12th July 2009
Psalm 24, Ephesians 1:3-14, Mark 6:14-29
I wonder what is the most exciting thing you’ve ever done?
The thing that made your heart race and gave you that thrill of exhilaration.
It may well have been a bit scary too…
Have you ever had a holy moment? An epiphanic moment when everything seemed clear or bright or holy.
Maybe it was a response to a piece of music or a picture in a gallery or a sunset?
There was something, maybe it was sailing in just the right wind, maybe it was looking from a mountain or across a particular sunset…
What comes into your mind if I ask you to think of a holy man?
Do you think of a monk? Do you think of a great and famous saint? Is it the image of an Indian guru which comes to mind?
Who is the holiest person you have ever met?
Who is the holiest person with whom you regularly have a cup of tea?
When I say holy I don’t mean ‘religious’, necessarily, I don’t mean ‘pious’ or self important, I don’t mean someone who gets ten e-mails from God every day, I mean someone who is holy, who you can see lives in God and God lives in them, I think you’ll know really.
Herod has a problem with a holy man. Herod’s problem was with John the Baptist. It was John’s holiness that had led him into trouble, Herod’s wife was Herodias, and he shouldn’t have married her because she was his brother’s wife, and John kept on telling Herod this.
Herodias didn’t like this, for all Herodias is painted as the villain in this story she is a woman in a very vulnerable place, as any woman who had married into the Herod dynasty knew. The last thing she needed was John going on about how they shouldn’t be married.
The roman emperor Augustus is quoted as saying that it was safer to be Herod’s pig than his son, this was not a groundless accusation for the dynasty.
Herod had ordered that John be arrested, but we hear that Herod is protecting John because Herod knows that John is a righteous and holy man.
Our response to holiness can be telling, maybe people are puzzled as we hear Herod is, but we also hear that Herod feared John and protected him.
Herod feared John and protected him.
I wonder if any of the people you know are afraid of your holiness as a Christian.
There are people who today can become scared of holiness. There will be moments when christians are called to say something, or do something in a particular situation, sometimes God will give you an insight into a situation and you need to speak into that situation, this will not always make you popular, if it done truly with love it may be liberating to someone, or perhaps someone will respond to it by actually saying, woah that’s a bit holy, and they might be a bit scared, that is not necessarily a bad thing if it’s done in the right way.
Some people can’t stand holiness, some people are scared by holiness, some people are so frightened by the holy that they will show a physical response.
Some people respond to holiness with violence.
And that is what happens for John, John is holy, Herod knows that, Herod is frightened of this holiness.
Why does Herodias do it? Why does she ask for John’s head on a platter? I don’t get it, she was probably my age plus or minus a little bit. Married to a violent and powerful king, so you ask your husband to do something which you know that he won’t want to do, but he will feel forced to do it because of the promise he has made in front of all ‘the men’. Maybe she is worried he will divorce her, or kill her, maybe as a result of John’s nagging, maybe she wants Herod to prove how much more she means to him than John.
Whatever her complex motives she asks, she asks for John’s head and Herod feels obliged to give it to her.
But Herod was about to learn the holiness lesson of the centuries
U2 have something to say about this…
Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
Herod was about to learn the holiness lesson of the centuries,
you cannot kill holiness with violence.
Holiness can suffer violence, but holiness can never come to a violent end.
When Herod heard about Jesus what does he say,
Goody another itinerant preacher, that will keep the masses happy for a few months.
On no, oh no no no!
Herod says this
‘John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead.’
I don’t think there is any way in which I could possibly give any justice to the sense of panic which would have been rising in Herod’s heart, and presumably Herodias’ too,
‘John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead.’
‘John, back from the dead’, followed by a huge gulp and intake of breath…
It wasn’t the case, it wasn’t John back from the dead but Herod had learned that holiness can never come to a violent end.
Jesus, the epitome, the prime example of holiness,
he would too suffer violence as a response to his holiness,
and he would show ultimately how holiness can never come to a violent end,
true holiness is eternal, and you cannot keep it down, even with death.
It is not surprising that some of the most heart stirring fictional writing is, and always has been, along the themes of holiness and violent response to it. For those of you of a philosophical bent perhaps there is actually only one story which exists, and all other stories are part of that story, the story of the encounter with holiness…and the response to it.
So what is our response to holiness, as a community and as individuals? Will we respond to holiness with violence, will we submit to holiness, or will we step one step further and ask God to make us holy too, so that we can do holy things together.
It is part of these spiritual blessings that God has lavished upon us.
God has chosen us since before the creation the world to be holy. Will we accept the challenge to be holy. God has lavished his grace upon us.
11In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
We are marked in him with a seal, we bear the holy mark of Christ, but how are we called to be holy?
It is like we start off knowing that God is holy, then we dare to think that we want to be holy too, then we ask God to make us holy, because when we are holy God and us can do things together until we are so caught up in holiness we cannot go back.
This doesn’t happen quickly and we make mistakes, we do or say stupid things, or things which are deliberately wrong.
So why should we want to be holy? Not because of a sense of pious self congratulation, but because we know that there is not anything more exhilaratingly exciting. We cannot think of anything better than to find our lives caught up in the purpose of God, but we know however exciting it may be we are 100% safe,
because even if our holiness would suffer violence, it can never come to a violent end.