St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes, Vicar
Year B/Proper 10: Mark 6:14-29
July 11, 2021
Just before the beginning of today’s gospel passage, Jesus had been busy calling and training his 12 disciples to preach his life-giving message of repentance to all, while freeing souls from demons, and anointing and curing the sick—life was being restored. Just as the momentum is growing in the narrative, there is a flashback interruption that does not seem to fit—the death of John the Baptist at the hand of Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Perea.
At this point in our passage in Mark, Jesus’ visibility and popularity had increased so much that those in power were forced to pay attention. Who was this rockstar? People thought that this powerful preacher, healer and expeller of demons could have been John the Baptist raised from the dead or the prophet Elijah signaling the coming of the day of the Lord. Jesus’ activity in Herod’s territory prompted Herod’s haunting flashback, and had convinced him that John, whom he had beheaded, had been raised in Jesus (v. 16). For Herod, Jesus was John the Baptist 2.0.
We know that John was not Jesus; he was God’s prophet who did what prophets do—he risked his life to call God’s people to repent of their sins and turn to God. He did not hold back with the powerful ruler in publicly denouncing the unlawful union between Herod and his brother’s wife, Herodias. The plot of our passage centers around this dangerous conflict between Herodias’ hatred for John and Herod’s need to protect this righteous man whom he feared and respected.
Then, the deadly blindside happened. Herod threw a birthday party for himself where he rewarded his daughter with a proverbial “blank check” for providing pleasing entertainment—whatever you wish, I will give it! Herod’s blood-thirsty wife used the daughter to interrupt the celebration of life with a death wish—a demand that could not be refused—the head of John the Baptizer on a platter. As readers, we are also blindsided. What just happened? John, the one who was the preparer of the way for the anointed One—the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance was no more. John lived the risky life of a prophet, and his obedience in doing what God sent him to do got him killed. The gruesome death of this holy man, and the placing of his body in the tomb, can’t be the end of the story, can it?
If we view this narrative as foreshadowing the fate of Jesus, then we know that this passage is a reminder that death is not the end. What Herodias did not know is that she may have had the human messenger beheaded, but God’s divine plan for human salvation was bigger than her hatred. We are reminded of this because the writer immediately follows this story of death with a story of life—Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000.
The Church, as the fundamental sacrament of the risen Christ in the world, is called to follow the example of John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord when he returns in power and glory, and to continue in the way of Jesus in feeding his sheep with the spiritual food of his body and blood. The Church as the body of Christ, of which Jesus Christ is the inextricable head, must reclaim her prophetic voice, in this broken society, if she is to secure a place of relevance in people’s lives. In this increasingly secularized society, the Church is often expected to be seen—and not heard. Church is fine in the world, as long as the head of the Church, Jesus, does not get too much attention. As followers of Christ, we must neither willingly, nor unwittingly, participate in the cultural beheading of the Church.
You may be familiar with the term absenteeism as it pertains to the workplace or school. Absenteeism extends, also, to our lives in the church. It is no secret that the attendance in mainline churches in the U.S. continues to decline. Absenteeism is certainly a concern for the life church, but I am convinced that presenteeism is the real danger. Corporate chaplain, the Rev. David Smith, describes presenteeism as the opposite of absenteeism—the employee shows up to work present from the neck down. When the employee is disconnected from their head, health and safety problems increase and productivity decreases.
This concept of presenteeism is applicable to the Church. All too often the body of Christ—God’s faithful people—show up in the world present from the neck down, unaware that they are mirroring the secular world’s narrative that there is no need for Jesus. When we unconsciously live “headless,” lives, disconnected from Jesus, the result is spiritual dryness and broken relationship with God, our neighbors and ourselves. This is the real danger to the forward movement of the kingdom-building work of the Church. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.
If we are to do this work that God has called us to do, in a society where God’s existence is questioned and denied, we might look to the intimate encounters between John and Herod for a model of the powerful ministry of presence. Herod actually liked listening to John. John challenged Herod to think and feel. By his very presence, even in captivity, John, impacted Herod’s life by his authenticity as a man of God.
Like John, we must risk relationship with the modern-day Herods, and Herodians, of the world who may tolerate us as long as we keep silent about the atrocities perpetrated against the dignity of human beings and the day-to-day behaviors that oppose God’s love. We must risk proclaiming the good news of God in Christ with such authenticity that those in power are forced to pay attention. We are compelled to risk in love because God first risked himself in relationship with us through Jesus Christ.
Herod did not repent, but he actually liked listening to what John had to say. We are surrounded by people who might just like to hear a message that they did not know they needed to hear, and they just might like it. May those who hear the life-saving good news of God in Christ receive it. And, in receiving that good news, may they, by the power of the Holy Spirit, come to believe in Jesus Christ, the One for whom death was not the final answer, and the One through whom all, who believe in him, receive eternal life.
Amen.
