Beheading of St. John the Baptist

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. By the grace of God,

we are gathered together, each one old or young,

bringing some offering to God, prayer, resource,

talent. Love yourself, whatever it might be.

And the Lord himself sanctifies that. So that

in this world, as we journey, as we pilgrimage

through this world, that we are given the grace

and the enlightenment to know what this life

is about. You heard the gospel and the epistle.

You know, the sermon sort of extends that, helps

explain that a little bit. But that's just the

beginning. Because in the next few days, we should

all, each one of us, contemplate what we heard.

So that we understand. What it is we're doing

here today, this unique day, this day of the

beheading of the members, the beheading of St.

John the Baptist, what it is that we are giving

to God and what it is that he is giving to us.

You see what I'm saying? We try to understand,

enter more deeply into the celebration. We don't

just leave it here today. God gives us a gift.

And we have to go home and open it up. We know

where to find the scripture. You can find it

in your Bibles. You can find it online. You can

call me if you're not sure. I'm happy to help.

But we only begin our contemplation today. And

we contemplate this very odd story, machinations

in very high places, strange, corrupt, and debased

society in which a young girl can ask for the

head of a man that's beloved by the people, that

speaks to her uncle, which he apparently loves

this man, yet is afraid of him. This girl can

ask for the head and then bring it to her mother.

Imagine the culture in which that can happen.

Very debased. Herod was having an affair with

his sister -in -law, which was also his niece.

So again, things are starting to sound more and

more up to date. I've heard a number of people

speak of St. John. Herod arrested St. John, of

course, and beheaded him. That's what we're commemorating

him. all this for today. I've heard a number

of people speak about St. John as the rugged

man of the desert. Yes, a preacher of repentance.

Yes, he stood for the truth. But he was kind

of a wild man. This is how he's sometimes described.

Not someone they would like to know. Too accusatory.

Not someone who's going to make friends. Not

a conventional person by any means. This man,

an earthly angel, a cousin of our Lord Jesus

Christ, who said of him that he was the greatest

among all those born of women. He was the greatest

human being that ever lived. So that some would

avoid St. John and describe him in the terms

that I just did seems so sad and speaks of the

spiritual fear of deep repentance. Apparently,

all of Jerusalem and Judea got it. They went

out to see him and to be baptized of him. And

struggling to come up with something helpful

to say today, I came across this paragraph written

by Professor Edith Humphrey, Orthodox scripture

scholar from Pittsburgh. Let me just read these

two paragraphs for you. What happened to John,

that is, his beheading, happened to Jesus. And

as a servant, we have been told, is not greater

than his master. This is true not only of servants

in the past, but of us as well. Those in the

kingdom, those who belong to Christ, are to be

even greater than John. We are told this by our

Lord Jesus Christ himself. Notice on the iconostasis,

up here, the diocese. Our Mother Mary, the Theotokos,

is on Jesus' right hand. And on his other hand

is the forerunner. Our Holy Theotokos suffered

much. As the prophet Simeon declared, she would,

that her soul was pierced. And in saying yes

to God, she found herself inevitably out of step

with the world. Which is why Joseph, the husband

that was given to her, wanted to put her away

secretly to avoid scandal. She was a witness

and he was a witness, St. John, to the truthfulness

of God in the darkness. We too, we too are called

to bear that cross. Consider, writes Professor

Humphrey, consider how God used the forerunner,

even during his time in prison and in the way

that he finished his course. Here was a man.

with no delusions of grandeur, who said with

humility, he must increase, Jesus, and I must

increase. Here is one whose gruesome story with

its icon, his head cut off, reminds us that in

this world we are playing for keeps. What we

say and what we don't say, what we do, and what

we neglect to do. That matters. The presence

of John the Forerunner in the New Testament is

a link with the demands for morality in the Old,

reminding us as well as Israel that we are called

to be holy because God is holy. Do you remember

the epistle from last week? We are temples of

the Holy Spirit. It is by us, says Professor

Edith, that our generation, those around us,

will hear the words of the prophet pointing to

Jesus so that this generation will not follow

in the train of those who rejected God the Son

in the first century. That's Professor Edith

Humphrey. Let me follow up. At which points do

we, brothers and sisters, find ourselves out

of step with the world? It can be uncomfortable.

