I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’m really willing
to die for my faith. Just being honest.
I was hoping I could come back to a more gentle text
today. This one is a tough one, and
invites us to think about some ideas that we probably don’t have the
opportunity to ponder, nor would we like to, very often. Martyrdom – John the Baptist, decapitated for
his discipleship, for his willingness to speak the truth, caught in a world of
seduction, power and violence.
Are we willing to die for Christ? Sometimes I think I’d be more ready to die
for my country than to die for Christ.
Dying for Christ just sounds so nebulous in our day in age. What does that even mean? What would it look like for you to die for
Christ? When was the last time anyone
asked you that?
I want to invite you this week to pray over this question of
dying for Christ. “Lord, what does it
look like to die for you? Because I’m
confused and I’m scared, and I’d rather just go back to the world. But what are you calling me to do?” I’m not totally convinced that we’re all
called to go charging into today’s equivalents of King Herod’s courts. But I do believe we are called to ponder, at
the very least, this idea of speaking truth to power. Truth to wealth, truth to luxury, truth to prestige,
and truth to ignorance and apathy. God’s
truth to “the way it is”. What does that
look like?
One of our resources for today, suggests that the most
tragic character in our Gospel text is not John the Baptist, but Herod the
King. John’s message about repentance
and his pointing to Christ lives on, despite his death. But King Herod just becomes yet another fallenruler
in history. Herod never got it.
He fell for the temptations and seductions of this
world. He went back to the world. And it’s a raunchy story. This “daughter” of his dancing in front of
him, Herod being caught up in it, making a promise to give her whatever she
wanted, almost like he was in a trance, the mother’s desire to kill John the
Baptist, and that gruesome image of his head on a platter. Ugh.
At first glance I wonder if we can even relate to this stuff.
But then I think, well, we sure can fall for the temptations
and seductions of this world. As much as
we try to put ourselves in John’s shoes, we often find ourselves in
Herod’s. What is it that tempts or
seduces us? There are certainly some
obvious sexual connotations in this story, but there are many ways that we can
be lured away from following Christ.
Micah asked us a while back while we were having a special
treat, ice cream or chocolate or something:
“Daddy, why are things that taste so good, so bad
for our bodies?” I think that’s the
question, isn’t it? Why are things that
are so much fun, or so simple, or so affordable, or so tasty…so bad for our
bodies? [pause] And not just our own physical bodies? So often,as we indulge, we can hurt
others—perhaps unconsciously—the whole human family, the body of Christ, or the
earth, what some theologians have called the Body of God.
Yesterday after visiting Margaret Sunde, I went to buy some
new shorts. And only after I bought
them, because they fit me and liked the color and the price, only after I
indulged did I look at the label “Made in Bangladesh” and I looked up the
company that made my shorts, and couldn’t find anything about the conditions of
the factories in Bangladesh. But I gave
money to that company yesterday, as if in a trance, and I suppose I gave a boost
to economy in some tiny way, created jobs and all that, but I would be pretty
surprised if the conditions for those teenage girls in Bangladesh who sewed my
shorts together are very healthy and positive.
There are some powerful forces in this world. And it’s all very complicated. Sosometimes it’s good to have a text that
lays out the two ends of the spectrum, just to help us get our bearings…today we
see two extreme characters: John the
Baptist and King Herod. “Lord, give us
the courage and the faith to be more like John.”
“When Christ calls us,” as Dietrich Bonheoffer once said,
“he bids we come and die.” God, give us
the courage to risk our lives for your sake.
Give us the words to speak what needs to be said. Give us the eyes to see those who have been
forgotten. Give us the ears to hear, and
the hands to reach out.
Friends, Margaret Sunde, our sister in the faith, is
dying. She’s in hospice care, and it’s
only a matter of time. And as I was
saying good bye to her yesterday (I plan to go back again today), but I was
leaving she reached out to give me a hug from her bed. Now you have to understand that she has
difficulty moving her arms at all, so when she reached out her arms and lifted
her feeble arm around my neck as my able body leaned over her bed, I couldn’t
believe it. And I was struck by this
thought and this image: that even on our
deathbeds we can still reach out. And
that reaching out is Christ. Yes it was
Margaret hugging me yesterday, but it was also Christ showing me love and joy
with all evidence to the contrary. With
such a dear woman dying in my arms.
This is the love Christ has for you too. The crucified Christ’s feeble arm wraps
around us, even and especially in our King Herod moments, even as we fall
short, and get lured away. Christ
reaches out his hands to us and offers us forgiveness, calls us back, bids we
come and follow even if it means death, and promises never to abandon us. For in Christ, death is ultimately conquered
forever. AMEN.
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