SERMONS

By The Rev. Alston Johnson

In the Palestine of Jesus’ day, John the Baptist is like a man out of time. He is a prophet, a voice of the Old Testament, perched and preaching, on the cusp of a new day in God’s Kingdom. Something is about to break into the world. Prepare!

John the Baptist is a man of the Wilderness, he exists outside of the city of Jerusalem, and in more ways than one. John separates himself not only physically from the sensibilities of the city; he separates himself from them spiritually as well. John’s message is a message of contrast and critique.

John the Baptist has stepped outside the boundaries of the political and religious machinery of the Jerusalem Temple and the Roman Empire in order to point the finger and say, “Repent. Repent. You better prepare a place for yourselves, because God is about come in among you wanting some answers.”

And the crowds come, because they know there is something not right happening in Jerusalem; unholy compromises have been made. Although it sounds like a harsh message, John the Baptist is actually bringing medicine to people who know, viscerally, they need to change. That is why they come to be washed by him that is why some think he is the Messiah.

Like all great prophets, John the Baptist plays for keeps, and he plays for more than he can afford to lose. He spends down all of his chips when, after pointing the finger at perhaps hundreds or thousands of people, his finger rests on one man and one woman. A couple who claim no need of the medicine he brings.

Herod Antipas was the ruler of the territory on the Eastern side of the Jordan River where John was baptizing. On a trip to Rome, Herod fell in love with his half- brother Philip’s wife, Herodias. Both decided to divorce their spouses, and marry one another. Upon returning to Palestine there stood John the Baptist, finger raised, “You, my friend are off the reservation; living in sin.”

I like to think, though I will not know in this life if it is true, that John spoke in such a way that Herod could hear him - that John spoke clearly. Not softly, not in holy whispers that might be misunderstood, but spoke with the clarity of truth and love. Mark tells us that Herod enjoyed listening to John; something was at work. John has medicine that Herod needs, and perhaps Herod realizes that John has this medicine, he listens to John.

And so the story of John’s death unfolds - there is an arrest, there is party, there is a dance, there is a promise, and there is the head of a brave and righteous man put on a platter, so that someone’s unholy compromise might not be named.

Yet Herod and Herodias are bound to their own unholy compromise - the King through the fear of seeming weak in the eyes of his followers and friends; the Queen through rage, righteous indignation, and scorn of someone who names sin.

What we see in this story is what human beings will do in order to protect themselves from their own sin - there is something in some of us that would rather see a righteous and upright person suffer, rather than have ourselves accused of something that we know is wrong. The accusing finger from without and within must be erased. Reminders of the truth are too painful to bear.

My friends I would like to tell you that no one who darkens the door of this Chapel will ever have to answer for their faith as did John the Baptist - that the evil and mendacious and compromising sin of this world will never tangle anyone into a web such as this one. Just as I would like to tell you the Bible is simply a book full of children’s stories. But this too would be an unholy compromise.

Whatever it is that John the Baptist had in the stuff of his soul - that is why this graphic story is included in Mark’s Gospel. It is clear that the Evangelist is telling us that the composure of John the Baptist in the face of pressure, in the face of fear, in the face of suffering, has something that we should, and can, possibly have as well - Courage. God is overcoming the sinful and mendacious world in Jesus Christ. Do not fear to tell the truth.

In the eyes of Herodias, in the eyes of those who crucified Jesus, a severed head, a crucified body, are trophies of having won a contest with the truth-tellers.
Dealing out death means “game, set, match!”

But for the followers of Christ, in the game of telling the truth in this world, death is not defeat, death is not losing, John the Baptist did not lose - for Christians, dying so that the truth might be told is sort of like saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen - start your engines!!”

What John the Baptist knew, and what we know, is that our Lord has overcome this world, and those who would make unholy compromises with this world. Mark is encouraging Christians to have courage, like John the Baptist, like our Lord, because the one we serve, the one who holds us, is not contained in this world. We are merely passing through on our way home.

As I heard a Christian brother say at Parchman a few months ago, “I fear death, but not as much as I used to; because I know in the first minute after I take my last breath . . . . I will know more than I have known during my entire life . . . and it will last forever.”