{"id":3182,"date":"2019-07-14T14:56:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-14T14:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=3182"},"modified":"2019-07-14T14:59:38","modified_gmt":"2019-07-14T14:59:38","slug":"sermon-7th-july-2019-evening","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-7th-july-2019-evening\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 7th July 2019 – evening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermons index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third Sunday after Trinity \u2013 evening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 7th July 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Trinity 3 – Proper 9 \u2013 evening
\nGen. 29. 1-20
\nMark 6. 7-29<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Maureen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This\nevening we have two wonderful biblical stories, worthy of the best\nHolywood screenwriters \u2013 or of the most dramatic Soap operas. Real\npage-turners both of them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First\nJacob finds the girl of his dreams \u2013 who happens to be one of his\nown clan \u2013 so her father seems happy at the match. Keen to impress\nhis future father-in-law, he even promises to work without wages for\nseven years, if Rachel can be his wife. Laban agrees with alacrity \u2013\nwhat businessman would not! \u2013 although such a promise is perhaps\nrather rash. And all through the seven years Jacob finds his\nanticipation and excitement growing at the prize that will be his …\nand time seems to fly by. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although\nas we will discover, Laban has another scheme in mind, that will keep\nJacob working for him, will see both his daughters married to this\nrich young kinsman, and will keep them all within his household where\nhe can keep his eye on them and enjoy the benefit of any\ngrandchildren who may come along… The plot \u2013 as they say,\nthickens!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nin our second reading we learn first how Jesus was setting about\ntraining and deploying his disciples \u2013 in order that as many people\nas possible should hear the message of God\u2019s love for them. He\nsends them in pairs, and travelling light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis followed by that wonderfully salacious tale of Salome dancing for\nher step-father, Herod. The tale that has given birth to the stories\nof the dance of the seven veils \u2013 each veil heightening the\nexcitement, the anticipation that Herod feels, until (silly old fool\nthat he is) he rashly promises her whatever she might ask for. And,\nworking to her mother\u2019s instructions, she demands the head of the\nBaptist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now\nthe backstory to this scene \u2013 so beloved of the epic film-makers \u2013\nis that Herod had seduced and married his brother\u2019s wife, Herodias.\nWhen John began his public ministry in the desert of Judea, he was a\npretty uncompromising, hell and damnation sort of preacher. Not a\ncomfortable or comforting message at all. He rather laboured the\npoint about all the wicked and un-holy things that were rife in the\nsociety of his day. He pulled no punches \u2013 and yet the people\nflocked to hear him and seemed to be won over by his arguments \u2013 at\nany rate, plenty of them underwent baptism by John in the chilly\nwaters of the Jordan in the hope of gaining salvation for their\nsouls. Even Jesus came to the desert to listen to John and be\nbaptised….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nJohn had preached repentance not just for the ordinary people. He had\na real go at the establishment too. Soldiers, tax-collectors \u2013 even\nthe King himself. Herod was given a dressing down in public for his\nprivate life and told he was \u201cliving in sin\u201d. Kings tend not to\nlike being treated that way \u2013 their wives even less so. And so\nHerodias determined that she would have her revenge, but Herod was\nenough of a politician to know that he could not kill a man just for\npointing out what was undoubtedly the truth \u2013 especially when that\nman had a certain public following. So John was arrested and\nimprisoned, but might have stayed there many more years…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until\nthe night of that fateful party and That dance. And a promise made in\npublic, in front of all Herod\u2019s influential guests. He could not\nback down without losing face \u2013 and so a man dies at the behest, so\nit would seem, of a young girl with apparently blood-thirsty tastes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nrather wonder what the girls in these stories thought of the men and\ntheir rash promises? Did Rachel feel as keen on Jacob as he was on\nher? Did she secretly want to keep her sister Leah with her for\ncompany, rather than face setting off alone to a strange place and\nfamily with her husband Jacob? Did Salome really know what she was\nasking for and was she as manipulative as her mother? Using the lust\nof an ageing king to satisfy the revenge of her beloved mother …\nPresumably Salome was Herod\u2019s neice \u2013 the daughter of the husband\nher mother had rejected in favour of Herod .. it all gets very\ncomplicated!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well\nwhatever the human feelings and reactions of our characters in these\nstories, I think we are meant to focus on how God uses these human\nstories within his plans for the whole of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacob\nis to become the great patriarch of the Jewish people. His twelve\nsons will eventually found the twelve great tribes of Israel \u2013\nindeed his own name will be changed in the process. But in order for\nthat to be achieved at a time when childbirth was a risky and\nhazardous business \u2013 at least for women (!) he needs several wives\nto accomplish it. And so he will acquire Leah (and her maid Zilpah);\nand the beloved Rachel (and her maid Bilhah).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nin the New Testament, John is a necessary character. He begins by\nleaping in the womb, before his birth, in recognition of the child\nthat his mother Elizabeth\u2019s cousin Mary is carrying. His role is to\nbe the herald \u2013 the one who goes before the king, preparing the\ncrowd for the one yet to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\ngets people into a receptive frame of mind \u2013 he preaches a message\nof salvation through baptism and repentance, so that when Jesus \nbegins his\npublic ministry, people are excited and looking for the Messiah. But\nhad John remained at large, there could have been a problem. He too\nhad plenty of followers, disciples, flocking to him in the\nwilderness. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthe message Jesus wanted to bring was not his. Jesus did not advocate\nseparating oneself away from the world \u2013 for the world was God\u2019s\ntoo. Jesus wanted his followers to engage with the world and purify\nit from the inside \u2013 not the outside. So John\u2019s teaching had to\nsubside as Jesus\u2019 ministry grew. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indirectly\nHerod\u2019s murderous action \u2013 first in promising Salome her heart\u2019s\ndesire, and then in delivering the head of the Baptist, ensured that\nJohn\u2019s followers would melt away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John\nhas an honoured place in the New Testament \u2013 somewhere between the\ngreat prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Saints of the NT.\nThe story of his death comes sandwiched between the description of\nJesus sending his disciples out to preach and heal on their own and\nthen coming back together to witness the feeding of the 5000 \u2013 when\nJesus lays down his claim to be a new Moses for his people \u2013 just\nas John was hailed as a new Elijah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\nuses our human character and our human nature to fulfil his purposes.\nFrom the most unlikely material, he creates a chosen people to show\nto his world a better way of life, of living. From poor peasant stock\nhe creates his chosen One to show to his world the very best of human\nlife and human living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nmaybe, even when we cannot see how the plot will work its way out, we\nmay yet be surprised at how God can be at work in all of our lives.\nTaking the most unpromising, unlikely characters and nature, and yet\nweaving of them something wonderful and unexpected. And that is what\nkeeps us fascinated to find out, in our<\/em>\nlife and the part we<\/em>\nplay in God\u2019s story – what happens next!?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Third Sunday after Trinity \u2013 evening Sunday 7th July 2019 Trinity 3 – Proper 9 \u2013 evening Gen. 29. 1-20 Mark 6. 7-29 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs This evening we have two wonderful biblical stories, worthy of the best Holywood screenwriters \u2013 or of the most dramatic Soap operas. Real page-turners both of them! First … <\/p>\n

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