This is one of a series of “Alphabytes” that move in alphabetical order two times in a fifty-two week year. These are object meditations. This one is at the 7th Week in the season of Pentecost–summer in the north.
Day: July 14, 2024
John the Baptist Beheaded
Listen to Pastor Nick read the “Firestarter” and the reading.
After Jesus’s family rejects him, further family pain comes in the murder of his cousin, John the Baptist. Herod Antipas beheads this last and greatest of the prophets.
This Herod is the son of Herod the Great, the one that made magnificent expansions on the Second Temple; he murdered the innocent babies of Bethlehem when the Magi went back to their countries.
Notice the vices present, all of the seven traditional ones: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. One vice breeds another, especially when pride is embedded in a person.
Be sobered by this evil, and the atrocious murders that take place in our day because the same evils are present. Be with John’s disciples as they quietly come and bury him; stay close to Jesus and feel his pain.
What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Freedom from human respect v. 26
Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
In year B, we read from the Gospel of Mark
For daily Firestarters I recommend the ebook. You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.
The Bible Through the Seasons 