Page last updated

 


8th Sunday after Pentecost (year b)
 
Proper 10 (15)
HumorPastorCare: Clergy on the MovePeace & Justice

    

Texts & Discussion:

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 and
Psalm 24 or
Amos 7:7-15 and
Psalm 85:8-13
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29

Other Resources:

Commentary:

Matthew Henry,    Wesley

Word Study:
Robertson

This Week's Themes:

Joyful Praise & Worship
Celebrating God's Blessings
Discipleship & Ministry

 

 

click on the building blocks to review this week's resources

 Texts in Context | Imagining the Texts -- First LessonEpistleGospel | Prayer&Litanies |  Hymns & Songs | Children's Sermons | Sermons

 


Sermons:

Independence Day:


______________________________________________________________

Being a Prophet
based on Mark 6:14-29; Amos 7:7-15
by Rev. Karen A. Goltz

            What does it mean to be a prophet?  What does it mean to prophesy?  What does it mean for a prophecy to be fulfilled?

            John the Baptist is generally understood to be a prophet.  I know he didn’t call himself a prophet, but most people agree that that’s pretty much what he was.

            And what did he do, that makes his identity as a prophet so clear?  Well, he was the forerunner of Christ.  His first quoted words in Mark’s gospel are, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.” (Mark 1:7)  He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:4)  In Matthew’s gospel he’s telling off the religious leaders who came to be baptized, basically telling them to change their ways or else they’ll seriously regret it. (Matthew 3:7-10)  He’s doing all this even as Jesus himself arrives for his own baptism.  And not only did John condemn the religious leaders for their actions, today’s gospel lesson tells us he also condemned a king for his actions.

            So John was a guy who got right in people’s faces, getting into their private business and publicly rejecting the things that were common practices in his day, because they were against the will of God.  And how did John know what was and was not the will of God?  What gave him the right?  He knew the scriptures.  The religious leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, were trusting in their lineage for their salvation.  They were descendents of Abraham, and that’s all they thought they needed.  Never mind God, or the ten commandments, or the Shema.  The Shema is the section in Deuteronomy (6:4-5) that begins: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”  The Pharisees and the Sadducees had no love for God, no respect for the spirit of the commandments.  They had the right bloodlines, and John called them on their hypocrisy. 

            And what about King Herod?  What gave John the right to condemn his actions?  Again, John’s knowledge of the scriptures gave him the right.  And John applied the scriptures to Herod’s life.  The full story is that Herod had been married before, and he cast off his first wife for Herodias.  Herodias had also been married before, to Herod’s brother Philip, and had cast him off so she could marry Herod.  This violated several of the commandments, and caused a lot of hurt feelings and animosity on the part of the discarded spouses, not to mention the tension it must have created between the two brothers.  And the commandments’ whole purpose is to help people to be in better relationship with each other and with God.  Herod and Herodias destroyed many relationships for the sake of their own.

            Maybe you’re feeling a little uncomfortable right about now.  I know I am.  This scenario I just described is a very common one today.  Two people find each other and fall in love, whether they meant to or not, and realize they’d rather be married to each other than to the people they’re already married to.  That’s exactly what happened with my paternal grandparents.  Grampa Grimes met a woman he worked with who was also married, and they fell in love.  My grandfather divorced my grandmother, Helen divorced her husband, and the two were married.  And by all accounts theirs was a much healthier union than my grandparents’ had been.  But my grandmother never recovered.  When she died forty years later she was still suffering from the shock, and the betrayal. [continue]