Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity - Mk 7:31-37

                                           Trinity 12

                                                                                            Mk 7:31-37

                                                                                            9/8/19

     I think that many of you are aware that when Amy had surgery to remove her brain tumor, she lost all hearing in her left ear.  The type of tumor Amy had is known as an acoustic neuroma.  In this case, the tumor grows off the acoustic nerve that carries the sound data to the brain.  It was her rapidly diminishing hearing in that ear that caused her to go to the doctor in the first place and led to the discovery of the tumor.  In Amy’s case, there was no possible way to remove the tumor without also removing and destroying the acoustic nerve. And so since the surgery, she is completely deaf in her left ear.

     Naturally, this has required some adjustments. I have learned that I must always walk on Amy’s right side if I want to be able to have a conversation with her.  When we go to one of the kids’ sports events, I have to make sure I sit on her right side, otherwise there is really no way to comment to her about what is happening.  And of course, the adjustments for Amy have been even greater as she gets used to being deaf in that ear. One of the more interesting ones is that she still experiences a sort of ringing on that side of her head, as her brain seeks out the signal from the acoustic nerve that is no longer there.

     In the midst of this, Amy has discovered one real benefit from being deaf in that ear.  She reports that I snore when I sleep – something which I certainly contest because I have never heard it. But Amy says that since the surgery this is no longer a problem for her at all.  She just turns her head, puts her right ear down on the pillow, and with the deaf ear on the other side she hears absolutely nothing.  Problem solved.

     Humor aside, Amy’s experience has made me think more about people who are completely deaf. And we encounter just such a situation in our Gospel lesson this morning.  Mark tells us that Jesus had been north of Galilee in area of Tyre and Sidon.  There he had just healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman who had demonstrated such great faith in Jesus as she implored that the Lord to help her daughter.

     Now Mark tells us that “he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.”  Jesus went to an area that bordered the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee. We learn that “they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.”

     This man was deaf.  From our text we also learn that he had some kind of speech issue.  The man could not hear what others had to say.  And he could not communicate effectively with others.  These were tragic circumstances in which he lived. 

     We aren’t told who brought the man, but obviously they cared for him. They had also heard about Jesus and believed he could help. And so they begged Jesus to lay his hand on the man – they begged Jesus to touch him.

     Jesus’ touch – the laying on of his hand – is something that is mentioned repeatedly in Mark’s Gospel.  In the first chapter Jesus’ touches a leper with his hand and cleanses him.  Jairus comes to Jesus and begs him to lay his hand on his little daughter so that she will be healed.  In the next chapter people bring a blind man to Jesus and ask the Lord to touch him.  In fact we learn that at different times people pressed in on Jesus trying to touch him because those who did received healing.

     This physical, tactile aspect of Jesus’ ministry should catch our attention.  Jesus Christ is the Son of God – the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.  As the Son, he is eternal.  He always has been one God with the Father and the Spirit, and always will be.  But in the incarnation he entered into our world as he took on our human nature and lived a physical, bodily existence.  St. Paul told the Colossians about Christ: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

     As true God and true man the Lord brought his saving power to others through touch.  In our text we learn that he took the man aside by himself.  Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.” Then, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.  People were completely astonished by the miracle and said, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

     The Son of God entered into our world to bring us salvation.  But he did so as part of a very specific history.  He did so as the fulfillment of very specific promises that God had made to and through Israel.  Several factors in our text leave no doubt that we are to understand this action by Jesus as a fulfillment of these words written by the prophet Isaiah:

“Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” 

     Jesus Christ was the presence of God’s end time salvation.  He came to bring the kingdom of God – the reign of God – that addresses the problem of sin in every possible way.  In his healing ministry, the Lord was reversing what sin has done.  In our text, before healing the man Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed or groaned.  He did so because he stood in the presence of what was not meant to be – he was encountering something that was not very good.  He was standing before one way that sin had brought suffering into this world.

     But Jesus Christ was here bodily in this world to do something about it.  He showed this in his healing ministry through his touch.  But all of Jesus’ healing miracles pointed forward to the one great healing miracle he had come to work through his own body.

