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Sunday 15th July, 2012 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Sentence Who shall stand in the Lord’s holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their hands to do what is false. Psalm 24: 3 – 4 Collect O Lord, we beseech You mercifully to receive the prayers of Your people who call upon You, and grant that we may both perceive and know what things we ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill them, through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen OLD TESTAMENT LESSON 2 Samuel 6:1-5 & 12b-19 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale- judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the LORD with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the LORD with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. They brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the LORD. When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts, and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes. PSALM 24 1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 For He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. 3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. 5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Saviour. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face, O God of Jacob. 7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. EPISTLE Ephesians 1: 1- 14 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight the has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory. GOSPEL Mark 6:14 – 29 King Herod heard of it , for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, "John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him." But others said, "It is Elijah." And others said, "It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised." For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it." And he solemnly swore to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom." She went out and said to her mother, "What should I ask for?" She replied, "The head of John the baptizer." Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb. The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. © New Revised Standard Version of the Bible Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved NOTES ON THE READINGS Old Testament I don’t know that there is a lot of comment to be made on this rather odd and enigmatic passage. There is not a lot that is very edifying, and whilst Michel may be dismissed in her attitude somewhat, it may well reflect her feelings for her dead father. The sort of over-the-top reactions to the Ark of the Covenant is not all that rare, and moderns can be forgiven for wondering why the ancient authors even made mention of it. On the other hand, here is expressed room to get elated at being part of the People of God – an expression not all that visible in our Ecclesia Anglicana! Psalm This rather ancient psalm offers quite some insight into quite early Hebrew understanding of God; there is the clear recognition that He is creator, even if the words seem to reflect a rather odd cosmology. Be that as it may, it also conveys the clear perception that ran contrary to much of what may be called pagan religion of the time. There is a clear moral and ethical content to the picture of the Almighty, a perception that was not reflected in other religious views. Here alone can be the source of the overwhelming view of God as ‘King of Glory.’ Whilst this may have begun as a shout of superiority over other gods, one must say that at the very least, a moral superiority is evident. The Biblical Faith has always shown the need for significant and honest response to God, to life and most particularly to other people. It is a passion that needs to be expressed constantly for life to reach any apogee. Epistle Whilst the occasional reader of Paul’s epistle may be somewhat confused by the florid language which the author used, it is helpful perhaps to demythologize quite something of it, so that the real issues can become visible. Greek, like German, seemed to be fond of enormous words, one of which is mentioned here to underline the impact of this passage. The Greek word to which I refer is which in an alphabet you can follow runs anakephalaiosasthai. All things are brought to a head in Jesus. What Paul is saying is enough to take away your breath actually. He is saying that God has made Jesus the only One in Whom life, history and creation makes sense and is the goal, the telos of it all. The meaning of life is not 42! It is Jesus. In other words, no Jesus, no sense or purpose in life. It is parallel to St. John’sthe reason for existence, amongst other things. I have a sneaky suspicion that there is enough there to leave you to ponder, even if a tad breathlessly. GOSPEL You would be aware of the love/hate relationship between Herod, the Idumaean king of Israel, and John the Baptist. The latter was an uncompromising person determined to remain faithful to God regardless of the cost, whilst Herod was one of a rather long line of rather nasty, violent and hedonistic non-Jews. John had the temerity to challenge the right of Herod to marry his dead brother’s wife. He had fairly solid Biblical grounds for so doing. With John’s execution came the emergence of Jesus’ ministry, and that raised superstitious fears and threats in the mind of the King. (What does all this have to say about the long-held theory that religion and politics do not mix?) Spare a thought for poor old John: it was a nasty, ugly end to his ministry, and he could be forgiven for feeling more than a little muffed that it ended in such ignominy. It is no easy thing to be a prophet for the Lord Almighty, never has been and is not likely ever to be so in the future. NOTES FOR A SERMON I would not be surprised in the least if you are sitting there wondering quite what obscure connection there is meant to be in this list of readings for today. OK you can say that this far into the Pentecost Season there is excuse for a series that does not compute, ..... but may I ask you to look rather closer, please? All this may be a little tenuous, but it could also be rather clever, as whoever sets the Lectionary certainly has a difficult problem to give us a wide range of readings to explore the Faith over the three years allotted. How does this sit with you, I ask? The first lesson is about David and his kingship, an experience that led Israel into idealizing him and his rule into the overall Messiah expectation for Israel. Whilst we may find it difficult to follow that pattern, I would remind older (and past – passed? - ) members of the congregation to remember back to the halcyon days of the British Empire and see if it was true that the royals were quite somewhat lionised, and idealized, so much so that the reality took quite some time to emerge? Hmmmm. Well, you should get the point. So the question is about leadership and goals, and the means of getting there, and all that sort of thing. The Psalm also has quite something of the idealizing of God as King, using the sort of metaphor that we might permit for David, but going just a little over the top for the Almighty, not because the picture does not fit as much as because God’s process in real life tends to be rather less dramatic than that. However it is the Epistle that blows everything right up in our face. When young, I found the Epistles either far too flamboyant (though many young Christians loves to imitate the apparent ‘holy talk’ of Paul.) It was not until I was training for the ministry that Ephesians became very much more real, in spite of the florid nature of the verbiage, and that huge word mentioned in the notes above were translated into Australian for me. Anakeph ..... All things brought to a head in Christ. Boom Boom. Some of Paul’s other Epistles express the same certainty in other ways. Then the Prologue to John’s Gospel added to the impact; and of course, Revelation takes the cake as it emphasises the same tremendously powerful recognition of Jesus. (Then, to top it all off, Isaiah and the prophets all profess the same conviction.) And that conviction? That if you want to understand the meaning of life, if you wish to follow the path in life that makes the most sense and offers the best values, then our Lord is the answer to your questions. In other words, life, no one’s life makes sense if Jesus is left out of the equation. That does not mean that we all have to be religious and holy and pompous and prats. That does not equate to Jesus one little bit. So dig deeper. His values, His sense of truth and justice, His care and concern especially for the underdog and downtrodden in paramount. Not complex, if cat quite simple really: As the Shema puts it, ‘love God; love your neighbour.’ Mind you, the former tends to be easier than the latter. And then to make sure your feet remain firmly fixed on the ground, the Gospel hits you in the face. Poor old John the Baptist. I remain quite certain that his time apparently spent with the Essenes, the Qumran Sect, did not do him a lot of good. He became quite the unbending dogmatic, and even questioned whether his cousin could possibly be the Messiah all were waiting for. Jesus did not fit John’s picture of Messiah, not one little bit. Our Lord never criticised him, but did point him more to Isaiah’s Servant Songs than to the Messiah images, and left him to think it all through. But the point remains there: Herod was absolutely NO valid pattern of leadership, not even a valid pattern of king. And the real issues for John were that life needed to be shaped after the Divine pattern if anyone anywhere would have the slightest chance of a fair go. So the story is there today just to remind us all that following Christ is no easy sinecure, but a significant and solid discipleship that is quite likely to stir up the opposition as it did with Jesus. Hopefully you have had a chance to ponder all this --- and I suspect not only will it stand up to query, but it just may make us all do a little more standing up for truth, for justice, for compassion and love.