+Points to ponder

1. What hinders you from hearing God’s Word? What helps you?
2. What keeps you from repentance? What helps you?
3. What can your congregation do to clearly communicate God’s Word?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: Hear us, O Lord, when we cry out to You; and that we might receive what we ask, enable us by Your Holy Spirit to ask only what accords with Your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

“A woman went to court and told the judge she wanted a divorce. ‘Do you have any grounds?’ the judge asked. ‘Just two acres,’ she replied. ‘That's not it, lady. I mean, do you have a grudge?’ ‘No, we park the car in the front of the house.’ Frustrated, the judge continued: ‘Does your husband beat you up?’ She replied, ‘No, I get up before he does.’

‘Then why do you want a divorce?’ the judge queried. ‘Because’ she confessed, ‘we just don't seem to be able to communicate.’”

Last week we found ourselves observing God’s people, exiled in Babylon because of their ungodliness and their patent disinclination to listen to God – to hear His communication as He spoke through Ezekiel. It was an exile like that of which Amos, some years before, warned God’s people that it was coming. The king of the Northern Kingdom would meet his demise – Assyria and Babylonia would have their way with God’s people.

And so, this week we find ourselves in a similar situation with God speaking to His people through His chosen prophet.

Amos relates to the people that the Lord revealed Himself in a physical fashion by a series of ‘visions.’ The chapter opens with Amos reporting: “This is what He showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand.” Here it is important to note that Amos is from the Southern Kingdom of Judah where he is a herdsman and a tender of sycamore fig trees. But the LORD sent Amos to the Northern Kingdom to prophesy against both the religious leaders as well as King Jeroboam. Thus, when Amos has this vision of the plumbline and delivers its message of destruction, the priest of Bethel seeks to muddy the communication.

“Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words…’” Amaziah charges Amos with inciting insurrection and so overthrowing the dynasty ruling Israel. And more he was hoping to influence Amos – to frighten him into keeping his mouth shut and returning home. As opponents of God’s Word always do, Amaziah hoped to obscure what God was saying.

God’s message through Amos was a straight shot at the King of the Northern Kingdom as Bethel was one of the two sites set aside by Jeroboam for the Northerners to worship and offer sacrifices. The purpose is to keep them from returning to the Jerusalem Temple for worship, which would lead to a weakening of the political status of Jeroboam and perhaps lead to his overthrow.

But, despite Amaziah’s attempted subterfuge, some years later, Amos’ prophecy came to pass. The Northern Kingdom is conquered and taken into exile by the Assyrians.

God’s Word was clear, Jeroboam and the northern tribes had listening problems which resulted in their ungodliness and disobedience, their rebellion and sordid sin which landed them in exile.

I’m reminded of a story of “An old couple … sitting by the fireplace. He looked over at her, had a romantic thought, and said, ‘After fifty years, I’ve found you tried and true.’ The wife’s hearing was not very good, so she said, ‘What?’ He repeated, ‘After fifty years, I’ve found you tried and true.’ ‘After fifty years, I’m tired of you too,’ she replied.”

Sometimes we are hard of hearing, other times there are things that are hard to hear. Today’s Gospel reading makes you wonder. Not in a “Isn’t the Kingdom of God beautiful?” kind of way, but in a “Did I hear that correctly? Did he really just say that?” kind of way.

In fact, I would understand if some of us were a bit offended. It sounds like an advertisement for one of the latest shows on Showtime or HBO Max.

Herod beheads a prophet, not merely because of what the prophet says to him but because of what his 14-year-old niece does for him when she dances. She pleases him. Sex within the family system has not been a problem for Herod. He is married to his half-brother’s wife … and his half-brother is still living. The drinks, the dancing, the desire, all swirl together until suddenly they bring John the Baptist’s head on a platter and give it to the girl. Like I said, I would understand if you were a bit offended. This looks more like Game of Thrones than the Kingdom of God.

There are stories you do not bring up in polite conversation. Things like your family member’s DUI, your cousin’s dalliances, your adult children’s struggles with addiction, the images, late at night, which play across the computer screen. This story is one of those things. It is not fit for polite conversation.