     In chapter ten Jesus says to his apostles, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”  And then in the same chapter he says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

     Jesus Christ had come to provide the answer to sin by means of his body.  He came to address the problem of every sin – every way that you place God second in your life; every way that you hurt others with your words and actions.  He came to be nailed to a cross – nails driven through the hands that had healed others.  He came to give his life as the ransom for you – as the sacrifice that covers your every sin.  He came to win forgiveness for you before God. 

     And then, through his body, Jesus Christ began the renewal and restoration that encompasses every believer, and even creation itself.  Dead and buried in a tomb, just as Jesus had said, on the third day God raised up Jesus’ body.  Jesus Christ had no sin, yet his body was one that could suffer and die as he received God’s judgment against our sin.  But now in his resurrection, his body is one that has been transformed so that it can never die again.  And in that body the Jesus who is still true God and true man, ascended into heaven as the exalted Lord.

     Our Lord who has won this victory still has compassion on us.  And he is still using his body to give us forgiveness, healing and salvation.  He will do it in just a few moments here in the Divine Service.  In the Sacrament of the Altar, Jesus Christ uses bread and wine to be bodily present with us.  He gives us his true body and blood as he continues to provide his healing touch.  He places his body and blood into our mouth to give us the forgiveness of sins. He touches us in this way to strengthen us in faith as he gives us food for the new man.

     Jesus Christ touches us with his body through the Sacrament of the Altar.  In doing so he gives us forgiveness and the assurance of healing.  Jesus Christ’s bodily resurrection is the beginning of our complete and total healing.  His bodily resurrection is the first fruits of our own resurrection.

     During the last two years our congregation has experienced many serious health problems – most of them due to cancer.  When we or our fellow Christian are afflicted with something like this, we pray that God will work through the doctors and medicine to provide healing.  And we have indeed experienced remarkable answers to those prayers – answers that we earnestly desire.  This past week Charlotte Dollar’s scan results showed yet again that her lung cancer is stagnant, and so the Lord continues to bless us with more days with her.  After drastic surgery for cancer Anne Simmons, is once again here with us on Sunday in the Divine Service. We pray for these things and give thanks and praise to God when he grants them.

     But no matter how much we pray, until Jesus Christ returns, every one of us will die.  The timing may not be what we want or expect, but the outcome will always be the same.  We will die. But because of Jesus Christ’s resurrection we know that death cannot hold us, and it cannot hold our body.

     It cannot hold us because to die is to be with the Lord. The eternal life we have in Christ cannot be ended by death. Death is impotent in the face of the life Christ has already given to you.  You have been baptized into Christ.  You have been born again of water and he Spirit. Death cannot separate you from life in Christ.

     And death cannot hold your body because Jesus Chris has risen from the dead.  His bodily resurrection is the first fruits of our own resurrection.  In the Sacrament, the risen and exalted Lord gives his true body and blood into your body.  The early Church described the Sacrament as the “medicine of immortality.”  It is the guarantee that your body too will be raised and transformed on the Last Day.

     In the Sanctus, we sing “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” because we are preparing for our Lord to come to us in body and blood in the Sacrament.  But each coming in the Sacrament points forward to his coming on the Last Day. Each celebration of the Sacrament is a foretaste of the feast to come.

     For the Lord will come again.  He will come, no longer hidden under bread and wine, but he will return in glory and might. He will return, and he will give us the full and complete healing that will never end.  He will make our bodies to be like his glorious resurrected body. For as St. Paul told the Philippians, “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 

who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”  On that day things will be very good once again, because of Jesus who has done all things well.

Mark's thoughts: Luther summarizes a miracle, and Jesus is an example

The Gospel lesson for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity is Mark 7:31-37, the “Ephphatha” account in which Jesus heals a man who is deaf and has speech impediment.  Apart from the specific details in which he puts his fingers into the man’s ears, and spits and touches his tongue before sighing/groaning and saying “Ephphatha” (“Be opened”), it is a straight forward account of Jesus working a miracle of healing.

 

It is fascinating, therefore, to read the first two paragraphs of Martin Luther’s sermon on this text in the Church Postil.  Here writes:

Just as everywhere the Gospels depict our Lord Jesus as a merciful and gracious man who is ready to help everyone with words and works in body and soul, so also this Gospel reading depicts for us how willingly He helped this poor man, who was mute and deaf.  It does this to stir us up to faith, so that we expect good from Him.  In this way, He sets a pattern and example for us of how every Christian should imitate Him and also help his neighbor. 

