We are reading this passage in a church building dedicated to the ‘Decollation of John the Baptist’ or in plain English, the beheading of John the Baptist. It is a powerful reminder that when true speaks to power it cannot be silenced, even by the powerful. We need this reminder in a world where the powerful flex their muscles at the expense of the innocent because we can give way to the lie that violence pays. We cannot retreat into silence or turn our backs on those who speak truth to power.History records and remembers the courage of those who speak truth to power and their voice is heard long after they have been killed, as in the case of Alexie Navalny. In the Netflix interview he gave he ends his message with the words ‘When I am dead do not stay silent, do not be inactive’. The 18th-century English philosopher, Edmund Burke, expresses the same message. ‘The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’The beheading of John the Baptist as recorded by Mark sets up the the contrast between the weakness of Herod who holds all the power of a dictator and the power of John the Baptist’s words, who is imprisoned and finally killed by Herod.The words of John the BaptistLet’s look first at the words of John the Baptist. We know he spoke out against the corruption and cruelty of Herod Antipas, the puppet ruler of Galilee, and specifically condemned his adultery with his brother’s wife, Herodias. For this, he was imprisoned and yet kept alive by Herod because he was fascinated and drawn to him by his message of ‘Repentance’, a chance to change direction and embrace a new way of ruling and living.Herod’s ‘power’Herod, in his heart, knew that this was what he wanted, but he was in the grip of powerful forces. Herodias holds him in her thrall, and he is under the sway of courtiers and political brokers. He boasts of a ‘Kingdom’, but in reality, he is just a puppet of the Roman Empire.When, two years after this event, Herod petitions Emperor Augustus for the title of King, he is exiled to Gaul where he dies in disgrace. Despite this show of wealth and the power of life and death, then, he is weak within and without. When the moment comes to decide the fate of John the Baptist, he acts not to save John, but to ‘Save face’.Pilate and the Condemnation of JesusThroughout this passage, Mark is deliberately drawing comparisons with the trial and execution of Jesus. Jesus’s words are a challenge to the religious and military authorities,and he is arrested and put on trial. Pilate, his judge, knows that he is innocent of any crime against the Roman state, but is swayed by the religious authorities, who threaten to report him to Caesar and by the mob they have roused to fury and who threaten Pilate with rioting in the streets. Against his better judgment, and to ‘Save face’ Pilate condemns Jesus to death.The New KingdomThe parallels that Mark draws between these two men point our attention to the hidden message in this account. For all Herod’s boasts about his ‘Kingdom’, it does not exist, and if he has any power it is rapidly fading away. In contrast the ‘New Kingdom’ is growing, as Mark illustrates, by telling of the successful mission to the towns and villages of Galilee.‘So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them’ Mark 6:14The Kingdom of God is growing, whilst the Kingdoms of this world are fading away. When Herod hears of the teaching and miracles of Jesus he utters the prophetic words:‘John whom I beheaded, has been raised.’ Mark 6: 16He was right in so many ways, for the truth cannot be silenced, it remains the truth even if those who carry the message are killed. I think that Herod secretly wished that John was not dead and that he might have a second chance to repent. However, though John the Baptist was not raised, Jesus was and offers to all the promise of new life, the assurance of forgiveness, and as a witness for all time, to the truth that can bring down and destroy the evil empires of this world.The gift of grace.There is a message for us all here, for the witness of John the Baptist is to God’s gift of grace. Why did Herod hold him in captivity, was it not because he longed to be free of the forces that held him in captivity? Did he not long for a second chance, to hear the message of God’s grace, a way to start again? Herod lost that chance when he had John beheaded, but we have that chance because Jesus has been raised and his voice has not been silenced, 'Good News’ of God’s love is held out to all eternally and unconditionally.A love that is stronger than deathPaul, in his letter to the Romans, put it like this:‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ? …I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Romans 8: 35-39That love is only made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus, it is a love that gave itself for others and overcame the powers of this world that wished to silence it. We must keep the faith with people like John the Baptist and indeed, Alexie Navalny and many others around the world, saints and martyrs who live by the power of love and not the love of power.
