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.