Proper 10 b
| 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 | ||
| Psalm 24 | ||
| Ephesians 1:3-14 | ||
| Mark 6:14-29 |
That’s the
problem with prophets---they always tell you exactly what you don’t want to
hear. They point to your missteps,
letting you know how far you have wandered off the right track into the
weeds. They remind you of the truths
that you have been actively and vigorously trying to ignore. Sheesh.
Herod and
Herodias didn’t want to be reminded that they were living completely for their
own selves, their own pleasures, and seeking more and more of their own
power. Being a prophet, John would have
none of it. He would not ease up; he
continued to shine the light on their darkness.
So, they did what we humans often do: they tried to quench the light
instead of lighten the darkness.
Now, let’s
not get self-righteous here; we do exactly what Herod and Herodias do. We may not cut off the heads of prophets, but
we certainly do try to quiet the truth, quench the light that reveals our own
dark places, and ignore the fullness of who we are called to be.
St. Paul
reminds us that we are adopted as God’s children through Jesus---simply because
God desires us to be God’s own. And
God’s plan is to gather up all things in him---all of Creation and all of us
its creatures---are to be bound together for the glory of God.
And that’s
the part we don’t always want to hear.
We are excited and pleased as punch that God has invited us to this
Divine banquet and eternal party. But,
part of this truth is that God has also invited everyone else---everyone
else. And frankly, there are people on
the guest list who we wish were not there.
Each one of us has people or peoples we would like to be exceptions to
God’s grace and love. All we need to do
is look at history to see the times when individuals, nations, and yes, even
the church, has decided they could strike someone or someones from God’s Guest
List.
Whether it
was heathens or foreigners, African slaves, Native Americans, those in power
were certain THEY didn’t make the
list. During the Reformation it all
depended who held the throne; sometimes the Roman Catholics were going to burn
and sometimes the Protestants. Humanity
often wants to point to other belief systems, other Creeds, and religions (other
than one’s own of course) as the THEY—the
ones who are making the misstep.
Recently, in
our more modern history, we have subjugated the Jews, the Muslims, the
atheists, the addicted, the criminal, the terrorist, the gay, the trans, the
liberal, the conservative, the this, the that as someone or someones we are
pretty certain don’t make God’s Eternal Party List.
And we
certainly do not take kindly to any prophets trying to tell us we are
wrong. We do not enjoy---it is not
comfortable—to hear that not only are we invited to this Celebration, but so
are all those we believe we are called to deny---thinking that somehow God has
made us the great Gatekeeper.
But the only
Gatekeeper here is Jesus. Jesus is the
Gate. And in Jesus, through Jesus, God
plans to gather up all things---all peoples---into the flock. Everyone is invited to the party. Everyone is worthy of being marked with the
seal of the promised Holy Spirit. No one
is unworthy of being made Holy through Christ.
No one. In Christ there is no us and them, there is only us.
Sure, we can
point to pieces and parts of Scripture that seem to exclude a type, a group of
people (and we have been really good at this throughout our history). We can
find Scripture that seems to indicate there are people not holy enough to be on
the Party list: Jews, non-believers, women, slaves, gay, divorced, anyone who
doesn’t say out loud: Jesus is my Lord.
I can find, you can find, Scripture to back that up.
But, when we
put down the magnifying lens required to find just the right piece of Scripture
to back up our prejudice and instead take the longview of what we know about
God’s love, grace and mercy as seen in the entirety of Scripture, then the
Living Word points out our misstep, our mistaken understanding, the darkness we
have allowed to shadow the Light.
From
beginning to end, Scripture tells us all are invited to this forever
banquet---God wants all to come and take part.
Genesis
1:31: God saw everything that God had
made, and indeed it was very good.”
Revelation,
chapter 21: “See, the home of God is
among mortals. God will dwell with them
as their God; they will be God’s people….And the one who was seated on the
throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’”
From
beginning to end, there are no exceptions.
Of course, we can opt ourselves out; we can choose to not accept this as
our truth.
Or, we can
see the shadow within ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to cast out those
areas of darkness within us. We can make
ourselves vulnerable to the Holy Spirit and to the Christ in prayer; we can lay
our hearts on the table as we come to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus; we
can expose our rough places and allow them to made plain and smooth by
gathering in community, by inviting in those who discomfort us, welcoming in the
alien and stranger, widening the space
at the table so all can take their rightful place in God’s house---this
dwelling of mortals we call Church.
Because as
the Church, our role is to be a prophet---to shine the light of Christ into the
darkness where people are being told they are not worthy, they are not
holy---even when it is the Church herself who is doing the talking. We can opt ourselves out of God’s grace, but
we cannot opt out others. We can deny
ourselves the love of Christ, but we dare not deny it to others. For when we
do, we are trying to quiet the Truth of God and we are quenching the light of
Christ.
Madeleine L’
Engle put it this way: “We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting
what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but
by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts
to know the source of it.”
As Prophets,
let us live the truth. Flannery O’Connor
said: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” Let us dare to be odd. Let us be bold enough to not quench the
light---but to let it shine and lighten the darkness within and around us. Let us live into the fullness of Christ and
welcome all to the Party. Shine, shine,
shine in thanks for being invited.
Shine, shine, shine so that others will be drawn and join this Conga
line for Jesus. Shine, shine, shine for
the sake of the fullness of this Body of Christ. Shine, beloved, shine.
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