The dangers of idolatry
Commentary
Object:
Idolatry comes in many forms. An idol is, of course, anything we put before God. This can be a statue on a shelf but is more likely our job, our hobbies, our house, our cars, or our stuff.
Our Old Testament lesson comes from the prophet Hosea who reminds us that God's love is everlasting. Despite the fact that God had delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt and given them a new home in Canaan, the Jews had descended deeper and deeper into idolatry. In spite of their idolatry and their refusal to repent, God could not stop loving his people.
Paul wrote the book of Colossians to warn the people of Colossae that they were drifting away from the true gospel. Like the Israelites in the time of Hosea, they were risking their souls by listening to false teachers who were leading them astray. The apostle warned his readers that we must keep our focus on the things above rather than the earthly things that can easily become our idols.
Jesus reminds us in his Parable of the Rich Fool that our idols often come in the form of material goods. We may accumulate a great deal of this world's goods but they will do us little good when God says, "This very night your life is being demanded of you."
Hosea 11:1-11
Hosea prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II (circa 783-742 BCE), the ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel. He prophesied against the king's policies, especially those regarding the Israelite alliance with the Assyrian empire. Politically and militarily weak Israel had nearly always allied itself with more powerful nations in order to survive in a dangerous world. Hosea saw Israel's tie with Assyria as a lack of trust in God. He maintained that this political alliance should be understood as idolatry. This outspoken prophet did not stop with his criticism of the king. He also believed that the priests were guilty of leading the people into idolatry through their support of the king's policies.
Hosea used his own marriage to Gomer as a symbol of Israel's desertion of God and decline into idolatry. He accused his wife of harlotry and described their children as representative of the shattered relationship between God and the people of Israel. He referred to the history of Israel, especially the Exodus, to make his case that only Yahweh was the God on whom the Israelites could count.
Chapter 11 begins, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The book of Hosea is truly a love story, not about Hosea and his wife but about God and his chosen people. Hosea uses the family as a metaphor for that love."
God had made a covenant with Moses and the Hebrew people. That covenant had been confirmed through King David. Now the people had broken that covenant. Hosea went back to the ancient concept of covenant rooted in an understanding of clans and families.
Ancient Israelites lived in a culture where society was organized around tribal groups based on blood kin relationships. Blood kin banded together for protection. My kinsman's enemy is my enemy. One must be willing to die for a kinsman. Hosea's audience would have immediately understood the comparison between Hosea's family and their broken covenant with God.
Jesus, of course, expanded kinship much further. When asked who should be considered one's neighbor he told the story of the good Samaritan. This is the primary difference in the Christian's understanding of God's covenant with his people. Those with who we are in covenant include the whole world, not just a chosen few. Today we talk about our church family. Hosea saw the Israelite people as the family of God and so compares this to his own family.
Any parent of a wayward child will quickly identify with 11:2, "The more I called them, the more they went from me." There is a family in my church whose daughter strayed into drugs. She was arrested several times until she was facing the possibility of several years in prison. Her life brought unbelievable pain into her parents' lives.
While in jail facing this very real possibility of prison she "came to herself" and began to reconnect with God. She agreed to enter a rehab program. After a couple of shaky starts she really began to get her life together. She went back to college and is now helping other people get their lives together. What a joy it has been watching God at work in her life. Her relationship with her parents has been restored and she now brings much joy into their lives as well.
God chose Israel for a special mission, to be a special people. They were not the people I would have chosen. I would likely have chosen the Egyptians or the Assyrians or the Babylonians, or the Persians or the Phoenicians. I would have sought those with greater wealth or more powerful or more sophistication. Not the weak, backwoods, former slaves called Israelites. But God's ways are not our ways.
God called the Israelites out of Egypt. He loved them. In spite of that love they turned away into idolatry. Still God loved. Just as those parents never stopped loving their daughter. "How can I give you up?" (v. 8a). "My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender" (v. 8c). Hosea still has hope that Israel will return to the Lord (v. 11).
