Seventh Sunday after Trinity – morning
Sunday 15th July 2018
Proper 10 – 7th Sunday after Trinity – morning
Ephesians 1. 3-14
Mark 6. 14 – 29
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Let’s pause a moment and pray for powerful leaders of nations…
They have had a hell of a week, haven’t they? One way and another?
Whatever one’s politics, you have to have felt a bit sorry for Teresa May this week! First the football let her down – failed to produce the hoped for ‘feel good’ factor that would have helped everyone to welcome her plan for Brexit… That didn’t go too well, with two major resignations from her Cabinet and people on both sides of the argument telling her that it just won’t work. (I don’t know whether it will or it won’t to be honest – I’m beginning to lose the will to live over the whole Brexit fiasco!)
And if that weren’t enough, she then had to host Donald Trump of all people! That can’t have been a very comfortable couple of days!
But I think the Donald merits our prayers too. Don’t get me wrong – I cannot stand the man or his policies, but he is the President of the most powerful nation on earth and the things he does, says and tweets can directly affect every citizen of this country – and the rest of Europe too come to that! So I think we should all pray that somehow he learns how one should behave when a guest in another country. How to be a statesman rather than a Demagogue. And that he learns a little humility and compassion…. Lord knows, he needs it!
The possession of great power is a dangerous thing. Herod found that out – and so did John the Baptist.
Herod was Tetrarch or ruler of Judea. Together with his brothers he had been allowed by the Romans to exercise control – and power – over a small portion of Palestine. Not only that, but he had married his brother’s wife – who also happened to be his niece… Middle Eastern Royal dynasties were nothing if not incestuous!
This had attracted public scandal and the attention of John the Baptiser – that rather wild and forbidding desert prophet. Charismatic certainly – but perhaps not the sort of house guest one could feel comfortable with? Especially if your name was Herod!
Herod’s wife was none too pleased – one can imagine the sort of names she was being called – and she had no affection for the Baptiser and his ‘Repent or else’ sort of preaching.
And yet – Herod, we are told, was fascinated by John. He protected him – by keeping him in prison – and liked to go and listen to him. I wonder why? I doubt he heard much to comfort him. But perhaps he recognised something in John that he lacked – integrity. Total honesty before human beings and God. That was something all the power – all the riches in the world, could not give him. Integrity. And no doubt he enjoyed the sensation of having John in his power. At his beck and call. Integrity to command.
But maybe Herod was trying to demonstrate his integrity? Maybe that was why he decided to be a man of his word? Only to find that his sort of integrity would catch him out and make him do the one thing he was trying to avoid. Was it integrity that painted him into a corner and led directly to the death of John?
I often think that God must have a jolly good laugh at the way his creatures interpret the guidelines he gave us to live by. Either laugh or cry.
And nothing divides human beings from each other like religion! Like the interpretation of ‘rules’. We kick against them and yet are fascinated by them at the same time. Just like Herod and John the Baptist. And when we find someone who seems to be better at keeping them than us – well we either put them on a pedestal – that makes them somehow super-human, or try to dismiss them.
The death of John the Baptist must have weighed heavy on the mind of Herod. Although he had maintained his integrity – kept his promise – shown to all his guests that he was “A man of his word”, he had been partially tricked into having John executed. Made a fool of by a pretty young girl dancing before him – promised her anything she wanted – anything in practise that her mother wanted – little imagining it would involve him taking the life of John.
So what is it with powerful people? Why do they so often get it wrong? Whether our political or religious leaders – whether we ourselves as the economically powerful in our world. Be careful when you start to use your integrity, your word, as a weapon rather than a gift.
So often we fail to remember that it is God alone to whom belongs ultimate power. God alone who chooses to exercise his power through self-giving love – something we will celebrate shortly as we come to God’s table and receive in bread and wine the tangible proof of that love.
That isn’t something that sits easy with most of the powerful people of this world. Power made perfect in weakness is not a concept that Presidents and Prime Ministers can readily embrace. Herod thought he was all powerful and wanted to show off to his friends and enemies alike. Yet today the only reason we remember him is because of two 1st Century Palestinian holy men who had no riches, no power – at least, no political power. John the Baptist and Jesus the Messiah – our Saviour. Witnesses to the true power of God in the world. Amen.