Sermons

"Seduced by Darkness, Saved by the Light"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church

of Anchorage by The Reverend Mark E. Long

on July 12, 2009

Lections:  Prov. 24. 8-12

                  Eph. 5. 6-12

                 Mk. 6.14-29

It is no accident that Hollywood's characters of darkness, vampires and the like, look most often like Robert Pattinson, the latest teen idol to be manufactured out of the place that does it best.  Even the Bible hints fallen angels are a cut above the rest.  They are the sort who are not satisfied with their lot as angels and aspire for something more, something higher like God's throne.  Of course, better scholarship says that this Lucifer was the King of Babylon, but hey, that doesn't change that such notions are firmly embedded in our consciousness and therefore culture.

Consider Robert Pattinson, that's all, just consider Robert Pattinson.  Actions may speak louder than words, but so do appearances replace a number of them.  Put Robert Pattinson, for instance, on a billboard or the side of a bus, then put his face on a screen at a multiplex near you, stand at the door and collect the money - lots of it.

My point is that darkness is often easy to be around.  Nothing says that darkness need be hideous, how could it be and seduce us?  It must be compelling to divert our attention away from where we should be looking.

Just ask Eliot Spitzer; the politically defrocked governor of New York who found himself collateral damage in a prostitution sting, ironic enough as he spent much of his career stinging others for the same thing.  Being in the wrong place at the wrong time the ex-governor tells us is not so rare.  As he puts it:  "It's a story that has been repeated since our earliest days as a species.  We are led down a certain path.  It wasn't hubris or a death wish - but frailty, temptation, and common miscalculation."[1]  I like the last one - adultery as "common miscalculation," more like the common seduction.

Is this a seduction by darkness; with the best of post-modern sensibility I will leave that for you to decide?  As for me, anything that costs the loss of a family's trust and a political career in one swoop must come from a pretty dark place.

But the ex-governor has a point about one thing:  "It's a story that has been repeated since our earliest days. . . ."[2]  Men of power have had a way of being seduced by darkness.

Mark's gospel tells a story of seduction by darkness - fetching darkness.  The story begins with the strange claim that Herod and others of the day believe Jesus is John the Baptizer returned from the dead.  This is strange because John is a contemporary of Jesus who is killed by Herod at the time Jesus' wanders about teaching.

The story then flashes back to Herod imprisoning John at the insistence of Herod's wife, Herodias, who marries Herod after Herod kills her first husband, not incidentally, his brother Philip.  Herodias hates John and wants him dead for his critique of her lifestyle but Herod believes John is a holy man; he listens to, fears and protects him.

But Herodias gets her chance when her daughter dances for Herod and his guests at a dinner party.  After she dances, Herod is so taken with her that he tells her "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it."  He offers her half of his kingdom but she goes to check with mom who insists to see John's head on a plate.  Herod is stuck with his "open court" promise to protect his honor so gives her what she wishes for and so delivers John's head on a plate.

You may be like my friend who wondered aloud when I told her the gist of what I was preaching this week:  "Where is the light in that?  I mean John loses his head, right?"  Right enough - the story is a dark one seemingly without light at its beginning, middle, or end.  John's "light" goes out, he loses his head.  Herod's guilt has him paranoid looking at holy men and wondering if this is John returning to avenge his death.  The heroines of darkness, Herodias and her daughter get off scott free.  Where is the light in all this?

Which leads me back to slightly recast a question asked of the humiliated ex-governor of New York:  "Do you believe there are second acts?"[3]  Spitzer candidly answers:  "There are, but they're rarely repeats of the first.  It's a question of what you do when you come back on for the second act."[4]

It was a way of asking, "Do you believe in second chances?"  Whether there is resurrection of a life depends on what choices one makes the second time around.

Spitzer has made the best of his life as it can be now.  He has reconciled with his wife of 22 years and their three daughters; he will never have the level of trust restored as it was before, but at least he has enough they want to share their lives with his.  Public life in politics probably cannot be reclaimed even to that extent.  Still he is well known in New York, and in time with the right amount of contrition, he may yet have considerable influence in New York politics.

The light is alive in Spitzer; his life did not become so seduced by darkness that redemption is beyond reach for him.  Spitzer can, and probably will, have a semblance of the life he used to have; not as much, but something like.

Herod's seduction by darkness was more complete.  He put out the "light" of John's teachings to save his own honor and then given a "second act" opportunity chose not to stop the "light" of Jesus' teachings from being put out as well.

The Bible is full of stories of those seduced by darkness.  The difference in those who are saved by the "light" and those who remain seduced by darkness is often no more than who does something different in the "second act" than done in the "first act."  God doesn't need men and women who are beyond "frailty, temptation, and [even] common miscalculation;" just those no longer seduced by darkness because they find "fruit of the light" (ill conceived as this mixed metaphor may be) in something different that is "good, right, and true."  This is how I see it.  Amen.