I haven’t seen any Parrakeeps in the Cotswolds yet, but I expect they are here. They have reached most parts of England and have recently been seen in Scotland. Coming from the foothills of the Himalayas our temperate climate appears to be just right for the ‘Ringed necked Parakeet’ and there are now thought to be around 50,000 in the UK. Stories of how the Parakeet first escaped into our parks and gardens are fanciful, maybe Jimi Hendrix did release a couple or did they escape from the set of the ‘African Queen’ in Shepperton Studios? Nobody knows.What is a real mystery is how this Cockatoo, (perching just above and to the left of the Madonna’s head) only found in Australasia, ended up in a 15th century painting by Andrea Mantegna called the ‘Madonna della Vittoria’ three hundred years before Europeans discovered the continent.Heather Dalton, working on her doctorate in Melbourne, Australia first spotted the Cockatoo and recognized it as the iconic Australian Sulfur- Crested Cockatoo found on the Australian $10 bill, realised that it must have been traded around the coasts of Indonesia and India and have probably have ended up In Venice which had extensive trade links with the East. Having lived in captivity on its long journey the Cockatoo would have picked up and could mimic several languages, but sadly the records do not tell us which ones! However the bird would have been an exotic and valuable exhibit in the court of Francesco Gonzaga who commissioned the painting in 1493.Cockatoos appear in European manuscripts dating back to the 13th century not just as signs of wealth and culture but as a religious symbol, as seen in Durer’s ‘Madonna with child’ 1533. The Cockatoos ability to mimic human speech was considered miraculous and by way of association came to illustrate the Virgin Mary’s miraculous conception and thus its appearance in Mantegna’s ‘Madonna della Vittoria’. The Cockatoo is there to tell us that Mary is different, maybe even divine!The Carpenter?Something similar is happening in Mark’s account of Jesus as he preaches in the Synagogue at Nazareth.“What’s this wisdom that has been given him that he even does miracles. Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son...”Mark 6: 2-3. Up to this point all the old explanations of the world seemed adequate, but they had no words to explain Jesus. None of the ways they understood other people seemed to fit. He was more than a Carpenter, he was different from all his brothers and sisters, (Described as Mary’s son rather than Joseph’s), maybe then, some thought, he was John the Baptist, now raised from the dead. Even the disciples were at a loss, “Who is this man?” they asked after he had stilled the storm on Lake Galilee.The world in which Jesus lived was just like ours, they could only explain it in ways that were familiar to them. Family, culture, history, experience had shaped and limited their ideas; there was no need to understand the world in any other way, until they met Jesus.Donald English in his commentary on Mark puts it like this. ‘There are certain ‘canons of acceptability’ which influence people subconsciously, and make it harder or easier for them to accept ideas presented to them. Such untested impressions include, ‘If you can’t prove it you can’t know it’, ‘Only this life matters’, ‘You have to put yourself first if you want to survive’, and ‘Life is what it appears to be’. These and many other assumptions stand in the way of people accepting and believing the good news about Jesus’.The Messiah?There were however people amongst whom Jesus found a willing acceptance, those who needed him. The sick, the outcast, the troubled in mind and spirit, the widows and orphans who nobody had time for. All these people turned to Jesus because they had no other alternative. Maybe because they themselves found no place in a society that valued family and culture and respectability, they, like Jesus, were not ‘acceptable’.We, like those who met Jesus, are challenged by his words, his miracles, his life, death and resurrection. They do not fit into any of the categories of explanations that we use to explain the world to ourselves and others. This is not a reason for rejecting his claims; rather it is a reason for rethinking our world and the way it works. The disciples were sent out into the surrounding villages with a message of ‘Repentance’, meaning ‘change the way you think!’ Just like that Cockatoo perched over Mary’s shoulder we are reminded that there are other worlds out there and other ways of seeing the world we live in!Rev. Simon BrignallI am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
You may have noticed that at the foot of my emails I have put the words: ‘I can be contacted from Thursday to Sunday’.This was at the suggestion of The Bishop Rachel who emphasised that a ‘House for duty’ Priests must protect their time and parishioners must respect their off duty days. With great respect for Bishop Rachel, I have to admit that I never thought it would work and I now prefer to say I work half days. This allows me, among other things, to answer emails when I receive them, and take funerals when the family wants them, but it also allows me to answer those unexpected calls at the door or meetings in the streets when I’m ‘off duty’.Interruptions are important, and often lead to significant developments. Take the example of Leonardo Da Vinci’s unfinished work, ‘The Adoration of the Magi’. It is unfinished because he