Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 7/14/2024
Centering Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, may your will be done, through me.
The best thing about Bible stories like this one Is that there are not many of them!
Talk about a way to ruin your birthday party -
'Now for dessert, Herodias, bring in the platter!'
'And no running now to the Vomitorium!'
Most times when you guys come to church, we have uplifting passages about the Lord as our Shepherd, Jesus as our light, and we shy away from graphic stories of decapitation...
But not unlike John the Baptist's fate, life is, indeed, very messy.
We cannot deny this - things happen without notice or explanation.
21 people gunned down in Detroit at a block party...
We all have our public and silent stories of devastation and tragedy that have left us as stunned, unsettled, and perhaps just as grossed out - as this Gospel story.
This is a sermon about those things and those times.
What do we do in the face of those jarring, heart-wrenching, freaky, frightening events we didn't see coming and can't explain?
The title of today's sermon is 'The One Question' - because I want to suggest that you consider asking this one question in the face of your own puzzling God-mystery.
It's not the 'why' question -
Why did this happen to me?
Why did God allow this?
Why doesn't God take this away?
No, it's the 'what' question - Not a question of philosophical explanation - as much as it is of pragmatic action - In the face of your mystery, ask:
What good can come of this?
This doesn't mean by-passing the mourning or short-sheeting the healthy responses we need to have in coping with our trauma -
But it has to do with the brevity of life, of which we are all well-aware, as well as the best long-term, self-care there is: taking the focus off of our own pain - and putting it elsewhere:
What good can come of this?
What does this one question mean to you this morning?
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It means the world to a man I had lunch with this week.
His daughter was one of the 3 Michigan State students who were killed in that 2023 mass shooting.
I sat in silent concentration as he described his daughter - a gifted artist who loved to travel and whose charm and spunk had captivated her father.
He described the day and time he learned about her death - the frustration he had with the University's emergency response system - and the deep, indescribable and unbearable pain that is part and parcel of losing a child - especially in this manner.
He talked about the ways his family has processed the death -
And the way that's been most helpful for him.
He told me about his wife's interest in the 'why' questions -
Why our daughter?
What, God would you do this?
Why are we surrounded by so much senseless tragedy?
As most of us know - when someone offers you a response to these questions, don't walk away - run!
For those of you who are still following our schedule of Bible reading - who are reading the Bible through in a year - you know that this week we finished reading the Book of Job -
This is the one Bible book that is obsessed with answering these 'why' questions - as it is the story of a faithful follower of God who lost his children, house, riches, and reputation in one fell swoop - and whose friends spend 35 chapters of the book trying to explain why.
The book of Job mirrors real life.
We can easily spend the majority of it asking, why?
Yet, here is no real answer.
These things happen - and we simply don't now why.
That's why my luncheon companion said he has no time for them - but he does make time for the that question, the One Question:
What good can come of this?
I lost my daughter in a mass shooting at a school, how can I help other parents not lose theirs?
What good can come of this?
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I had a guest in town from Tennessee this week!
A Presbyterian minister I have known for 30 years - since seminary
He was in town to visit a woman he met online - for a first date!
Being a minister, he contacted me right away - looking for a free place to stay...
Like we ministers do...
I remember walking with him years ago after his marriage of 2 decades went from good to bad to worse - and his wife up and left once their children got into college.
We had countless late-night conversations as he tried to figure out why the marriage ended:
Was he a bad provider?
Was he inattentive?
Were they just not, fundamentally, a good match?
After all that internal evaluation - and the frustration with the fact that he'll never really know why - nor can he go back and change it - his focus has been on the one question:
What good can come of this?
He's seen a counselor.
He's drawn closer to God.
He's made sure that, this next time, he will look for things in a mate - qualities and attributes - that were missing from his first marriage.
He will use that very sad ending - to make a solid beginning - as he continues to ask:
What good can come of this?
How about you, in what ways might God be prodding you to ask the same question?
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This seems to be at play in our Gospel this morning -
King Herod - a selfish, scheming, ruthless leader - throwing himself a lavish birthday party for the big brass and blue bloods -
It's all too real - especially today - involving class, politics, hubris, and entitlement.
And after Herodias' daughter's captivating Dance of the Seven Veils - Herod takes one step too far - and paints himself into a corner - ordering the execution of a someone he kind of liked....
It's hard to have sympathy for a despot - but he's made the bed, and now he's got to sleep in -
And next thing we know John the Baptist is killed in a way that will inspire many a Mafia Don...
But did you notice what his disciples did?
Not much is mentioned - Certainly their response is not documented - but we might assume some were saying:
Why, God, did this happen?
Certainly, he was your servant - why did you let him die?
Why does his inspiring 'come back to God' campaign of renewal have to end - like this?
