SAINT LUKE
S
SAINT LUKE’S
“WHAT WOULD HEROD DO?”
SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PROPER 10 YEAR B
AMOS 7:7-15
PSALM 85:8-13
EPHESIANS 1:3-14
MARK 6:14:29
A SERMON BY THE REV. EMILY PHILLIPS LLOYD
JULY 12, 2015
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In our Gospel reading for this week, we get the gory and graphic
morality tale of the beheading of John the Baptist. This gruesome story
from Mark’s gospel seems like a mash-up of Game of Thrones and Jerry
Springer with a dose of House of Cards thrown in for good measure.
Violent, erotic and almost completely devoid of Jesus, this story is an
unusual addition to the lectionary cycle. At the heart of the action, we
find John the Baptist, beloved wild man and prophetic voice crying out
in the wilderness. He is a character we all know and love. Here at St.
Luke’s, as a congregation that prides itself on prophetic witness, radical
hospitality and challenging the established norms, John is our kind of
guy. He even has certain panache for festive outfitting and liturgical
drama. We are a community that strives to live prophetically. While we
may at times fall short, we are human after all, we are committed to
social justice and doing our best to love our neighbor more completely.
It is easy for us to like John the Baptist and to see ourselves aspiring to
his standard of dedication and witness. But John is not the main
character in our reading today. While the passage is labeled the
beheading of John the Baptist, it is really the story of Herod, Herodias
and her daughter traditional identified as Salome. The question that
we are posed with this morning is not when are we like John but
rather…when are we like Herod? When are we like Herodias and when
are we like Salome?
The scene set before us is a domestic drama of biblical proportions.
Herod Antipas has married his brother’s wife. Please note that his
brother is not dead. This is a classic case of wife stealing and is a levitical
no no. John has publically said some nasty things about the first family.
This has enraged Queen Herodias who has sworn revenge.
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I would like to spend a moment with Queen Herodias. Of all the
characters in this drama, she is depicted as the most despicable by the
gospel writer. A cool and calculating woman, she bids her time waiting
for the perfect moment to exact her revenge on the prophet. Taking
stage mother to a dark place, she sends her daughter out to dance for
the birthday banquet. This is a women who has been through a lot, we
are not told how she feels about her marriage situation but it must have
felt precarious to say the least. We know from historical precedent that
life was tough for a biblical queen. It did not take much for you to fall
out of favor and be replaced by the next girl. Does anyone remember
the story of Ester? Things did not work out so well for Queen Vashti.
On top of that, your children were always in danger of being
disinherited or worst. So when John started challenging her marriage,
that was a direct challenge on her physical person. If Herod had
followed John’s advice, who know what would have happened to
Herodias. Man of God or not… John was attacking what Heriodias held
most dear… her family. Her instruction to her daughter to ask for the
head of John the Baptist, was cruel, calculation and a mama bear
instinct. Is she still a villain of the New Testament? Yes. Was she also
probably a fierce mother? Yes. Welcome to the moral ambiguity. How
far would you go to protect your family from harm?
And what about the other half of this mother/daughter duo, Salome.
This highly erotized teenage femme fatal has stirred the imagination for
centuries. Whatever kind of dance she did for the king… I am sure it is
not polite to talk about it in church. Biblical vilification of female
sexuality as a tool for trickery, deceit and sin is the topic of a whole
series of sermons. For the sake of this discussion, I will focus on her as a
tool of manipulation. She is used by all parties involved and is little
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more than a puppet. She is the catalysis for the execution. It is also
interesting to note the head of the prophet on the platter is delivered
directly to her. Poor child. How often in life are less powerful people
especially children used as pawns? When have you in your life felt
manipulated and exploited?
And then of course, we have Herod. In my opinion, Mark is kind to
Herod. He is described sympathetically. He imprisons John but likes to
listen to him. He recognizes that John is a holy and righteous man and
protects him. In Herod we have direct foreshadowing of Pilate’s
interview with Jesus. Herod’s down fall appears to be two fold, his love
of women especially young ones and his pride. Herod is so pleased by
Salome’s dancing that he offers her anything she could possibly wish
for… her answer stuns him. Herod is stuck and proves once again that
the powers that be would rather kill the innocent that suffer
embarrassment. Herod is infinitely more concerned with keeping his
drunken promises given to party guests than with preserving the
prophet. How do we, like Herod, allow our reputations or foolish
promises to keep us from following God?
These people were not inherently evil or sinful. They were mostly just
folks trying to take care of families, communities and reputations. They
were trying to avoid embarrassment. This story is steeped in moral
ambiguity and reminds us how easily we get derailed. Anyone of us
could be a Herod, Herodias or Salome? We encounter situations
constantly in our daily life and work where we are presented with a
series of personal and spiritual dilemmas. For a harried father of a
toddler, there is the question of how best to love and parent a child in
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the face of a defiant "No!" and a full-fledged temper tantrum in aisle 6
of the grocery store at the end of a long day. A corporate executive
wonders how her announcement of a long-awaited pregnancy will affect
her employees' perceptions of her as an effective boss. A stressed out
couple struggles to tackle the emotional and financial challenges of
taking care of aging parents. An employee wrestles with whether or not
to report a dishonest boss, if doing so means risking employment. A
stay-at-home dad wrestles with the whispers of former colleagues that he
just couldn't handle the pressures of work. Teenagers experience the
angst of navigating social circles and learning the power and pain of love
and attraction. Younger children long for popular toys advertised on
television and wonder if the trouble they have learning multiplication
tables or reading means they are stupid. Across the lifespan, people
question who they are and how they should act as life pushes and pulls
them in conflicting directions. And as in the story of Herodias, Salome
and Herod, there are lives at stake as they decide which actions they will
take. (Karen Yust Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised
Common Lectionary - Feasting on the Word – Year B, Volume 3:
Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16))
This is the way of the world, but it is not the whole story. The Good
News is that this is not the end. Jesus comes, you see, precisely to show
us that there is something more, something beyond the heartache and
intrigue and tragedy of Herodias, Salome, Herod and ourselves. Jesus
came to help us imagine that there is more to this life than we can
perceive. Jesus came to offer us not just more life, but life abundant.
Jesus came so that there could be a better ending to our stories and the
story of the world than we can possibly imagine. (David Lose, Working
Preacher.)
AMEN
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