Our Savior Lutheran Church

Years ago, when I was still living back east in New Jersey … there was a certain commercial that would get stuck in my head every time that I saw and heard it.  This hotel that this commercial was for was near the theater district in Manhattan.  The name of this hotel was the “Milford Plaza.”

Now, in the commercials for the Milford Plaza they always tried to make the hotel look so lavish.  The whole commercial was done in the form of a Broadway musical done in about thirty seconds.  You had the hotel staff singing and dancing up a storm as they made the beds and opened the door to your room and brought room service to you.  And then the commercial ends with the whole hotel staff pouring out the front doors of the hotel singing “The Milford Plaza is the lullaby of Broadway.”

I always got the feeling that the hotel must have been really glamorous and probably fairly expensive to stay in and that I would have felt extra special if I had been able to stay there.

At the first college that I attended I was a theatrical production major.  And as a part of one of my classes, we had to go into Manhattan and see a few musicals.  Well, on one of those trips I actually got to drive by where the Milford Plaza was located.  And as we passed by the Milford Plaza, the song started to come back to my head.  And then it struck me.

The Milford Plaza was actually surrounded on all sides by a fairly seedy area.  There were prostitutes openly walking up and down the streets.  There were drug dealers openly selling their merchandise on those streets.  It just seemed to be one of those areas where you might be taking your safety into your own hands if you decided to enter.  Suddenly … the Milford Plaza just didn’t seem to be as glamorous as it used to be.

It’s a funny thing when we hear about King Herod in today’s Gospel reading from Mark.  Mark gives the end of the story away before he actually tells it.  But he then goes back and gives us a bit more detail about the story.

As Mark begins to unravel some of the background surrounding King Herod, we start to get a picture that makes Herod sound a lot like most of the other Biblical kings.  He takes his brothers wife for himself.  His stolen wife ends up having a grudge against John the Baptist because he actually speaks out against this act and she wants John dead for this.

But then, the story takes a slight turn … and we find King Herod refusing to let John be executed and in fact, he makes sure that John is kept safe.  And then Mark tells us something that sounds really great about Herod.  He tells us, “When he heard him,” him being John, “he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.”  Let me say that last line one more time, “he heard him gladly.”

How great is that?  Here’s this king.  He at first sounds like he’s probably a fairly big jerk, to put it nicely.  And then he hears God’s Word, and he doesn’t make fun of it, he doesn’t ignore it … he hears it gladly.  He’s taking in God’s Word.  He’s happy about hearing God’s Word.

Then … we get to … the second half of today’s Gospel reading.  And we find Herod promising to give Herodias’s daughter anything that she wants.  Since her mom had this grudge against John the Baptist she asks for him to be killed.  

And so Herod even though he knows this is wrong … even though he likes John, he gives his daughter-in-law what she asks for.  He’s more concerned with saving face than doing what he knows to be right.  He more concerned about his appearance than what he knows to be right.

It’s interesting … in a book I’ve been reading recently.  The author makes a somewhat profound statement.  He makes this statement about Christians, “We are great hearers of the Word but not always such great doers of the Word.”  Let me say that again, “We are great hearers of the Word but not always such great doers of the Word.”

While that’s digesting …let me share this story with you.

A while back, I was helping a friend build a home music studio in his house.  Now one of the things that we had to do was to hang some sound proofing foam.  What we did to do this was build some frames that we mounted the foam to and from there we proceeded to mount that sound proofing to the wall.

Now, after we finished I stepped back to admire our work.  And as I looked it just didn’t seem level.  And I just couldn’t understand it.  I had used the level before and after we had hung the foam … so what was wrong?  I go so frustrated I almost took everything down when I realized what had happened.  When the manufacturer had cut the foam, they hadn’t cut the foam even to its square pattern.  So it gave the illusion of being off.

And that’s where we at various times in our lives fail.  When we stop using God as our guide, as our level, as our plum line, we are falling short.  Too many times we focus too much on how others see us rather than on how God sees us.  Or doing what we think others think we should be doing rather than what God wants us to be doing.  We’re focusing on what’s on the outside rather than what should be on the inside.  … God and His Word.

Fortunately though, in Him, in Christ, we have redemption through His very blood which He shed on the cross.  And through His blood, we have the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavishes on us with all his wisdom and understanding.

And through his redemptive work on the cross, He washes us inside and out.

And because of this even when we do fail to use God as our plumb line our loving God is right there for all of His children gently puling us back into the flock