A Christian life consists in this: that, first, we believe and trust in our Savior, Christ, and are assured that we are not forsaken by Him, no matter what need or danger happens. Second, every Christian should also act toward friend and enemy the way he sees that Christ is so willing to help everyone.  Whoever does this is a Christian.  Whoever does not do this, however, may be called a Christian but is not one.  These two cannot be separated; the fruit of faith must follow, or the faith is not real. This is the summary of this Gospel reading. (LW, 79:37)

The text is nothing more than an account of our Lord’s miracle. Yet Luther cannot speak about Jesus’ merciful act without also talking about how Jesus is a “pattern and example for us of how every Christian should imitate Him and also help his neighbor.”    In the second paragraph he says in his sermon that the Christian life consists of two parts.  The first is belief and trust in our Savior, Christ. The second is acting towards others just as we see Christ help everyone.  Luther emphasizes that faith that produces no fruit is not real. Such a person is a “Christian” in name only.

As I have described elsewhere, this robust emphasis on the Christian life that imitates Christ and produces works of love for the neighbor is a consistent emphasis of Luther’s preaching.  Indeed, I would be so bold as to say that this is what Lutheran preaching looks like, because this is the way Scripture speaks.

Commemoration of Zechariah and Elizabeth

Today we remember and give thanks for Zechariah and Elizabeth.  Zechariah and Elizabeth were  “righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord” (Lk 1:6). Zechariah, a priest in the Jerusalem temple, was greeted by the angel Gabriel who announced that Zechariah and Elizabeth would become parents of a son. Initially Zechariah did not believe Gabriel’s announcement because of their old age. For his disbelieve, Zechariah became unable to speak. After their son was born, Elizabeth named her son John. Zechariah confirmed his wife’s choice and his ability to speak was restored. In response, he sang the Benedictus, a magnificent summary of God’s promises in the Old Testament and a prediction of John’s work as forerunner to Jesus (Lk. 1:68–79). Zechariah and Elizabeth are remembered as examples of faithfulness and piety.

Collect of the Day:

O God, who alone knits all infants in the womb, You chose improbable servants – old and childless – to conceive and parent the forerunner of Christ and, in so doing, demonstrated again Your strength in weakness.  Grant us, who are as unlikely and unworthy as Zechariah and Elizabeth, the opportunity to love and serve You according to Your good and gracious will; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Commemoration of Moses

Today we remember and give thanks for Moses.  Moses was born in Egypt several generations after Joseph brought his father Jacob and his brothers there to escape a famine in the land of Canaan. The descendants of Jacob had been enslaved by the Egyptians and were ordered to kill all their male children. When Moses was born his mother put him in a basket and set it afloat in the Nile River. He was found by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised by her as her own son (Exod 2:1–10). At age 40 Moses killed an Egyptian taskmaster and fled to the land of Midian, where he worked as a shepherd for forty years. Then the Lord called him to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh, “Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness” (5:1). Eventually Pharaoh gave in and, after the Israelites celebrated the first Passover, Moses led them out. At the Red Sea the Egyptian army was destroyed and the Israelites passed to safety on dry land (Exodus 12-15). At Mount Sinai they were given the Law and erected the Tabernacle (Exodus 19-40). But because of disobedience they had to wander in the wilderness for forty years. Moses himself was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, although God allowed him to view it (Deuteronomy 34). In the New Testament Moses is referred to as lawgiver and prophet. The first five books of the Bible are attributed to him.

