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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Roman Catholic bishops in the United States last month debated whether the Mass should be given to Roman Catholic politicians, who unrepentantly support public policy contrary to Roman Catholic teaching about such things as abortion and human sexuality, and many of those politicians, who would be affected by a crackdown, not surprisingly spoke out against the more‑conservative bishops. The matter is perhaps the most‑recent well-known example of “speaking truth to power”, a phrase popularized in the 19‑50s as a title of Quaker pamphlet seeking a non-violent political tactic, though the idea of freely criticizing people in positions of responsibility obviously goes back well before the 1950s (Wikipedia). For example, today’s Gospel Reading tells of John the Baptizer’s earlier speaking against King Herod’s divorce and “remarriage”, and today’s Old Testament Reading tells of the prophet Amos’s before that speaking against the unfaithful kingdom of Israel and the dynasty of its king at the time (Amos 7:7-15).
In the case of the Gospel Reading, you may recall, that, as we heard last week, Jesus had sent out His twelve apostles, who proclaimed that people should repent and cast out many demons and healed many who were sick (Mark 6:1-13). And, as we heard today, King Herod heard of it and concluded that John the Baptizer, whom Herod had beheaded, had been raised from the dead. As the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark tells it, Herod feared John, knowing that John was a righteous and holy man, and, at least for a time, Herod kept John safe; yet, when Herod gladly heard John, Herod was greatly perplexed. Of course, Herod already had sent and seized John and bound him in prison, and Herod in the end beheaded John: Herod put his desire not to break his oaths and word to his stepdaughter ahead of whatever desire he might have had to keep John safe. When word reached Herod about the preaching of repentance and working of miraculous signs that Jesus’s apostles were doing in His Name, Herod’s conscience may well have accused him all over again, about not only Herod’s adulterous “remarriage” but also John’s unjust execution.
Herod apparently was drawn to both good and evil and was at a loss with himself. Herod might have liked to have followed the godly way of life that John described, but Herod does not seem to have broken away from his evil passions. We can relate to Herod in terms of that struggle between good and evil. Whether or not we have tried to silence the prophetic voice that speaks against us, we may be reluctant to “speak truth to power”, whether to people in positions of responsibility or to our “peers” with their “pressure”. Whether or not we are guilty of an adulterous “remarriage” or an unjust execution, we are guilty of other perverse sins against the Sixth and Fifth Commandments, as well as countless sins against the rest of the Ten Commandments. As the Divinely-inspired St. Paul said in today’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 1:3-14), God chose us that we should be holy and blameless before Him, but we fail to be holy and blameless, and so we deserve both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity, unless, enabled by God, we heed those whom He sends to us preaching repentance and working miraculous, life-changing signs in Jesus’s Name. For when we repent—when we turn in sorrow from our sins, trust God to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake, and want to stop sinning—then God forgives us and, instead of the torment in hell that we deserve, He gives us life in heaven for eternity.
Herod may have been struck by the similarity of John and Jesus in terms of their preaching of repentance—John is not reported as doing any miracles (John 10:41)—but more significant seem to be the similarity of John and Jesus in terms of their persecution and death (confer Marcus, ad loc Mark 6:29, p.404). In a sense, what happened to John points to what would happen to Jesus (Roehrs-Franzmann, ad loc Mark 6:14-29, p.49). As we will hear in a Gospel Reading about three months from now, when Jesus was asked about divorce He said that remarriage was adulterous (Mark 10:2-16), though Jesus’s answer did not condemn Herod directly and did not lead to Jesus’s arrest, as John’s teaching led to John’s arrest. When, on other charges, Jesus was arrested, Jesus also “spoke truth to power”, and ultimately He was crucified (for example, John 19:37-38). Yet, holy and blameless Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. On the cross, Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, died for us, in our place, the death that we deserved. So, St. Paul could write in the Epistle Reading that in Jesus Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God graciously forgives us our sins—our sins regarding “speaking truth to power”, our sins against the Sixth and Fifth Commandments, and our sins against the rest of the Ten Commandments, as well. God forgives us all our sins, whatever our sins might be. And, God forgives us through His Word and Sacraments.
God continues to send men to us preaching repentance and working miraculous, life‑changing signs in Jesus’s Name. Today’s Epistle Reading referred to the effects of Holy Baptism as both our adoption as God the Father’s children through Christ Jesus and the seal of the Holy Spirit. Instead of Herod’s binding John in prison in the Gospel Reading, Herod could have privately confessed his sins to John for John to have loosed them, as we can confess the sins that we know and feel in our hearts to our pastors for the sake of individual Holy Absolution. And, instead of the grisly meal where John’s head was passed on a platter, in the Sacrament of the Altar we eat bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and drink wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us, and so we receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all these ways, those whom God sends speak the Truth with the power to change our lives.
That our lives are so changed does not mean, however, that we cease struggling. As John the Baptizer preached throughout his ministry, we should bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8; Luke 3:8). Yet, as St. Paul describes in Romans 7, we have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out; we do not do the good that we want, but the evil that we do not want is what we keep on doing. Who shall deliver us from this body of death? St. Paul asks rhetorically, and then he answers, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:18-19, 24-25.) Ultimately, Jesus delivers us through our earthly deaths, even if those earthly deaths are brought about through martyrdom. Like John the Baptizer and St. Stephen, whose martyrdom we discussed this past week in our Midweek Bible Study (Acts 8:2), bodies of the faithful generally are buried. And, Herod was right that there would be a resurrection of John, but Herod was just wrong about the timing. On the Last Day when the dead are raised and all stand before God, the small persecuted faithful Church will be seen as what She truly is, great and glorious.
Before then, we may hear back from the Roman Catholic bishops, who are expected to finalize their plans in November. We thank God that those whom He sends not only “speak the truth to power” politically but also speak the truth to all of us who of ourselves have no power spiritually. As we sang in the Introit (Psalm 143:1-2, 8a; antiphon v.11), for His Name’s sake the Lord preserves our life, in His righteousness He brings our souls out of trouble.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +