“Free To Lose”
Scripture Reading: Mark 6:14-29
Sermon Transcript for July 16, 2006
By Pastor Bob Coleman
Herod was despicable! How could he do that? How could he take such a wonderful man as John the Baptist who had declared, “Before you is Jesus, the Messiah, the Anointed One.” John was a character. He was not one necessarily you might be comfortable to invite into your own home because John was always truthful in his statements. He was called in before Herod and John told him, told Herod the King. He didn’t tell him what Herod wanted to hear. He told him what he needed to here. God was forthright and straight to the point. You’re sinful Herod. You married your brother’s wife and by some convoluted thing his niece I guess. It was so messed up in that household, Herod being the head of it, and had been for generations. Now this isn’t the same Herod that was alive when Jesus was born. It’s another generation. And the country and the people have been under not just the dictatorship of Rome but the terrible leadership of a series of kings.
But even with this despicable action to take the head of John the Baptist as a reward to a dancing girl, even with that there was something about John the Baptist that spoke to Herod. He was distressed at what he said, but he would ask him to come and speak to him. Herod was puzzled by what John said, not fully understanding. But still there was something to hold him to. If this scene had not happened, John the Baptist would not have had his head taken from him. Herod would have gone on in his despicable way. And we wouldn’t have had to ask the question, “Well what in the world does this have to do with me?” I’m not a king! I don’t have that kind of power. How do I relate to this mess of a king?
You relate to it because the basic problem with Herod was he wasn’t afraid to lose something so that he might gain something greater. And here’s basically what happened. Sometimes when people sin, they will sin in one way and then they will determine that maybe it’s not as bad as another and it gives them permission to do something else. This goes back to an old story, maybe you have heard about it. A preacher who went to a backslider’s church who was a known drunk, alcoholic, publicly would display his drunkenness and would usually fire off a shotgun from time to time just for the meanness of it, I guess. So the preacher went to talk to Ben. He said, “Can’t you see, Ben, that your sins that you are doing, there’s not one good thing that comes out of it?” Ben says, “Oh, preacher, I think you are wrong. A good thing that comes out of it is that I’m usually so drunk that when I fire off the gun, I couldn’t hit anybody anyway.” That’s a sad commentary on his drunkenness.
But sometimes people say, “Well, at least I’m not as bad as King Herod!” And maybe our sins we think are not as great relative to King Herod. But let me remind you of the definition of sin that says “It’s missing the mark that God has provided for us. The mark of God’s will and law.” Most of us identify sin related to the laws, the commandments, the things that come out of that. And, yes, you could list those off—“And have you done this or not done that?” And you can identify those as particular kinds of actions against people or actions against God that are called sins.
But there is a greater one—it’s missing the mark of God’s will! Yes, there are those people who come to church and they look good on the outside and they impress people because they’ve checked off those Ten Commandments and those rules and their laws and they’ve said, “Well, at least I’ll be a moral person and if people will see me on the outside then they really won’t have to know that when I leave this church, like a spider I go back to the web of my deceit and lies that I keep hidden.” I’m not talking about just addiction, or alcohol, or anything like that or drugs. Those are very obvious surface kinds of things. There are addictions that come in many other ways—sin nonetheless.--addiction to talk about people, rumors, spread information that’s incorrect. That’s one thing that seems to run rampant in churches by the way. There’s an old story about a lady who was back in the back of the church—always a favorite place which, by the way, my apologies to you right in front. You got here late so you couldn’t sit in the back. But this lady is in the back of the church and the preacher got into talking about the sin list as we call it and going through about adultery, stealing, killing, and checking them all off. And every time he would make a statement about it, she would say, “Amen, brother, keep preaching, keep preaching.” And he kept going on down the list of sins. Then he got to talking about gossip. And he talked about how bad it was to speak about other people particularly behind their back. If you’ve got a problem with a person, the Bible says you go to the person directly. Don’t talk about them around the corner type of thing. The preacher expected the woman to say, “Amen.” She was silent. But he did finally hear her mumble from the back and said, “Well, now he’s gone from preaching to meddling.”
It’s easy for us to convince someone else who has done the greater sin. It’s not so easy for us to be honest with ourselves and recognize that there isn’t one among us. We’re just the same—we’re sinners, going to the river all you sinners. The old rugged cross, a place where we are to hang up our sins, Christ has paid for them. But we still secretly go on and carry on our devious kind of ways doing what we want to do even if it’s not breaking the Ten Commandments but it is against God’s will. I don’t know how many times I have heard a person say, not the ministry but general, that they ran from God. They wanted to do something else. They kept thinking what God was telling them to do, they didn’t want to do so until they entered either into active ministry as a lay person to use their gifts and ability. But they had been running from God until that happened because they were fighting the will of God not just the letter of the law.
