What came to mind for me first on being asked to preach on July 14th was Bastille Day. Then I looked up the readings and noticed the infelicitous phrase “head on a platter” - one that I will not use blithely around in-laws whose ancestors escaped France in the face of the Terror - or didn’t.
In the gospel reading the beheading of Saint John the Baptist is not an enforcer’s work, unless you count heedless teenagers. Even the Lord’s Resistance Army in the east African jungle had to groom and train children to be soldiers. Here the queen’s daughter just seeks to please her.
What a ghastly family. But that is hardly the point. How less ghastly are the people who shout, crucify! or the governor who washes his hands of the whole business. or the people who make money off it, or jeer, or gape blankly, as the man with the cross, John’s cousin, is led to death.
Amos in the first reading delivers the unwelcome news that there will not be a second Passover, no exemption for the people of Israel this time, as God passes judgment on the unholy of the world. That is what “I will never again pass them by'' means. No more passing over. Just as the spiritual, recalling the flood of Noah, warned, No more water; the fire next time. (2 Peter 3:7)
“God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water but the fire next time.” https://blog.adw.org/2018/06/fire-next-time-meditation-second-letter-peter/
“But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.” (2 Peter 3:7, NRSV)
What Amos does is prophesy, and forewarn of the coming exile of the people of Israel, –the northern kingdom,– soon to be overrun by then-powerful Assyria, a neighbor to the north.
All this cleansing is in response to sin. Pretty harsh punitive measure, or pretty clear warning of consequences. The point is - though ignored by the hearers of John the Baptist - REPENT!
“Turn back O man forswear thy foolish ways,” as they sing in Godspell.
But the invitation is more positive and joyful than these words and worries would suggest.
Look at the psalm we sing or say in response to Amos:
Psalm 85:8-13 Benedixisti, Domine
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.
9 Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, *
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth have met together; *
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11 Truth shall spring up from the earth, *
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, *
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness shall go before him, *
and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.
It is a call not to despair but to repentance. However carbon soaked the atmosphere, however dire the current situation, God is still extending a hand to humankind, stirring life and hope.
The composer Armand Russell, my fellow bass in the choir at St Patrick’s, Kenwood, set the psalm to music, on the occasion when - one of the occasions when - the United States was about to go to war in the Middle East.
Were we doing the right thing? (The president, a Methodist son of an Episcopalian father, certainly sounded confident that we were.) Were we listening? What is the Lord God saying?
Not to them, anymore, but to us. What shall we do in our current situation? What shall we do, facing eternity?
The Russians of the 19th Century, in their great literature, asked the question, how are we to live? In a more awkward form, the 20th Century American Evangelical speaker Frances Schaeffer IV lectured and wrote on the topic, How should we then live? : the rise and decline of western thought and culture. I can tell you it was quite a ride. All my cohort of Christian friends were there hanging on his words, and I wrote them down feverishly, and then forgot them.
But the question of the Russians remains: how are we to live? It is not so different from the question people asked Peter, when he had baptized them: what do we do now?
There’s an old Robert Redford movie, The Candidate, where he plays a young idealist running against an old political pro, mostly to speak up for what he believes, and when he is unexpectedly elected, he turns to his campaign svengali and asks, now what?
Now what? is where we are now, where we always are, after the beheading of the Baptist, after the crucifixion of Jesus, after his resurrection and ascension, before the fullness of the kingdom of heaven is revealed in all its joyous power. Now what?
How are we to live - now? Or as people asked Peter, what must we do?
Simple words, simple actions, in the telling of the gospels. Don’t cheat, don’t lie, don’t steal, give right weight and proper measure, share, look after the needy. Wait, but not just sitting around. Prepare by being ready, by getting into the habit, by living into the kingdom that is not yet - but whose citizens we already are.
Above and beyond and always questioning our earthly loyalties, to tribe or even family, is that divine calling, that allegiance un-pledged, un-bought, un-voted for, but ultimately demanding: the welcome undertow of the holy word, the joyous laughter of the Lord of mirth, the happy ending beyond all sorrow, that comes when we come to the Lord, and lay ourselves at his feet.
In our words and in our actions, together as a congregation, individually in our daily lives, and as citizens and people of common humanity, we are making positive steps toward inhabiting the kingdom of heaven that is coming into being.
This includes collective action as citizens and as assembled people of God.
This spring, United Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians each gathered to discuss their future, enact resolutions, and elect leaders for a new era.
Arizona voters began to make their choices; St Matthew’s is again a voting center.
And the kingdom of heaven came ever closer and even showed itself in places. May it become ever more visible in our lives and the lives we touch. Amen.
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
For the Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew, Tucson.
14 July 2024
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
http://edgeofenclosure.org/proper10b.html
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