Perhaps you have heard the saying, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” That phrase is used to state the obvious: what you have just been told is a bold-faced lie.  I just read this morning about someone who made a bold-faced lie.

It is probably a familiar story/Scripture to many of you. The wise men has followed the star and it took them to Jerusalem. There they inquired about the star and asked a question that set a lot of folks on high alert: “Where is the Messiah to be born?” (Mt.2:4). The one with the biggest knee-jerk reaction was Herod. Leave off the “knee” and you have the kind of individual he was. But he was far more. Power hungry despot. Suspicious. Vengeful. Mad (as in crazy). Jealous. Words fail me to be able to truly describe how bad evil this man truly was.

So when he says to the wise men, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.“ (2:8), the words which flow off our tongue are “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” He had absolutely no intention of worshiping the Messiah, except on the edge of a sword. (2:16-17)

Bob Dylan once sang “You Gotta Serve Somebody.” (1979). Herod did…himself. We all serve/worship some one or some thing. It may not be as blatant a lie as Herod’s, but the failure to serve the Living, Triune God when we say we do truly echoes “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” At least Herod’s was blatant.

WHOM/what to you worship? Before you answer, please remember we have Someone who knows our every thought.