ran out of money and headed to Milan to curry favour with the duke who eventually commissioned ‘The last Supper’, and that was that for the ‘Adoration of the Magi’ – the painting remains a draft, but we have ‘The last supper’! Interruptions are often the most important moments in our ministry. Today’s gospel account tells of an interrupted journey that highlights an important dimension of Jesus ministry.Interruptions Jesus was preaching to the crowds who had gathered to hear him, when he was approached by Jairus, a leader of the synagogue. A man of wealth and status who, nevertheless, falls at his feet and begs him repeatedly:“ My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well.” Mark 5: 23 But he is, in turn, interrupted by a woman who, according to the ritual laws of the day, would have been considered ‘Unclean’. Her attempts to remain hidden are uncovered by Jesus who senses that: ‘Power had gone from him’ Mark 5:30. He is not angered by her afrontary as other religious leaders would have been but commends her faith. His dealings with this woman are a sign of what was to be his most important act of service to humanity.FaithIt appears that these two encounters are about healings, and yet we know that there were many sick and dying people who were not healed by Jesus, so we cannot assume that this account is to give us faith to pray for ‘healing’. Instead it is to give us faith to reach out to seek something more than healing. Notice several details about each encounter that speak of faith. Both Jairus and the woman are prepared to cross ritual and social barriers that were defined by the Law. Their relationship to Jesus is defined not by the ‘Law’, but by ‘Faith’.Often our prayers are, understandably, determined by our own needs and desires, but as we reach out in prayer, whether our prayers are answered or not, we are drawn into a relationship with Jesus which will transform our lives. This is the true healing that Jesus brings, a healing of our broken relationship to God.Notice too how Jesus reaches out to these two very different people. One is of high status, the other low status, yet he embraces both, but not before giving preference to the most marginal and lowly of the two petitioners. There are no high or low status people in God’s Kingdom, all are his children.FamilyNotice how Jesus addresses the sick woman as ‘Daughter’ and later speaks to the dead child as ‘Daughter’. This is the relationship that Jesus seeks for each of us. As we pray we are drawn into the family of God and are enabled to call God ‘Our Father’Notice how Jesus uses touch to heal, and concerns himself with the physical need of the child for food. The sad story of the Romanian orphanages, discovered after the fall of Ceausescu’s dictatorship, demonstrates how children, isolated and deprived of love and touch do not develop normally. Although the children grew up to be physically human they did not become human persons. They could not speak, they could not relate to others, they could not give or receive affection.Part of the healing process is through ‘the laying on of hands’, it is more than a symbolic gesture, it is the means by which wholeness is communicated by touch. We are healed in a broader and deeper sense when our humanity is affirmed and relationships are established.ForgivenessThere is in these accounts a deep subtext which points to the moment of healing, the moment when we are uncovered and our needs exposed. Only at this point do our two petitioners access the healing faith that saves them. All the healings, all the exorcisms, all the teaching of Jesus point to the one great event of his life – his death and resurrection. In his death and resurrection he both exposes our needs and heals the broken and barren parts of our lives. As in the encounter with the woman with the haemorrhage, Mark emphasises not only the hopelessness of her situation, all the doctors had failed to heal her, but also hints at the shame of her condition, she did not want anyone to know the nature of her illness. The compassion of Jesus is clearly seen for he stopped what he was engaged in to speak to her. The completeness of her healing is both physical and spiritual for she now has the confidence to confess her healing.This woman in her desperation was not an interruption in the ministry of Jesus but an opportunity to demonstrate the reality of the Kingdom in our midst. No situation is too hopeless for Jesus, no condition too shameful to confess, no person beyond his healing touch, no situation that cannot be transformed by his presence.For Jairus, as a religious leader his appeal to Jesus must have cost him considerable embarrassment. He would have been very upset that this outcast woman should have been acknowledged by Jesus. He would have been insulted that his important business had been interrupted by this disturbance, and yet he had the humility and faith to follow Jesus and trust him for his daughter’s life. He found healing for himself and his daughter through the acknowledgment of his pride and his prejudice.The Church and Jesus: Could the same be said of the Church? Are we disturbed by the agenda of Jesus, insulted that our business is interrupted by his mission. If this is so, then we must examine how we do our business, for the business of the Church is to point beyond itself to God who is able to transform us, not just cure us, to point to a radically new life, not just a comfortable life.Rev. Simon Brignall.
Las Meninas has been recognised as one of the most important paintings in the history of western art. With its mirrors and windows we are challenged to see things in a new way.Eyes to see.The Church and the Kingdom of God: Mark 4: 35 -41/2 Cor. 6: 1 – 13. Does art or poetry matter in the face of violence or suffering? Can words arranged on a page or painted on a canvas, alter the facts of war or terror or racism or poverty? WH Auden, once famously, said “Poetry makes nothing happen.”. And yet he wrote those words in a poem, one that honours fellow poet W.B Yeats. He goes on to say of poetry: “ It survives, a way of happening, a mouth.” Few would say that the value of poetry lies in making something happen in the world. As W.H Auden said elsewhere, “ If the criterion of art were its power to incite action, Goebbels would be one of the greatest artists of all time.” And yet, poetry makes us see and feel in ways we otherwise wouldn’t; it makes vivid what we would otherwise ignore. Jesus, the poet, Jesus the artist, teaches us to see the world in a new way. The Church has always struggled to understand how Jesus changed the world when evil still clearly continues its destructive work in the world. This was the experience of the early Christian community in Rome at the time Mark wrote his Gospel. Nero was Emperor and had singled out the Christians for a violent persecution after the Great fire of Rome in Ad 64. This is thought to be the historical setting of the Gospel of Mark. A Gospel written for the Christian community in Rome to help them understand the situation in which they were living. A community claiming the kingdom of God had arrived and the victory of God established by the triumph of the Cross and Resurrection but still a small and frightened group of poor and marginal people on the edge of society and now in danger of extinction. The writer to the Hebrews put this contradictory experience in this way:‘Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, he left nothing outside His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him, but we see Him… namely Jesus crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death.’ Hebrews 2: 8-9 There are many of us who would identify with the disciples in Mark’s account of the storm on Lake Galilee. We can see the chaos of the world around us, the continuing violence and the suffering that threaten to overwhelm so many, and we ask ‘where is God?’ For some this has undermined their faith in a loving God and led them to believe that we really are alone in this world without a Saviour. The problem of Evil poses a question to all who claim that there is a God who cares for us and has indeed delivered us from evil. This was the question on the minds of the disciples as they sailed into the storm. Jesus was asleep in the boat, apparently unaware and unconcerned with the disaster that was about to overcome them. “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Mark 4:38. The response of Jesus is to ask “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40. What was Jesus talking about? Not faith in the boat, nor faith in themselves. Clearly both were inadequate in the circumstances. Faith does not look first at the world around us, or even at the resources available to us. Faith looks first at Jesus and asks, as the disciples did, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him” Mark 4:41. The Church, it could be said, has not yet come to terms with the presence of Jesus Christ, living in the midst of us. Maybe we might add that the Church often behaves as if Christ is nowhere to be seen. It struggles on with its plans and projects and forgets that the power lies not in the institution, the boat, if you like, but in the master of the boat. So what difference has Jesus, the Saviour made? Where is he? What is he doing? We echo the disciples, but we also reflect their lack of faith. Jesus taught us to see the world in a new way. The Kingdom has arrived! Jesus came amongst us announcing that ‘the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom is at hand.’ (Mark 14) We celebrate the presence of God, revealed to us in all His fullness in this season of Trinity. The Father, Sustainer of the world, Jesus the Saviour of the world, and the Holy Spirit the presence of God living in His Body, the Church, and at work in the world to make His Kingdom known. The Kingdom will come! However we still pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ because we continue to look for the fulfilment of Jesus' promise that there will come a day when evil will be banished, when wars will cease, when death and disease will pass away and the world will live in harmony with its Maker. Until that time we continue to live as Christ’s body on earth, a sign and a sacrament of that future Kingdom. We are not to be dispirited, or driven or despair by the triumph of evil, but are to: ‘Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith’ Heb 12:2. Between two worlds: The Church is called to live in these two worlds. The world we see around us where it appears nothing has changed, and yet to fix our eyes on Jesus who has overcome death and defeated evil, who has broken down the divisions between men and women, races and religions. ‘But we see Jesus’ Hebrews 2:9. A few days after this incident on the lake, Jesus appeared again on the lake. He called Peter to leave the security of the boat and come to him. All was well until Peter took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the waves around him. Give us faith, Lord, to keep our eyes fixed on you. Rev. Simon Brignall.