But maybe that is the problem: Polite conversation. The Kingdom of God is not built on polite conversation – ask Ezekiel and Amos! It is built on the reality of God’s work in a fallen world. God speaks through His prophets and the stories like this remind us of just how messy redemption can be.

God has come to save people from sin, real sin. And real sin is often not the stuff of polite conversation. Which is why it is so good to have a story like this read in a church like this on Sunday morning. Which is why it is important to hear of exile and of martyrdom. It awakens us to God’s work.

Here, we pick up where last week’s Gospel left off and when Mark tells the story, he does not want you to encounter it alone. In fact, Mark wants you to encounter it while other things are occupying your attention.

Before today’s narrative begins, Mark reports Jesus sends His disciples out in mission. “So, they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.”

After this section ends, Mark reports how the disciples come back to Jesus from their mission and share with Him God’s wonderful work. “The disciples returned to Jesus and told Him all that they had done and taught.”

In between, however, we have this account of Herod and John the Baptist and a girl who dances into palace intrigue only to come out with a prophet’s head on a platter. Why does Mark arrange things this way? (I mean, hearing about a vision with a plumbline does not seem so troublesome now!) While the disciples are out in mission, why does Mark force us, the readers, to sit and remember this sordid tale? While we could find many reasons, there are a few that are instructive for faith.

First, Mark, like the prophets, wants us to know that the preaching of the Kingdom will awaken real guilt for real sin in the lives of real people. Sometimes, we can distance belief from life. Christianity can become a teaching we agree to, a confirmation class we pass, rather than a release from horrible sin to a holy life we never knew existed.

As the story begins, notice how Mark tells us that the preaching of the apostles awakened a memory in Herod. “When Herod heard of it” – that is the preaching and the works of the disciples – “he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded has been raised.’”

God is a living God, and He works by His Word to awaken our conscience to sin, real sin, committed by real people, in a world which is really fallen.

Herod’s tale is sordid, certainly, but so is mine and so is yours. Apart from Christ there is no end to the evil we would do. Even in Christ, we have had times when we have struggled and fallen and failed.

True Christianity, a faith that is more than a matter of knowledge, experiences the sorrow for sin and the blessed grace of forgiveness at the hand of Jesus who comes to save sinful people like you and me.

Amos, Ezekiel, and the other prophets drew the dramatic picture of the sin of God’s people – they spoke what many wanted, unspoken.

Similarly, our polite conversation does not permit us to talk about our sins, the holy conversation we have with God sounds much more like the fear of Herod. We name our sins before God, with full transparency and no defense, because we know redemption is messy. And “[t]he saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

Second, Mark wants us to know that mission is messy. In fact, sometimes it is deadly. What happened to John, his death for proclaiming God’s Word, is just a foreshadowing of what will happen to Jesus. And what happened to Jesus is a picture of what will happen to the disciples too, as they take up their cross and follow Him. But God works amid this mess.

There is a reason seeds grow in the soil. There are things about the beginning of life that are hidden to human eyes. God’s work is mysterious. Saving mysteries happen underneath the surface that no one can see. Salvation comes in suffering. In death, Jesus bears God’s real wrath for our real sin and, in His resurrection, Jesus reveals God’s real life which rules over His Kingdom and can never be shaken.

So, perhaps it is not so strange to have this story told in our midst today or for us to be reminded that God’s people were exiled because of their lack of listening and because of their wretched sin.

Beloved, we are people who have been saved from sin and who are not afraid to talk about it. Why? Because our Savior is here. And we can listen as He invites us to His feast in His Kingdom that has no end. Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

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Sermon study helps from: Rev. Paul R. Raabe, PhD, professor emeritus, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri; professor, Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, Arizona [(Concordia Pulpit Resources, St. Louis, Missouri, 2021) Vol 31, Pt 3, Y4B, electronic version] Also from Jeffrey Pulse (STM, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN; PhD, University of Durham, England) and David Schmitt (MDiv, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis; PhD, Washington University, St. Louis) https://www.1517.org/sections/craftofpreaching, accessed on July 6, 2021.