No - the disciples seemed more concerned with our one question:
What good can come of this?
Because they quite dutifully, expediently, in keeping with Jewish law, asked for and received permission, to bury him.
In the face of unspeakable brutality and tragedy:
What good can come of this?
They said goodbye to John -
And hello to Jesus -
We get a hint of what good could come of this as they asked The one question:
What good can come of this?
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In her hugely popular book called 'Lean In’ - tech executive Cheryl Sandberg describes the tragic death of her husband - He died at home of an aneurysm in their home gym, at 47.
And Sheryl went through what a lot of us do - in asking about the 'why?'
And she enumerated her response with 'the three P's'
They are Permanence, Pervasiveness, and Personalization.
In the death of her husband, the biggest tragedy of her life - she felt like she would never get over it - That the pain she was feeling, would never go away - that she would be permanently scarred by this tragedy.
In the death of her husband, she looked at the Pervasive nature of the loss as coloring every part of her life: since her husband died, her work would be a wreck, her relationship with her children would be ruined, her finances would never recover - she thought his death would have a pervasive effect on every part of her life.
And in the death of her husband, she immediately personalized it - she thought 'If I had just been there, he would not have died!' And this personalization simply ate away at her.
Just as it did King Herod - did you notice his take on Jesus: 'That's not Jesus! That's John the Baptist whom I had beheaded!' Coming back to haunt him! Taking personal responsibility for tragedies that have been around us is something we all do!
The reality behind Personalization, Permanence, and Pervasiveness is that they are all wrong!
Whatever tragedy you are facing this morning - and your attempt to answer the 'Why did this happen? Why is it happening to me? - your temptation will be to take the blame for it, to assume it will never go away, and to color every aspect of your life with it - and it's all wrong -
We all want answers to the 'why' questions - and it's time to let it go.
And one way to do that is to become more interested in the what question - the one question:
What good can come of this?
This is not a bad question to ask in light of what happened yesterday, in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a 20-year-old with an assault rifle shot at the president at a political rally there.
In the coming days and weeks we will learn more about this person, their ideology, their motive, but let me take you back to what we were doing yesterday.
As we stood in the front driveway of our church where three other groups outside of our property were not only protesting what we were doing, but trying to purchase weapons that we were attempting to destroy.
And in the parking lot across the street was a young man, perhaps he was 20, wearing a bulletproof vest, sitting on the back of a pickup, with an AR-15 assault rifle on his lap. Looking at us and waving at us.
When we ask what can come of this, let's talk about young people and guns.
Let's talk about the 90 chopped off guns in front of you this morning, and our attempt as a faith community, to do something about gun violence.
It is no surprise to any of us, that when people are angry, divided, fearful, and hopeless, they turn to guns, and we make a gun every 3 seconds in this country, making up 5% of the world population, we have 42% of the guns.
What good can come of this?
You and I can solidify our faith in Jesus, as people of Hope, as people of action, as people who won't sit down and let twisted kids, barely out of high school, put fear in the hearts and lives of 350 million Americans living in the most powerful country the world has ever know!
We can double down doing our work out in the community, where we are destroying guns, and tending to our small corner of the vineyard that God has asked us to tend.
St. Paul says, “Do not be like the gentiles who have no hope,” but trust in Jesus!
What good can come of this? You and I can dive deeper into Jesus, while this world is not our home, while our first country is heaven, we are still called, to be pillars of sanity, comfort, common sense, healing, and hope to the world.
We must root ourselves more deeply in Jesus who was not willing to kill but willing to die.
Saints - we have endured a lot in our lives -
You may have lost a daughter -
You may have lost a marriage -
You may have lost a husband -
This may not be the first assassination attempt you have witnessed!
I'm a priest, I wish I could tell you why -
But I can't tell you why - and I can't tell you not to Major on those questions –
But on the one question, what good can come of this?
And I can point us all to Jesus.
In closing, which I know are two of your favorite words that you like to hear from my sermons, in closing, I would like to end on Jesus
Think about his mission on Earth, to follow the example of the father, to a very confusing place, remember the garden of Gethsemane when he prayed for God to spare him from his pain?
You may be in your own garden of Gethsemane this morning.
Unable to sleep because of a personal issue in your life, or because of the state of our divided, fragile, and violent country!
You may be crying out to God in fear and worry - asking God for relief!
And that relief may not be coming!
So what did Jesus do?
He abandoned his quest for explanation stopped asking why, and instead asked what:
What good might come of this?
He trusted in the Father, did the next right thing, brought into the world a message and a work that continues to bring comfort, hope, and healing in your heart and in mine.
Let us be renewed as a people of God, looking to Jesus, our source of wisdom and comfort, and looking to each other, God incarnate in one another, to work toward that healing and hope - and bearing the message of peace to our world!
Amen