False Idol

25Jan
All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know. And so they will be put to shame. Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good? Look, all its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans too are merely human. Let them all assemble, let them stand up; they shall be terrified, they shall all be put to shame.

-Isaiah 44:9-11


Further into our reading for today, Isaiah 44:9-20, we read that the artisan takes a cedar tree and with half of it he builds himself a fire to warm himself and bake bread. From the other half he carves himself a god and bows down before it to worship it, proclaiming “Save me, for you are my god!”


It’s easy for us with our modern western ears and sensibilities to say this sounds completely ridiculous; we would, of course, never put our faith in such a thing. We wouldn’t think of bowing down or worshiping an idol such as this. However, I think we mut ask ourselves what other idols we might be worshiping or putting our faith in besides our one true God.


There are many substitutes in our modern world for carved idols. We have our institutions, money, government, sports, entertainers, and whatever else you can think of. We have news stations that spend the vast majority of their time on politics. We build covered stadiums that can hold 65,000+ people for concerts or football games. The Super Bowl is coming to our Superdome and the whole week before will be full of parties and various kinds of entertainment revolving around the game.


Just as there is no real harm that the carved idol itself can cause, there’s absolutely nothing wrong in these things in themselves. There’s no reason to feel guilty for enjoying them; I’m sure I will watch the Super Bowl. However, I need to be careful that the amount of attention I give to these purely entertaining events and the faith I might put into some of our institutions does not distract from the faith due to my real God and the attention I put into forming my life to follow his teachings. Our world is full of distractions to divert us from our real purpose. To keep this from happening, it requires our diligence not to let them win out.


Musical Reflection - Awake My Soul - Mumford and Sons with Jon Batiste


Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, and always to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 

 

The Book of Common Prayer, page 832

Faith

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