Date: 12^th July 2009

Preacher: Nikki Devitt

Churches: Draycott & Rodney Stoke

Readings:

Amos 7, 7-15

Ephesians 1, 3-14

Mark 6, 14-29

Sermon for Trinity 5

I don’t know if any of you saw the Daily Mail during the week? On the anniversary of the 7/7London Bombings there was splashed across the font page ‘Never-before-seen pictures of the horror that confronted police on tube ripped apart by 7/7 terrorists’.

Well, I guess gruesome pictures sell newspapers, but I couldn’t help thinking that there were more profound aspects of that situation to be reflecting on four years after the terrorist attack…

And by the same token, as we ponder today’s readings, the most memorable image is that grisly story of John the Baptist’s execution, but I think it’s really rather a distraction from some more important themes running through our readings today.

So let’s look at today’s gospel; Instead let’s focus on the relationship between John and Herod:

Now, the Herodians were a Jewish dynasty, although they ruled as client kings of the Roman empire:

so Herod was a Jew and had been raised under the Jewish Law

He had divorced his first wife, to marry Herodias, who had actually been his brother’s wife:

This is actually explicitly forbidden in Leviticus 18.

John speaks out about this, which makes life uncomfortable for Herod…but even so,

…Herod clearly respects John and knows in his heart that John is a righteous and holy man.

In fact left to his own devices, Herod likes to listen to John …

(actually this is quite an understated translation, the word in the Greek text is ‘ήδεως’ …from which we get our word hedonistic…this suggests that Herod derives great pleasure and delight from listening to John; he’s clearly identified him as quite a charismatic adviser. John ‘s not afraid to tell the truth, and Herod admires him for it.)

The trouble is, Herod isn’t left to his own devices. He is influenced by his wife Herodias who bears a grudge against John, and wants him dead.

Herod imprisons John, which is one way of silencing him…

and of course he ends up beheading him, which is the ultimate way of silencing him…

But it’s Interesting that although Herod went to these lengths to shut John up, he never denied the truth of what John said.

Actually it was the very fact that he recognised the truth of it that made Herod feel so uncomfortable:

He didn’t like the message so he shot the messenger..

And that always seems to be the fate of the prophet,

We see a very similar response to Amos in our OT reading today.

Amos was sent by God from the South (where he lived) to the affluent Northern kingdom,

to tell them that if they didn’t stop their moral and social decline, and mend their ways, then Israel would be desolated by her enemies.

Well, the priest Amaziah and the king, Jeroboam heard what Amos said, they didn’t deny it, but they told Amos to go away and take his prophesy somewhere else, they didn’t want to hear it.

‘The land is not able to bear his words’

Speaking truth to power, as the Quakers put it, is never going to make you popular.

In fact Mark is giving us a rather sombre warning about this, in the story of John the Baptist.

He tells us that Herod mistakes Jesus for John returned from the dead. …and why does Herod think that? …Well, here again is a man who is preaching and healing and proclaiming forgiveness in God’s name. He’s unafraid to speak the truth and is quite prepared to risk his own popularity by standing up for the values of God’s kingdom.

The implications are…that the fate which befell John, is likely to befall Jesus as well…and indeed it’s a risk for all who are sent to carry on his work (this story occurs just as Jesus is sending out his disciples to spread the Kingdom…)

And of course we too are called to carry on Christ’s work, and presumably to take such risks. In our epistle reading , the letter to the Ephesians, we hear that we too share Christ’s inheritance, we are included in Christ , and that we are called in the spirit, to be prophets and teachers.

Well, I think it’s difficult to know what it means to be a prophet, in 21^st century Britain. Our instinct is to protest with Amos

‘I am no prophet, nor child of a prophet; I’m just a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees’... or whatever

(the gist is ‘I’m only me, I don’t have any influence and I can’t do this stuff….’)

But I think to respond in this way, is to miss the essence of the prophet’s calling.

I recently discovered that the Hebrew word for Prophet

נְבִיא, ‘navi’ , comes from a word that denotes hollowness or emptiness,

So to receive the wisdom of God, we must empty

ourselves, and be open before God. We need to make space to receive the spirit. This is the hallmark of prophetic activity…the rest follows

And if we think about Amos, and John, and indeed Jesus, they were all men of prayer. They withdrew quite deliberately from the bustle of everyday life to pray, to be open to God.

And if we do that, and pray honestly, with open hearts

then,

like them, we sha’n’t be able to avoid the questions about how we live our lives,.. whether we use our influence (such as it is) to point to truth and fight injustice…

and goodness knows where that will lead us.

It might mean standing up for the rights of vulnerable people in our workplace, for example

Or perhaps on a wider scale, speaking the truth about global warming to those who govern us,

or, in the tragic situation we’ve just experienced in our community, we may be led to reflect what would be the truly Christ-like response to everyone involved, rather than just reacting with a knee jerk response to the hearsay version of events…

And so as we reflect in the coming week on our own prophetic role, and try anew to open ourselves God, let’s pray that Christ, whose insistent call disturbs our settled lives, may give us discernment to hear the word of God,

and courage to go where he leads.

Amen