John the Baptist and the Voice of God

Pastor McCarty's Sunday Sermon

Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA

July 12, 2015  Mark 6: 14-29

Tags: Mark 6, Baptist, Sin

John the Baptist and the Voice of God

The beheading of John the Baptist seems preposterous; an extravagant tale that comes to you straight out of Game of Thrones, or Outlanders, or the Mad Max saga.  Except, except you who are wary of the world know better than to think or to say this could never happen today.

Newspaper stories or gossip of love triangles where one rival tries to take out, squeeze out, push out their competition.  Maybe they do not go to the point of death, but of course it has gone that far, and not just in the movies.

Likewise you hear of modern attempts to silence ones biggest critic by various means: scandal, imprisonment, or death.

The story of Herod, and Phillip, and Herodias, and her daughter, and John the Baptist seems exaggerated to the point of grotesque ridicule.   And yet you know, whether or not you are willing to admit it, that you too deal with this crud to some lesser extent.

Maybe you have a rival? If not a rival someone to gets on your nerves, annoys you--maybe at work, maybe a cousin, maybe a boss or someone who became your boss.  Maybe they are confrontational, maybe they are a bit too perfect, or a bit too perky, or a bit too lucky, or a bit too problematic.  Someone you just wish would go away. You don't want to cut off their head, just cut them off or cut them out.  That is what this story is about.

Maybe someone you love and who loves you back, did something for you that they really should never have done?  They did something they didn't have to do, but they did it anyhow because of love.  Maybe they looked the other way.  Maybe they gave something to you on the side.  Maybe they stood up for you even when you were dead wrong.  That is what this story is about.

Maybe you said something you regret?  Maybe even as soon as it was said, you realized this is going to come back to haunt you?  That is what this story is about.

Maybe you have seen your own sin in your children as if they learned it from you?  That is what this story is about.

Maybe you have partied just a little bit too hard.  And maybe in the frivolity or jubilation of the moment, you came this close to doing something you regret.  Or maybe did something that haunts you even today?  That is what this story is about.

This story is about sin.  John the Baptist spoke clearly against sin, and he is dead.  Trust me when I say there are others relieved to not hear him anymore.  They wished him to go away rather than to get killed, but now at least John is no longer confronting them with his righteous way of living.

Remember, John prepared the way.  Remember what John proclaimed, “A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  Repentance and also urgency when you remember that he said that “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.”  Preparation, repentance, and urgency, that message was silenced in the death of John the Baptist.  Death silenced John.

Death, however, did not silence God.

Jesus steps forward from the moment of his baptism and proclaims a message of repentance and forgiveness and faith, and does so with power.   People are healed.  The multitude are fed.  The message pours forth throughout Galilee in the proclamation of his followers.  And the voice of God silenced in John by Herod, still reaches his court and his ears.  The voice of God lives on in Jesus and in his ministry.

And more than Herod will hear, and some again will desire the voice to go away.   Again death will rear its ugly head in the form of the cross.  Death, however, does not, will not silence God.  Even Herod knows what is coming, imagine that.  Herod knows someone is going to be raised from the dead.  He guessed wrongly that it was John.  But he knew it was going to happen.  You and I know that Jesus was raised from the dead.  And the voice of God in the Son of God continues in his ministry and this ministry even today.  And, no maybe about it, his voice is in our voice when...

We praise God that God will not be silenced. 
We sing His praises. 
We give thanks with our voices. 
We speak His word, His Holy Word, with care. 
We speak for justice. 
We lift up, encourage and support the poor. 
We forgive sins. 
We ask others to helps us. 
We teach our children the stories and the practice of faith. 

And when we stand together the voice of God will not be silenced so long as there is a church with breath to sing His praises.

Amen