Colossians 3:1-11
Paul wrote his compelling letter to the church at Colossae to combat heresy that he feared was destroying the church there. It is not altogether clear what exactly the heresy was that concerned the apostle. Some have conjectured that it was a Jewish form of Gnosticism or perhaps some variation of Jewish mysticism. It might have been one or more of the pervasive mystery cults or the influence of Greek philosophy that was influential in this part of the world. Very likely it was a combination of two or more of these.
We only know the nature of the heresy by Paul's response to the heresy. He never states explicitly what the heretics were teaching. However, we can surmise that they were questioning the adequacy of Christ since Paul went to great lengths to argue the supremacy of Jesus as Savior and Lord.
In the first four verses of our epistle lesson Paul made the case that believers "will be revealed with him in glory." In verse 11 he concludes "but Christ is all and in all!"
In the verses prior to our periscope, Paul warned his readers against false teaching. He warned against legalistic doctrines that stressed vain regulations. But our text also warned that this does not mean we can ignore God's moral laws. We do this at our peril. We should "put to death" sins such as "fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)." He stated clearly, "On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient" (v. 6).
The writings of Paul are often used to argue a kind of "easy believe-ism" that stresses the grace of God and condemns legalism. Ephesians 2:8-9 is quoted, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God -- not the result of works, so that no one may boast." (The reader may recall that many scholars do not attribute the book of Ephesians to the writings of Paul.) Others quote James 2:17, "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead."
You probably have heard the story of the tightrope walker who after demonstrating his competence on the high wire asked his audience if they believed he could carry a person in a wheelbarrow across the wire. Many in the audience shouted that they did indeed believe he could do it. But when he asked for a volunteer nobody was willing to get in the wheelbarrow.
It seems to me that this story illustrates what Paul means by faith in Christ. To "believe" in Christ is more than a mental exercise. It means to make a commitment to obedient discipleship. We can never be good enough to save ourselves. But God saves those who make a commitment to being good. Even here, as we have already seen, Paul warns that "the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient" (v. 6).
Luke 12:13-21
In our epistle lesson Paul warns his readers to "put to death ... whatever belongs to your earthly nature" including "greed, which is idolatry." Our gospel lesson Jesus warns us against placing our trust in material possessions. Jesus refused to get involved in the family's dispute but did use the opportunity to teach some important truths about money and materialism.
The accumulation of this world's goods has always been a temptation. Paul reminds us that it is a form of idolatry. It is idolatry because we place more trust in its ability to meet our needs than in God's ability and desire to provide for us.
The rich man in Jesus' parable focused only on himself. He placed his trust in his own ability to provide for himself. God had blessed him with all the things he needed to produce a good crop, including appropriate weather. This farmer failed to recognize the role that God had played in his success. In the course of four short verses the farmer said "I" six times and used the word "you" once referring to himself. For this man it was all about himself and God was completely left out of the picture.
The man in Jesus' parable apparently had the classic attitude "the man who has the most toys when he dies wins." William Barclay told the story about a conversation between a young man and an older, wiser gentleman. The ambitious young man said he was going to learn a trade that would make him successful. The older gentlemen asked, "Then what?" "I will set up a business," the man replied. "Then what?" the old man asked. "I will grow old, retire, and live off of all the money I made." "And then?" the wise older man inquired.
We have already seen that Paul warned, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things" (v. 2). The man in Jesus' parable had set his mind on earthly things and ignored the things above.
Not only had this man placed his trust in earthly things and ignored the things above, he had also ignored the plight of those less fortunate. Greed cuts us off from others. It destroys relationships. Wealth may attract acquaintances but seldom attracts real friends. Greedy people usually die alone and lonely.
Application
Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it: 'Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.' "
Society has gone through many different periods of history since the time of Jesus, Paul, and Hosea. David Riesman was one of the earliest to write about what he called an age of consumption. In his 1950 book The Lonely Crowd he traced the changes in the "social character" of Western civilization since the Middle Ages with an emphasis upon the social developments associated with a shift from an age of production to an age of consumption.
Work by other social scientists such as Robert Wuthnow at Princeton has confirmed what Riesman from described. America is growing increasingly materialistic. Rather than reversing this progression the church seems to succumbing. Some would argue that rather than the church changing the world the world is changing the church.
