July 13, 2024 – Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
If you’ve been with me and following my sermons for the past 5 years, you might remember a sermon similar to what I’m preaching today. But I think it’s important enough to use similar ideas and language, for today’s Gospel reading is important for us to see through a new lens and with new ears.
Today in Mark’s Gospel, we have a violent and gruesome story. I mean, King Herod (not the same King Herod we hear about in the birth narratives) asks for the head of John the Baptizer on a plate. But let’s set that story in the bigger picture – we are at a feast with Mark. Where the banquets of the empire are feasts of fear, scarcity, and death, the followers of Jesus partake in the feast of love, abundance, and life!
Written in the wake of the First Jewish-Roman War, Mark’s Gospel is inherently political, and the lectionary reading this week makes that very obvious. But at no point does Mark’s narrative turn cold, indifferent, or impersonal. It is a passionate, fast-paced declaration intended to turn its readers into fully invested followers of Jesus of Nazareth (Mk 6:1-6). The intended audience for Mark was Jews living under the Roman occupation of first-century Palestine. His purpose in writing was to teach the readers or listeners how to make sense of the imperialism that had taken over much of their known world. In fact, to ignore the profound political themes and nature of Mark’s Gospel is to betray it entirely.
Today’s setting is a banquet celebrating King Herod’s birthday. The guests at the banquet were the ruling class, the officers and leaders of Galilee. When his daughter came in and danced, “she pleased Herod and his guests” (6:21). Mark says that Herod Antipas called her “the girl” (6:22), the same word that he used to describe Jairus’ daughter a few weeks ago. Mark and Matthew both name Herodias as her mother, but neither of them names this child. We learn from Josephus that her name is Salome and she is Antipas’ stepdaughter. Some interpreters of the Bible estimate her age to be twelve, contrasting with the older woman we heard of a few weeks ago who suffered from hemorrhage for twelve years. So with all that said, this dance is to be interpreted as a dance of an innocent child who is leaving the protection of her mother, and nothing more.
Today’s banquet feast is in stark contrast to the story that immediately follows it in Mark 6:30-44, where we hear of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Herod Antipas lives in a world of power and authority, where he makes promises based on the political belief that he can get anything he wants by doing anything he wants to anyone he wants. Only a select few are invited to the banquet feast, those who must gain favor with the king in order to be recognized. It is a feast of scarcity and greed. Those in power use violence to protect themselves from the fear of those who challenge their right to rule. Herod Antipas’ banquet is indeed a feast of fear and death!
In contrast, the feeding of the multitudes offers wholeness to those who are broken, healing to those who are sick, and sustenance to those who are hungry. It is a radical feast of inclusion! Those who were excluded, broken, and humiliated find hope and healing in Jesus, a common carpenter from Galilee. It is a feast of hope and abundance. Those who begin to believe that there will not be enough discover that there is, in fact, more than enough, and there is more left over at the end than they thought that they had in the beginning (6:42-44).
Economies based on scarcity always privilege some at the exclusion of others. These economies believe that there are limited resources and only a few deserve to have access. Rather than a world based on scarcity and limitations, where people are envious of others’ possessions, Jesus invites those who participate to see that there is more than enough for the well-being of everyone. While the capitalistic, economic culture spins out of control, people who have lost hope and health come together to find healing and wholeness and be restored to life. In stark contrast to Herod Antipas’ banquet, Jesus’ banquet is a feast of life!
When the faithful followers of Jesus gather, they are choosing to participate in the kingdom of God, rather than the reign of the rulers of the world. By choosing Jesus, they choose to oppose the violence of the structures of the world. It is the choice of compassion over fear, inclusion over exclusion, abundance over scarcity, and life over death. It is the choice we make when we gather here weekly.
Through the church, God tells all, “I’m throwing a banquet, and all these mismatched, messed up people are invited” (Rachel Held Evans). Mark’s Gospel today tells us to invite all to complete God’s kingdom on earth, and not to exclude any. By making this conscious decision, we choose compassion, not fear; we choose abundance, not scarcity; we choose to include all in Jesus’ promise of life.
This week, Bishop Sean sent out an email about the killing of a beloved 15-year-old child of God in Pennsylvania because of hatred for her way of life. If we are to include all in Jesus’ promise of life, we have to do better, and we have to hold others accountable for doing better. We cannot say that we welcome all and not mean it. We cannot stand idly by when we experience hatred lived out in our communities.
As you go forth from worship today and go about your week, I want you to think about who is missing from our table. For those who are missing, how could we send invitations and have them join our table of feast and grace? Could you find one person to invite to join in our banquet and help them to experience the grace and love of our God?