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Our text tonight comes from the Gospel of Mark chapter 6 verse 7 through 29. After I read it as our custom I will say this is the word of the Lord and I will warn you this is a tough one it may be hard to respond thanks be to God so before we engage this text let us beg the Spirit's presence let us pray come oh Holy Spirit be present now accompany this word from page to heart speak to us we pray we are ready we are listening amen Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

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He said to them, Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you, and they refuse to hear you as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. So the disciples went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

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King Herod heard of it. for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, John the baptizer has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him. Others said, It is Elijah.

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And others said, It 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 Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her. John had been telling Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.

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And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.

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But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias 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. And he solemnly swore to her, Whatever you ask of me, I will give you even half my kingdom. She went out and said to her mother, What should I ask for?

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She replied, The head of John the Baptizer. Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The king was deeply grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not refuse immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John's head he went and beheaded him in prison brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl the girl gave it to her mother when his disciples heard about it they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb

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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Discipleship. It takes a lifetime of courage.

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In the film We Bought a Zoo, a young father is attempting a new profession and the ongoing job of parenting amid chaos and grief. He's trying to nudge his son into life and love, and he says to him, You know, sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. Just literally 20 seconds of just embarrassing bravery, and I promise you, something great will come of it. I wonder if Mark tells us this story, because he knew we would need 20 seconds of courage, and then some.

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Before Washington, DC was pummeled with snow, our congregation was grateful to host the New Testament professor from my alma mater, Francis Taylor Gench. Time with seminary professors is gold. It has been so wonderful to soak up this time in this place. I'm sure Margaret Aimer and Donaldson would tell you the same, but Francis says it's good to pay attention to the first words of Jesus in each gospel.

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In Mark, Jesus says, The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news. What's amazing about our story tonight is the disciples are doing just that.

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They are trusting in the reign of God. It's frankly a bit uncharacteristic of Mark's portrayal of these fellas, but the disciples are rocking it. Mark says that they're sent out, they're sent out by twosies, twosies. And he says that the disciples proclaimed that everybody should repent, and they cast out demons.

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They anointed with oil those who were sick, and made them well. Yay, disciples! And King Herod heard of it. It's an ominous phrase. The cat's out of the bag.

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The result of which is this awful story. For all of you Game of Throners, John the Baptist gets the Ned Stark treatment. Or more painfully real, this text is the ancient version of the news stories we have heard of David Haynes and James Foley in the hands of ISIS. Mark's gospel is usually sparse on details.

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racing from one story of Jesus to the next, so this episode seems odd. It's so detailed, drawn out, and so devoid of news of Jesus himself. Mark calls Herod a king, but that's not really fair. He's a puppet of Rome, and he's rattled by these disciples who resemble the prophets by their subversive behavior.

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Folks start wondering if Elijah is back or other prophets of old. Herod, like Macbeth at the banquet, thinking he's seeing Banquo, thinks John the Baptist is back. But remember, he killed him already. And thus this awful retelling.

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Mark, though, reports this gruesome killing with some nuance, claiming Herod didn't really want to end this righteous man, for he liked to listen to John preach. But out of Herod's own need to save face, and out of his need for power, Herod kills John anyway, right in front of the crowd. A righteous man. killed in front of a crowd by someone conflicted by power.

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Sound familiar? John prepares the way of the kingdom and is handed over to Herod. Jesus embodies the kingdom and Pilate puts his body on a cross disciples you better beware for if we live like God's kingdom is real and around we are likely to get it in the neck scholar Ched Myers wrote the future of those who proclaim a new world order is always the same and so far as you inherit the mission you inherit its destiny

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Or as my four-year-old would say, You pick up one and you get the whole barrel of monkeys. This is Mark's way of naming the cost of discipleship long before Dietrich Bonhoeffer was thrown into prison or found a pen. As he said in that book, When all is said and done, A life of faith is nothing, is nothing, if not an unending struggle of the spirit.

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And y'all, I don't know what the struggle is for you. I don't know what you would count as your cost. Do you feel it in your calendar? In your bank account?

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In your social circles? Maybe ministry hasn't cost you your head, but have you ever felt like you're losing your mind, preaching peace when terror is all over the front page? Teaching love when racism has set up its shop in our pews. Proclaiming resurrection when death is draped over pine fences and churches are closing their doors and ministry is draining the life out of you.

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It's enough to make you lose it. There's a cost to discipleship. My guess is that for me, the call to ministry started percolating when I was in high school, when I began to fall in love with stories. It was at Asheville High School where I declared I wanted to be an English teacher, which isn't a huge hop from a preacher.

