PENTECOST 6, B – July 12, 2009

SCRIPTURES – Amos 7:7-15; Eph. 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29 

What do we learn from today’s readings? Be careful what you say! Keep your mouth shut! If only, for instance, King Herod had kept his mouth shut and not promised his wife’s daughter, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” Who knew that she would ask for John the Baptist’s head on a platter? Of course, perhaps if John had talked only about the coming Messiah and kept his mouth shut about Herod’s marriage to Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife – after all, what business was it of his? – he would not have gotten Herodias mad and would have kept his head. And what about Amos in our Old Testament reading? If he had kept his mouth shut and not spoken out against King Jereboam, he would not have gotten the priest Amaziah mad at him and been told to leave the country. How many times do we create problems for ourselves when we open up our mouths! We had better learn to keep them shut! You know the old adage, “If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all.”  

Is this what today’s readings teach us? Is this why this terrible story of Herod cutting off John’s head was written, so that we would learn not to speak foolishly? Obviously not. There’s a great difference between Herod’s speaking and John’s speaking, isn’t there? Herod spoke foolishly, and not from faith. He did not speak to honor God. John spoke God’s truth to Herod in an attempt to turn him from his sin. John believed God’s Word. He spoke it and lived it. Herod was intrigued by God’s Word. He respected John and loved to listen to his preaching. But, he did not allow it change him. 

What is the purpose of God’s Word? What impact will you allow it to have in your life and on your life? What reaction can we expect to God’s Word? That is what today’s readings are all about. God’s Word is a plumb line that He has set in our midst. A plumb line was a cord with a weight on the end which would hang down and make a perfectly vertical line. Carpenters and masons used it to keep their work straight, their stones and walls vertical and in line. A vertical and straight wall was a strong wall. A crooked, leaning wall would weaken and fall. 

God has set His Word in our midst as a plumb line. He tells us in Ephesians that He chose us in Christ “before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” This is not a holiness that we can only long for and look forward to in heaven. Thanks be to God, He works it now as by His Word He directs and shapes our lives! “In [Christ] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” Ephesians says. As you listen to His Word, God’s Holy Spirit comes to you to make you holy. He comes to turn you away from your sin, to unite you to Christ and so make you holy, and to dwell in you. Ah, but do you want God’s holiness? 

God’s holiness is an otherworldly holiness. He does not give us His Word and preaching to make us comfortable in our lives and world. He gives it to “bless us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” In heaven Christ is praised by all, for He has all power and authority and shines with the Father and the Holy Spirit as the holy God. During His ministry on this earth, however, He lived as a simple man in poverty and weakness. He was despised and rejected by most. Why? Because He pointed out the sinful beliefs and practices, not of others, but of His own “church going” people – as Amos and the other prophets before him did. For this Jesus was rejected and crucified by His own people. And so, if you are in Christ — well, first of all you are blessed forever! “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” is yours! God is looking on you with love and mercy! He does not look with anger upon any of your sins, for in Jesus we have “redemption through his blood, the forgive-ness of our trespasses.” You have a great inheritance awaiting you, eternal life with God and His people in heaven! You can be sure of this, for it is He who chose you in Christ and joined you to Him in faith. But: these blessings, and so many more, are “in the heavenly places.” Now, this means that they are certain. No earthly power can prevent them or take them from you. But this also means that these great blessings are hidden to our earthly eyes. They are hidden under our own sins, as well as under the rejections and persecutions we experience when we follow God’s Word. God will use these rejections and persecutions to make the holiness of His Word and the evil of sin more clear to us, and so turn us from our sins. Yes, God forgives our sins, because of Christ’s sacrifice does not look upon them with anger to punish us. This does not mean that He ignores our sins, however. No, by the plumb line of His Word He points them out and calls us to turn from them to Christ. By His Word He shows us what is good. He hangs the plumb line and shows us the way we should go, that we might stand straight, be strong, and so honor Him and be a blessing to many. 

In this life many won’t like your standing on God’s Word. We see this from the response to John and Amos. Your straight life and belief will reveal the crookedness of other beliefs and their weakness. You can then expect God’s Word to be rejected, and to share in that rejection. There is ample evidence of this. The people to whom Amos prophesied, for instance, protested that they were not able to bear all his words. They did not want to hear his call for them to change, and so they rejected him and drove him out. That response remains to this day, and even among Christ’s followers many cannot "bear all his words" and would rather pick and choose what they will listen to. This is why, for instance, you can find churches that:

q   Proclaim homosexuality to be not only acceptable but God-pleasing, even though the Bible clearly and consistently condemns it;

q   Do not speak out against and condemn abortion, but support it;

q   Say little about marriage, divorce, and the proper exercise of one’s sexuality.

There are many preachers and churches out there. You can find what you want. There were also many preachers in John the Baptist’s day – but John was the one that God sent. He spoke out against Herod’s marriage because God speaks about marriage. It is not a private matter. Nothing in our lives is private, for we are God’s. We are not to pick and choose among His words but are to follow all He says and so honor Him with our lives. 

Will you do so? Will you listen to God’s Word and learn it? Will you allow it to teach you and, if it is contrary to what you had thought and calls you to change how you live, will you follow it? If you do not do so, you will be like Herod: a man who loved to listen to preaching, but did not allow it to change him. You will be a crooked and weak wall that will fall, and great will be your fall. You will not stand in God’s judgment. But, if you listen to and follow it, if you turn from your ways to follow what God says, He will make you strong. Christ’s righteousness will hold you up, and you will stand straight and true and strong, even though the powers of this world and hell itself beat against you. You will be able to boldly sing with Luther:

The Word they still shall let remain

Nor any thanks have for it;

He’s by our side upon the plain

With His good gifts and Spirit.

And take they our life,

Goods, fame, child, and wife,

Though these all be gone,

Our victory has been won;

The Kingdom ours remaineth!  (LSB #656, verse 4)