There were so many lovely things in today’s new testament reading, but I thought I’d have a go at the moment that Jesus reaches out and pulls Peter from the lake – the moment when the darkness of the water turns to the brightness of the sunlight and a lungful of air.
I’m still trying out this whole ‘drawing in colour’ thing – may take a while to get the hang of it!
Today’s prompt was ‘House of God’ (Genesis 28.12-16):
And Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’
I didn’t really fancy drawing a picture of today’s reading from morning prayer (the beheading of John the Baptist, Matthew 14.1-12).
Corruption and sleaze are nothing new, but have always been there, and that when those in power try to save face rather than face up to their mistakes, there are often casualties. We may lament at this, and at how those who speak up and speak out so often seem to pay too high a price for their integrity.
But there is no good news in any of that, no gospel, merely confirmation of what our sometimes-cynical minds know represents some of the worst of humanity. If anything, this shows us how much we – just as the world in Herod and John’s day – need the gospel.
And that gospel had been the whole meaning of John’s life. He’d spent his adult years preaching essentially three things:
These three messages were John’s whole reason for being.
The last one, that Jesus was coming, had finally started to be fulfilled. The baton has well and truly been passed on. John’s role as the last great prophet has been accomplished, and his work is done.
But the other parts of John’s message are not yet finished. And Herod stands as the final person to whom John brings them, and with whom he tries to share them.
John brings Herod the gospel of repentance, the truth about sin and forgiveness. Would Herod’s hesitation ever have led to a change of heart heart, that could, eventually have found expression in the way he lived his life? We will never know. But undoubtedly John’s last act was to keep on preaching repentance to Herod, and keep offering him the chance of God’s forgiveness, the chance to make things right. John never gave up his calling to show Herod the reality of God’s mercy, even though in the end, no mercy was shown to him.
And John also spend his last days showing Herod what the kingdom of God was like. This, I think, must have been what really intrigued the king. It’s as if he caught a glimpse of a different way of doing things, of a different kind of power, or a different world order, and was both fascinated and frightened by it. I am sure he would have kept John around far longer to see more of this kingdom of God at work, had he not made that rash, wine-fuelled promise.
So Herod was faced with a choice. Save John, and keep alive the glimpse of another kind of kingdom, or sacrifice John to save his own kind of kingdom, his own political reputation. Herod fails the test, just as Pontius Pilate would fail his own test when Jesus showed him a glimpse of the kingdom later. Herod, like Pilate, chooses the values of his own kingdom over the glimpse of the kingdom of God, and rejects his own shot at receiving mercy by failing to show it to others.
There are so many pre-echoes in John’s story of the story of the passion of Jesus. Not only the corrupt leader who can’t seem to make the morally right and spiritually right choice, the condemnation on a whim – but above all the way in which both John and Jesus approach their deaths offering to those who are hurting them a glimpse of the kingdom and a chance at forgiveness. Right up til the end.
Jesus and John lived their lives as a blessing from God to the world. But God’s blessing was not always straightforward or painless. They brought life and truth and mercy, and these values are sometimes so much at odds with the ways of the world that they may seem impossible to accept. Jesus and John showed how to make good choices even when bad choices were easier, and they showed integrity even when self-interest was easier. But above all they showed us that there is nothing that God would not do, no length to which he would not go, to keep on giving his people glimpses of the kingdom and offers of forgiveness.
This is also our calling – it may not lead to our death, but it may lead many to life.
‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’
I love how Jesus measures tree size not in cubits (or whatever), but in hospitality. How big is the tree? Oh, big enough for birds to make their home there. Big enough to offer safety and hospitality. Big enough for them to lay their eggs and raise their chicks.
We could ask ourselves, how big is my church? Oh, big enough for people to find themselves at home there. Big enough to offer safety and hospitality. Big enough that people will feel it’s a place they can bring their children.
Not sure about a doodle today – but a thought.
I had a curate who retold the parable so that the seed that was carried away by the bird passed all the way through the bird’s digestive system, and landed once again on the ground – there, it grew and took root, flourished, and was fruitful. And all in a place where nobody had planted it. Perhaps this is why the farmer is so careless with how he scatters the grain, and perhaps some of the seed on the stones and in amongst the weeds also somehow made it, too. For with God nothing in wasted, and there is always grace.
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