Sunday Worship 14 July 2024 | St. Andrew's United Reformed Church

Today’s service is led by the Revd Wayne Hawkins

Welcome and Introduction

Good morning. My name is Wayne Hawkins and I’m the minister at Guildford United Reformed Church and serving at the Spire in Farnham. Welcome to worship.

Call to Worship

Creator God for the wonder of your world, we praise you, with hearts and hands and voices. Compassionate Jesus for your unconditional love, we praise you, with hearts and hands and voices. Cajoling Spirit who unsettles and challenges us, we praise you, with hearts and hands and voices. With hearts overflowing with gratitude, with hands active in care for others, with voices raised in praise and worship we meet together in your name.

Hymn Now Thank We All Our God
Martin Rinkart (1636); Translator: Catherine Winkworth (1858). Public Domain BBC Songs of Praise

Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done, in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us,
to keep us in his grace, and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills of this world in the next.

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
the Son and Spirit blest, who reign in highest heaven
the one eternal God, whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Prayer of Approach and Confession

Loving and faithful God, we come into your presence rejoicing.
To sing your praise, to hear your words of acceptance
to share your all-inclusive love.

Be present with us in this time together as we come to worship you.
Knowing that we are called to walk the way of Jesus
we come just as we are and experience your welcome here.

Living Jesus, You show us that God is love:
You love with a love which reaches to all people;
with a love which keeps no record of wrong; with a love that never ends.

Console us where we feel sad;
come close where we are lonely;
forgive us where we are feeling guilty;
reassure us where we are anxious.
Speak our names in the voice we recognise as the one who made us,
who knows us inside out; and cares for us more than any other,
the one who has promised never to leave or let us go.
So that in this we may go from here comforted, pardoned,
strengthened and cheered, better able to serve you in your world
and to live in the fullness of life that you give us and all people everywhere.

Reading Mark 6:14-29

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’ For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

Hymn Inspired by Love and Anger
John Bell © 1987, 2017, WGRG, c/o Iona Community, GIA Publications sung by members of Upper Clyde Parish Church and used with their kind permission. OneLicence # A-734713

Inspired by love and anger, disturbed by need and pain,
informed by God’s own bias, we ask him once again:
“How long must some folk suffer? How long can few folk mind?
How long dare vain self-interest turn prayer and pity blind?”

From those forever victims of heartless human greed,
their cruel plight composes a litany of need:
“Where are the fruits of justice? Where are the signs of peace?
When is the day when prisoners and dreams find their release?”

From those forever shackled to what their wealth can buy,
The fear of lost advantage provoke the bitter cry:
“Don’t query our position! Don’t criticise our wealth!
Don’t mention those exploited by politics and stealth!”

God asks, “Who will go for me? Who will extend my reach?
And who, when few will listen, will prophesy and preach?
And who, when few bid welcome, will offer all they know?
And who, when few dare follow, will walk the road I show?”

Sermon

God of the prophets, whose word cuts through
the webs of power and holds the tyrant to account:
be with all who raise their voice against oppression and misrule,
who are imprisoned and abused for freedom’s sake;
help us to stand and speak with them and witness to your kingdom now;
through Jesus Christ, the name above all others. Amen

At the conclusion of Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot”, Estragon and Vladimir or Didi and Gogo stand beneath a tree, looking out over a desolate landscape. They talk about whether they should split up and go their different ways, or return the next day to their seemingly endless waiting for Mr Godot, in their final exchange they say:

Didi: Well, shall we go? Gogo: Yes, let’s go.

But the stage directions are that they do not move and so the play ends. It is an ambiguous closing scene leaving the audience wondering whether they give up waiting for Godot or return the next day. The bleakness and uncertain ending echoing much of the pain throughout the play.

John the Baptist is something of an ambiguous figure. Does he believe that Jesus is the Messiah or a Jew looking for the end of the world. The gospel stories about John give us conflicting information. In John’s gospel, the Baptist declares that Jesus is the Lamb of God and that “he must increase and I must decrease.” But they seem to have concurrent and competing missions in John’s gospel. And while the other three gospels have John recognise Jesus as “the one who is to come” at his baptism, later they have John’s disciples seeking Jesus out to ask “Are you the one who is to come, or are we waiting for another.”