Sometimes we’ll even corporately do what is right on the surface but continue to do what is wrong and against God’s will in our hearts. Churches will do that. They could look good on the outside, but inside backbiting and deviousness, unethical actions. You know, it is more than just doing the right thing; it’s doing it also for the right reason. And we are called to understand that. And we are no different than Herod. We are just as despicable in the understanding of how we rebel against God’s will. We rebel against God’s law. They are righteous on the outside by action, but not in spirit. That’s why so often as we commission this youth group and adults to go, it’s not just the work that you do, it’s the spirit in which you go. It’s not just the outside actions or even the words that you use, it’s the spirit that is witnessed. And that’s something that takes time. It just doesn’t flow immediately out of a person’s life. It comes after a time of living with God and following God and begins to see greater good come out of us that we, ourselves, can account for.
You see what Herod got caught into was dealing with people. Well, he was a manipulator, conniver, and controller. He was still just responding to people. He was a people-pleaser. That’s why he made such a statement. Did you see what it said in Scripture? Now here he is before these people. He’s now got himself caught in a corner about John the Baptist. They’d asked for his head on a platter. And the king was greatly distressed. Now, if he really didn’t like John the Baptist, he wouldn’t have been distressed would he? But because, and here’s the distress, because of the oldest and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. He didn’t want to look bad in public. He didn’t want to unplease her. And that’s where Herod got into problems. He liked politics over real principles. And I don’t mean just political systems. I mean the politics of trying to please people. Please your boss, please your spouse, please your family, and please the pastor. Like looking good to the pastor, but not really wanting to. Not really doing so because God’s will has called you.
The image of a person who changes and re-images themselves depending upon who he is with is a chameleon. And politics, in both the professional sense and private sense of relating to people, draws out the worst of that in us. We shift and we change so we are one way with one group of people and we’re another way with another group of people. We’re Christian when we are with the Christian groups and we’re something else when we are with the other groups. And so Herod got caught in his own political game and he had to say things and have John’s head taken.
John the Baptist goes before this head of state and is truthful. And how often it is that we shy away from being truthful in love with people because we don’t want to ruffle the feathers or make them upset with us. But sometimes we have to be straight-forward with people simply, clearly, not in judgment, and for their sake. It’s not easy to do. But don’t go out and just jump into that. Think about what it is that you are saying. Think about the desire to help someone else to get out of a pit that they’ve gotten themselves in to, the hole in which they have fallen.
The king was greatly distressed but because of his political alliances and his desire to please other people more, he did exactly the wrong thing. And Jesus knows this is going on. And he confronts this kind of sin at its worse. Because it’s the hypocrites, it’s the people that are right on the outside, but terribly, filled with bones and decay on the inside. Those are the ones He’s most condemning of. Not to condemn them for condemnation sake, but for the hope that they will turn around and see clearly what they need to do, to take responsibility for themselves, to not blame others, and to know fully that possessing the person with the wrong spirit will get them in trouble every time. These entitlements of political and personal alliances will get you. You can not keep them all together. And Jesus knows this. And He also knows the high cost of running up against such a system. The same evil force that took John’s head would be unleashed upon Jesus. Not just to be ridiculing of Him, but to destroy Him. We know what happens later.
So we are like Herod. Not exactly the same situation, but none of us can stand in the position where we see ourselves to be perfect on the outside and definitely on the inside. So be cautious how you play the political game, how you make yourself look good against someone else. And you do things because you know it is the right t thing that people expect of you rather than it’s the right thing that God wants you to do. It comes out of God’s will not just to meet the letter of the law.
When I was on vacation, I came across something. We were visiting family and they don’t even know I took it because it was on the outside of a door. And I was so intrigued by it. I thought, “I’ll find some place and some time where it will work”; and I think it works today. Maybe you have heard it. It’s called the “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters”, by Portia Nelson. And I want you to listen to these and watch these chapters as they lay before you. And if you find yourself described in here, so be it. If you don’t find yourself, but you find someone else, that’s okay too. Be compassionate to both if it’s yourself or someone else.
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
By Portia Nelson
Chapter I. I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost…I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter II. I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter III. I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…It’s becoming a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Chapter IV. I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
Chapter V. I walk down another street.
It seems so simple. An old rule my Dad always said he lived by, “If you get stiff in the joints, don’t go in those kind of joints.” I never understood the wisdom of that until I read this. One of the greatest things about a changed life is that you go a different route. Maybe not at first, not easily, maybe you still fall in for a while, but you eventually recognize, “I am at fault. It is my choice to follow God’s law, to follow God’s will. I really can’t blame anybody else.” But ultimately and eventually is that we take a different street altogether. We avoid those pits, those pitfalls of life. If you are dealing with something in your life that is a pit for you and you have been falling in for a long time, I’m not just talking about addictions of the body but addictions of the mind and of the heart that go against God’s will and go against God’s law. If you are plagued and troubled, maybe this autobiography will give you hope. Because it is exactly the hope that God gives every one. That by the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ you can take a new street with God’s help.
Let’s take a moment of prayer where you consider, for yourself or for a loved one, the pits that you’ve fallen into or that they have, and seek God’s grace and forgiveness to go down a different street. Let’s join together in prayer. (Silent prayer) “Precious God, may each one here be given the freedom to lose that which is binding them, holding them down, pulling them into the pit so that they might need new life, your love and your grace. So that indeed, at the end of the day, they may be able to say it is well with their soul. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen”
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