"If It Weren't For Bad Luck..."
A reading for Monday, July 27, 2015: Mark 6:14-29.
Sometimes it might seem to us as if the forces of darkness and evil are winning. We watch another news cycle, or hear bad news from a friend, or just can't seem to shake an underlying feeling of dread and anxiety. Remember Rabbi Harold Kushner's book, "When bad things happen to good people?" There does seem to be a constant struggle for righteousness in the culture and the world around us.
It's perhaps the same struggle of King Herod. Today's lesson gives us a glimpse into the diseased mind of Herod. He feels a tug of goodness when he listens to John the Baptist preach and teach. He resists others who want to do John ill. Yet, he isn't strong enough to stand for goodness and righteousness and John pays the price with his life.
This is the real question for you and for me. What will we do in the face of evil? Will we resist or will we just go along to get along? The good news is that the struggle is already won by Jesus Christ, and it's the Holy Spirit that gives us the courage and the energy to do what's right even in the midst of bad things. Truth is we are dependent on that Spirit. We cannot resist without it. Thanks be to God we are made righteous by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who resisted evil with his life, was raised by God, and continues to dwell with us that we might do that same.
Sometimes it might seem to us as if the forces of darkness and evil are winning. We watch another news cycle, or hear bad news from a friend, or just can't seem to shake an underlying feeling of dread and anxiety. Remember Rabbi Harold Kushner's book, "When bad things happen to good people?" There does seem to be a constant struggle for righteousness in the culture and the world around us.
It's perhaps the same struggle of King Herod. Today's lesson gives us a glimpse into the diseased mind of Herod. He feels a tug of goodness when he listens to John the Baptist preach and teach. He resists others who want to do John ill. Yet, he isn't strong enough to stand for goodness and righteousness and John pays the price with his life.
This is the real question for you and for me. What will we do in the face of evil? Will we resist or will we just go along to get along? The good news is that the struggle is already won by Jesus Christ, and it's the Holy Spirit that gives us the courage and the energy to do what's right even in the midst of bad things. Truth is we are dependent on that Spirit. We cannot resist without it. Thanks be to God we are made righteous by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who resisted evil with his life, was raised by God, and continues to dwell with us that we might do that same.
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