is, that Herod is wrong. Jesus is not John. Jesus is Jesus. One of the most amazing things about Jesus is
that even though Jesus is human, he is also divine and that means that Jesus
doesn’t carry all the junk that we carry with us. Its good news because- we don’t have to be
afraid that Jesus is holding a grudge.
We don’t have to be afraid that something we have done in our past is
going to come back and bite us. We don’t
have to be afraid that our debts, our trespasses or our sins are going to be
held over our head for the rest of our lives.
Jesus isn’t the Ghost of Christmas past come back to haunt us. Jesus isn’t keeping track of our wrong doing
like a calorie counter on our smart phone.
Jesus has already forgiven us.
What we have to do, to keep from falling into
the same patterns as Herod is to remember to forgive ourselves. Because we aren’t really afraid of Jesus are
we? We are afraid of who we think Jesus
might be, rather than accepting at face value the promise of salvation we are
afraid there is a catch, a loop hole, a trap.
We’ve all heard it said that if something seems too good to be true it
probably is. This doubt that Jesus is as
good as he seems; that the forgiveness he proclaims is absolute and infinite;
that our sins are in fact completely and utterly removed from us – as far as
the pole from the pole, as far as the East from the West, because of Jesus’
complete and ultimate sacrifice on the cross for all of us means that our sins
are no more.
Now if we can just remember that …
Context is everything.
Amen
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