This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkanas on Sunday January 6, 2008, Epiphany Sunday. This sermon is shorter than usual because we also celebrated the ordination and installation of new members to the Session.
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
There’s an old joke, I’ve probably told it here. There are two kinds of people in this world—those who divide everything into two categories and those who don’t. Duality has always intrigued me. So when I was thinking about King Herod in our gospel reading, I got this image of a very dualistic character in my mind.
Herod sits upon his throne, as confident as any king who is a prelate of Rome. This means he could well be expecting an uprising against his tyranny while seeking to keep the Roman overlords happy. Caught in the middle of a powerful and precarious situation that he has put himself into; he’s a dictator and a sycophant at the same time.
He’s a violent, vengeful, treacherous man. Just the kind of King Rome wants ruling Judah. He’s got a temper and just enough paranoia to keep everyone on their toes.
Two sides of the same man, Herod is a tyrant and a toady; he’s powerful and paranoid.
Herod accepts the visitors, the wise men from the East. As the king, this would have been a public event in the court of Herod. There would have been some sort of an elaborate presentation of the Magi. So in the middle of pomp and circumstance, without the least bit of guile, they ask a simple question, “Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?”
They ask this as if they had popped into the Chamber of Commerce Visitor’s Center asking for directions to Eureka. “How do we get to Basin Spring from here?”
Herod might have tried to be as cool as a cucumber, but he was frightened. If there was a new king in town, even a new born baby King of the Jews, this was a rival to be dealt with, not a toddler to be worshipped. Herod was frightened, and all of Jerusalem was frightened with him.
If you’re wondering “was all of Jerusalem frightened because three wise guys from the East came for a baby shower or was all of Jerusalem frightened because Herod was frightened?” scripture doesn’t say, but I have an idea. To coin a phrase, “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” When Herod is frightened, everybody’s frightened.
But then later in our reading, Herod secretly called the three to ask them to send word when they find the child. King Herod is a very public man, as long as he sits on the throne of Judah, much of his life will be lived in the public. Yet as a guy who thinks the world is out to get him (and rightfully so), he calls the wise men for a secret meeting. Overt and covert, he lives in the public eye and hides his hand like a master poker player. He bluffs the Magi who come without guile or hidden agenda.
Epiphany is the time of year when the church celebrates the revelation to the wise men of the birth of the Christ child, the King of the Jews. Yet most of our reading, certainly the most dramatic part deals with King Herod and how he responds to these arrivals. This reading dealing with Herod and the wise men is actually the preface to our reading from last week which includes what Herod does with this information.
In our gospel we have the joy of Jesus the newborn King of the Jews combined with the terror of Herod the reigning King of Judah. Same story, two responses. One worships, the other fears.
In the Batman comics, one of the most dangerous villains is former District Attorney Harvey Dent.[1] Dent grew up an abused and schizophrenic child of a violent alcoholic father. He eventually learned to deal with his abuse and mental illness through a devotion to law and order.
Multiple personalities being dealt with through yet another dichotomy—law and order.
He was Gotham’s star District Attorney, becoming close allies with the Batman and with Lieutenant Jim Gordon long before Gordon became commissioner. The successes he experienced in his career were able to help him deal with and suppress his mental illness until the unspeakable happened. A vengeful mob boss threw a glass filled with acid into Dent’s face, horrifically scarring his left side. The trauma of the assault permanently unbalanced Dent who became the evil villain Two-Face.
Two-Face’s trademark was a two headed coin he always carried, with one of its faces deeply scarred. When confronted with a decision, he would flip the coin. If the normal face came up, Dent acted honorably. But when the scarred face rises, all evil would break loose.
What made him particularly feared by everyone was that he was once so much like them. If hero DA Harvey Dent can be so deeply scarred what does that mean for the rest of us?
Maybe that’s the message of Epiphany, a single story with different interpretations. The wise men come to worship without guile; the frightened duplicitous tyrant comes in fear and hidden agendas. Their response depends on how they interpret the events of the day. On one side of the coin is worship. On the other is a fear that will lead to much death and suffering.
We are given the free will to come to the Lord in faith through grace or we can choose the path of the scarred face of a coin. We can come in joy, or we can choose evil. We can come to worship or we can sit in fear. We can come in the joy and triumph of the Lord or we can run from the life God has intended for us since before the beginning. It’s a choice we make.
Today, this congregation celebrates Epiphany with two acts. We take and eat of the Lord’s Supper, the good gift of God for the people of God. We will come to the table as joyfully as the wise men came to worship. We will come to be fortified by the gifts he gives us.
Also today, we celebrate the ordination and installation of new Elders to the Session. Two members of this congregation step out in faith of being selected by the Lord, elected by this congregation, and ordained into leadership in this part of the body of Christ. They come faithfully in the name of the Lord to use their gifts for good of the church. And we come in faith and trust that through our acts and our words their ministry will be blessed by the glory that arrived in Bethlehem, was crucified at the place called the Skull, and arose from the tomb.
I said that there are two kinds of people, but what that joke does is create a false division, one that doesn’t exist in the Lord because in the end, regardless of our acts, regardless of our response, whether we come as the three from the East or like the one on the throne, Jesus comes first. Let us come in faithful, joyful response to the one who came to us first.
[1] Origins of Two-Face, http://www.dccomics.com/heroes_and_villains/?hv=origin_stories/two_face, retrieved January 5, 2008.
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