And we may be tempted to move from the position

of St. John to the position of Herod. He was

so weak. from the self -sacrifice of Jesus and

the truthfulness of Jesus to the guilty safety

of Pontius Pilate. In every age, including ours,

there are going to be points in time, in place,

that are kind of a marker, a distinguishing feature.

indicating where our true spiritual homeland

truly is. I don't need to spell this out more.

That's a whole class. And surely the public challenges

of today in the area of morality and sexuality,

not so different from Herod and his time, is

a challenge for us. It's tempting to back off

with ourself, just to be silent. I'm not talking

about condemning the world. Jesus Christ didn't

come to condemn the world. But our society is

using itself up. Human nature is going in a direction

where it's being disintegrated. It's like...

It's like the environment. We continually pollute

it. The water, the air. We're doing the same

thing to ourselves. It's all related to each

other. Now, I'm not pointing fingers because

I myself am a sinner in this regard. St. Gregory

Palamas tells us this, that Herod's weakness

is a sign, a symbol of ourself, that we are not

king over our passions, that is, our impulses,

our feelings, our desires, but we are in servitude

to them. We become confused by them or charmed

by them, and so the grace of God departs from

us, and we don't act with nobility, with the

conscience as our king. But it shut up, says

St. Gregory, the conscience, as Herod shut John

away. Because it speaks to us of what we must

do as servants of God. When it's enlightened

by the scripture, by the liturgy, by confession,

by holy communion. Let's struggle, brothers and

sisters. Again, we are temples of the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, you hear, be holy, for

I am holy. In the New Testament, God makes us

holy. That's what we're doing here right now.

Becoming holy. We've been chrismated. We've been

given the gift of the Spirit. So what am I saying?

Go out and judge your friends and speak in some

kind of... condemnation about the world. No,

I just said that's not what you do. But sin is

sin. And if we're going to follow in John's footsteps,

in our Lord's footsteps, it's not about speaking

truth to power, as you hear all the time, but

to speak holiness to sin. To speak healing for

sickness. To speak deliverance from corruption

of the world. Because each person is a precious

image and likeness of God who is called to the

hope and expectation of the transformation of

the good news which is found in repentance, which

is why the Lord himself begins his ministry.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

This is the good news. It is good news. It's

very good news. It should change us. It should

grip us. It's not just something we contemplate

in our easy chair. It's radical. And it brings

us hope. And it brings others hope. This is the

challenge that I perceive for us as we remember,

solemnly remember, the beheading of the forerunner

at this day. One last remark, however. John is

executed. And it appeared that his ministry was

over. It appeared even to the people that evil

had conquered, had triumphed over good. That

the force of darkness and corruption had destroyed

the force of good, the force of life, the force

of God. This is what our world looks like often.

But as a beloved brother in the Lord told me,

Just today. Loss of hope is not in God's plan.

Loss of hope is not in God's palette. Loss of

hope is not something that a Christian stays

with. Maybe tempted. But our hope is in the Holy

Spirit. As St. Paul says in Romans 5 .12. And

hope in the Holy Spirit. We are not. put to shame

or disappointed. Because unbeknownst to Herod,

unbeknownst to anyone on earth at that time,

except to our Lord Jesus Christ, Herod facilitated

the Lord's cousin, John, fulfilling the rest

of his mission as the forerunner, as a voice

crying in the wilderness. Because he preached

on earth in the land of Israel. The coming of

the Messiah. And when he departed this life,

he descended to the grave. And he preached to

every soul from Adam on who had died. That the

Messiah who had come to earth was soon to come

to death itself to transform and destroy it.

That's why you see St. John up there, the icon

of the descent into Hades. He's saying, he's

coming. Be prepared. So John became the preacher

of the destruction of death and the coming of

life everlasting. We are here to glorify our

Lord who rose from the dead and promise us the

same gift of eternal life. Amen.