WEBVTT 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:04.519 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:04.519 --> 00:00:09.880 of the Holy Spirit. Amen. By the grace of God, 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:19.480 we are gathered together, each one old or young, 00:00:19.660 --> 00:00:26.039 bringing some offering to God, prayer, resource, 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:34.009 talent. Love yourself, whatever it might be. 00:00:36.289 --> 00:00:41.750 And the Lord himself sanctifies that. So that 00:00:41.750 --> 00:00:47.450 in this world, as we journey, as we pilgrimage 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:52.130 through this world, that we are given the grace 00:00:52.130 --> 00:00:57.729 and the enlightenment to know what this life 00:00:57.729 --> 00:01:05.359 is about. You heard the gospel and the epistle. 00:01:06.099 --> 00:01:11.219 You know, the sermon sort of extends that, helps 00:01:11.219 --> 00:01:13.599 explain that a little bit. But that's just the 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:18.500 beginning. Because in the next few days, we should 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:22.319 all, each one of us, contemplate what we heard. 00:01:23.799 --> 00:01:28.209 So that we understand. What it is we're doing 00:01:28.209 --> 00:01:31.510 here today, this unique day, this day of the 00:01:31.510 --> 00:01:34.489 beheading of the members, the beheading of St. 00:01:34.629 --> 00:01:38.170 John the Baptist, what it is that we are giving 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:40.510 to God and what it is that he is giving to us. 00:01:41.989 --> 00:01:46.109 You see what I'm saying? We try to understand, 00:01:46.269 --> 00:01:50.290 enter more deeply into the celebration. We don't 00:01:50.290 --> 00:01:54.909 just leave it here today. God gives us a gift. 00:01:55.609 --> 00:01:59.069 And we have to go home and open it up. We know 00:01:59.069 --> 00:02:02.209 where to find the scripture. You can find it 00:02:02.209 --> 00:02:06.049 in your Bibles. You can find it online. You can 00:02:06.049 --> 00:02:08.590 call me if you're not sure. I'm happy to help. 00:02:09.949 --> 00:02:15.199 But we only begin our contemplation today. And 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.099 we contemplate this very odd story, machinations 00:02:18.099 --> 00:02:22.120 in very high places, strange, corrupt, and debased 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:24.919 society in which a young girl can ask for the 00:02:24.919 --> 00:02:27.900 head of a man that's beloved by the people, that 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:33.379 speaks to her uncle, which he apparently loves 00:02:33.379 --> 00:02:38.879 this man, yet is afraid of him. This girl can 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:41.400 ask for the head and then bring it to her mother. 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:44.000 Imagine the culture in which that can happen. 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:53.340 Very debased. Herod was having an affair with 00:02:53.340 --> 00:02:57.699 his sister -in -law, which was also his niece. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:04.080 So again, things are starting to sound more and 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:09.280 more up to date. I've heard a number of people 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:13.259 speak of St. John. Herod arrested St. John, of 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:15.580 course, and beheaded him. That's what we're commemorating 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:18.840 him. all this for today. I've heard a number 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:21.659 of people speak about St. John as the rugged 00:03:21.659 --> 00:03:25.479 man of the desert. Yes, a preacher of repentance. 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:30.099 Yes, he stood for the truth. But he was kind 00:03:30.099 --> 00:03:32.740 of a wild man. This is how he's sometimes described. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:37.000 Not someone they would like to know. Too accusatory. 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:41.939 Not someone who's going to make friends. Not 00:03:41.939 --> 00:03:47.289 a conventional person by any means. This man, 00:03:47.490 --> 00:03:51.689 an earthly angel, a cousin of our Lord Jesus 00:03:51.689 --> 00:03:56.090 Christ, who said of him that he was the greatest 00:03:56.090 --> 00:04:00.349 among all those born of women. He was the greatest 00:04:00.349 --> 00:04:03.810 human being that ever lived. So that some would 00:04:03.810 --> 00:04:07.650 avoid St. John and describe him in the terms 00:04:07.650 --> 00:04:12.110 that I just did seems so sad and speaks of the 00:04:12.110 --> 00:04:17.779 spiritual fear of deep repentance. Apparently, 00:04:17.779 --> 00:04:22.079 all of Jerusalem and Judea got it. They went 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:27.060 out to see him and to be baptized of him. And 00:04:27.060 --> 00:04:31.759 struggling to come up with something helpful 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:38.459 to say today, I came across this paragraph written 00:04:38.459 --> 00:04:43.120 by Professor Edith Humphrey, Orthodox scripture 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:47.399 scholar from Pittsburgh. Let me just read these 00:04:47.399 --> 00:04:52.319 two paragraphs for you. What happened to John, 00:04:52.379 --> 00:04:57.680 that is, his beheading, happened to Jesus. And 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:00.399 as a servant, we have been told, is not greater 00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:04.199 than his master. This is true not only of servants 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:10.120 in the past, but of us as