Power Without Love is Deadly

 

All was well last Saturday afternoon in my corner of the planet. I was at a concert listening to some interesting and beautiful music, art songs with Sapphic themes. It was a real treat and a fitting reward, I thought, for having completed my sermon for the 8th Sunday After Pentecost. 

A bunch of us had gathered at a bar nearby to socialize after the concert. And, as it happens these days with cellphones, news began spreading from table to table that there had been a shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania that had injured the former president. 

It would be only a few hours later that I saw priest and preacher friends posting prayers for the nation. And then the inevitable panic: oh no! Change the sermon! Rewrite the sermon! Eleventh hour sermon rethink.

I pondered what I had planned to preach about and after finding an appropriate image found on Facebook to share, I decided I would go to bed and do whatever fixes I was going to do in the morning. 

And...after combing through my words again...I found that, aside from making the addition of one direct reference to the events of Saturday and a couple of other minor additions, everything I was planning to preach was still the same message I had written over the course of 48 hours earlier. 

Maybe it's because I have been feeling my minority status more and more keenly in this political season that I already had a figurative bead on what I think needs saying in these times of guns, killings, and increasing meanness in society: when power lacks a moral compass, it becomes deadly.

For me, and people like me, that moral compass is God and specifically, God in the body of Jesus Christ. But I think even the most hardcore atheist will agree with me that when there is no check on power, power will seek to devour everything and everyone around it. And that's not good.

Text: Mark 6: 14-29

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If you’ve ever read the Grimm Brothers fairytales…the actual German versions of those stories…they aren’t the way Walt Disney World would want to show them.

I remember reading Cinderella in my German class when I was a teenager…and getting shocked at the stepsisters chopping off their heels and toes and getting their eyes pecked out by birds when they tried to claim the glass slipper as their own.

The reason the Grimm Brothers wrote pretty grim tales was to teach children that… outside of the bubble of their hopefully-protective homes…the world is full of bad actors.

The events of yesterday afternoon with the shooting at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania confirms that we still live in a world with threats of violence.

And the reading from Mark’s Gospel also shows us the dangers that surround us in the world.

I’m guessing that you weren’t expecting to hear such a gruesome lesson this morning at the Gospel reading.

We’re used to stories where Jesus is doing some sort of teaching…or healing…or calming the chaos around him.

In fact…we’re used to Jesus being the central character.

But Jesus isn’t present here.

He’s not part of this scene at all.

And that’s just one of the many hallmarks of this particular Gospel lesson and why Mark has put this really perverse birthday party scene in the middle of his telling of the life of Jesus.

When Jesus isn’t around…women and men will do corrupt and horrible things.

To get a full appreciation of this…I’m going to remind us of where we left off last week…since these readings are going in order.

Last week…Jesus…after having suffered rejection in his own hometown…was sending out the disciples in pairs to do the work of healing and driving out demons and so forth.

He advised the twelve to travel light and not take any baggage with them.

Go to the people and places.

If they welcome you, stay.

These are homes that would trust the disciples…these itinerant strangers…and receive them and their message of Love and mercy.

If a place rejected them…move on.

No point in wasting time with those who aren’t interested in hearing about the Love of God.

Sending them in pairs was important.

Not only could this insure that there was the necessary witness to whatever great acts they were able to do.

It also meant that there was a buddy system in place…because things were not necessarily safe for those who dared to teach a message of good news for the poor, release for the captives, sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed (Luke 4:18).

To further illustrate what type of a world surrounded Jesus and the disciples…Mark gives us this story of John’s death…to show us what happened to the one who was preaching at the start of this Gospel a message “prepare the way” and “get right with God.”

This is a flashback.

I’m sorry we don’t have the appropriate sound effects to go with the Gospel reading.

Herod Antipas has been hearing about Jesus and is afraid that this is the ghost of John the Baptizer coming back to haunt him.

Who is this Herod Antipas?

Let’s start with he’s not really a “king” as Mark has said.