Collect of the Day:

Lord God, heavenly Father, through the prophet Moses, You began the prophetic pattern of teaching Your people the true faith and demonstrating through miracles Your presence in creation to heal it of its brokenness.  Grant that Your Church may see in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the final end-times prophet whose teaching and miracles continue in Your Church through the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Commemoration of Gregory the Great, Pastor

Today we remember and give thanks for Gregory the Great, Pastor.  One of the great leaders in Europe at the close of the sixth century, Gregory served in both the secular and sacred arenas of his era. As mayor of Rome, he restored economic vitality to his native city, which had been weakened by enemy invasions, pillage, and plague. After he sold his extensive properties and donated the proceeds to help the poor, he entered into full-time service in the Church. On September 3, 590 A.D., Gregory was elected to lead the church in Rome. As Bishop of Rome he oversaw changes and growth in the areas of church music and liturgical development, missionary outreach to northern Europe, and the establishment of a church-year calendar still used by many churches in the western World today. His book on pastoral care became a standard until the 20th century.

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and merciful God, You raised up Gregory of Rome to be a pastor to those who shepherd God’s flock and inspired him to send missionaries to preach the Gospel to the English people.  Preserve in Your Church the catholic and apostolic faith that Your people may continue to be fruitful in every good work and receive the crown of glory that never fades away; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one  God, now and forever.

Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity - Eph 2:1-10

                                                                                                Trinity 11

                                                                                                Eph 2:1-10

                                                                                                9/1/19

            When you look on Facebook and Instagram, you see that everyone is smiling. Everyone is having a good time.  Everyone is enjoying life.

            Now of course, on one level we know this is not true.  No one posts a picture of their credit card bill with the caption: “I have massive credit card debt and I have no idea how I will ever get out from under it.”  No one posts a picture of their child in a sports jersey with the caption: “Wow, he is really bad at this,” or, “Wow, her team is terrible!  How will I endure this season?”

            But leaving this fact aside, I do think the Facebook and Instagram pictures are a projection of how most people see their lives.  We all want to think of them as being good and enjoyable.  We have no shortage of interests, hobbies and activities that fill our time with things we enjoy.  No matter what your job or profession is, we all have leisure time – time away from work – that people in previous centuries could not have fathomed. And the message of the world that we receive in advertising and the media simply supports and encourages this view.  Life spent with friends and family; life spent hiking and exercising; life spent doing all of these fun activities is life that is really good.

            This morning the apostle Paul drops a bomb into that happy, happy view of life.  He says that if a person is not in Christ – if a person has not been united with saving work of the Lord Jesus through the Spirit – then he or she is a stooge of the devil hurtling towards the wrath of God on the Last Day.

            Paul begins our text by saying, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

            Writing to Christians in the area of Ephesus, Paul talks about their life before faith in Christ.  He says that they were not alive – not really.  Sure, they were doing the first century version of the life that I have just described in the introduction to this sermon.  But the apostle says that this was an illusion.  Instead, they were dead in their trespasses and sins.  They were not really in charge.  Instead they were walking according to the course of this world.  They were walking according to the prince of the power of the air.  They were living lives under the control of the devil who was at work in them.  And so by nature, like all of mankind, they where children of wrath.  They were people who were destined to receive the wrathful judgment of God.

            Now that is not a picture of life you are going to find anywhere in our world and culture.  That is not the way the majority of the people around you see things. And Paul says that is exactly the point.  Those who are not in Christ are living in ways determined by the devil -the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience who are by nature children of wrath.  They are blind to the spiritual reality – which is the only truth that matters.  They are like the people in the movie the Matrix, living in a reality that is completely false and completely enslaving.

            You were once that way too.  Conceived and born in sin, you were once dead in your trespasses and sins.  You were once children of wrath – sinners who were destined for God’s wrath of the Last Day.  But God was not willing to leave you there.

            After describing the absolutely dismal spiritual condition we were in, Paul then says,“ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

            What do we learn about God and why he has carried out this dramatic saving action in Christ?  It is because he is rich in mercy.  His care and compassion for you moved him to do this.  It is because of the great love with which he loved you.  God loved you so much that he acted in this way.  It is because of God’s grace – his completely undeserved favor that he has shown to us. 

            And so what has God done?  The apostle says in our text that “God made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Then Paul adds that God did this “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

            Now when we hear this, we are picking up on the conversation after it has already started.  In the previous chapter the apostle had said about Christ, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”  Those trespasses – that sinfulness – were not something that the holy and just God could ignore if we are to have fellowship with him.

