Father Snort

Brad Sullivan Proper 10, Year B July 12, 2015 Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX Mark 6:14-29 Hooray for getting to talk about beheading this morning. I know it’s my personal favorite topic first thing on a Sunday morning. Earlier in the week, Kristin asked me about mock enthusiasm if I was looking forward to preaching about the beheading of John the Baptist. “Is that the Gospel for this Sunday?” I asked. “Yup, it’s great, isn’t it?” She replied. “Oy,” I think was my response. There is grace in this story, however. We just have to find it. So here we go. Herod was basically a puppet king. Rome was the true ruler over Israel, even though Israel had some amount of self-rule beneath the umbrella of Rome. Herod was king of Israel, but only because Rome didn’t want to devote the resources to rule them directly. I can imagine Herod feeling rather powerless as this puppet king. He felt pow