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The other day I went to a meeting for camp counselors. At the
meeting were about 100 adults and one small child. The child was
there with her daddy, whom I knew, so I sat beside the lost and bored
little girl and said, “This is where all the cool kids sit.”
Once she received a reassuring look from her father she began talking
with me.
I asked her if she was
out of school for the day and she said, “Daddy said I didn’t have to
go to school today, because I have a fever.” I suddenly felt the
urge to greet some of the adults who were gathering. Kids can
make us sick if we are not careful. They hang around a lot of
other sick kids, they don’t wash their hands as often as we would
like, they don’t always cover their mouths when they cough or when
they sneeze, and they sit right next to us when they are sick.
Kids can make us sick.
Of course, we can make
kids sick too. The other day I was visiting Isaac Starns in the
hospital. He is one of the seven week old twins who was born
prematurely and has had a lot of health problems. I washed my
hands twice before going back to where this tiny baby was. I
know that his immune system is not yet where it needs to be and I want
to make sure that germs to which I have become strong enough to
withstand aren’t communicated to this little child. We can make
kids sick and must be careful.
There is a more tragic
form of infection that spreads more easily than colds and viruses.
It is the infection that is transmitted almost daily. We would
do well to heed our own advice when our children cough or sneeze,
“Cover your mouth! You don’t want to make someone sick.”
It is easy to infect our children with all sorts of illnesses of the
soul. That is what we discover in Mark 6. There is only
one story recorded by Mark that is not specifically about Jesus.
It is this story of the infected child told in Mark 6:14-29.
Hear now the Word of the Lord:
14King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known.
Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and
that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15Others
said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like
one of the prophets of long ago.” 16But when Herod heard this, he
said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
17For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had
him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias,
his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. 18For John had been
saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s
wife.” 19So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill
him. But she was not able to, 20because Herod feared John and
protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod
heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.
21Finally the opportune time came.
On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and
military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22When the
daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his
dinner guests.
The king said to the
girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” 23And
he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to
half my kingdom.”
24She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
”The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
25At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want
you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
26The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his
dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27So he immediately sent
an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went,
beheaded John in the prison, 28and brought back his head on a platter.
He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. 29On
hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it
in a tomb.
The Word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God. In this passage Mark painted for his
readers a poisonous picture of infections inflicted on a child.
I wish that Herod and Herodias would have heeded the advice they
surely gave to Herodias’ daughter, “Cover your mouth! You
don’t want to make someone sick.”
We
infect children by example
There is an old parental
adage that says, “When it comes to parenting, more is caught than
taught.” I am guessing this was certainly true of Herod and
Herodias. Herod Antipas was the provincial ruler of Galilee and
Perea (an area to the east of the Jordan River). He always
wanted to be king and even married an Arab woman to position himself
politically. However, when his brother married Herodias, a
half-brother’s daughter, he found himself irresistibly drawn to her.
Perhaps it was love, lust, or a desire to show that he was more
powerful than his brother, but for whatever reason Herod Antipas
divorced his Arab bride and married his brother’s wife. John the
Baptist told Herod that this was wrong, but Herod seemed undeterred by
the prophet’s counsel. He liked to hear him preach, he just
didn’t follow what was proclaimed. Kenneth Cole wrote in his
commentary on the Gospel of Mark, “A glance at the family tree of
the house of Herod will show the succession of murders and incest that
it contained; one more murder was not surprising.” What
shocks us as we hear this story is rather predictable to even the
casual observer of humanity. More is caught than taught.
One study that I came
across this week reported that 97% of individuals institutionalized
for violent crimes were themselves abused as children. I am sure
that most of these individuals had been taught that it was wrong to
abuse another, but what they caught was that this is the way one
exercises power over another and the way that one handles conflicts.
The louder and stronger person wins.
I wish it were that
easy. I wish I could look over my life, breathe a sigh of relief
and say, “I have never done anything as distasteful and immoral as
Herod Antipas did, and I have never abused another nor have I been
abused to the extent that the incarcerated have. Therefore, I
have never infected a child by my example.” Of course, it is not
that easy. I have faults of my own. Faults that I see and
hear in my children. When I came home from school with all A’s
and one B, I know my parents did not mean to zero in on that one B,
but somehow it seemed that they did. So do I. When I
rationalize going above the speed limit, because I am running late, I
can lecture my children all I want about not speeding, but more is
caught than taught. When I talk about other people, it doesn’t
matter how much I tell my kids, “It’s not nice to gossip.” More
is caught than taught. Why can’t I follow the advice I gave to
my children when they were little? “Cover your mouth! You
don’t want to make someone sick.” We can infect our
children by our example.
