Pentecost 7B – Lectionary 15
July 11, 2021
Grace, Waseca, MN
Mark 6.14-29
Preaching can be a dangerous affair. Just ask Amos, just ask John the Baptist, just ask Jesus. One may have some sympathy for the priest Amaziah, who only wants to preach good news to King Jeroboam. And then comes along this usurper of a traveling preacher calling the king to account for his misdeeds. Yet Amos cannot stand in the way of God’s powerful word no more than John or Jesus can. Both of them are speaking truth to power to their respective secular leaders, Herod and Pilate. The similarities are eerie. Both preachers are viewed favorably by them but they are both easily manipulated and, though seemingly in charge, become helpless in the flow of events. Preaching can be a dangerous affair.
Mark has laid out for us another masterfully told story with vivid detail and intriguing characters. And as a sidebar, it’s the only place in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus is not present yet the story has huge implications for him. It’s important to note that this story is the meat to last week’s and next week’s sandwich bread. Just prior to this reading, Jesus sends out the twelve nascent preachers on a mission, warning them that their preaching may not be welcomed. And next week we’ll hear of their return for their debriefing and some intended time away. Mark’s point seems clear: preaching is a dangerous affair. What happened to John will happen to Jesus, what happened to Jesus will happen to his disciples, and what happened to them may happen to those who come after them.
There has been a common refrain heard by preachers from parishioners in the last decade: no politics in the pulpit! Well, tell that to Amos who gets in a load of trouble preaching to King Jeroboam. Tell that to John the Baptist who loses his head to Herodias who doesn’t like his message. Tell that to Jesus whom we know was “crucified under Pontius Pilate.” Tell that to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died at the hands of the Nazis days before he would have been liberated. Tell that to Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned for preaching against apartheid in South Africa. Tell that to Bishop Oscar Romero, who was brutally slain while performing mass in El Salvador for speaking against governmental atrocities. I could go on.
In a 1902 newspaper column, Finley Peter Dunne said of newspapers, “they … comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable,” a phrase picked up by many leaders but especially as something of a mission statement for preachers. Preaching is dangerous for preachers because it’s dangerous for listeners, or it ought to be. Annie Dillard, speaking about God’s powerful word says this: “It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.” God’s word does something in, with, and through us. This past week a colleague said that she prefers to use the word “provoked” instead of “afflicted,” and I agree with her.
Once in awhile a seasoned member of a congregation will reminisce about a preacher from a bygone era saying, “When he preached you knew you were being preached at.” I understand what they mean as I was reminded of an event during my American Lit class at Gustavus Adolphus College. Professor Gerhard Alexis shook his finger at us, saying “You hang by a slender thread.” He was of course channeling 18th c. theologian Jonathan Edwards with a quote from his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Indeed, we Freshman American Lit students were provoked just as Edwards’ listeners were. You see, preaching is dangerous for listeners because the gospel makes a claim on our lives. We are people on the way seeking to live out and live into God’s kingdom, living the abundant life God intends for us. Indeed, we are “already but not yet.”
Preaching is a dangerous affair, but we preachers wouldn't do, couldn’t do, anything else because God lays a claim on us. It is a joy to proclaim God’s grace, mercy and love, but it is also a great responsibility. Today we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pr. Paige’s ordination and tenure here at Grace. I hope you will thank her for those times when she has comforted you in your afflictions, but I hope you will also thank her for those times she provoked you in your comfort zones. And I’m going to invite you to do one more thing: take the Celebrate insert home, read through it devotionally, asking yourself, “What might God be saying to me in this text? Where am I finding comfort, but where might God be prodding me to deeper life?” So, put your crash helmets on, strap yourselves in and Let’s Go! into the world, comforted and provoked. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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