“Free to Be…”

Rev. Jim Merritt

July 12, 2009

Trinity MCC Gainesville

 

Introduction

            Again, let me say welcome to all of you, and especially to those of you who are here for the first time or for the first time in a long time.  We’re really glad you’re here!  You will notice my introductions becoming more and more brief as our time together moves forward.  I want to give appropriate time to the study and preaching of our readings, so bear with me if it seems like we get right to work.  After all, in these readings we find the messages and models after which we hope to live our lives.

Historical Context

1.            In order to help us fully understand the impact of today’s gospel, let us put it into historical context. Let’s look at the key characters in our reading.  First, John the Baptist.  I’m going to call John “the locust eating prophet with a whole lot of nerve.”  John, from a position of relative lack of power speaks out against the behavior of Herod and Herodius.  He pays a high price for speaking out.

2.      Next “King” Herod.  This Herod is not Herod the Great.  This is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, born in about 20 BCE.  Here’s a little tidbit for you from history; he never really became King.  He was, however, a tetrarch with a lot of political power. Scholars say it was behavior like what we witness in our Gospel reading that actually kept him from fully ascending to the role of King.  Being so powerful, though, and already viewing himself as King, Herod believed that he was entitled to own anything and anybody he wanted, without regard for societal, moral or other boundaries.  Does that sound like anyone you know? Hmmm.  Let me finish this brief character analysis of Herod by suggesting that many times you and I get in trouble when we begin thinking with parts of our anatomy other than our brains, and that we often get into very HOT water, no pun intended, when we allow that to happen.  That’s what Herod did in this story.

3.               Herodius. Here is where we will see some of the details begin to unfold.  Technically speaking, Herodius was NOT Herod’s wife.  She was the wife of Herod’s brother, another one of the sons of Herod the Great.  We see her as strong and powerful which is an unusually positive portrayal of a woman at this time in history.  It’s a really good thing, as Martha Stewart would say. However, we also see a person who is hungry for power, one who is willing to scheme and manipulate to get what she wants. And at least in this story what she wants is R-E-V-E-N-G-E. REVENGE!  She’s furious with John the Baptist for criticizing her behavior.  “How dare this locust eating, nasty, smelly, low-life of a prophet even remark on the behavior of the so called King and his so called wife!” How dare he, indeed.

 

4.               Finally  the daughter/Salome.  The plot thickens.  We’re not exactly sure whose daughter she is.  Scholars think it is possible that she could have been the daughter of Herod and Herodius.  They seem more convinced that she was actually the daughter of Herod’s BROTHER and Herodius.  We’re just not sure who her father was.  It does seem very clear that Herodius was her mother. So, Salome is well set to be used by both Herod AND by her own mother.  This part really makes me sad.  What we see in the dance before Herod and his leading men is not just the innocent dance of a young girl.  It is a highly sexualized dance.  It is seductive, it is strip tease, it is as Professor Daniel Harrington of Westin Jesuit School of Theology wrote, “The Prostitute’s Dance.”  It is this dance that leads Herod and his friends to begin thinking with the wrong parts of their bodies.  It is this “Prostitute’s Dance” that causes Herod to offer such an outrageous reward, “Anything you want, up to ½ my kingdom. Anything.  And it is the result of this thinking with the wrong part of his anatomy that gives Herodius a golden opportunity to act out her revenge on John the Baptist. Salome goes to her mother, get this now, her BIOLOGICAL MOTHER, to ask for suggestions for her reward. And her Mom, Mommy, Mother Dearest, tells her to ask for John’s head on a platter. What kind of mother is that?  What kind of father is that? Their daughter or at least somebody’s daughter used in every way possible; for sexual gratification, for revenge. Imagine how it must have felt to be Salome.  My, my my!

 

Caught in a Trap

            Herod had choices until the moment he made that promise, “Anything you ask up to ½ of my kingdom…anything.”  At that moment, in the eyes of his leading people, his strongest supporters he had absolutely no choice but to follow through on his promise OR risk complete and utter shame.  He had to do it AND he is responsible for every one of his choices.  John the Baptist is assassinated, his head is brought in on a silver platter, and the party goes on. And not really.  The gospel says Herod was deeply grieved.  He had respect for John.  In some ways he feared John, at least for his obvious connection and devotion to God.  It’s interesting to note here that the same Greek word is used here as is with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Perilypos – Deeply Dejected. Herod was deeply dejected.  Perhaps that gives us just a moment of insight into Jesus’ own feelings of dejection around what similar politico-religious leaders did to him.  He knows he’s done wrong. He knows he has made really bad choices. He knows he has let parts of his anatomy take over his thinking in ways that just are not safe.  And he still knows he is free to be ______. He is free to make choices about his future.  He is free to be a follower of Jesus. He is free to be a follower of God.  He is free to redeem himself.  He is free to be and so are we, FREE TO BE.  And Herod makes some positive choices;

 

1.      He is actually the one in the gospel who affirms for us that John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.