John, like Jesus himself, seems to have been a protean figure, whom different groups can appropriate for their own agenda’s. Whatever John was he was a prophet who announced fiery judgement on the world and looked to its transformation, calling on those around him to be prepared. Troubled times and places seem to raise up end-of-the-world messengers, and John was not alone in preaching this message.

In Mark’s gospel, Herod is a divided man. He seems to be manipulated into executing John against his will, whilst contemporary portraits show him to be a ruthless tyrant in his own right. He is perplexed by John and fears his popularity. Here then, is more ambiguity. Herod should put John to death but he can’t bring himself to do it, because he is intrigued and befuddled by him.

The story of John the Baptist and Herod interrupts the account of the disciples being sent on a journey through the surrounding villages and their reporting back to Jesus on their successful mission enterprise. This is an example of Mark sandwiching one story between another to frame and interpret the story. In the midst of a positive telling of the disciples healing and preaching the good news of the kingdom, comes this unpleasant story of the murder of John, because he spoke uncomfortable truths to those in power. Not only is the parallel between Jesus and John but between John and the disciples. Mark’s story preparing readers for Jesus’ coming trials, but also preparing them for their own.

Truth telling is a perilous venture in a world that is frequently full of Herod’s and Pilates. From ancient prophets to people persecuted for their faith today we know something of the dangers associated with truth-telling. In the Statement of the Nature, Faith and Order of the United Reformed Church we say about ourselves that:

In things that affect obedience to God the Church is not subordinate to the state, but must serve the Lord Jesus Christ, its only Ruler and Head.

We are called to tell the truth in our contexts about the divisions and inequalities we encounter everyday which prevent life from flourishing. Every Open Table gathering of LGBTQI Christians and their allies tells the truth that everyone is welcome. Every asylum seeker and refugee that is welcomed and supported tells the truth that humanity is one. Every food bank bag of groceries tells the truth that you are my neighbour. Every solar panel on a church roof tells the truth that cannot continue to mis-use our world. Truth-telling and decisions that can be costly, but prompt us to ask where the church might have settled for something safer and institutional because speaking the truth was too dangerous.

The most obvious thing about this gospel story is the parallels between Jesus and John and between Herod and Pilate. Each innocently suffer at the hands of a personally divided political figure. Herod and Pilate both see good in the accused and left to themselves may have chosen freedom over a death sentence. Both, because of their own weaknesses, allow themselves to be manipulated and trapped into allowing a violent death. In both stories disciples come, take the body and place it in a tomb.

The story of John the Baptist and Herod is a morality tale about what happens when privilege becomes distorted and self-serving. Rome chose a leader to govern Galilee, and Herod represents a culture fuelled by egotism and power that will do anything to keep hold of it. It is a gruesome story filled with ambiguity. We know how it ends with John’s horrible murder. It is in some ways a typical martyrdom story, but it ends not with any prediction or vindication of the martyr’s life but with further ambiguity.

Where is the note of vindication or of balancing the scales in this story? John’s disciples simply gather up the body of their friend and bury it, and so the story ends on this dying note. There is no vindication for John, just as sometimes there is no vindication for us. His only validation comes through Jesus. We have seen that Jesus like John is arrested, executed and buried, but Jesus, unlike John, will not stay dead.

Jesus’ resurrection provides the vindication that John’s death lacks. John’s sufferings and our own where they go untreated are mysteriously wrapped up in the resurrection of Jesus. John’s story does not conclude with victory any more than our own stories always end on a cheerful note. We all experience moments of joy and triumph alongside weakness and suffering – life is full of ambiguity.

We affirm that God is love but this only makes sense if God will some day set right all that has gone wrong with our broken world. Wickedness that is unanswered and injustice that carries the day. John’s disciples will bury their friend, but that is not the end. Soon other disciples will fret about the broken body of their friend, but God in Jesus will be mysteriously present, bringing about resurrection, setting straight and transforming the world.

Our stories do not always end in triumph or vindication, but they are baptised into the story of Jesus, and that changes everything. Yes we embody tensions and contradictions, but maybe the good news for us today is that all the ambiguity about who we are, all our incompleteness, is beside the point, because our humanity, is taken up into the triumphant resurrection life that is Jesus.

Hymn Longing For Light, We Wait in Darkness
© 1993, 2000, Bernadette Farrell. Published by OCP. Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir accompanied by Andrew Ellams. Used with their kind permission. OneLicence # A-734713

Longing for light, we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people,
light for the world to see.