Tag Archives: Idolatry

gods of our creation

Living in the Spirit

November 4, 2021

Scripture Reading: Revelation 21:1-6a
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

The word translated “dwell with” above is the Greek word skēnóō, which in English more precisely represents tabernacle and means dwelling in intimate communion with the resurrected Christ – even as He who Himself lived in unbroken communion with the Father during the days of His flesh*.

The poetic vision described above is far afield from our world today. We are more divided than I can ever remember. We are not the one people of God; Jesus longed for us to be. We cannot be the one people of God because we worship many gods we create in images we desire. If our most significant concern about the world is whether the ideal Christmas toy for our child is on one of those boats that cannot unload and thus will not be available to purchase in time for Christmas, we are in deep trouble. The toy or the microchips needed for cars could have been manufactured in the USA if we had been willing to pay our fellow citizens living wages. Instead, Our companies contracted with businesses in countries that allow low wages, child labor, and unsafe working environments.

Empires fail when they get too greedy for their own good.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we turn away from you toward the lesser gods that entice us. Open our hearts to the worth of your peace and love. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/4637.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

History Repeats Itself

Kingdom Building

July 15, 2019

Scripture Reading: Amos 8:1-12

This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. He said, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to me,
‘The end has come upon my people Israel;
   I will never again pass them by.
The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,’
says the Lord God;
‘the dead bodies shall be many,
   cast out in every place. Be silent!’
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
   and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, ‘When will the new moon be over
   so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
   so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
   and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
   and the needy for a pair of sandals,
   and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’ –Amos 8:1-6

I find it difficult to read the prophets of the Hebrew Bible these days because reviewing them makes me wonder if we ever learn from history. Greed and lust for power was the undoing of Israel even while prophets like Amos predicted well the consequences of the Israelites behavior.  We have the insight of the finished picture, exile and later the return to their ruined temple and lands, and still we do not take heed of our similar behavior.

We can blame our difficulties on elected officials and there is plenty of blame to go around whether bluster or inertia. The simple truth is we elected them, and they are a mirror image of our greed and desire for power. Of course, many of us do not see the problem in the inequities that grow in our land. Our stock investments are growing well, like summer fruit.  We chose not to see the people working at more them one job to survive on inadequate wages, who may be able to afford rent or medicine but not both. We tsk, tsk about drug companies charging exorbitant prices for medicine like insulin but that is about as far as it goes unless it is us or one of our loved ones who will die without a drug that is basically the same today as it was a hundred years ago. Amos reports that the Israelites of his day were so impatient to make more money they wished for the sabbath to end so they could get back to the important thing in their lives–making money. While our stock market is closed over the weekend in a world economy, we can find some place to wheel and deal at any time or day of the week.

I guess my difficulty in reading the prophets results from feeling so helpless to do anything about what is wrong in our world. Truth is I am helpless, but I love a God who is not. A God who has a proven record dealing with evil, a God who can empower me and you to deal with evil when we are ready to follow God’s lead.

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when greed and lust for power or other forms of idolatry overcome me. Strengthen me to live your love and do your justice on this great planet you created. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Idolatry Today

Lent
April 10, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

I thank you that you have answered me
   and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
   it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
   O Lord, we beseech you, give us success! –Psalm 118:21-25

We followers of Christ read Psalms like the one quoted above an instantly see Jesus in the role of chief cornerstone. The readers of its day saw it as hope for the one to come who would save them from oppression. Jesus’ life on earth places us in a new but similar realm of hope. I find myself longing for the Kingdom of God ruled by love every time I listen to news reports of hate, violence, oppression, or lust for power no matter who it may hurt. During Lent we must wonder though if such a Kingdom is what we really want, or do we desire the ways of the world with just a pinch of Christ to save us from getting too close to falling off the edge of such idolatry.

The Hebrew Bible delves deeply into the distractions of idolatry. We of the modern era can tsk, tsk at our primitive ancestors in faith for their worship of graven images carved in stone or gold or other metal. We forget that idols advance with progress perhaps even faster than our ways of serving God. It is my observation that churches discover the latest and greatest ways of attracting new members borrowed from the world about the same time they lose sway in the culture.

Followers of Christ are called to not be of the world but in the world sharing the good news of a God of love who probably does not have a problem with the music we play or the audio-visual tools we use but does not see them as our primary focus. God cares about how we love God and love one another and how we work together as the Body of Christ in the world today charged with the responsibility of bringing about God’s kingdom on this earth.

Prayer: God who is Love bring us to such an awareness of the wonders of your love that we are driven to work toward its dominance in the world in everything we do. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Of God and Idols

Living in the Spirit
June 30, 2017

Scripture Reading: Romans 6:12-23

What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

  When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 6:15-23

Paul presumes in this writing that all humans must be slaves to something. The word slave brings on negative connotations for most of us who understand slavery as out of the slave’s control. Perhaps we need to look more closely at the words if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves. Paul is describing a person who is a slave by choice. I have ancestors who worked as indentured slaves, often called servants, as a youth to learn a viable trade. Such arrangements included binding legal contracts. I think this is what Paul has in mind. While it applies to our relationship with God, it clearly states that we also choose to make ourselves slaves to sin.

Choosing to place our faith in things that separate us from God is idolatry. One of the most insidious forms of idolatry is the prescription drug epidemic laying waste of many across our land. It starts so innocently but clings ever tighter and tighter. The same is true for illegal drugs. Greed and lust for power fit well into the pit of idolatry too. We are surely separated from God when we perceive ourselves as better than others because of the color of our skins or our gender or any other reason. I do not believe God loves any one of his children more than any other. Why do we have a need to establish such standards?

Before we acknowledged the presence of God in God’s righteousness and justice, we did not understand the significance of idolatry. We do now.

Prayer: Lord, free us from our need for lesser gods. Be present with us each step we take closer to you and away from them. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.