{"id":1378,"date":"2015-07-29T22:43:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T03:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/?p=1378"},"modified":"2015-07-29T22:43:23","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T03:43:23","slug":"good-evil-pressures-and-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/07\/29\/good-evil-pressures-and-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Good-Evil Pressures and Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wnhwTGkAA0U?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/sermons\/?sermon_id=67\" target=\"_blank\">Audio Link<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sunday, July 12, 2015<br \/>\n2 Samuel 6:1\u20135, 12b\u201319<br \/>\nMark 6:14\u201329<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On the surface, the story of John the Baptist\u2019s beheading can be seen as a tragic consequence of good versus evil.\u00a0 We might even be naive enough to believe that this cannot happen today.\u00a0 The pressures and decisions surrounding the event, cannot be the same today as it was then, to allow for such an outcome, or can it?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the story does contain characters that can represent good and evil.\u00a0 John, is the symbol of good.\u00a0 He preaches repentance, he baptizes, he cries in the wilderness for others to come.\u00a0 John is the one that has been announcing the coming of another, the coming of something new, something never seen before.\u00a0 Something that even John himself does not fully understand.<\/p>\n<p>John first made the announcement, in the womb.\u00a0 When Mary approached, John leaps in the womb of Elizabeth.\u00a0 This is the foreshadowing of John\u2019s crying out in the wilderness to to \u201cPrepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Who are the characters of evil?\u00a0 You might be saying to yourself right now.\u00a0 It is obviously King Herod.\u00a0 Maybe that is the case but I suggest the real evil is presented in Herodias and her daughter. \u00a0I am not dumping on women here, so please hang in there with me for a little bit.\u00a0 King Herod will not be left off the hook.<\/p>\n<p>John was imprisoned because of Herodias.\u00a0 John did not approve of the marriage between Herod and Herodias.\u00a0 Herodias harbors a grudge towards John.\u00a0 Herodias and her daughter confer with each other over the gift that the daughter should ask for from Herod.\u00a0 They conspire to have John beheaded.\u00a0 They themselves did not have the power to kill John, but they knew how to get it accomplished.<\/p>\n<p>Through manipulation, knowing that Herod would make the choice to honor his word to the daughter, they asked for what they alone could not obtain.\u00a0 Manipulation is the evil act that is committed.\u00a0 I am sure none of us here has ever been manipulated or taken part in manipulation.\u00a0 Yes, manipulation happens still today.<\/p>\n<p>What about King Herod you might be asking?\u00a0 He cannot escape with out some guilt here.\u00a0 He has John executed and his head was presented on a platter, simply by his orders.\u00a0 Yes, King Herod is guilty as well.\u00a0 He is put in a real predicament in making his promise.\u00a0 Yet he knows what is right and wrong.<\/p>\n<p>First, King Herod is not really a king.\u00a0 It was at Herodias\u2019 urging that the son of Herod the Great, King Herod, request the title of king from Augustus but is denied and exiled.\u00a0 Herod not only is not a king, he is exiled and some of his monies given away.<sup> <a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Even with all that, Herod still has some stature and honor for himself.\u00a0 His power is one that can still imprison or take a life.\u00a0 He chooses to keep his promise to the daughter of Herodias.\u00a0 After all, others were in attendance and heard what he had said.\u00a0 How could he go back on his word, despite having to take a life, in order to keep his word.<\/p>\n<p>Herod is in exile, son of a king, but not a king himself.\u00a0 People all around him know who he is.\u00a0 Will he keep his promises, keeping what little honor he has left, or will he break the promise?\u00a0 He is caught between the proverbial \u201cRock and Hard\u201d place.\u00a0 He knows what is at stake here.\u00a0 He knows what is right in the eyes of God and what is wrong in the eyes of God.<\/p>\n<p>What times have you faced decisions, where you knew what was right and wrong and were tempted to do the wrong?\u00a0 What times did you choose poorly in your decisions, and others paid for your decision?<\/p>\n<p>Daily life also presents a series of Herod-like personal and spiritual dilemmas for persons to negotiate. For a harried mother of a toddler, there is the question of how best to love and parent a child in the face of a defiant \u201cNo!