Idols, Idols Everywhere

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

The prophet Isaiah paints a very vivid picture of a man creating an idol. This man plants and nourishes a cedar. Half of it he uses as fuel for a fire he can use to roast meat and warm himself. The other half he carves into a god and worships. As far as Isaiah is concerned, he is worshipping the equivalent of the ashes left from his cook fire.

For some people, money is an idol, though it is no more than paper and stamped metal (and sometimes no more than a promise). For others it's a tribal affiliation, such as a political party whose platform is only as stable as it's electability. Still others idolize a denomination, the Bible, beauty, fame, or power. We may not call them idols, but they serve the same purpose and keep us from full relationship with the true God.

Even family can be an idol. When Jesus' family tries to call him away from the crowd gathered around him to hear his teachings, he declares: "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother" (Mk 3:35). When we focus on immediate family to the exclusion of our greater family in God, we have created an idol. We need not reject our birth family, but we should be prepared to add to it.

What idols do we need to clear from our own lives? What draws focus and energy that belong to God? Perhaps it is a grudge we bear. Maybe it is an obsession with social status. It could be an addiction or a relationship or ... well, anything.

Anything we idolize is ultimately no more than ash destined to blow away on the wind. Only God is constant. We can appreciate the impermanent things of creation, but our love must be reserved for the eternal creator.

Evening readings: Psalms 30; 86

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

Discarding Idols

Today's readings: Ps 18:1-20, 147:12-20; Isaiah 2:5-22; 1 Thes 3:1-13; Luke 20:27-40

Isaiah is an Advent staple because it speaks vividly of preparing ourselves for what it is to come. Today’s passage speaks about the consequences of worshipping idols. Unlike Isaiah’s contemporaries, we probably don’t encounter many literal idols, or hand-crafted gods. However, Isaiah’s words about idols are still worth hearing today.

Isaiah’s people were constantly exposed to cultures who worshipped idols. Jews, whose God was unseen, were lured by the comfort of deities they could identify or even touch. We aren’t much concerned today that our Christian faith is threatened by golden calves, but we should be concerned about the power of man-made idols to stand between us and God.

For now, let’s define an idol to be anything we prioritize above God, if only fleetingly. We could list money, popularity, power, possessions, security, pride, comfort, etc. We may not actually worship these things as gods, but can we admit we are at least tempted to prioritize some of them before God? There’s nothing wrong with a nice car, lots of friends or a healthy 401k, but we must keep them in perspective. Taking an ethical stand in the workplace might cost us friends or a promotion, but we should not value those above our faith and principles. Such betrayals do more long-term damage to our spirits than any short-term gains are worth.

We should also be wary of idols disguised as faith. We don’t want to be like the pious man who shushed the beggar because she was interrupting his prayers to be more generous. Maybe we want to believe we have this Christian thing all sewn up because we can quote the Bible and avoid the right sins and study the right doctrine, as if reaching and maintaining some spiritual goal weight. If these things interfere with our ability to have a true relationship with God and with each other as Christ taught us, they have become idols. If God always thinks like we do, then we’ve made an idol of our ego and certainty. We can even make an idol of the Bible: some used it to justify African American slavery, clearly contrary to God’s love, and others use it to promote injustice even today.

Idols diminish our understanding of God. To prepare our hearts for Christ, we must empty them of idols. He will take up all the space we can offer!

Comfort: If our heart is empty of idols, God will find many ways to fill it.

Challenge: For the rest of the week, pray to recognize your idols.

Prayer: God of Hope, help me clear away my idols to make room for you.

Evening readings: Ps 126, 62

Tomorrow's readings: Ps 102, 148; Isa 3:1-4:1; 1 Thes 4:1-12; Luke 20:41-21:4