Power

Amos 7:7-15

This is what he showed me: the LORD was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the LORD said, “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac chalk be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, ‘ Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’” And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.” Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

Psalm 85:8-13

I will listen to what the LORD God is saying; for you speak peace to your faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to you. Truly, your salvation is very near to those who fear you, that your glory may dwell in our land. Steadfast love and faithfulness have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Faithfulness shall prong up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. The LORD will indeed grant prosperity, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness shall go before the LORD and shall prepare for God a pathway.

Ephesians 1:3-14

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 he 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 ho accomplished 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.

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 pout 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  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 sad 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 Baptizer 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.

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Herod thought, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” Then he thinks back to the last time he saw John alive. It was a party for his birthday, when he was manipulated into killing someone he considered more a curiosity than a threat. Or, at least, that’s the way he remembers it. John Baptizer had never been one to beat around the bush in matters of religious law, and even though Herod had the power to do whatever he wanted, to and with whomever he wanted, Herod’s sister-in-law-made-wife did not appreciate having her adultery pointed out so publicly, and you know how miserable life can be when someone is very determined to get their own way at any cost, so Herodias badgered Herod into arresting John. It was as close as she could come to getting him completely shut up. Herod knew there was something to John’s teaching, something of the prophetic, something which hearkened back to his own spiritual roots, though Herod had long since covered up those roots with bending to the political powers and authorities that occupied Israel in those day. After all, he had to save his own skin somehow, and he was probably at least not a completely bumbling idiot to be ruling as he was. Not completely, but, it seems, pretty near to that line of powerfully incompetent.

What a dangerous combination, power and fear. Herod, as one commentary puts it, would rather kill an innocent man than be embarrassed in front of his party guests. Who wants a leader who is so easily manipulated? And yet when it comes to the ways we come to power, who doesn’t have their attention pulled in a dozen different ways by financial and media backers these days? Can’t make everyone happy, and you can’t hold onto power if everyone is miserable. Or at least not if the really powerful people pulling the strings don’t like what you’re doing. Herod is just one example among many, ancient and contemporary, of someone who does not really understand their power.

So here we come again to the problem of the power of white supremacy. Or maybe we put it as the power of classism. Or sexism. Did you see the cover of the Chronicle? A guy asks a woman for a dollar and she gives him seventy-seven cents, because that’s ‘a woman’s dollar.’ Anyone who thinks Christians are being persecuted in this country needs only walk into Rite Aid and find all the Scripture references and Christian kitsch on plastic garden decor to know we are still the dominant power here. I’m pretty certain there isn’t a box store or major chain company selling mass quantities of Muslim or Hindu or atheist inspirational poetry in the same way we sell Christian-sounding paraphernalia. We have a LOT of power. Sure, there are ways we don’t have ALL the power, but even the comic books know that power carries responsibility, and far too often those with power would rather misuse it than lose it. How often, for example, are bullies just kids who are themselves bullied? How often do people work their way up the ladder only to squash everyone they left behind in the dust, even if they got where they are because of a family friend or because they were born into a higher economic class? Not saying that people don’t work hard to get where they are, but have you noticed how many people do the majority of the grunt work without a living wage?

Power. We don’t want to give it up when we have it, we want it used in our own self-interest, and we are so terrified that someone else might use their power against us, especially if we’ve ever ignored them or misused them.

Herod had power, but so did John. One was political and economic, the other was charismatic and focused. John stuck to his mission when his life was threatened, Herod caved to the pressure of his party guests and an outrageous promise he made to a little girl. Herod could have easily told her that her request was absurd and dismissed her as a foolish child. He could have easily reminded her who the king really was and yet he valued life so carelessly. John could have kept his head down and let Herod alone with his very public disregard for righteousness. John could have done a dozen other things that weren’t preaching repentance in a time and a place where people were being oppressed. Herod was a pawn, and John was a tool. But John was a tool in the hand of God, where Herod was a pawn in Rome’s game of world domination.

There’s something here about the first time we are introduced to John the Baptist. And the way Herod thinks the things Jesus and his disciples are up to must mean they are from John’s ministry - which, properly speaking, they are. The ongoing work of Jesus’ disciples flows from preaching repentance, turning around. Re-orienting to the ways of God and away from the ways of the world. It’s what the disciples did when they dropped everything to follow Jesus. Repentance is key to renewal and reconciliation. John’s baptism ministry, preparing the way of the coming Lord, centered on preaching repentance. If John was going to come back from the dead and haunt Herod, if would sure be with the same message he first preached while living.

