St Bertelins Sunday 15th July
When I was younger it was
often said that most people could remember where they were when President Kennedy
was assassinated?’
Today that is more likely to
be, can you remember where you were when Princess Diana was killed?’
Both those two deaths have
spawned countless conspiracy theories, books and investigative TV programmes.
The story in the Gospel we
heard today is in a very similar category.
It contains all the
ingredients for a great story, power, intrigue, politics, sex and scandal, and
in the case of Herod and Dianne the added spice of royalty.
If this story about Herod,
Herodias, Salome and John happened today there would be tweets galore and
plenty of Facebook comments.
We simply haven’t got the
time but I do commend to you a study of all these key players in this story
that also appears in Matthew’s Gospel in a shorter form and also in extra
Biblical works from Josephus.
There are also lots of
Herod’s, so it can easily all become very confusing.
The Herod here is Herod Antipas,
one of three surviving sons of King Herod the Great.
He ruled over Galilee and
Perea from 6BC until 34AD.
On a trip to Rome he became
infatuated with his sister-in-law Herodias who was married to Herod Philip. At this time, Herod Antipas was married to a
Nabatean Princess whom Herodias demanded he divorce.
It all reads like something
off a TV Soap!
Of course all of this went
against Jewish law and customs.
A man could marry his
brother’s wife; in fact, the law said that he should…
If
brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must
not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry
her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. Deuteronomy 25.5.
This comes up in a
confrontation between Jesus and the Sadducee's recorded in Matthew 22.
But of course the important
part of this was that your brother should be dead, otherwise it was against the
law.
"
If a man marries his brother's wife, it
is an act of impurity. He has violated his brother, and the guilty couple will
remain childless. Leviticus 20.21
This is what John the
Baptizer railed against bringing the ire and displeasure of Herodias.
Mark does give us a fairly
full account but others have added and filled out the story, notably bringing
in the infamous Dance of the Seven Veils.
The story was also a
favourite of Medieval artist who liked the juxtaposition of a young girl,
either as an innocent pawn in a power game or a sexualized young woman in
league with her mother and knowing exactly what she was doing, this alongside
the gruesome idea of a severed head on a silver dish was a real favourite
subject.
In 1891 Oscar Wilde wrote a play ‘Salome’ which for the most part was Wilde using the subject matter to address the issues of his own sexuality.
In 1905 Richard Strauss
created a one part opera based on Wilde’s play.
In this opera the sexual tension is increased as Salome fantasizes about
John and has an erotic dance with the bloodied body of John and his decapitated
head. To an already disturbing story Strauss adds necrophilia.
It still receives mixed
reviews.
But let’s move on and return to the genesis of the story as recorded in Mark’s Gospel.
This
story follows on from last week’s Gospel reading where we looked at the story
of Jesus’ rejection in his own town and among his kith and kin and then
ending with the sending out of the twelve Apostles.
I
would suggest that we are dealing with the same basic theme that runs
throughout the Scriptures and indeed runs throughout all life, being very much
part of the warp and weft of life itself.
Power,
rule and authority.
And
in this story here is power being used with impunity, with Herod and Herodias
acting as if they are above the law.
And
the outspoken prophet, John the Baptizer, stands in a long line of Jewish
prophets that spoke out boldly against anyone, even kings and rulers.
Jesus
was to say on one occasion…
Woe to you! You
build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses who consent to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Because of this,
the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some of them
they will kill and others they will persecute.’… Luke 11.48-49
Jesus said to his
disciples, his followers and us…
"You
are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”
What does light do?
It shows up all the muck
and the filth, as much as it guides and illuminates the path.
And here John the Baptizer
has come to call the People of Israel to prepare for the coming of the Messiah.
And the Pharisees want to
know by whose power, rule and authority John is baptizing people and calling
them to repentance…
…So
they said to him, “Who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What
do you say about yourself?” John replied in the words of
Isaiah the prophet: “I am the voice
of one calling
in the wilderness,
‘Make straight
the way for the Lord.’”
So we have the same dilemma
as Jesus had when he went to his home town…
Coming
to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were
amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous
powers?" they asked. Mark 6.2
What they couldn’t see, and
what the Pharisee’s couldn’t see, and what many people even today cannot see –
or refuse to accept is,
…that
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins
against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2
Cor.5.19
Again
Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me
will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8.12
You see, that is the stark,
simple and yet profound choice you and I have to make today and every day in a
thousand and one different ways. You can walk in the darkness of this world or
chose to walk illuminated by God’s spirit with the light of life.
St Augustine was to say on
one occasion, ‘If Jesus be not Lord of all, then he is not Lord at all.’
Power, rule and authority…
And
having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2.15
We can sometimes act as
God’s people as if the Christian Faith is a simple matter of personal choice.
You chose to do this and I’ll choose to do that.
It quickly becomes wrapped
around personal piety and a privatized faith that has little or no public dimension.
However, a quick look
through the Scriptures will soon tell you that it is far more than that.
If God be God, if God is the
creator and sustainer of the world, if God squeezed his very being into human
form and appeared as a man among us to show how to live as authentic human
beings.
If this God/Man was rejected
and despised, mocked, beaten and killed – but then rose from death, defeating
once and for all the greatest enemy of all, then surely we cannot simple reduce
the Christian Faith down to a private choice or personal piety.
Surely it has to be much
bigger than that?
For example, what are asking
for when we pray the Lord Prayer? Words that are often on our lips but less
often in our hands and feet to make our prayer a present reality?
God’s Kingdom to come, God’s
name being honoured, forgiveness of sins, bread for hungry and so much more.
Then
Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
Jesus came from the east
bank and emerged on the west bank having being baptized by
John with the
witness of the Holy Spirit falling upon him in the sign of a dove.
Thousands of years earlier
Joshua led the Israelite's out of the desert wanderings over the river Jordan
from the east bank to the west bank into the Promised Land. Years later, knowing
he was drawing close to death he called all the Israelite's together and said..
“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity
and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the
River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And
if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose
this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the
region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord.”
So to close a simple
question for us to take into the week ahead.
The People of God gathered
here this morning at St Bertelins will tomorrow become the dispersed People of
God and be found in all sorts of places. And you will find yourself facing any
number of choices based around whose, rule, authority and power are you going
to follow?
On a personal level it
might be that smutty joke, or that salacious gossip or a racial slur or a
character assassination when we are tempted to
join in and add in our own bit of bile.
Different choices face us all the time.
And in the public domain I
know that we read in Romans 13.13…
Obey the rulers who have authority over
you. Only God can give authority to anyone, and he puts these rulers in their
places of power.
But this needs to be
balanced with our story of John and his speaking out against the abuse and
misuse of power.
Perhaps we can also be
guided by the brave words of Peter and another John…
Then
they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in
the name of Jesus. But
Peter
and John
replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right
in God’s sight to listen to you rather than
God.
For
we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”… Acts 4.19
I hope we are those who have
heard and seen and know God’s sovereign reign, rule and authority – and that we
cannot therefore stop speaking about it.
Otherwise the world will continue to stumble
on in the darkness with misuse of power, rule and authority!
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