well. Those in the 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:15.639 kingdom, those who belong to Christ, are to be 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:20.839 even greater than John. We are told this by our 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:24.100 Lord Jesus Christ himself. Notice on the iconostasis, 00:05:24.379 --> 00:05:30.420 up here, the diocese. Our Mother Mary, the Theotokos, 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:35.519 is on Jesus' right hand. And on his other hand 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:41.459 is the forerunner. Our Holy Theotokos suffered 00:05:41.459 --> 00:05:45.629 much. As the prophet Simeon declared, she would, 00:05:45.750 --> 00:05:51.490 that her soul was pierced. And in saying yes 00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:57.290 to God, she found herself inevitably out of step 00:05:57.290 --> 00:06:04.110 with the world. Which is why Joseph, the husband 00:06:04.110 --> 00:06:07.509 that was given to her, wanted to put her away 00:06:07.509 --> 00:06:13.399 secretly to avoid scandal. She was a witness 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:16.899 and he was a witness, St. John, to the truthfulness 00:06:16.899 --> 00:06:23.360 of God in the darkness. We too, we too are called 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:29.060 to bear that cross. Consider, writes Professor 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:33.360 Humphrey, consider how God used the forerunner, 00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:36.699 even during his time in prison and in the way 00:06:36.699 --> 00:06:40.459 that he finished his course. Here was a man. 00:06:41.550 --> 00:06:45.290 with no delusions of grandeur, who said with 00:06:45.290 --> 00:06:49.649 humility, he must increase, Jesus, and I must 00:06:49.649 --> 00:06:54.149 increase. Here is one whose gruesome story with 00:06:54.149 --> 00:06:58.269 its icon, his head cut off, reminds us that in 00:06:58.269 --> 00:07:04.430 this world we are playing for keeps. What we 00:07:04.430 --> 00:07:10.709 say and what we don't say, what we do, and what 00:07:10.709 --> 00:07:16.410 we neglect to do. That matters. The presence 00:07:16.410 --> 00:07:19.129 of John the Forerunner in the New Testament is 00:07:19.129 --> 00:07:24.329 a link with the demands for morality in the Old, 00:07:24.529 --> 00:07:29.769 reminding us as well as Israel that we are called 00:07:29.769 --> 00:07:35.889 to be holy because God is holy. Do you remember 00:07:35.889 --> 00:07:39.490 the epistle from last week? We are temples of 00:07:39.490 --> 00:07:45.149 the Holy Spirit. It is by us, says Professor 00:07:45.149 --> 00:07:49.529 Edith, that our generation, those around us, 00:07:49.709 --> 00:07:52.850 will hear the words of the prophet pointing to 00:07:52.850 --> 00:07:57.389 Jesus so that this generation will not follow 00:07:57.389 --> 00:07:59.949 in the train of those who rejected God the Son 00:07:59.949 --> 00:08:05.990 in the first century. That's Professor Edith 00:08:05.990 --> 00:08:12.459 Humphrey. Let me follow up. At which points do 00:08:12.459 --> 00:08:17.300 we, brothers and sisters, find ourselves out 00:08:17.300 --> 00:08:23.600 of step with the world? It can be uncomfortable. 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:28.100 And we may be tempted to move from the position 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:32.379 of St. John to the position of Herod. He was 00:08:32.379 --> 00:08:38.690 so weak. from the self -sacrifice of Jesus and 00:08:38.690 --> 00:08:42.389 the truthfulness of Jesus to the guilty safety 00:08:42.389 --> 00:08:48.929 of Pontius Pilate. In every age, including ours, 00:08:49.169 --> 00:08:54.490 there are going to be points in time, in place, 00:08:54.769 --> 00:08:59.509 that are kind of a marker, a distinguishing feature. 00:09:00.900 --> 00:09:03.580 indicating where our true spiritual homeland 00:09:03.580 --> 00:09:09.059 truly is. I don't need to spell this out more. 00:09:09.419 --> 00:09:14.899 That's a whole class. And surely the public challenges 00:09:14.899 --> 00:09:19.399 of today in the area of morality and sexuality, 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:27.480 not so different from Herod and his time, is 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:31.139 a challenge for us. It's tempting to back off 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:35.899 with ourself, just to be silent. I'm not talking 00:09:35.899 --> 00:09:40.460 about condemning the world. Jesus Christ didn't 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:48.799 come to condemn the world. But our society is 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:54.159 using itself up. Human nature is going in a direction 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:58.279 where it's being disintegrated. It's like... 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:01.419 It's like the environment. We continually pollute 00:10:01.419 --> 00:10:06.620 it. The water, the air. We're doing the same 00:10:06.620 --> 00:10:11.480 thing to ourselves. It's all related to each 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:15.679 other. Now, I'm not pointing fingers because 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:22.039 I myself am a sinner in this regard. St. Gregory 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:24.580 Palamas tells us this, that Herod's weakness 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:30.320 is a sign, a symbol of ourself, that we are not 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:33.860 king over our passions, that is, our impulses, 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:37.820 our feelings, our desires, but we are in servitude 00:10:37.820 --> 00:10:42.620 to them. We become confused by them or charmed 00:10:42.620 --> 00:10:45.600 by them, and so the grace of God departs from 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:52.379 us, and we don't act with nobility, with the 00:10:52.379 --> 00:10:56.659 conscience as our king. But it shut up, says 00:10:56.659 --> 00:11:00.519 St. Gregory, the conscience, as Herod shut John 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:04.419 away. Because it speaks to us of what we must 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:06.700 do as servants of God. When it's enlightened 00:11:06.700 --> 00:11:09.659 by the scripture, by the liturgy, by confession, 00:11:09.899 --> 00:11:14.460 by holy communion. Let's struggle, brothers and 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:17.320 sisters. Again, we are temples of the Holy Spirit. 