Alternative Application
The church has always offered charity to those in need. Some local churches are better at this than others. Of course, there are always a few who assume the deprived are poor because they are lazy. Most Christians are willing to give at least something to those less fortunate and many are very generous with what God has given them.
The church has had less accomplishment when it comes to justice issues. As a boy growing up on a farm in the South I knew many white Christians who gave food and other assistance to blacks but would never have been involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
Most Christians still are unwilling to get involved in justice issues. In an age when the gap between the rich and the poor is growing at an alarming rate, few Christians even seem aware that a justice issue is involved.
We read today's texts and tend to make our "applications" in a way that keeps our comfort level within "reasonable boundaries." What might these texts be saying to us that would make our congregations really uncomfortable?
Preaching the Psalm
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Gratefulness is something we would all do well to expand in our lives. How often, really, do we pause to simply open our hearts in gratefulness before God? Even on the days when we don't feel like there's much to be grateful for we should be working on nurturing and growing a sense of gratefulness in our hearts. Stop for a moment. Imagine the many blessings God has provided. Shelter, food, companionship, meaningful work to do, and much, much more! Friends, spouses, parents, children; all are blessings from a wonderful God. And in the thick of these blessings, the appropriate response is gratefulness, and lots of it!
More than blessings, more than prosperity or happiness, this God has redeemed us. This God rescued our ancestors from slavery in Egypt and parted the waters of the Red Sea. This God led them through the desert and into the promised land. And in the fullness of time this same God came to us in Christ Jesus who died for our sake on the cross. In this sacrifice we have been redeemed.
And as this psalm clearly says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!"
This should give us pause as we think about how often we share our faith with others. It's a question worth asking. Do we say so? If, in fact, we have experienced God's redeeming power, why on earth would we be shy about sharing that? How often do we openly share the joy and wonder we find in our faith? Is witnessing to others part of our spiritual discipline? Or have we succumbed like so many others to the notion that we don't want to appear to be pushy or worse, too religious. And if we are a little queasy about sharing, perhaps it might be a good idea to sit with that queasiness and pray about it.
Let our grateful hearts open as we share our faith. Let the love we have found pour forth. Let the compassion we have discovered be shared in extravagance. And yes, let the redeemed of the Lord say so in every facet of their lives.
Our Old Testament lesson comes from the prophet Hosea who reminds us that God's love is everlasting. Despite the fact that God had delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt and given them a new home in Canaan, the Jews had descended deeper and deeper into idolatry. In spite of their idolatry and their refusal to repent, God could not stop loving his people.
Paul wrote the book of Colossians to warn the people of Colossae that they were drifting away from the true gospel. Like the Israelites in the time of Hosea, they were risking their souls by listening to false teachers who were leading them astray. The apostle warned his readers that we must keep our focus on the things above rather than the earthly things that can easily become our idols.
Jesus reminds us in his Parable of the Rich Fool that our idols often come in the form of material goods. We may accumulate a great deal of this world's goods but they will do us little good when God says, "This very night your life is being demanded of you."
Hosea 11:1-11
Hosea prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II (circa 783-742 BCE), the ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel. He prophesied against the king's policies, especially those regarding the Israelite alliance with the Assyrian empire. Politically and militarily weak Israel had nearly always allied itself with more powerful nations in order to survive in a dangerous world. Hosea saw Israel's tie with Assyria as a lack of trust in God. He maintained that this political alliance should be understood as idolatry. This outspoken prophet did not stop with his criticism of the king. He also believed that the priests were guilty of leading the people into idolatry through their support of the king's policies.
Hosea used his own marriage to Gomer as a symbol of Israel's desertion of God and decline into idolatry. He accused his wife of harlotry and described their children as representative of the shattered relationship between God and the people of Israel. He referred to the history of Israel, especially the Exodus, to make his case that only Yahweh was the God on whom the Israelites could count.
Chapter 11 begins, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The book of Hosea is truly a love story, not about Hosea and his wife but about God and his chosen people. Hosea uses the family as a metaphor for that love."
