OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

Lewis Carroll became the best-known user of the phrase, “Off with his head” when he included it in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, (published 1865).  The Queen of Hearts shrieks the phrase several times in the story - in fact she doesn't say a great deal else: “The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarreling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting ‘Off with his head!’ or ‘Off with her head!’” 

John the Baptist knew what he was doing. As a prophet, John had to call out Herod’s wrongdoing and pronounce God’s judgment. Regardless of Herod’s “respect” for John, he chooses vanity and ego over righteousness and honor. John pays for Herod’s shortcomings with his head.

It seems, now a days, it’s easy to get in a furious passion with all the public and church scandals, to immediately jump to, “off with his head!”  While resignations and removal from office may be warranted, the Holy Spirit is calling us to look deeper.  Herodias’ daughter was a pawn in John’s beheading.  She didn't know what to ask for, she was being obedient to her mother who set her plot into motion.  Maybe before we ask for a head on a platter, we might need to step back check our emotions, as justice calls for a measured response.

The Thessalonian Christians are exhorted to do more than pray and be spiritually aware.  They must do something for the common good.  They need to be committed not only to their God but also to their craft.  The economy of their community demands that every member work.  If one member fails, then the entire project fails and it negatively impacts the community.  With the magnitude of the issues now we might ask, “What can I do?” Live in truth and love.

The Christian faith is filled with choices, some of which won’t make us the most popular, famous, or wealthy.  Jesus calls us to be selfless, merciful, just, and vulnerable, qualities often regarded as weak and pointless.  Their absence, however, results only in sadness and destruction.

There are those who think we’ve lost our minds when our business and personal practices put the needs of the common good before personal gain or convenience, even when we restrain our furious passion in our pursuit of the Truth all for the sake of justice.   Unlike Herod, we have to constantly recommit ourselves to BE selfless, merciful, just, and vulnerable.  To speak a fully informed truth, even if it may mean death in some way, but we know the cross is not the end.