00:11:18.139 --> 00:11:23.120 In the Old Testament, you hear, be holy, for 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:26.769 I am holy. In the New Testament, God makes us 00:11:26.769 --> 00:11:31.990 holy. That's what we're doing here right now. 00:11:33.049 --> 00:11:37.590 Becoming holy. We've been chrismated. We've been 00:11:37.590 --> 00:11:42.909 given the gift of the Spirit. So what am I saying? 00:11:43.029 --> 00:11:46.889 Go out and judge your friends and speak in some 00:11:46.889 --> 00:11:51.700 kind of... condemnation about the world. No, 00:11:51.700 --> 00:11:54.620 I just said that's not what you do. But sin is 00:11:54.620 --> 00:11:58.840 sin. And if we're going to follow in John's footsteps, 00:11:59.139 --> 00:12:01.759 in our Lord's footsteps, it's not about speaking 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:07.220 truth to power, as you hear all the time, but 00:12:07.220 --> 00:12:13.279 to speak holiness to sin. To speak healing for 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:18.789 sickness. To speak deliverance from corruption 00:12:18.789 --> 00:12:23.870 of the world. Because each person is a precious 00:12:23.870 --> 00:12:28.990 image and likeness of God who is called to the 00:12:28.990 --> 00:12:31.929 hope and expectation of the transformation of 00:12:31.929 --> 00:12:35.230 the good news which is found in repentance, which 00:12:35.230 --> 00:12:37.990 is why the Lord himself begins his ministry. 00:12:38.370 --> 00:12:40.850 Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 00:12:41.070 --> 00:12:46.679 This is the good news. It is good news. It's 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:50.039 very good news. It should change us. It should 00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:53.259 grip us. It's not just something we contemplate 00:12:53.259 --> 00:12:58.519 in our easy chair. It's radical. And it brings 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:01.679 us hope. And it brings others hope. This is the 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:04.879 challenge that I perceive for us as we remember, 00:13:05.179 --> 00:13:07.840 solemnly remember, the beheading of the forerunner 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:12.080 at this day. One last remark, however. John is 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:15.799 executed. And it appeared that his ministry was 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:19.360 over. It appeared even to the people that evil 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:24.440 had conquered, had triumphed over good. That 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:28.679 the force of darkness and corruption had destroyed 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:33.679 the force of good, the force of life, the force 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:39.220 of God. This is what our world looks like often. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:42.360 But as a beloved brother in the Lord told me, 00:13:45.800 --> 00:13:51.259 Just today. Loss of hope is not in God's plan. 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:56.159 Loss of hope is not in God's palette. Loss of 00:13:56.159 --> 00:14:00.360 hope is not something that a Christian stays 00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:05.679 with. Maybe tempted. But our hope is in the Holy 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:10.000 Spirit. As St. Paul says in Romans 5 .12. And 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.720 hope in the Holy Spirit. We are not. put to shame 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:18.340 or disappointed. Because unbeknownst to Herod, 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:22.500 unbeknownst to anyone on earth at that time, 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:26.720 except to our Lord Jesus Christ, Herod facilitated 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:30.440 the Lord's cousin, John, fulfilling the rest 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:33.980 of his mission as the forerunner, as a voice 00:14:33.980 --> 00:14:38.100 crying in the wilderness. Because he preached 00:14:38.100 --> 00:14:40.990 on earth in the land of Israel. The coming of 00:14:40.990 --> 00:14:43.830 the Messiah. And when he departed this life, 00:14:44.009 --> 00:14:49.570 he descended to the grave. And he preached to 00:14:49.570 --> 00:14:53.950 every soul from Adam on who had died. That the 00:14:53.950 --> 00:14:57.350 Messiah who had come to earth was soon to come 00:14:57.350 --> 00:15:00.409 to death itself to transform and destroy it. 00:15:01.049 --> 00:15:03.470 That's why you see St. John up there, the icon 00:15:03.470 --> 00:15:06.629 of the descent into Hades. He's saying, he's 00:15:06.629 --> 00:15:13.429 coming. Be prepared. So John became the preacher 00:15:13.429 --> 00:15:17.029 of the destruction of death and the coming of 00:15:17.029 --> 00:15:20.549 life everlasting. We are here to glorify our 00:15:20.549 --> 00:15:24.029 Lord who rose from the dead and promise us the 00:15:24.029 --> 00:15:26.950 same gift of eternal life. Amen.