God had made a covenant with Moses and the Hebrew people. That covenant had been confirmed through King David. Now the people had broken that covenant. Hosea went back to the ancient concept of covenant rooted in an understanding of clans and families.
Ancient Israelites lived in a culture where society was organized around tribal groups based on blood kin relationships. Blood kin banded together for protection. My kinsman's enemy is my enemy. One must be willing to die for a kinsman. Hosea's audience would have immediately understood the comparison between Hosea's family and their broken covenant with God.
Jesus, of course, expanded kinship much further. When asked who should be considered one's neighbor he told the story of the good Samaritan. This is the primary difference in the Christian's understanding of God's covenant with his people. Those with who we are in covenant include the whole world, not just a chosen few. Today we talk about our church family. Hosea saw the Israelite people as the family of God and so compares this to his own family.
Any parent of a wayward child will quickly identify with 11:2, "The more I called them, the more they went from me." There is a family in my church whose daughter strayed into drugs. She was arrested several times until she was facing the possibility of several years in prison. Her life brought unbelievable pain into her parents' lives.
While in jail facing this very real possibility of prison she "came to herself" and began to reconnect with God. She agreed to enter a rehab program. After a couple of shaky starts she really began to get her life together. She went back to college and is now helping other people get their lives together. What a joy it has been watching God at work in her life. Her relationship with her parents has been restored and she now brings much joy into their lives as well.
God chose Israel for a special mission, to be a special people. They were not the people I would have chosen. I would likely have chosen the Egyptians or the Assyrians or the Babylonians, or the Persians or the Phoenicians. I would have sought those with greater wealth or more powerful or more sophistication. Not the weak, backwoods, former slaves called Israelites. But God's ways are not our ways.
God called the Israelites out of Egypt. He loved them. In spite of that love they turned away into idolatry. Still God loved. Just as those parents never stopped loving their daughter. "How can I give you up?" (v. 8a). "My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender" (v. 8c). Hosea still has hope that Israel will return to the Lord (v. 11).
Colossians 3:1-11
Paul wrote his compelling letter to the church at Colossae to combat heresy that he feared was destroying the church there. It is not altogether clear what exactly the heresy was that concerned the apostle. Some have conjectured that it was a Jewish form of Gnosticism or perhaps some variation of Jewish mysticism. It might have been one or more of the pervasive mystery cults or the influence of Greek philosophy that was influential in this part of the world. Very likely it was a combination of two or more of these.
We only know the nature of the heresy by Paul's response to the heresy. He never states explicitly what the heretics were teaching. However, we can surmise that they were questioning the adequacy of Christ since Paul went to great lengths to argue the supremacy of Jesus as Savior and Lord.
In the first four verses of our epistle lesson Paul made the case that believers "will be revealed with him in glory." In verse 11 he concludes "but Christ is all and in all!"
In the verses prior to our periscope, Paul warned his readers against false teaching. He warned against legalistic doctrines that stressed vain regulations. But our text also warned that this does not mean we can ignore God's moral laws. We do this at our peril. We should "put to death" sins such as "fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)." He stated clearly, "On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient" (v. 6).
The writings of Paul are often used to argue a kind of "easy believe-ism" that stresses the grace of God and condemns legalism. Ephesians 2:8-9 is quoted, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God -- not the result of works, so that no one may boast." (The reader may recall that many scholars do not attribute the book of Ephesians to the writings of Paul.) Others quote James 2:17, "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead."
You probably have heard the story of the tightrope walker who after demonstrating his competence on the high wire asked his audience if they believed he could carry a person in a wheelbarrow across the wire. Many in the audience shouted that they did indeed believe he could do it. But when he asked for a volunteer nobody was willing to get in the wheelbarrow.
It seems to me that this story illustrates what Paul means by faith in Christ. To "believe" in Christ is more than a mental exercise. It means to make a commitment to obedient discipleship. We can never be good enough to save ourselves. But God saves those who make a commitment to being good. Even here, as we have already seen, Paul warns that "the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient" (v. 6).
