When Worlds Collide...

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday July 15, 2012, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19

Psalm 24

Ephesians 1:3-14

Mark 6:14-29

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

A few years ago, I preached a sermon called “Great Generosity”[1] In it; I highlighted the philanthropy of one man at the University where he worked. I wrote that since 1998 he and his wife had given, “more than $4 million to the university. Their generosity funds scholarships, faculty positions, construction of an interfaith spiritual center and a sports hall of fame.”

This man was not only outstanding in his giving, but he was outstanding in his work. When I preached that sermon three years ago his work was record breaking, records that have become insurmountable since. In addition, this man’s program graduated 78% of its participants. Take it from someone who used to study graduation numbers for a living, that’s huge.

A year ago, all of that came crashing down. Scandal came to town and when it did, it came with a fury. Ultimately, the scandal and lung cancer took this generous giver to the grave. This is a part of the obituary I wrote on my blog about him and the scandal:

Yes, [he] did what he was supposed to do. No, he did not do enough--but he trusted that those who he told would do what they were supposed to do. That is why several of those folks are under criminal indictment.

But before anyone says what [he] did was bad or evil, remember that none of us are truly good enough to cast the first stone, especially at someone whose position, God willing, we will never share.[2]

If you haven’t figured it out, the subject of my opening illustration from “Great Generosity” and the subject of this obituary was former Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno. What started to crash last year took a big turn toward crash and burn last week when former FBI Director Louis Freeh released his report on what had happened at Penn State and in the Football Program. Freeh’s words are the seed of horror movies.

To make a long story short, Freeh reported that my words “Yes, [he] did what he was supposed to do” are plain, flat wrong. Coach Paterno knew more than he told, covered up what he could, and enabled a sexual predator to operate in Happy Valley. Fame and money and power and prestige came together in one horrible decision that laid a path of devastation that extended years beyond when it should have.

The cover up had one purpose, to maintain the status of Penn State Football. What began with one single decision soon became a massive, systematic cover up. Fear ruled the day, not truth. Fear of losing all they had built. When these worlds collided, higher education, college football, money—tons of money, fame, and power that moves an entire state, not just its flagship university; when these worlds collided, children were hurt. Children were hurt. When the truth came to light, as it always does, all was lost. The only thing left is to see what and how much will get swept away in the torrent to follow.

So let’s meet the Herod family, shall we. Herod the Great was the patriarch of a family that ruled the Holy Land for over 150 years. Rome even gave Herod the title of King of the Jews. A title like this was a rarity in the Roman Empire which guided itself by absolute control. To name another king within the empire was risky to Rome, but Herod the Great earned the title King Herod.

Among the four of his sons who came to rule a quarter of the Herodian holdings were Herod-Philip and Herod Antipas. Antipas is (perhaps jokingly) called “King Herod” in this passage. Philip had a wife named Herodias and they had a daughter named Salome. (Other versions call her Herodias too, but for our purposes, that’s neither here not there.) Not long after Philip and Herodias divorced she married Antipas. This divorce is the reason John the Baptist said, “It is not legal for you to have your brother’s wife.”

This is where we get to see the ways family dynamics twist. Herodias knew what would become of her as a single mother. As a single mother she could have very quickly gone from being a princess in the palace to a beggar on the street. She might have been sent out with no standing in the community and no sons to take care of her. If she had not wed Antipas her fate would have been somewhere between a rock and a hard place. If John can convince Herod to repent of his illegal marriage, Herodias could well be put on the street. She was not going to let that happen. So, something’s gotta happen to make sure it doesn’t.

This is root of the grudge Herodias nursed against John. This is why she wanted to kill him. It’s only her husband’s fear and protection of John that stayed this execution. Family dynamics don’t get more precarious for a woman who could have been put out of her home.

We all know the scene that follows; Herod throws himself a birthday party. He throws a great banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. Like leaders do today, Herod throws this party to curry favor and solidify power. He wasn’t renowned as a great leader. He was known as a weakling among the Tetrarchs. This party was a time to show his power, wealth, might, and prestige among those who might overthrow him if the opportunity arose.

Let’s face it; Herod’s birthday party could have been an inspiration for Sue Ellen’s fundraiser on the premier of the new version of “Dallas.” Like in “Dallas” one moment of weakness, one note of indecision and everything you have worked so hard to have and hold would be gone, taken by those who kowtow to you. There isn’t anyone who knows the story of J.R., Bobby, and Sue Ellen that doesn’t know every word is a weapon, every glare a threat.

Herod’s party was no different. Herod was playing a game and he knew it. He was playing a game where fame, wealth, power, and prestige were on the line; a game where with one slip all was lost. He slipped.

In his grandiosity and pomposity he offers his daughter anything, up to half his wealth. You better bet when you get that kind of offer you had better ask mom what she thinks. On her mother’s prompting, Salome requests John’s head on a platter.

Here’s a question, when Herod made his offer, did he ever imagine this would be the request? A wise man, a man who considers all the angles, a man who knows all the moves—this man expects the request. Herod doesn’t expect it. When Salome makes the request Herod is between a rock and a hard place.

