Worshipping Poverty

Today's readings: Psalms 123, 146; Isaiah 44:9-20; Ephesians 4:17-32; Mark 3:19b-35

The book of Isaiah, across its many chapters and authors and decades of creation, includes multiple forms of writing from poetry to prose to apocalyptic texts. Today's reading includes a passage that is a blend of parable and narrative. It tells the story of a carpenter who plants a cedar tree and tends to it until it is large enough to cut for timber. Part of it he uses to build a fire, which he uses to warm himself, roast his meat and bake his bread. The other part he carves into an idol which he bows before and worships. The God of Israel looks upon the carpenter and asks why "he cannot save himself or say, 'Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?'" (Is 44:20)

Rather than worship the God he was created to serve, the carpenter fabricated an idol from materials that served him. He chose wood, but the same principle has driven people to create idols of gold, wheat and fertility symbols to ensure an abundance of these things in their lives. Directed at idols, worship is not about love and gratitude, but an attempt of the worshipper to bribe and persuade the object of worship. Idols represent a theology of scarcity, while God is the center of a theology of abundance.

What idols do we create for ourselves? For each of us the answer to that question depends on what we fear we lack or may lack in the future. Our idols, then, are not surprising: money, accumulated to build a sense of security; sex, sought to convince us we are loved; power, hoarded so we do not feel our own powerlessness. The list goes on, of course. Note that - like wood or gold - none of these things are corrupt by nature. They become idols when we seek them more than we seek God, when we believe - sometimes without even realizing it - in poverty more than generosity.

Unlike God, idols can be destroyed because they have been created. That's good news, because when we find we have created an idol we have the power to rid ourselves of it. It may not be easy to learn or relearn to trust God alone, but in the end idols leave us with nothing anyway. God is always waiting with everything that matters.

Evening readings: Psalms 30; 86