Text: Mark 6:14-29 (RSV)
The Death of John the Baptist
14 King Herod heard of it; for Jesus’[a] name had become known. Some[b] said, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; that is why these powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “It is Eli′jah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” 17 For Herod had sent and seized John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Hero′di-as, his brother Philip’s wife; because he had married her. 18 For John said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 And Hero′di-as had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he was much perplexed; and yet he heard him gladly. 21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and the leading men of Galilee. 22 For when Hero′di-as’ daughter 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 grant it.” 23 And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” 24 And she went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the baptizer.” 25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26 And the king was exceedingly sorry; but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27 And immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard and gave orders to bring his head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
Today, we’re going to focus on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
When was the last time you said to yourself, “I am one of God’s chosen?” Have you ever said that? Has that thought ever so much as crossed your mind? I can truthfully say that I have never said that, nor has it ever occurred to me to think of myself in that way. In my upbringing, and maybe it was the same in yours, thinking in such a way was considered kind of “uppity.” Worse than that, it was even antisocial, even dangerous. Anytime a person thinks he or she is superior to everyone else, sooner or later, bad things happen. As the old proverb puts it, “Pride goeth before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) Herod is a great example of that. This also applies to nations – think of the Roman Empire. They were the most powerful empire on earth for over a thousand years, but eventually their inbred arrogance and pettiness did them in; and now their great buildings are mostly rubble. Think of the British Empire – Britannia ruled the waves for over two centuries, but those days are long gone, as well. Cecil Rhodes, one of the British Empire’s greatest proponents, an imperialist to the core, who founded the only country in all of human history to be named after one man – Rhodesia – which is now the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe, not only thought of himself as absolutely superior to Africans, but he believed that Anglo-Saxons like him of the British variety were superior to anyone and everyone else – and that attitude gave rise, at least in part, to the policy of apartheid that existed in southern Africa until the 1970s, and which caused untold suffering. Our own history, too, is replete with examples of one group claiming superiority over another. Think of the Civil War, or the struggle to give women the right to vote, or the civil rights movement, as just three examples.
So we can be excused, I think, for not thinking of ourselves as anything extraordinary, when it comes to practicing our faith, to say nothing of chosen by God.
And yet, that is exactly how Paul thought of Christians. To him, Christians were the bona fide chosen people of God, and the letter to the Ephesians reflects that thinking. But we need to delve into just what this all meant for Paul.
The first thing we discover is that there is no call for us to boast. The fact that we Christians are chosen is solely and completely because of God’s action, not ours. As William Barclay writes, “Paul never thought of himself as having chosen to do God’s work. He always thought of God as having chosen him. Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You did not choose me but I chose you.’ (John 15:16) Here precisely lies the wonder. It would not be so wonderful that we should choose God; the wonder is that God should choose us.”[1]
Remember George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm? It is an allegory of the perils of Communism, where the animals are told that they are all equal to each other – horses are equal to the ducks, the chickens to the dogs, the pigs to the cows, and so on. But, as the story unfolds, the animals discover that the pigs have taken all of the best things of the farm – the best food, even the farmer’s house – and are now refusing to share any of it with the rest of the animals. The others protest, “But wait! I thought we were all equal!” And the pigs reply, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” And, naturally, it just so happened that they – the pigs – were those “more equal” animals.
Those in our universal Christian fold who believe and act in the way the pigs did in Animal Farm are, unfortunately, legion. They piously and gleefully tell us that, unless we follow the same rules that they do, and believe and act exactly as they do, we are less than equal and simply don’t measure up. Whole denominations seem to be founded on a principle of exclusion of others, rather than inclusion, which is what Jesus did. Pointing fingers is their favorite sport. For generations, as one example, Scottish Presbyterians had a practice known as “fencing the table” before Communion, and only those whose names were on the list of the worthy could participate. Paul’s words in Ephesians completely undercut that attitude and show it to be an example of what we call “the world” intruding into the Christian life. The grace of God makes us righteous, not self-righteous.
Although we are called and expected by God to do our utmost in His service, our efforts are always to be seen as a response to and not the cause of our being chosen.
In short, it’s not about us.
