Ever wondered, even for a moment, what it would be like to be royalty? Ever indulged in a daydream that you\u2019re really the child of a king or a queen? Did you watch even a few minutes, maybe even just the sermon, of the recent royal wedding and wonder what it would be like to be part of the family?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In today\u2019s first reading and gospel lesson, we get a glimpse into the lives of two royal families. Neither has a happy, fairy tale ending. Both may leave us wondering what it might really mean to be part of a royal family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first couple, in our first lesson, is King David and Michal, his wife, who was the daughter of King Saul. If we know the backstory of Michal and David, there\u2019s a line in this lesson that really sticks out. It\u2019s when Michal looks out the window and sees David dancing before the Lord. And then we hear, \u201cand she despised him in her heart.\u201d The line should break our hearts a little because this is not the happy story that their romantic beginnings portended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michal was the second daughter of King Saul. Saul had vowed that whoever killed Goliath would obtain his first daughter in marriage. You remember Goliath, the gigantic Philistine warrior David brings down with a slingshot and a stone? But when David kills Goliath, Saul is jealous of David and reneges on his vow and marries the older daughter to someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turns out that\u2019s good news for Michal, because, the Bible says, \u201cMichal loved David\u201d (1 Samuel 18:20). Michal loved David. When her father Saul finds this out, he decides to use this to his advantage in his hostility toward David. He tells David he can have Michal as his wife \u2013 he can marry into the royal family \u2013 if David kills one hundred Philistines. [What the Bible actually says is that David is required to bring Saul the foreskins of one hundred Philistines (1 Samuel 18:25), but don\u2019t imagine one hundred Philistines are going to let David get away with just that piece of them.] Saul is certain David will end up the victim of some really cranky Philistines, but David actually kills two hundred. He gets to marry Michal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michal loved David. Saul sends his soldiers to kill David, but Michal protects him. She lowers David out the window, then dresses up an idol like David, complete with his clothes and a goat-hair wig, puts it in bed, and pulls the covers over it. Saul\u2019s soldiers burst into the room, pull back the covers, and\u2014no David (1 Samuel 19:11-17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With David on the run, Saul gives Michal in marriage to someone else. And in the meantime, David also takes a couple more wives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michal loved David. But we never hear that David loved Michal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually, David becomes king and demands Michal back. Maybe it was love after all. Maybe it was just getting back what belonged to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We aren\u2019t told when exactly Michal stopped loving David. Maybe it was when they were separated, and she didn\u2019t know what had happened to him. Maybe it was when he took her back from a man who begged him not to. Maybe it was when she met the other wives he had married in the meantime. What we do know is that day, watching David dance for the Lord with joyful abandon, she sees David and she hates him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the dancing, David throws a dinner for all the people, and then, in the section after our reading ends, David goes back to his home. Michal meets him out front and tells him he\u2019s made a fool of himself, dancing like that, so un-kinglike, and in front of the servants\u2019 maids too. David says, basically, \u201cWell, I was dancing for the Lord, the one who made me king instead of your father, and I\u2019m going to do a lot more embarrassing and debasing things than this, but, sure, I\u2019ll be a hit with the servants\u2019 maids\u201d (2 Samuel 6:21-22).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David was a great king, but a great husband? Michal might say not. No fairytale \u201chappily ever after\u201d here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
King Herod, in our gospel lesson, has other troubles in the marriage and family department. He has divorced his first wife and married Herodias, his brother-in-law\u2019s wife. Since his brother-in-law was still alive at the time, this was against Jewish law, and John the Baptist calls him on it. Herod is supposed to be keeping Jewish law, not flouting it. But neither Herod nor Herodias like John the Baptist criticizing their marriage in public, so John the Baptist rots in jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is until King Herod throws himself a birthday party and makes a promise that is supposed to make him seem like a big man, a stupendous, powerful man. He promises to give his stepdaughter whatever she asks because her dancing has pleased him so much. Herodias sees her chance, not to change her husband\u2019s mind about John the Baptist, not to practice good conflict resolution skills and see if they can come to some compromise about John, but to get rid of this meddlesome prophet once and for all. And big macho man Herod doesn\u2019t have the guts to say no, to go back on his word in front of his guests. Herodias tells her dancing daughter to ask for the most repulsive possible dish at a dinner party\u2014John the Baptizer\u2019s head on a platter. So, check out these royal family values: Herodias is willing to use her daughter to get the horrific thing she wants. Herod would rather be taken for a murderer than a fool. The daughter doesn\u2019t seem to have the moral sense to recognize she\u2019s being used to commit a horrific tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So much for fairytales. Our own families may not include utter hatred or gatherings that descend into murder, but we\u2019ve all had our experiences of people who are supposed to be partners becoming enemies, of people using one another, people feeling discarded, or being manipulated. We know deep in our bones that this isn\u2019t what families are for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In today\u2019s Epistle lesson, we hear God\u2019s plan for an alternative family, a different kind of royal family in which we are adopted as God\u2019s own children through Jesus Christ. Our inheritance as members of this family is redemption, forgiveness, knowledge of God\u2019s will and God\u2019s desire to gather all things on heaven and earth together in Christ. No divisiveness, no abuse or manipulation. No discarding of people or disregard of feelings. No using of others. Love that endures. Love that shows forth, not in empty promises or dangerous ones, but in praise. In baptism, we have been adopted into God\u2019s family, the ultimate royal family. As members of God\u2019s family, we are loved beyond all knowing and with a love that can reach out in love and service to others, even to the puzzling person we\u2019re seated across from at the dinner table every night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happens next in Mark\u2019s gospel, right after today\u2019s lesson, right after Herod\u2019s horrible feast, is that Jesus throws a dinner party. It\u2019s the Feeding of the More than Five Thousand, and it\u2019s completely different from Herod\u2019s feast. There\u2019s no guarded palace, just a beautiful open field where all are welcome. There\u2019s no head table; everyone is a guest of honor. There\u2019s no boasting, just thanksgiving. There\u2019s no pompous vow-making and self-aggrandizement, just simple food, blessed, broken, and shared, and enough for all. No horrible silver platter of death, just twelve baskets full to the brimming with abundant life-giving bread and fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At which royal family table would you rather dine? Ours is prepared. The host, the ruler of heaven and earth, awaits with open arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by Dr. Amy Richter<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ever wondered, even for a moment, what it would be like to be royalty? Ever indulged in a daydream that you\u2019re really the child of a king or a queen? Did you watch even a few minutes, maybe even just the sermon, of the recent royal wedding and wonder what it would be like to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,3],"tags":[329],"class_list":["post-512354","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-10b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":329,"label":"Proper 10B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3473281,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512354\/revisions\/3473281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}