Sermon Delivered by the Rev. Matt Rhodes at Christ Church, Millwood, Virginia the Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, July 15, 2018
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The Chaos of Herod, the Ease of John (Mark 6:14-29) Sermon delivered by The Rev. Matt Rhodes at Christ Church, Millwood, Virginia The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, July 15, 2018 In the name of the one God who created us, redeemed us and guides us through the difficulties and darkness of this life with the light of salvation. Amen. One of my favorite annual traditions is to spend hours watching the great motion picture portrayals of the life of Christ. At Christmas and Easter and whenever else various cable networks choose to broadcast them, I can almost always be found in my chair in front of the television set watching “King of Kings,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” or “Jesus of Nazareth.” It’s a tradition that started when I was very young. Every year, my father would look forward with great anticipation to watching – back-to-back – the movies featuring what he called “German Jesus” (the portrayal of the not-German but very-much-Swedish actor Max von Sydow) and “Star Trek Jesus” (the performance by the American actor Jeffrey Hunter before he became forever immortalized as Captain Christopher Pike in the original pilot of the 1960s “Star Trek” series). For me, the portrayals of Jesus are interesting enough in their own right. But I’m also drawn to those of some of the other characters – the men and women cast as Peter, or Mary Magdalene, or Judas. And I’m also interested in the actors cast to play Herod and John the Baptist, and especially they way they are shown interacting. Jose Ferrer as the firmly arrogant Herod talking with the equally firm Charlton Heston as John. Frank Thring as a weary Herod succumbing to the wishes of his daughter and ordering the death of Robert Ryan’s John. And then there is the near-pleading Herod, played by Christopher Plummer, asking Michael York’s John what he would do with his freedom and crying out that John should “listen to reason” and “there’s work for [him] here in this wretched kingdom.”1 Every one of them is a marvelous performance. Not a single one of them is likely accurate. But as I read today’s passage from Mark and reflected on these performances and what they were trying to convey, something occurred to me. I’m going to say it now and it may surprise you; it certainly surprised me when it first came to mind. Poor Herod. Yes, I just said, “Poor Herod.” It’s not an easy thing to say, given what he was responsible for during his rule. But there it is nonetheless. I’m saying “poor Herod” about a man who was an amalgamation of competing influences. He was a puppet king serving the desires of the Roman Empire. He was the man called out by John for having committed adultery by breaking religious law and marrying the wife of his brother Philip. He was the father whose daughter asked him 1 Franco Zeffirelli, “Jesus of Nazareth” (1977). 2 for and received the head of John. He was generally concerned about what others thought about him: his family; those he ruled; those who ruled over him. And with all of this, Herod also was the one who recognized the true importance of John and who as we read in this passage feared him, protected him and liked to listen to him. Herod is in the words of one commentary “discovering that it is quite difficult to please everyone around him and still uphold his own personal standards.”2 On the other side of the stage in this scene we have a man who wasn’t trying to balance any competing interests. He wasn’t concerned about what others thought of him, and he certainly wasn’t bothering himself with the political or religious authorities of the region. John was a man of single focus: to do the will of God, through baptism and proclamation. Two vastly different experiences, two significantly different goals, intersect in this encounter. The Roman-supported king and the desert prophet. One thing I have been wondering about is if in some respects the actions of Herod and the single focus of John – the two different tracks of these two men – are in fact representative of the two sides of an individual’s personality. Are what we hear about Herod and John reflective perhaps of the struggles we might face in balancing our desire to serve God with our desire to make everyone happy? The path of Herod is an impossible one to follow. We simply cannot please everyone. People will always have different expectations of us; we can’t meet them all. What satisfies one person might be the exact opposite of what another person is seeking. When we do try, things become complicated quickly. We find ourselves walking in Herod’s shoes, struggling to delicately thread the needle in what may often be anything but a delicate situation. It is in the moments when we discover we’re trying to do that very thing, when we find that we are trying to check all of the right boxes for everyone else, that we should pause and do a quick self-check. In the midst of the many demands on our lives, we should pause and ask ourselves some questions: With everything that others are asking for me, am I doing what God is asking of me? Is what I am doing – or what I am about to do – pleasing God? In those moments, are we walking the path of John? This self-check can be once a day or once a week. Maybe, depending on what is going on in life at a given time, it may be that this check needs to be done hourly. But it should be done intentionally. It should be done prayerfully. Prayer does more than open space for God to work in our lives. It opens up space for God to illuminate our path. It allows us to refresh and refocus on the work we should be about. And in the midst of the busyness and competing demands of the world, prayer will for a moment – and for a lifetime – ensure that we always remain faithful to the concerns of God. Let us pray. 2 Karen Marie Yust, “Mark 6:14-29 – Pastoral Perspective.” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3, p. 236. 3 God of faithful surprises, throughout the ages you have made known your love and power in unexpected ways and places: May we daily perceive the joy and wonder of your abiding presence and offer our lives in gratitude for our redemption.3 Amen. 3 Prayer for Discernment during Ordinary Time, from Daily Prayer for All Seasons. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/documents/daily_prayer_all_seasons_eng_final_pages.pdf .