The Lyin' King (Epiphany 2019)

Herod the Great

The Lyin’ King

6 January 2019

Feast of the Epiphany

8 a.m. Said, 10 a.m. Sung Mass

Trinity Episcopal Church

Ashland, Oregon

The Very Rev. Fr. Anthony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D.

Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12; Psalm 72:1-7,10-14

God, take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.

The story in today’s Gospel about King Herod and the astrologers from the East has a curiously contemporary ring.  The strange outliers arrive, bringing trouble.  They ask where the newly born king is.  The whole city is a-twitter.  Everyone knows there is only one King of the Judeans:  Herod.  Any talk of another can only end in pain.   Herod asks his advisors what the old books may have to say about some contender for the throne:  they nervously reply it must be Bethlehem, where King David came from.  That at least turns Herod’s attention away from Jerusalem!  He calls in the Magi secretly—so as to not feed the rumor mill already working against his power: “Go find this new king, and tell me so that I may do him homage also.”  He thus tries to enlist the foreigners as unwitting intelligence operatives for his regime.   They go and find the child, but, having heard rumors of this king’s constant lying and knowing that never was there a king who willingly bowed down to another, are warned “in a dream” to leave for their own country.  In later verses, when Herod sees he has been tricked by the wizards, he, in a rage, orders the death of all young children in Bethlehem. 

Herod was a narcissist: always looking out for number one, judging everything and everybody by their usefulness to him.  He builds the finest of public works, clearly aiming for the term historians would come to know him by:  Herod the Great.  He redoes the Temple, and makes it the finest.  He builds the Herodion palace, with the finest plumbing, masonry, and costliest appointments.  Everything he touches is the greatest, the finest, the hugest, the best.  And woe be to you if you don’t agree.  He spins his own atrocities as only for the best of reasons:  he only wants to go and do homage to this newborn child, only wants his nation to be great again, just like he is great. 

But at heart, he is a liar:  The Lyin’ King.  This becomes clear to us when he orders the massacre of the children.  Probably defended as a minor action to preserve national security, done by previous rulers, this is horror: it is innocent children they are killing, regardless of how his publicists may pretty it up. 

I once was in charge of spin-doctoring of a small U.S. Embassy in West Africa.  When a scandal was breaking about one of our senior officers, my Ambassador charged me with “fixing it.”  The officer involved gave me an account of his actions that was riddled with contradictions and demonstrable errors of timing.  When I told my Ambassador that I could not develop an effective press strategy when the officer involved wouldn’t tell me the truth, and was probably lying, she replied, “Tony, that guy has been lying to himself so long that I’m not sure that he even knows what the truth is anymore.  Don’t try to save him.  Just minimize the damage his actions might do to Embassy goals and programs.” 

Herod was like my colleague: he probably did not know what the truth was since his whole life was based on lying.  Herod is an archetype of a human being gone horribly wrong. People like him appear in all times, all nations, all political persuasions, and all economic classes. He stands as a warning to us all, a supreme example of where our lies lead us.

M. Scott Peck, whose great The Road Less Traveled talked about the habits of heart and mind of healthy, integrated people, wrote another book, People of the Lie, about their opposites, the malignantly narcissistic.  He says “The essential psychological problem of human evil … is a particular variety of narcissism.... (p. 80)… characterized by an unsubmitted will.  All adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves one way or another to something higher than themselves, be it God or truth or love or some other ideal.... They believe in what is true rather than what they would like to be true… [Not so narcissists:] men and women of obviously strong will, determined to have their own way (p.78), … [who live] ‘in a world of their own’ in which the self reigns supreme (p.162)….   [Though] they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their ‘goodness’ is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. That is why they are the ‘people of the lie’.  [Their] wickedness … is not committed directly, but indirectly as a part of this cover-up (p.76)…. Naturally, since it is designed to hide its opposite, the pretense … is most commonly the pretense of love (p. 106)…”  Peck notes that where all people have faults and commit sins, people of the lie categorically refuse to admit any wrongdoing.  “[They] … insist upon ‘affirmation independent of all findings’ (p. 80)… [and] are pathologically attached to the status quo of their personalities, which in their narcissism they consciously regard as perfect.” (p. 74)  They turn any possible criticism of themselves onto others, and regularly scapegoat.  “Because in their hearts they consider themselves above reproach, they must lash out at any one who … reproach[es] them. They sacrifice others to preserve their self-image of perfection…  [and] attack others instead of facing their own failures (pp. 73-74).  They lack empathy and respect for others and ignore the humanity of their victims as well.  They are, “remarkably greedy people. Thus, they are cheap” (p. 72).

Peck suggests that the only way to usefully deal with people of the lie is simply to not buy:  when they lie, do not believe them or act as if you do.  When they gaslight, rely on all the other evidence, not whatever they helpfully provide.  Hold them accountable.   Do not buy. 

Matthew in his story of the Magi and Herod sets up polar opposites for us:  Herod on the one side, the vaguely suspicious foreigners on the other.  Herod is driven, sure of his way.  The wise men are following a wandering star, unsure exactly of where it is they are headed.  He, though part of the chosen people and ostensibly their king, lies and murders.  They, though idolatrous gentiles, try to follow the truth where it leads, and reach their goal of paying homage to the true king, joyful.   

In Jungian thought, the ability to hold two uncomfortably contradictory ideas at the same time, to endure the discomfort of ambiguity and uncertainty, is a sign of a healthy heart and mind.  Theology calls this humility.  The demand for certitude and surety, with its default of lying to oneself or others, is a mark of an un-integrated personality.  This is pride. 

What matters is whether we accept the truth, even when it hurts, even when it leads us to discomfort.  Herod tries to co-opt the Magi in his schemes.  But they, like wise men and women of every age, look at the truth before them, and refuse to become imperial tools. 

Friends:  we are all tempted to follow the lyin’ king.  If the truth hurts our egos, we want another narrative, some set of alternative facts.  We turn our fear on others, and blame and demonize them.   But in this, we become people of the lie.  Like Herod, we end up doing horrible things while telling ourselves that they are good, necessary, and great.    Every human being, regardless of politics, religion, or nationality, is thus tempted.  But its opposite, living in the truth, is also possible for all.

I invite us all this week to look at the lies we are tempted to tell, or actually do tell ourselves and others.  As we move into the great season of light, Epiphany, let us let the light of Christ show us our own failings and sins.  Then let us be honest in confessing them.  Let us flee the dishonesty of the people of the lie, who blame and scapegoat lest their own fragile egos be somehow harmed. 

For in the light of Christ is joy, just as those Magi found.  As our Lord taught. “The Truth shall make you free.” 

Amen. 

Scène du massacre des Innocents, Léon Cogniet , 1824


Epiphany Irish Blessing:  
May the blessing of Light be on you
  Light without and light within,
           May the blessed sunlight shine on you
         And warm your heart till it glows like
A great fire, inviting strangers and friends 
to warm themselves.
And may the light shine out of your eyes,
Like a candle set in windows of a house,
Bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.  

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And the Blessing of Perfect Light, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 
be among you and remain with you always.