Psalm 85:8-13
Mark 6:14-29

This is one of those Sunday mornings that potentially sent a number of preachers back to the drawing board based on Saturday’s news. It happens sometimes (and in the case of violence, particularly political violence, it seems to be happening more and more frequently). But it happens sometimes that something takes place in the neighborhood or country or world made that just can’t be ignored when the worshiping community gathers on Sunday morning, even if it happens after all the plans were made.

However, for folks following the lectionary, and even more particularly folks who had planned to preach from the gospel, there was potentially less re-writing to do. Because unfortunately, political violence isn’t new. And really it’s persistence is part of what makes it so evil. That human beings continue to think that scaring, and hurting, and even killing our opponents is a reasonable way to get to the more perfect society we crave is evidence of our sinfulness and the marring of God’s image in all of us.

Violence used to intimidate, violence used to threaten, violence used to try to appease one group or advance another, violence used to silence voices and the people we don’t like – is not the answer. It is not righteous. It is not God-fearing. It is not justice-seeking. It most certainly is not courageous, which, by my reading, is at least one point Mark is trying to make in telling the story of the violence of the beheading of John the Baptist in the middle of stories about the ministry of Jesus and the sending of his disciples.