The thing about Herod’s fear of being haunted, though, there’s something in that. It speaks to our misuse of power most clearly. Why would we be afraid of what the dead could do to us if we treated them right while they were alive? Why would it matter that we can’t kill ghosts if those ghosts had no reason to hold a grudge against us? I mean, speaking from a mythical standpoint here, everyone has their own opinions about ghosts and hauntings, but the concept, at least, has something to it, right? So what if John comes back to haunt Herod? Is Herod really going to change his ways?

So maybe the real question is, how is Jesus haunting us today? Take a minute to consider this: John’s being beheaded because of his religious threat to the political powers that be is a foreshadowing of the way Jesus will be killed by a sort of mob mentality, as though to silence his one single voice in death will completely silence all who have every learned from him or been transformed by him. Even if Jesus had stayed dead, his followers were as diverse then as they are now, with all sorts of interpretations about what he means for the state of things in this world and the next. Then you consider what it means that Jesus, in fact, did not stay dead, but rose from the grave and can now walk through walls, and blinded Saul on the road to Damascus, and bring about a miraculous catch of fish for professional fishermen who caught nothing all night long?

Power that trumps even death is pretty much the end-all, be-all, after all. And God uses power not to destroy forever, the way Herod might do without even thinking, but to raise up new life where none had been expected. The prophet Amos says clearly at the end of this morning’s reading: I am not a prophet, don’t even have family who are prophets, I’m just a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, yet God has given me words to prophesy to you. There goes God using power to bring a nobody from no place into a position of leadership and proclamation where he ought not have had a role otherwise. And for we ourselves: Adoption, Redemption, Forgiveness, Inheritance. God uses power not to exclude but to include. Not to threaten with death, but to destroy death itself. Not to throw life away but to lift it up until it sprouts forth from every dead crevice still considered long barren. Jesus is alive again, raised from the dead, and death no longer has the power it once had over us. Death can no longer ever again have the last word. Anything that leads to death can not any longer have the last word or threat of power held over us - addiction, violence, fear, hunger, divorce, poverty, sexism, racism, these painful realities, even pain itself, are not any more powerful over us, or in us, than they are permanent.  As the dancers at yesterday’s picnic danced to the gospel song: There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain, break every chain, break EVERY chain.

Herod may have been a pawn, but God did not let his fear have the last word for his people. John was gruesomely beheaded, as cheaply as anything, but God did not let the sword have the last say about John’s influence in the world. Jesus himself, God enfleshed, bore the weight of our fear and isolation and misused power and misdirected mob mentality, and he let it crush him to further the power of God’s incredible love across the whole wide earth. His single-hearted, focused and clear purpose to love was power enough, because Jesus was not John the Baptizer come back from the dead. Jesus was not Elijah the prophet coming as forerunner. Jesus was not a celebrity or only a great teacher, but God with skin on, God among us, God suffering alongside us and bleeding with us and reaching out wide to gather us in from all corners of the earth, that we, too, might live in that mighty power of reconciliation and love and gratitude and everlasting life.

Everlasting life! How about that? What kind of power do we have now that death has no more power over us? How are we living out of that power of the love which consumes and renews all other loves? Where will your power, your freedom, play out in the days and weeks to come, not only in this summer in Chatham, but across your vacation travels, in your workplace, where you take your rest? How does God living within you come across differently when you can act freely, without fear of judgment or of death, because of the love which carries all of our loves through death and on out the other side? Where will your power set someone else free this week, I wonder? In the way we welcomed so many to the tag sale this weekend, we shared our power. In the work of rebuilding our front steps so access here is safer for all who wish to find sanctuary, we share that power. In connecting with our ecumenical partners, other neighbor churches, through our village and across Columbia county, we are lifted up by the power above all, when love and truth are met, when righteousness and peace kiss each other.

The power of Jesus the Christ, alive again to die no more, dead once to bring us all through death and into new life, that power is new life for the world. All of it. The whole world. Love that knows not bounds or limits, that has been rejected but never rejects, that sings new life in the face of silent death and whispers peace in the heart of every fighter who serves in time of conflict. Herod only pretends at power, and makes a mess of it. John knew true power, and was not afraid to speak truth to earthly power. Jesus is the power of love and reconciliation and life, the power in which we live, and move, and have our being.