The Choices We Make

Mark 6:14-29

Pentecost 8, July 14, 2024

Holy Trinity Cathedral

“The Choices We Make”

The gospel reading for today doesn’t trumpet good news.  And it doesn't seem to have much about Jesus.  It is about human choices and their consequences.  Each of us, like Herod and the other characters in the story, choose to act rightly or wrongly in ways that either serve our own needs or serve God.  Although fears pressure us to be selfish, there is another way.

Herod is a case study in how neediness can corrupt.  The son of Herod the Great, he reigned in Israel from 4 B.C. to the year 39 of the Common Era.  Officially he was styled “tetrarch of Galilee and Perea”, a puppet under the patronage of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.  Herod was sent to Rome to be educated.  While there, he embarked on a series of illicit relationships.  He committed adultery with Herodias, his niece and the grand-daughter of Herod the Great.  He also jumped into bed with his brother Philip’s wife.  Messy divorce proceedings ensued on all sides.  After a child was born out of wedlock, Herod forced a marriage to Herodias, taking her and their daughter Salome back to Jerusalem.  The scandals, while a point of conversation in the capital, shocked the religious leaders back in his homeland.  But they couldn’t comment too harshly on Herod’s behaviour because they too were under the eye of Rome.

It was John the Baptist that called Herod an adulterer and breaker of Jewish law.  A true prophet, he dared to speak truth to power.  Herod imprisoned him for doing so.  But he was perplexed and fascinated enough by John’s preaching that he still granted him personal audiences. Caught between Rome and Israel, he could not bring himself to execute this righteous and holy man nor to let him go.  Selfishly, he wanted John the Baptist as his personal conscience, even though he did not intend to change.  He still had the capacity to make terrible choices that hurt others and his God.

There were others that forced Herod’s hand, according to Mark’s gospel.  We hear of the resentful Herodias, who wanted to stop John’s accusations.  And Salome is famous for her role in beguiling King Herod to grant her mother’s wish for John’s head on a platter.  But none of them are innocent here.  All are driven by their own needs:  pride, prestige, position, the fear of losing the safety that their name and wealth ensured.  Afterwards, Herod is haunted by the thought that John the Baptist has risen from the dead in the form of Jesus to confront him again.  Later on in the gospel narrative, when Jesus is brought to trial claiming to be “king of the Jews”, Herod again replays his fear of losing grip on colonial power.  He is not acting for the good of the kingdom of Israel or the good of the kingdom of God.  He is motivated by self-preservation.  Herod can’t just blame those who helped bring about the events.  He had a part for which he is responsible.  As do we all.

What we do each day affects our souls and the lives of those around us.  So often it is easier to try and get what we want rather than do what is right.  We may even claim that we are doing it in the name of love or to protect those close to us.  But if we have self-interest first rather than the good of the other, we end up inflicting more hurt and brokenness.  Wealth and prestige and social position were more important to Herod than repentance and reparation.  What motivates our choices?

In the background of this very human story is good news.  There is another way to live: not in fear but in hope.  John the Baptist proclaimed it and Jesus lived and died that we may receive it.  While all the political and social assassination is going on in Herod’s palace, the true disciples of Jesus are at work.  Before this reading in Mark comes the story of the sending out of the twelve apostles.  Their job is to teach and heal and proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand.  And after the passage of the killing of John the Baptist, Jesus continues his mission even as he grieves his cousin’s death.  He has compassion on the people of Israel, feeding five thousand souls who are hungry for food and for hope.  The arc of the gospel assures us that in spite of the world’s brokenness- in spite of our own brokenness- we can all make choices for good.  God will help us.

God knows our needs.  And God knows that as we love each other better, we will find ways to both love ourselves and love the Lord more fully.  Love is expressed not through words alone but by how we put them into action.  As the prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi goes, let us ask:

Make me a channel of your peace.

Where there is hatred let me bring your love.

Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord,

Where there is doubt, true faith in you.

Where there is despair in life let me bring hope.

Where there is darkness, only light

Where there is sadness, ever joy.

O Master, grant that I may never seek

So much to be consoled as to console,

To be understood, as to understand.

To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

In giving to all that we receive,

And in dying that we’re born to eternal life. Amen.