I’d forgotten we had the Salome story coming up in the lectionary until I saw bulletin cover this morning. I have a tendency to classify the story as yet another biblical example of a man making a fool of his self over a beautiful woman (frequently younger): e.g., David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, et al

But Tom took it beyond that. And he was bold enough to start in the children’s sermon where he didn’t back off on the graphics (the decapitation) or the basis of Herod’s choice: namely, sin. Herod had made a bad decision and the result was not mere foolishness. Beyond the foolishness, it was tragic, not only for John whose temporal existence was thereby ended, but for Herod as well whose eternal call from the Lord might’ve ended forever premised upon that choice. Surely, as believers, we quake and tremble at that possibility as infinitely more horrific than John’s demise.

With Herod as the example, the choice (one good, one bad) was between the Lord’s call and the call of popular culture. Ah, there is fertile ground there upon which to preach. We could line up the values of popular culture on one hand and contrast them to values we hold as revealed by the Lord. And we would exhort that the values of the Lord be chosen consistently. And that would play well in this country where we frequently elevate our “right to choose” into a spiritual axiom: your choice is efficacious to salvation. If you just simply believe hard enough, you will be saved.

But there’s a problem with choice and sin that Tom hinted at it with the potato chip example (“betcha can’t eat just one”). Sin has a power of its own. It’s a condition as well as an act, and it’s a condition that we—if you ascribe to Romans 7:15-24—are powerless over. How does a slave to sin choose not to sin?

I liken sin to addiction. In my using days, I would decide day in and day out that I would not drink that day. Yet night after night, I found myself drinking like I always drank; until the booze ran out or I blacked out. My addiction had progressed to the point where my ability to choose was impaired. The 12-Step programs are clear about where the solution lies; a higher power than ones’ will power and/or self knowledge must be sought to release the addict.

Just as an addict seeks help from a power greater than himself, we—as believers—roll into Romans 7:25, where Paul rejoices in the source of his salvation. So, not by choice or willpower but rather by Jesus Christ do we overcome sin. A power greater than ourselves does this for us. I think we call that grace.

So Tom appropriately emphasizes grace in the (grown-up sermon) and exhorts us to not to occlude it, a power the program does ascribe to the self. I note and celebrate that Tom does not discuss sin without discussing grace and by that I am reminded of the Puritan prayer:

"Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths, but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by the mountains of sin I behold Your glory."

Sola gratia.