\u201d and a full-fledged temper tantrum in aisle 6 of the grocery store at the end of a long day. For a father of three, it is the struggle to explain the importance of rearranging travel plans for a work trip so he can attend a Little League playoff game. A corporate executive wonders how her announcement of a long-awaited pregnancy will affect her employees\u2019 perceptions of her as an effective boss. A stay-at-home dad wrestles with the whispers of former colleagues that he just couldn\u2019t handle the pressures of work. Teenagers experience the angst of competing for acceptance in desirable social cliques, of serial broken hearts in the complex world of adolescent dating, of familial tensions over privileges and responsibilities. Younger children long for popular toys advertised on television, worry about parental fights and the potential (or actual) breakup of their families, and wonder if the trouble they have learning multiplication tables or basic grammar means they are stupid. Across the lifespan, persons question who they are and how they should act as life pushes and pulls them in conflicting directions. And as in the story of Herod\u2019s struggle, there are lives at stake as they decide which actions they will take.<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\"><sup><sup>[3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We all face decision in our lives.\u00a0 Hopefully we do not have to face one as serious as what Herod did, but you never know.\u00a0 We will make bad decisions and we will make good ones.\u00a0 Trusting in the Holy Spirit as our guide, faithfully we may be guided to good decisions.<\/p>\n<p>It might even be said that Herod struggles as Paul does, in Romans 7:21-24.\u00a0 Paul wrights. \u201cI find \u2026 that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\"><sup><sup>[4]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Will our decisions always be based upon the transformative way God has in mind for us and all of creation?\u00a0 I bet not always.\u00a0 When we miss the target, when we make decisions that are not grounded in God\u2019s own transformation of the world, we can count on God still using our decision, for the furtherance of God\u2019s will for creation.<\/p>\n<p>God cannot be stopped and will work with whatever comes God\u2019s way.\u00a0 We can also still count on the transformative power of the cross, where Jesus made the right decision on our behalf, so that we may have eternal life in the grace of God.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\"><sup><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> <em>Revised Common Lectionary<\/em> (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\"><sup><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, <em>The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged<\/em>, 18.7 (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\"><sup><sup>[3]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Karen Marie Yust, \u201cPastoral Perspective on Mark 6:14\u201229,\u201d in <em>Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B<\/em>, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 238.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\"><sup><sup>[4]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> Douglas John Hall, \u201cTheological Perspective on Mark 6:14\u201229,\u201d in <em>Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B<\/em>, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 238.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Audio Link Sunday, July 12, 2015 2 Samuel 6:1\u20135, 12b\u201319 Mark 6:14\u201329 &nbsp; On the surface, the story of John the Baptist\u2019s beheading can be seen as a tragic consequence of good versus evil.\u00a0 We might even be naive enough to believe that this cannot happen today.\u00a0 The pressures and decisions surrounding the event, cannot &#8230; <span class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2015\/07\/29\/good-evil-pressures-and-decisions\/\">[Read more&#8230;]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[73,87,11,93,28,38,21,41,10,92,83,39,94],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"post-1378","6":"format-standard","7":"category-baptism","8":"category-christ","9":"category-death","10":"category-doubt","11":"category-eternal-life","12":"category-evil","13":"category-faith","14":"category-fear","15":"category-jesus","16":"category-satan","17":"category-sermon","18":"category-sin-2","19":"category-temptation"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2m6h5-me","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35,"url":"https:\/\/www.messy-spirituality.com\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/28\/only-sinners-go-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":1378,"position":0},"title":"Only Sinners go to Heaven","author":"Douglas Dill","date":"August 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I am here to tell you today, YOU must be a sinner to get to Heaven. 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