Tag Archives: Idols of Today

Putting God First

Lent

March 1, 2021

Scripture Reading:
Exodus 20:1-17

Then God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy….For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. –Exodus 20:1-8, 11

The first part of the above scripture, we now call the Ten Commandments, deals with our relationship with God. It stresses there is only one God, and anything we put before God is an idol. I notice that I write a lot about idols, particularly greed and lust for power. We may revert to our Hebrew Bible training, where idols were often associated with little and big statues that people could stand before and worship. Today or idols are more abstract and perhaps more dangerous. Our quest for wealth and power is always fulfilled at the expense of others.

That leads us to the next commandment, not making wrongful use of the name of the Lord. As a child, I thought that meant we were not supposed to use God’s name as a swear word, which is still good advice. I was also raised reading the King James Version of the Bible that reads, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. I am not sure I understood what in vain meant. It is apparently a hard Hebrew word to translate. It means* not to use God’s name for a bad purpose. In our world today, God gets credited with many bad purposes that do not relate to God at all. The prosperity Gospel comes to mind.

The commandments about our relationship with God all boil down to maintaining a relationship with God. Taking the time to worship God, pray, meditate, serve others in God’s name, and love like God. The sabbath is a day dedicated to remembering our relationship with God, which continues into every minute of our lives.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we fail to keep our hearts and minds set on you, letting your ways guide our days. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7723.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.

Seeking Justice

Living in the Spirit

October 27, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Micah 3:5-12

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
   and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
   and pervert all equity,
who build Zion with blood
   and Jerusalem with wrong!
Its rulers give judgement for a bribe,
   its priests teach for a price,
   its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
   ‘Surely the Lord is with us!
   No harm shall come upon us.’
Therefore because of you
   Zion shall be ploughed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
   and the mountain of the house a wooded height. –Micah:9-12

Reading the Hebrew prophets is like reading a newspaper today. What Micah cried out against in 700 BC applies today.

Abhor justice and pervert all equity
CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978. Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time. (Economic Policy Institute) Many of those workers do not earn a living wage.

Rulers give justice for a bribe
January 21, 2020 will mark a decade since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a controversial decision that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections. (The Brenan Center for Justice)

Priests teach for a price. Prophets give oracles for money.
The “prosperity gospel,” an insipid heresy whose popularity among American Christians has boomed in recent years, teaches that God blesses those God favors most with material wealth…Few theological ideas ring more dissonant with the harmony of orthodox Christianity than a focus on storing up treasures on Earth as a primary goal of faithful living. (The Washington Post, The Worst Ideas of the Decade, The prosperity gospel by Cathleen Falsani)

We find ourselves caught in the web of the greed pandemic raging through our land as we invest our time and talent in making money, the Baal of our time.  Also, being ravage by the COVID-19 pandemic, we throw up our hands and say let it run its course while we develop better treatments and a vaccine. Dealing with COVID-19 is hurting our economy.

We do possess the means of controlling both pandemics. The treatment outlined by Jesus in Mark 12:30-31 has two steps, the first is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Wearing a mask, physical distancing, testing, tracing, and quarantining as indicated, markedly reduces the spread of COVID-19. Putting God first in our lives over any idol sets us on the path of righteousness.

Prayer: Lord, free us of the burden of worshiping lesser gods, bring us back into your fold, and lead us to higher ground. Grant us the patience and forbearance we need to face the COVID-19 virus head-on and help us find ways of loving our neighbors involved in it, whether as victims or health care workers. 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