2.      He still knows who God is, who Jesus is, and what can happen under their influence.

What happens to us, my sisters and brothers, when we really mess up?  What happens to us when we get to thinking with the wrong parts of our anatomy? What happens to us when we take advantage of power, whether or perceived, over the “others” in our lives? Do we ask for forgiveness and turn our behavior around or do we run away in dejection and shame? Do we allow ourselves to be alienated from God?  Or do we push our victims out of the fold and out into the world all on their own rather than doing the hard work to become a part of their and our own repentance and recovery?  These are very difficult and essential questions for us to ask ourselves together. Do we choose to be a part of a kingdom that is based on power and oppression or do we choose to help make up the Kin-Dom of God?

            You see the Kin-Dom of God, about which I learned from Professor Christopher Duraisingh at Episcopal Divinity School, is not about power and oppression and discrimination and domination and trying to use people for everything we can get out of them.  The Kin-Dom of God is based on a loving community where we mindfully choose to love.  In the Kin-Dom of God we make a decision that we will love; not always based on feeling, but based on our own experience of God’s love.  In the Kin-Dom of God, every one is welcome.  That includes the people like us and the people who appear or seem to be totally different from us.  In the Kin-Dom of God, everyone is Free to Be…  Free to be a part, Free to be a contributing member, free to mess up without fear of shame or blame or expulsion, free to do well and grow and have those successes celebrated in the name of Jesus.

            Many of us have dreams.  The bible says that our young men and women will dream dreams and our old men and women will see visions.  I’m not sure which side of that I fall on at this point in my life, and I DO have a dream and a vision.  I dream of being a part of the KIN-DOM of God.  I see in my spiritual eye Trinity MCC in Gainesville as an enclave of the Kin-Dom of God.  I see a place where ALL people are really welcome and included.  I dream of a place where love abounds.  I see it, I dream it and I say to you this day, we are Free To Be that part of the Kin-Dom of God.  And there’s still one thing about which I am absolutely certain.  No matter what I dream, no matter what I see, this is a decision and a commitment that I cannot make alone.

            What are your dreams, sisters? What are your dreams, brothers?  Can you get a vision of this place, right here as a place where love grows?  Are you willing to embrace like Herod that we can really mess it up sometimes and that we are still Free to be _______?  Fill in the blank________. Because you and I are free to be ALL that God is calling us to be. Today, Tomorrow and on out into eternity. 

Prayer

God bless us today,

Bring about peace and justice in this place.

We are your people who seek the face of our God.

We stretch our hands and our hearts toward heaven and open them wide.

Let the kin-dom of holy one be established here.

Amen.

 ###

PSALM 24

 

God owns this planet

and all its riches.

The earth and every creature

belong to God.

 

God set the land on top of the seas

and anchored it in the deep.

 

Who is fit to climb God’s mountain

and stand in God’s holy place?

 

Whoever has integrity:

not chasing shadows,

not living lies.

 

God will bless them,

their savior will bring justice.

These people of the Lord,

they seek the face of Jacob’s God.

 

Stretch toward heaven, you gates,

open high and wide.

Let the glorious sovereign enter.

 

Who is this splendid ruler?

The Lord of power and might,

the conqueror of chaos.

 

Stretch toward heaven, you gates,

open high and wide.

Let the glorious sovereign enter.

 

Who is this splendid ruler?

The Lord of heaven’s might

this ruler is God.

 

Mark 6: 14 – 29

 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’^* name had become known. Some were^* saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ ¹⁵But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ ¹⁶But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’

17 For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod^* had married her. ¹⁸For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ ¹⁹And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, ²⁰for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed;^* and yet he liked to listen to him. ²¹But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. ²²When his daughter Herodias^* came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ ²³And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ ²⁴She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ ²⁵Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ ²⁶The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. ²⁷Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s^* head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, ²⁸brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. ²⁹When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.