But he is one of the sons of this King Herod family…and is a tetrarch…meaning he rules a fourth of the kingdom.

Sort of like a mayor of a very large region.

The Herods…the whole lot of them…were not good Jews.

As Ched Myers notes…they followed Torah only when it was politically convenient to do so.

They were Roman puppet rulers…which is made clear with this illegal marriage of Herod to his niece and sister-in-law Herodias.

Herod dumped his first wife…who was an Arabian princess…and Herodias left Herod’s brother…Philip…who was both her husband and uncle…to marry Herod.

Did you catch that Herod’s new bride is his niece and sister-in-law…that Herodias was married to her other uncle?

This is how messed up this family is…and we haven’t even talked about the antics at the birthday party!

John the Baptizer…a guy who was not afraid to call out the authorities… has raised a ruckus about this marriage.

And for Herod…this is a problem.

He’s already committed a political faux pas by dismissing his first wife…who runs back to her father…the king of Nabatea…in a neighboring territory.

He knows that John has been gaining followers out at the Jordan…and now he fears that he might have the Nabateans joining with John’s crowd in a possible insurrection to avenge this hasty divorce.

Herod arrests John.

Maybe he thought that would shut him up.

Maybe this would appease Herodias…who also hates John.

Herod decides to throw a birthday banquet.

Some of the most powerful and prestigious muckity-mucks of Galilee have come together to party hearty with Herod.

Reclining at the table with him are the political…military…and governmental elites of this area of Roman control.

Herod’s stepdaughter performs a dance that enthralls Herod and his guests.

Some commentators suggest that this girl…probably about twelve years old…dances in a seductive way.  

This should start to make our skin crawl.

A drunken Herod makes a wild promise to her…one which Mark’s audience would hear as having echoes of their heroine Queen Esther:

“…half my kingdom for whatever you ask.”

But this little girl is no Queen Esther.

This girl runs to her mama for counsel.

Her mother demands the death of a beloved prophet sitting in a dungeon.

One might feel sorry for this child.

On the one hand…this girl has a lecherous incestuous stepdad…and on the other hand she has a bloodthirsty vengeful mother.

But she’s no little darling either.

Not only does she do her mama’s bidding… she adds her own depraved twist:

she wants the head of John the Baptist at once on a platter.

How low can these royals go?

The guard is sent off.

The execution happens.

The platter gets passed around like another course at this disturbing banquet.

Power…when absent from any moral checkpoints…becomes a really bloody mess.

That’s the purpose of Mark telling us this story.

Remember that Jesus is not anywhere near this scene.

This is a case where the “holy” is wholly absent.

When Love is not tempering the inclination of the human heart to seek its own self-satisfaction…power becomes corrupt…evil…and destructive.

A good lesson to keep in mind for us today in the 21^st century.

It’s also a reminder that those disciples…sent out two by two into the surrounding villages…were not entering places that were necessarily safe…because the ruling Empire was not safe.

Standing up for love…and bringing health, healing, and hope to people…will face opposition and sometimes even violent opposition from the bullies and tyrants of the world.

And yet…Jesus still says, “Go!”

Go…armed with love not weapons.

Go…without coercion.

Go…and speak of God’s grace and mercy.

Jesus is still saying to us, “Go!”

Go and hold fast to that truth of love.

We didn’t hear it this morning…but in some of the verses following this horrific scene with Herod and his gang…Jesus introduces a different feast.

A more amazing banquet.

With just two fish and five loaves of bread…he’ll feed five thousand people hungry for something good to eat.

Out of so little comes such and abundance…a marked contrast to the vile excesses of Herod’s party.

This Jesus feast is full of compassion…mercy…and the power of love.

That’s the party we’re invited to.

That is the food and drink offered to our souls…weary and worn out by the pressures of a world gone mad with guns and hate speech.

We are brought to this table to be reminded of our citizenship in Christ…and a love feast given freely to build us up for doing that work of liberating those who are suffering in our community.

May our hearts be ready to accept and receive this food and feast upon it richly.

In the name of our one Holy and Undivided Trinity.