15/7/12 Proper 10

Theme: Don't you dare!

Bible Reading

Mark 6.14-29.

Preparation

Get hold of some ‘gory’ picture(s) of the head of John the Baptist on a plate! (Google)

Introduction

Either a) Read the story of the death of John the Baptist from the Bible

or b) Tell the story in your own words.

The key to the story is that King Herod was an admirer of John and did not really want to kill him but that John had annoyed Herod’s wife, Herodias, by criticising her marriage to Herod. She was already Herod’s sister-in-law, his brother's wife, and John said that her marriage was wrong. Her anger was so great that she used her daughter, Salome, to trick Herod into beheading John the Baptist and delivering his head on a platter. Emphasise the fact that Herod only made his rash promise to grant any wish of Salome when he was at a drunken party.

The Message

John the Baptist had known that his message from God was unpopular with the country's rulers - probably in their hearts they knew they were doing wrong, and John's preaching made them feel guilty. they arrested him to shut him up - but it didn't work, John kept on preaching God's message, even in prison. But John didn't die because of his preaching - he was executed because Herod wanted to impress a young woman. Herod made a promise to grant her any wish if she would dance for him, and then regretted it when the requested wish was to murder a prisoner whom he respected. He could have refused Salome's request - but he didn't want to lose face - how many times do we get trapped because iof the same feeling?

Use the picture(s) to emphasise the message.

The message of the story is twofold. First be careful of making rash promises that may backfire on you, and secondly, try not to make promises when you are not in control of yourself. Herod knew what was right in this context - but he didn't do it..... Compare this with John the Baptist, who continued to do what he knew to be right - even although he suffered for it.

Talk about some real life examples with the children e.g. older children may try to get you to ‘dare’ but this can be dangerous, especially when you don’t know what the real dare is before you accept. What should you do if someone tries to trick you into doing something you know is wrong?

This is quite a difficult story to turn up at the end of an academic year - but it is possible to link it up with messages relating to appropriate behaviour over the holiday if you wish!

Prayer

O, God, whose servant John Baptist prepared the way for your Son Jesus by teaching of repentance and forgiveness, help us to create in our school and our community a loving and kind society; that we may truly live a life free from sin and evil. Grant this, O Lord, through the spirit of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.