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Asheville High School is a beautiful historic stone school nestled in the soft Appalachians. It was built in 1929 and was originally named Lee Edwards High School after the then PTA president. The story that I learned is that after desegregation, Lee Edwards remained the white school, and Stevens High School was the black school. I'm grateful that in the 1970s,

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There was a disciple of Jesus Christ on the Asheville City School Board. Her name was Marion Boggs. She's married to an architect named Walter. Marion learned in a chapel maybe like this one, that in Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, black or white, gay or straight.

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On that board, Marion began to push for real integration. She started to encourage a vote to make Stevens into Asheville Middle School and Lee Edwards into Asheville High School, fully integrating both schools in the city. And King Herod heard of it. The town went ape.

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Her husband Walter's colleagues and his prominent architecture firm called a meeting. They said they were concerned about Marion's activities. Having Walter's wife on the news with her opinions was going to hurt their business, and you don't want us to lose business, do you, Walter? Come on, man.

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Can't you ask her to back off? The next day, Walter tendered his resignation at the firm. He started his own small practice, but forfeited a much more comfortable lifestyle. Cost.

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and courage. What about you? Maybe your cost isn't that public, not demanded in front of a crowd at all, unless you count the crowd that's in your own mind, our own personal collection of inner critics and fear mongers, doubters. Kelly is a young mom in my congregation, and she was awakened in her townhouse last week by the sound of screaming.

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She jumped out of bed and ran to her four-year-old son's room, but he was safe in his bed, sleeping as every four-year-old should be at 5 a.m. She realized that the noise was coming from next door. Through the wall, she heard her neighbor's daughter Dying in a way that no four-year-old should.

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So she called the Department of Children's Services and they said their hands were tied. Have you talked to your neighbor? they said. Can't you do something?

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Kelly pleaded. You want me just to knock on the door? You want me to confront her? How am I supposed to do that?

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She did it. But she would have rather waited until it was easier, less complicated. It's like the poem that was on your bulletin cover last night, crocus-minded. Poet says, Lord, I'd rather wait until June like roses, when the hazards of winter are safely behind, and I'm expected and everything's ready for roses.

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But crocuses? Highly irregular, knifing up through hard frozen ground and snow, sticking their necks out because they believe in spring and have something personal and emphatic to say about it. Lord, I am by nature rose-minded, even when I have studied the situation here and know that there are wrongs that need righting. and affirmations that need stating, and know also that my speaking may offend.

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I'd rather wait until June. Living in the world as it ought to be, rather than the world as it is. Riding the wave of God's kingdom, bringing spirits, it takes guts and grit. Discipleship is not for the faint of heart.

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When Frances was at our congregation she said, How do you know as a disciple you're on the right path? If there is no cross on the path, you're on the wrong one. Some things are simply inevitable. Justice rubs against the grain.

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Love renders us vulnerable. Discipleship takes courage. Mark is trying to get through to us that something is going to get offered up on a platter. Great, Mark.

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Thanks. A stirring word of encouragement. Let us all go grab our staff and sandals and beyond our merry way.

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But take a look at what's next. Really, get out your Bible. Really, do it. What does the heading say, the next pericope?

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I can only say pericope here because you know what that word means. What does it say? Mark 6. Feeding the 5,000.

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We move from the story of Herod's banquet to the story of another grand feast. They're back-to-back in the gospel. And this second banquet, it has no teenage dancers. No rich courtiers and prominent officers in a fancy house.

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This banquet is served on the grass to a group of curious folk, those described as sheep without a shepherd. And at this banquet, Jesus is the host. And he takes five loaves, two fish, and he blesses it, and he breaks it. and he gives it and all are fed.

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And then they take up how many baskets? Twelve. The perfect number of leftovers. There's enough for what is needed in that moment and for every moment that's ahead.

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Right there, it seems to me, Jesus is offering 20 seconds of courage in the form of bread and a lifetime of reserve. I don't think it's a mistake that these two stories are smooshed together in this gospel. Mark may be the shortest, racing from one thing to the next, but he is careful to craft the story after the shape of God's own heart.

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Yes, the work is hard, but we are never alone in it. Yes, the call may drain us, but we are replenished for the journey. Yes, The ask is huge, but we are equipped for the task.

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That story I read is a raw word. There's no getting around it, but it's wrapped in an embarrassingly extravagant promise that God gives us what is needed. That's why we disciples have learned to come here. to this table, this courage factory, to be nourished with grit and grace over and over again.

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Discipleship. A lifetime of being fed here will make it possible. Thanks be to God. Amen.