As far as I am concerned, that is a relief. Knowing that God has chosen me frees me up to do my best to respond to that gift without having to worry whether or not I’m somehow measuring up. It reminds me of the old German proverb, “der Mensch denkt aber Gott lenkt” – a rough translation I found puts is in a rhyme: “Man proposes, God disposes.” I just need to sincerely do my best, and God will gracefully fill in the gaps.
Owing to this, the second thing that washes over us is a profound sense of God’s generosity toward us. God blesses us with the blessings which are otherwise found only in heaven. There’s a lot we can do by our own toil and effort, of course; and those things we do for the glory of God and the betterment of the world are worthy and do help bring the Kingdom a bit closer; but solely by ourselves we can never achieve true goodness or a deep sense of peace of body, mind, and spirit – God chose to give us those things, things which He alone can give. This is one of our hardest and most enduring struggles on this earth: To simply accept what God gives us so abundantly and so freely. Think of the greatest gift you have ever been given, and of how you appreciated and still appreciate it; think of how it actually changed your life – then multiply that feeling by a hundred trillion and more – and then you start to come close to the magnitude of the gift God has given us by making us His children, His heirs through Christ. It is humbling. And all God asks is that we take the next difficult step and accept this gift.
The third element of Paul’s thinking in Ephesians is the understanding that God does nothing without a purpose. As Barclay continues, “God chose us that we should be holy and blameless.”[2] And we immediately say, “Hold on there! Holy and blameless? How can we possibly live up to that?” We all know that we fall short of the glory of God; so this admonition definitely makes us curious!
The word translated as “holy” in this passage is the Greek word hagios (ἅγιος), which can mean “sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated) or (most) holy (one, thing), or saint.”[3] “Hagios” always has in it the sense of difference, otherness, separation, of being set aside. This church is holy, because it has been built specifically for the worship of God, and has been set aside for that purpose, and that purpose only; and this makes it different from all other buildings. Our Sabbath Day – Sunday – is holy because it is different from the other days of the week. God is supremely holy because He is vastly different from us. So, in the same way, we Christians are holy in that we are different from other people. We’ve all heard the passage from I Peter 2:9: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (KJV).
That is what Paul means when he says we are holy.
This is a walk of life that was obvious to the Christians of the early Church. They never doubted for a second that they must be different from the world they inhabited; that world hated them and was out to kill them. The blood of the early martyrs was the sign and seal of their holiness.
Today, though, it’s not so clear cut. The Western world of which we are a part has been Christian for nearly two thousand years, beginning at the time this letter was written. When early writers talked about “Christendom,” most often it was Western Europe that they had in mind. Our country inherited that mindset; and there’s no doubt that there are millions and millions of us Christians in the USA of whatever stripe.
So, for us today, the question is: How to we live in that different, set-aside, holy way, when almost everyone we know is at least nominally Christian or has taken on what we might call “Christian attitudes”?
One way to approach it might be to remember that we are primarily citizens of the Kingdom of God. That right there says that we are out of step with the world around us. Out temporal allegiance is and definitely must be to our country, but our ultimate allegiance is to God’s Kingdom that is and is to come.
But Paul did not understand Jesus to insist that our difference is one that takes us out of the world; he tells us that though we are in the world, we are nonetheless not of the world, just as Jesus says when he prays for his disciples in John 17:16. Our fundamental difference with the world lies in how we live within it. If we look closely enough, we will be able to easily identify other Christians – at school, at the grocery store, at the office, everywhere. And the hallmark is that Christians behave not necessarily as any human law demands, but as Jesus’ command to “do unto others as you would have others do unto you” compels them to. Christian teachers don’t do what they do just to fulfill the dictates of a Department of Education, but because they love their Savior who said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs” (Mtt 19:14, RSV). Christian workers don’t just labor to make a foreman happy, but to satisfy the command of Jesus to “love one another as I have loved you.” Christian doctors will never regard a sick person as a mere patient, but as a person. Christian employers will be concerned with far more than the payment of a wage or the creation of minimum working conditions.
Such things as these are the hallmarks of the chosen. If enough of us Christians allowed our hagios to show through, what a change society would see!
Why not try to do that?
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] Barclay, William, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians, The New Daily Study Bible, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 1954, 1976, 2002, p. 88
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=g40