Pentecost/Year B
July 11, 2021
Ephesians 1:3-14; Psalm 24; Mark 6:14-29
Let me begin by telling you, that today’s gospel reading from Mark is a really hard one to listen to…and I always wonder why…it has to be included in the Sunday lectionary…and I really struggled all week, to discern what “good news” the Holy Spirit could possibly reveal to me to share with you today…
But the more I read the gospel, (which translates as “good news”), and read the other scriptures appointed for today, and listened to the music for this week, and prayed the collect for this Sunday, in the context of all that was going on around me this week…the “good news” message that I wanted to share with you today…finally trickled down my cheeks with tears of sorrow and with songs of mercy and grace washing over me…
Tears of sorrow at how cruel human beings can be to one another at times, because of fear, and insecurities and the inability to forgive… and songs of mercy and grace…at seeing how others, facing similar circumstances, can learn to trust in the power of the Holy Spirit, to help them choose the loving way, the way of love that Jesus has taught us…
In today’s gospel reading, we get a glimpse into a moment of decision…by several different persons… and how they chose to act in the story leading up to the beheading of John the Baptist…and the aftermath…
The decisions made by King Herod, Herodias, even the guests and bystanders at the birthday banquet…were all centered around themselves… and were based on the fear and insecurities they were experiencing, and they responded by using their power and control to ease their own anxieties in whatever way they desired…I don’t want to go through the whole story again to point out the ways that such cruelty and hate was evidenced in the story…you don’t need me to explain any of that…
But, what I do want to call your attention to … what prompted the sense of songs of mercy and grace washing over me … was the loving action of the disciples as told to us in the last verse of the gospel reading for today:
When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
While the others in the story feared Jesus, and one another perhaps, the fear escalated and spun out of control until the head of John the Baptist ended up on a platter...
The disciples, on the other hand…responded in their moment of fear…with love, and mercy and grace…
When his disciples heard about it, (the beheading of John), they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
The disciples responded in their moment of fear…with love, and mercy and grace.
They could have easily got caught up in the unfolding drama and violence that led up to the beheading of John the Baptist…they could have chosen to renounce Jesus; they could have easily stayed away, and let someone else take care of John, fearing for their own lives…now that they were being called to go out and invite others to turn their lives around, by turning their hearts and lives back to God, by focusing on Jesus, just as John the Baptist had done…
I like to think that the disciples caught on to last week’s teaching from Jesus that taught them not to fear, but to have faith in knowing that they weren’t being sent out alone…that they were being sent out in two’s…and with the power of the Holy Spirit to lead them and guide them…
We are faced with fears and insecurities and times of great conflict, every day. We are faced with hard decisions throughout our lifetime. But, we need not act upon our fears, with violence and hatred for one another. We need not act upon our fears by giving up hope, that people or our own circumstances will ever change.
We can call upon God, in times of prayer, we can learn to trust in the power of the Holy Spirit, to help us know and understand what things we ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them…to choose the loving way, the way of love that Jesus has taught us…and the way of love that the disciples showed us in today’s gospel…
A well-known Frederick Buechner quote tells us this:
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.”
I would add to that today by saying: But if you are afraid, because as human beings there are many, many times, that we are afraid……don’t let fear keep you from choosing the way of love…trust that your fears will be transformed by the love and the mercy and the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in you.
Remember: (that) You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, AK
Hymn after sermon: Loving Spirit (WLP) 742
Vs 1: Loving Spirit, loving Spirit, you have chosen me to be;
you have drawn me to your wonder, you have set your sign on me.