We
infect children by Bitterness
Herodias was a bitter
woman. She disliked John the Baptist to the core. He had
confronted her sin, her wrongdoing, and she thought if she could
silence him, she would be better off. However, she could not get
to him. In some wimpy way he was protected by her husband, who
conceded to have John arrested, but not executed. The New
International Version states in verse 19 that she nursed a grudge
against him. I am quite certain that such bitterness had a
negative effect on her daughter. In fact, some commentators
believe that the dance of Herodias’ daughter, who is generally assumed
to be Salome, was a set up from Herodias herself, who knew all too
well the heart of her husband. The daughter apparently agreed to
the plan. She was infected by bitterness. I have seen it
happen all too often.
I was never that
surprised when Nellie Oleson acted so much like her mother, Harriet,
on the old TV show, Little House on the Prairie. I expected
Draco Malfoy to be much like his bitter father, Lucius, in the Harry
Potter books. It happens all the time. And while it may be
entertaining in books, television, and the movies, it is disastrous in
real life. There is a global pandemic of bitterness that is
infecting children near and far. We see it in racial tensions,
we hear it in political rhetoric, we read about it in the paper and on
the internet. This last week at Annual Conference, a meeting of
United Methodist clergy and church leaders, we voted to redirect funds
given for Burundi 14 years ago to the Ivory Coast. The reason –
the Hutus and Tutsis of Burundi have yet to settle their bitter
disputes which have left over 300,000 dead from battle, many more from
untreated AIDS, and even more from severe poverty. I have
witnessed this level of bitterness between blacks and whites, Greeks
and Turks, Romanians and Hungarians, Sudanese and Darfuris. I
have watched the junta forces of Myanmar refuse aid, because of
bitterness toward outsiders and some insiders. There is nothing
entertaining about it. Bitterness is deadly. Look at
Salome. Her mother tells her to request the head of John and she
adds to it that she wants it “right now” and “served on a platter”.
Beware of bitterness.
It is a ubiquitous infection. You will find it in the
nicest of places and in every home. If only we would heed our
own parental advice, “Cover your mouth! You don’t want to make
someone sick.”
We
infect children by Complacency
I wasn’t sure about this
word until I looked it up in Webster that defines complacency as “self
satisfaction when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or
deficiencies.” Such was the state of Herod Antipas, who
like Pontius Pilate, sought to evade the whole matter. He liked
John even if John was judgmental about his adulterous relationship
with his brother’s wife. He liked hearing him, though it stirred
him a bit, perplexed him. When the request was made to execute
the prophet, Herod did not want to honor the request, but the dinner
guests might think poorly of him if he went back on an oath.
After all, he did not want to appear dishonorable! Kenneth Cole
commented on the distortion of ethics in this story when one who
offers a dancing girl half of his kingdom is perceived as generous and
one who complies with a wrong demanded is seen as faithful. He
remained complacent when he was so close.
Jack Johnson sings a
song condemning complacency entitled, “The News”:
A
billion people died on the news tonight, but not so many cried at the
terrible sight. Well mama said, “It's just make believe.
You can't believe everything you see. So baby, close your eyes to the
lullabies on the news tonight.”
Who's the one to decide that it would be alright to put the music
behind the news tonight? Well mama said, “You can't believe everything
you hear the diagetic world is so unclear. So baby, close your
ears on the news tonight - the unobtrusive tones on the news tonight.”
And mama said, “Mmmm-mmmm.”
Why
don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die? At
least they could be decent enough to put just a tear in their eyes.
Well mama said, “It's just make believe. You can't believe
everything you see. So baby, close your eyes to the lullabies on the
news tonight.”
Don’t you want to tell
mama what surely she taught that little boy, “Cover your mouth!
You don’t want to make someone sick.” It is not make believe.
The church is being
accused worldwide of being complacent toward malaria, AIDS, genocide,
poverty, earthquakes, typhoons, sin, pride, prejudice, greed, and so
much more. We can’t afford to bear the label “complacent”. We
can’t afford to infect our children by complacency.
“Daddy said I don’t have
to go to school today, because I have a fever.” Those words
really did intimidate me. I didn’t want to get sick. This
week, this passage has revealed to me that I was more of a danger to
that little girl than she was to me. I have the potential to
infect children by my example, my bitterness, and my complacency.
I need to be made whole. I need the repentance and forgiveness
that is found at this table. So do you.
The truth is we all have
fever. That is why Christ our Lord invites to his table all who
love him, who earnestly repent of their sin, and seek to live in peace
with one another. Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one
another. Amen. |
