Mark 6:14-29
(Because of the length of this message I ask you to dig out your Bible and read this story - it is the beheading of John the Baptist. And because I have never preached on it in 35 years, I turn to a current Associate Professor of Preaching at Luther Seminary Karoline Lewis for her take on this powerful text. )
“It would be all too easy to pass over this incident as simply an historical marker in the life of Jesus. This is what happened to John the Baptist. That’s unfortunate. But we act out such dismissal at our own peril. In doing so, we pardon ourselves from our own culpability in brushing under the table the risks of the Gospel. Risks that challenge the powers that be are certain to result in risks to your own survival.
Because here is a story that reveals just how dysfunctional and distorted perceived power can be. It’s an important warning at this point in the Gospel. … that what Jesus has come to challenge, upend, question, is those persons and those empires who rule by and uphold values completely antithetical to the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in Jesus.
It’s a critical warning.
And yet, we are witnesses to a daily unfolding of excuses for distortions and misappropriations of power. Propping up potentates for the sake of preserving supremacy. Overlooking the most observable, most obvious fallacies and fallacious acts as acceptable and as actual acts of accountability for the sake of…of…what? A crucial element of John’s beheading is the way in which it calls out an utter void of responsibility. Power, institutions, systems, including the church, that do not acknowledge accountability and responsibility for their actions, that are incapable of justifying and validating theologically and biblically their decisions, should expect to be notified by someone like Mark.
Do not let this pericope pass you by without asking yourself, … does my ministry (faith) ever warrant my head on a platter? Or, do I avoid any kind of proclamation that might lead to my own beheading, metaphorical or otherwise?”
Karoline Lewis
Pope Benedict XVI
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, forgive me my fear of having to pay a price for following you. Give me strength to speak the truth in love.”
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