What's the Idol with You?

Click here to read Isaiah 44

Click here to read Isaiah 45

Click here to read Isaiah 46

The next three chapters have the theme of idols, making idols, the work of our human hands, and what happens when other gods take center stage in our lives.  Ever since the Ten Commandments, God was clear that no good can come from trying to craft idols for ourselves.  And the People of God found that incredibly meaningful...for about twelve chapters in Exodus.  Then, along comes the whole Golden Calf incident.  Moses was up on the mountain chatting with God...AGAIN.  And this time he was taking forever.  And there was no way the governing body of the church approved that much time off.  And so anxiety increased.  And Pastor Aaron, wanting to be helpful, said, "Let's make an idol."  Now to be fair, Aaron really thought he was making an idol to honor God.  It was not as though he was trying to start a new religion.  Rather, he just wanted to calm the people down.

That's the lure of idols in the world.  Here, buy this new ipad it will make you happy.  Here, buy this new television and impress your friends.  Here, buy this new outfit and wow everyone.  Andrew Root makes a compelling argument that so much of our identity today comes from what we buy and consume.  Years ago...my grandparent's generation...it was the family.  You lived closed to your parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.  Family defined...and confined....your identity.  Around the 1950s, we became much more mobile and even nomadic...work and our profession began to provide our identity.  Watch Mad Men sometime to see how central work and who does the work is to the person's understanding of self.  But increasingly in the 1980s and 1990s, work ceased to provide that meaning.  So, people turned to what we can consume.  You don't like who you are or your identity?  It is just a swipe of a credit card away.  Family...work...stuff...all can be idols.

To be completely fair...family, work, and stuff can also connect us to God.  But there are limitations and we need to be careful.  I sense God when I laugh with my family.  I sense God when I talk with someone in my church.  I sense God on a spring day driving my car with the sunroof open.  It is not that these things are inherently bad or evil.  The problem with idols is not necessarily that it is a material thing.  It is just that at some point the idol will fail to point toward the deeper meaning and hence stop pointing to God.  All of the sudden, my kids do something that upsets me...or the church doesn't do what I think it should...or my car breaks down.  See what happens with idols?

In Exodus 32, the Calf incident...it was not so much that they made a calf or what the calf represented.  Rather, the calf could never fully reflect the mystery and unfolding nature of God.  Those three letters: G-O-D have so much depth and breath, and when we try to reduce that to something we can see, touch, or taste, we reduce the image of God.  And here is the real truth about idols: we also like to control them.  There is a reason why you have to vote on American Idol for your favorite and you want to control what they do.  I think one of the qualities of God that we don't talk about is that God is beyond our control...and yet God is intimately intertwined in our lives.  That is the tension!  That is the contradiction.  Idols reduce that tension and the creativity that comes from it.  Idols reduce the contradiction and can make us complacent.

We all craft and collect idols.  The point is not to eradicate them from our lives or to condemn others.  The point is to see an idol for what it is, not God...perhaps a way that can at times through the mystery and serendipity of God connect us to God, but that is not a guarantee.  This Lent, be aware of the idols in your life.  Name them for what they are.  And may you sense a trace of God's grace that can never be contained in anything other than the moving Spirit of God in our lives.

Blessings and peace!

Worship

Click here to read Isaiah 30

I read the first version of this chapter and my first thought is, "Ouch"...that is a little too close for comfort.  I think of all the ways I take shelter in the stuff of my life.  I think of the way I listen to the wisdom of the world...rather than scripture.  I think of the times I rely on my plans rather than trying to listen for the still speaking voice of God.  Many Mainline Protestants would prefer not to think of this tension.  Most of our churches still proclaim the Gospel of Enlightenment that tends to think our thoughts are God's thoughts...rather than hear the wisdom of Isaiah coming up in chapter 55:8, "My thoughts are NOT your thoughts and my ways are not your ways."  

Yet, it is not as though God shuts and locks the door on the People of God in this chapter.  In verse 15, we are reminded that it is in returning to God we find our rest.  I think this is why people find familiar worship so comforting.  Like a cozy pair of well-worn slippers, worship has a steady rhythm and people know what to expect.  Opening hymn? Check.  Lord's Prayer? Check. Sermon that drones on and on? Check and check!  

Worship is important within the faith because it helps remind us what is central to full life: God.  We worship a lot of things in this society.  To get a glimpse, flip through the latest issue of People magazine when waiting in the grocery line next time you are there.  We worship people who lose weight and the latest diet craze.  We worship celebrities - especially male athletes.  We worship those who are wealthy.  I don't claim to know what God thinks about all the idols we have made.  I know in Exodus 32 the People of God convince themselves that the calf represents God.  In the midst of their fear and anxiety that Moses was gone too long, they think the calf will provide some kind of reassurance.  Like Isaiah 30, I see a lot of myself in that passage.  We can convince ourselves that our wealth and athletics and body images are about God rather than us.  Think back to how many times football players reference God.

Worship can comfort and challenge us in good ways to examine our lives.  And yet, I do get concerned about that line between being comfortable and complacent.  It is a thin, easily passed over line and we are so astute (see Enlightenment above) that we can even convince ourselves that we are no where near that line, that our prayer life, volunteering, worship and such is still as vital and vibrant as ever.

On the last post, I asked about your dreams.  One of the things dreams can do is stretch us and tell us about our deepest desires.  This is why we don't often share our dreams with others, lest they tell us we are foolish and we fear they may be right!  We can also make idols of our dreams that if we don't achieve them exactly as we have in mind, we are mad at God.  I encourage you over the coming days to think prayerfully about your dreams and about the idols in your life.  Are there similarities between the two?  Bring that to worship and be honest about that in the presence of God and the People of God at worship.  That might actually be a faithful way to worship this Sunday and allow us to get a glimpse of the traces of God's grace.

Blessings and peace!