Proper 10 | Ordinary Time 15, Cycle B

Mark 6:14-29

According to the portion of Mark that precedes this text, a portion that we used last Sunday, the proclamation of Jesus that his fellow Jews should ask God for forgiveness whenever they had cooperated fully with the oppressive Romans who were occupying the land of the Jews had been extended to Jesus’ twelve disciples. That proclamation had been validated by the casting out of demons and the healing of many who were ill.

The text designated for our use next Sunday begins with the information that Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, was told about the success that Jesus and his followers were having in proclaiming their message that soon the Lord God rather than the Romans and their supporters such as Herod would be ruling in Galilee and in Judea. Many of the Jews who had been cooperating with the Romans and with Herod Antipas were no longer doing this; the “demons” that had been in them when they submitted to the Romans and to Herod had been cast out. The “diseases” that they had when they had cooperated with the Romans and with Herod were being healed.

Herod Antipas is then portrayed as accepting the suggestion that some of his advisors made that the success that Jesus was having was an indication that Jesus was actually a reincarnation of John the Baptizer, whom Herod had ordered that he be beheaded while being held in a dungeon as ordered by Herod. There is a tremendous message in these verses. Herod, even with the support of the Roman Empire and its military power behind him, is portrayed here as weak and powerless to withstand God, who has the power to bring back to life John the Baptizer, whom Herod had killed. The oppressed, who most of the time have little or nothing to laugh about, are given the pleasure of laughing at powerful rulers such as Herod, who in the presence of God and of Jesus the Risen Son of God are powerless. What follows in our text, then, is a description of the despicable events that had occurred when the half-drunken Herod had foolishly made an almost unrestricted promise to the young daughter of Herod’s hateful wife Herodias. What are we called to proclaim when we use this text next Sunday? What guidelines for how we should live our lives are provided by this account? What from this text is applicable for us today? What is happening in our time and place that is somewhat similar to what is provided in this text? Where in this text are we and the people whom we serve? With whom in this text and in the text that precedes it are we identified? How is this text related to the other readings and to the psalms selected for our use next Sunday? The challenge to us is great. Yet it is to this that we have been called.

Ephesians 1:3-14

In the Greek New Testament these twelve verses are all presented in one single sentence, a magnificent Greek sentence in which the principal verb of the sentence is implied but not expressed. The verb implied is the indicative or the imperative form of the verb “to be.” Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, or May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! When we translate the rest of this Greek sentence into English, we must break it up into at least six English sentences for our readers.

In order to connect this text with the Mark 6:14-29 Gospel account, we may see that this text is a way, our way of responding with a blessing to God, who is to be blessed for being active in our history, confounding the powerful and providing a meaningful life now and eternally for us. Indeed, we want to bless God and bless God as God is revealed in Jesus the Risen Christ in our lives.

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

The still youthful King David is presented here as celebrating in a sort of liturgical dance as he brings the sacred ark of the covenant into the city of Jerusalem, a city that his soldiers have conquered. While David celebrates and provides burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord, David’s wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, despises David. Since the power of God is thought to be concentrated in the ark, symbolically David is bringing the power and the presence of God into the new capital city of the developing nation. David is presented in a positive light in this text, Michal in a negative one. What a difference it might have made had David continued to bless and to celebrate the power and presence of God rather than to turn from God as David later does. Was Michal despising what David was doing, or what David would soon be doing? How do we celebrate and respond to the power and to the presence of God as we attempt to bring that power and that presence into our lives?

Psalm 24

I personally have precious memories of the use of this psalm when I was very young. Before we would go to our various Sunday school classes, the Sunday school superintendent would lead all of us in a brief opening worship. Psalm 24 was one of the psalms that were used on alternate Sunday mornings in this way in order to prepare us for our study of the Bible within our various age groups.

In ancient Israel, this psalm was most likely one of several that were used as the people together came into the holy place of study, instruction, and worship. If we use this psalm next Sunday, how can we use it most effectively and creatively as we as a congregation enter into our study and worship of God? We do not always have to do the same things and we should not always do things in the same way each Sunday that we come together. What we do and how we worship should be guided by the texts and what is included in the texts selected for our use in our study and in our worship. If we use this psalm next Sunday, it should be used as in a way a “liturgical dance” as our choirs and other worship leaders enter the sanctuary.

Amos 7:7-15

There is a sharp contrast between the condemnation in this text of the economic, political, social, and religious practices of the people in Bethel in the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the message of peace and blessing from God on the people to whom Psalm 85:8-13 is presented. The proclamation in Psalm 85 is good news to the people who turn back to God; the proclamation in Amos 7:7-15 is bad news to those who have turned their backs to God.

Psalm 85:8-13

Amos 7:7-15 is directed against people who are like Herod Antipas and those who were with him. Psalm 85:8-13 is provided for the people who are like John the Baptizer, the Jesus of history, and followers of Jesus who turn toward serving only the Lord God. We are called to be like the people in ancient Israel for whom Psalm 85 was prepared, to be like John the Baptizer, like Jesus and like those who were following him. We are not to be like those in Bethel in the Northern Kingdom, nor like Herod Antipas and those around him. This we must proclaim.