            And so in the fullness of time God the Father sent the Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  Jesus Christ lived in our world as true God and true man in order to redeem us – to free us from sin.  The cost of that redemption was his sacrificial death on the cross.  Jesus gave his body into death and shed his blood as he hung on the cross bearing our sins and receiving God’s wrath that we deserve.  He became the child of wrath – the One who received God’s judgment in our place. He died on the cross to give us forgiveness, and then those who had followed and loved him buried him in a tomb.

            But God’s work in Christ was not done on Good Friday – not even close.  Instead, Paul goes on in chapter one to refer to the “working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” On the third day, the working of God’s great might through the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.  He raised Jesus, the one mocked and scorned on the cross, and exalted him by seating him at his right hand.

            God has done this in Christ.  And that is why Paul can say in our text, “God made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  You have been baptized into Christ.  You have shared in his saving death.  The Spirit has given you regeneration, and made you a new creation. 

            You now live as one who is “in Christ” – an expression that Paul uses to mean that we have been united with Christ and the salvation he has won for us.  And because this is so, the apostle can say that not only have you been made alive with Christ – he can say that we have been raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places.  Because you are in Christ, you already have this now and so you are guaranteed that you will share in Jesus’ bodily resurrection and victory when Christ returns on the Last Day.

            Because this is so, we have hope.  In the previous chapter Paul expressed how he was praying that God the Father would give his readers insight to “know what is the hope to which he has called you” and to know “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”  In Christ, your future has already begun.  And in Christ, God’s power is here for you in the present. Paul also said that he prayed that the Ephesians would recognize “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”

            The power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is directed toward you now through the work of his Spirit. This power is directed towards you to sustain and keep you in the faith in the midst of challenges, hardships and tragedies.  It is God’s power to bear you up as his child and keep you as his own until the Last Day.

            It is God’s power in Christ that has saved you.  You have been saved because of God’s rich mercy.  You have been saved because of his is great love.  You have been saved by grace.  Paul won’t let us overlook that fact.  He says it twice in our text. As he says the second time: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

            It has been God’s power and God’s grace that has done this, not anything you could have done.  But the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ extends beyond just you and your personal salvation.  The apostle says in the last verse of our text that we are God’s creation in Christ for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

            God’s resurrection power through the Spirit has made you a new creation.  You have been saved by grace, so that now you can act graciously – so that you can show mercy, service and love towards those who have not earned it and can do nothing in return. God has saved you by grace with a purpose. His purpose is that your life in Christ through the Spirit will be one of sharing his love with others in the way you treat them and what you do for them.

            After all, even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  We are not the same as we were before.  We have been redeemed by Christ’s bloody sacrifice on the cross, and forgiven.  God’s resurrection power has made us a new creation in Christ. Our life in Christ is to be one of loving and gracious service to others as we rejoice in the mercy, love and grace God has shown to us in Christ Jesus. 

             

 

               

             

                 

 

Feast of the Martyrdom of John the Baptist

Today is the Feast of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist.  In contrast to the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (observed on June 24), this feast commemorates his beheading by the tetrarch Herod Antipas.  From the perspective of the world, this was a pathetic end to John the Baptist’s life.  Yet it was in fact a noble participation in the cross of Christ.  Our Lord Himself said that none had arisen greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11).  He was the last of the prophets in the tradition of the Old Testament, and was the “prophesied prophet” – the Elijah of whom Malachi spoke who would come to prepare the way for the Lord (Malachi 3:1; 4:5-6; Matthew 17;10-13) and the voice crying in the wilderness foretold by Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3) . John prepared the way for Christ by proclaiming “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has arrived” (Matthew 3:2) and administering a baptism of repentance.  John’s death anticipated that of the Christ for whom he prepared the way.  By his own martyrdom he bore witness to the fact that God works through the cross in the lives of His people, and that they bear witness to Jesus Christ as they suffer, and even die in His name.

 

Scripture reading:

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.

But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. (Mark 6:14-29)

Collect of the Day:

Almighty God, You gave Your servant John the Baptist to be the forerunner of Your Son, Jesus Christ, in both his preaching of repentance and his innocent death.  Grant that we, who have died and risen with Christ in Holy Baptism, may daily repent of our sins, patiently suffer for the sake of the truth, and fearlessly bear witness to His victory over death; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one  God, now and forever.