He couldn’t turn down his daughter. Her mother would have been livid and when Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. This unhappiness comes with a layer of home grown political intrigue given that Herodias is a grand daughter of Herod the Great. That’s right; Herodias married her uncles and if Antipas did not come through the other Tetrarchs, who were also her uncles, would have had a hey-day.

If he had shown himself weak in front of his high officials, and military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee then those alliances, the ones he had been cultivating, would have dissolved before his eyes.

There is one more place where Herod was stuck, his relationship with John the Baptist. It’s difficult to get a real handle on their relationship; John indicted Herod for his crimes yet Herod liked to listen to John. John puzzled Herod.

I think I get it, at least a little. You don’t have to agree with someone to have a relationship. As for me, I need people who think differently than I do in my life. If I only keep company with people like me, life would be boring. I need people who think differently, otherwise what am I going to learn?

Maybe this is the sort of relationship Herod had with John. Herod was a Jew, at least technically. Herod would come to listen like any good student at the feet of a Rabbi. Of course, Herod kept this Rabbi locked up in a palace prison. Maybe Herod liked this Rabbi for the challenge he presented. In truth, in the end, we will never know the how’s or why’s, but we do know this, Herod liked to listen to John.

This became the third thorn in Herod’s side along with his wife and his company. To keep his place in his kingdom and in his family he would have to execute the one he liked to hear. When worlds collide, Herod sacrifices John so that the rest of his world doesn’t crumble around him.

This is where we go back to the beginning of our reading. Some were saying John had been raised from the dead. We know Herod’s reaction is that he believes John, the man he beheaded, has been raised from the dead.

I’ve wondered how Herod faced this news. I always thought it was with dread. “Oh no, the guy I killed is back, this can’t be good.” Another reaction I heard this week was that he heard the news with guilt, “Oh no, who did I kill that he has returned?” A third opinion from something I read offered the strangest reading, hope. Herod might have hoped “There is again a chance for me to have a relationship with this John who I have killed.”

Hope is the most biblical. Optimism is based on what we can do; hope is based on what God has already done. In new life there is hope and in hope there is new life. Maybe it’s not such a stretch after all.

The problem faced by Coach Paterno and King Herod Antipas is leadership. They both let something less important get in the way of what’s really important. For Joe Pa it was wins and prestige and the “good” that could be done with him in charge. (And anyone who doesn’t think Coach Paterno ran Penn State needs to read the Freeh Report.) These goals were all met at the cost of the innocence. Herod kept his place, but at the expense of the life of the one righteous man.

Both kept their positions after their transgressions, but today we know Herod because he executed John and asked Jesus “What is truth?” As for what Coach Paterno will eventually be known for, that is left to a history written in the future.

These questions extend to leadership in the church. The Rev. Dr. Michael Jinkins, President of Louisville Seminary cites the three essential tenants of leadership: clarity, non-anxious presence, and the will to lead even in the face of resistance and sabotage.[3] Neither of these men truly showed these qualities.

As for Paterno, he never seemed to lead in the face of resistance and sabotage. In fact, the Freeh report cited Paterno as a feared leader, a boss that could eliminate any challenge with the boot with the warning “you’ll never work in this business again.” There were janitors who feared the reach of Joe Pa’s iron glove.

As for Herod, I don’t see much non-anxious presence. His flamboyance is what started him down the road to the death of the Baptist. As for resistance and sabotage, we only have to look to the dinner for how that worked out. Herod buckled to the practical over the righteous.

Neither of them had a clarity that was of any value; power, prestige, money, you know the rest. They were both ultimately tied to the sizzle instead of the steak.

Scott Van Pelt, a broadcaster on ESPN said on the radio that maybe Coach Paterno was a good man who made one very bad mistake. As soon as the cover up began he was married to it forever. So it was, and as the old saying goes, “forever is a long, long time.” I would love to believe that. If that were so then what I said about Joe Pa in my blog was written out of one moment of blindness, not a pattern of allowing abuse. I’d love to believe it, but I can’t, not today.

Herod was weak, but he did have one hope, one of redemption. He hoped he could have his time with the Baptist again. He hoped for the good ol’ days. Of course, we know how that ends. Herod has to ask “what is truth?”

What we have is clarity; Jesus is the way and the truth. What we need is a greater clarity, what do we do with this wonderful redemption we have been given. Thank God in Christ’s love by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are afforded the chance to work that one out.

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[1] “Great Generosity,” http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2009/09/great-generosity.html

[2] “Adios, Joe Pa,” http://fatmaninthebathtub02.blogspot.com/2012/01/adios-joe-pa.html. The [bracketed text] is not an effort to protect Coach Paterno’s name, it is an effort to add suspense before the final reveal.

[3] Jinkins, Michael, “Transformational Leadership: Church Leadership and the Way of the Cross.” Edinburgh: St. Andrew’s Press, 2002, page 42

One Coin-Two Sides

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.