Luke 12:13-21
In our epistle lesson Paul warns his readers to "put to death ... whatever belongs to your earthly nature" including "greed, which is idolatry." Our gospel lesson Jesus warns us against placing our trust in material possessions. Jesus refused to get involved in the family's dispute but did use the opportunity to teach some important truths about money and materialism.
The accumulation of this world's goods has always been a temptation. Paul reminds us that it is a form of idolatry. It is idolatry because we place more trust in its ability to meet our needs than in God's ability and desire to provide for us.
The rich man in Jesus' parable focused only on himself. He placed his trust in his own ability to provide for himself. God had blessed him with all the things he needed to produce a good crop, including appropriate weather. This farmer failed to recognize the role that God had played in his success. In the course of four short verses the farmer said "I" six times and used the word "you" once referring to himself. For this man it was all about himself and God was completely left out of the picture.
The man in Jesus' parable apparently had the classic attitude "the man who has the most toys when he dies wins." William Barclay told the story about a conversation between a young man and an older, wiser gentleman. The ambitious young man said he was going to learn a trade that would make him successful. The older gentlemen asked, "Then what?" "I will set up a business," the man replied. "Then what?" the old man asked. "I will grow old, retire, and live off of all the money I made." "And then?" the wise older man inquired.
We have already seen that Paul warned, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things" (v. 2). The man in Jesus' parable had set his mind on earthly things and ignored the things above.
Not only had this man placed his trust in earthly things and ignored the things above, he had also ignored the plight of those less fortunate. Greed cuts us off from others. It destroys relationships. Wealth may attract acquaintances but seldom attracts real friends. Greedy people usually die alone and lonely.
Application
Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it: 'Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.' "
Society has gone through many different periods of history since the time of Jesus, Paul, and Hosea. David Riesman was one of the earliest to write about what he called an age of consumption. In his 1950 book The Lonely Crowd he traced the changes in the "social character" of Western civilization since the Middle Ages with an emphasis upon the social developments associated with a shift from an age of production to an age of consumption.
Work by other social scientists such as Robert Wuthnow at Princeton has confirmed what Riesman from described. America is growing increasingly materialistic. Rather than reversing this progression the church seems to succumbing. Some would argue that rather than the church changing the world the world is changing the church.
Alternative Application
The church has always offered charity to those in need. Some local churches are better at this than others. Of course, there are always a few who assume the deprived are poor because they are lazy. Most Christians are willing to give at least something to those less fortunate and many are very generous with what God has given them.
The church has had less accomplishment when it comes to justice issues. As a boy growing up on a farm in the South I knew many white Christians who gave food and other assistance to blacks but would never have been involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
Most Christians still are unwilling to get involved in justice issues. In an age when the gap between the rich and the poor is growing at an alarming rate, few Christians even seem aware that a justice issue is involved.
We read today's texts and tend to make our "applications" in a way that keeps our comfort level within "reasonable boundaries." What might these texts be saying to us that would make our congregations really uncomfortable?
Preaching the Psalm
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Gratefulness is something we would all do well to expand in our lives. How often, really, do we pause to simply open our hearts in gratefulness before God? Even on the days when we don't feel like there's much to be grateful for we should be working on nurturing and growing a sense of gratefulness in our hearts. Stop for a moment. Imagine the many blessings God has provided. Shelter, food, companionship, meaningful work to do, and much, much more! Friends, spouses, parents, children; all are blessings from a wonderful God. And in the thick of these blessings, the appropriate response is gratefulness, and lots of it!
More than blessings, more than prosperity or happiness, this God has redeemed us. This God rescued our ancestors from slavery in Egypt and parted the waters of the Red Sea. This God led them through the desert and into the promised land. And in the fullness of time this same God came to us in Christ Jesus who died for our sake on the cross. In this sacrifice we have been redeemed.
And as this psalm clearly says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!"
This should give us pause as we think about how often we share our faith with others. It's a question worth asking. Do we say so? If, in fact, we have experienced God's redeeming power, why on earth would we be shy about sharing that? How often do we openly share the joy and wonder we find in our faith? Is witnessing to others part of our spiritual discipline? Or have we succumbed like so many others to the notion that we don't want to appear to be pushy or worse, too religious. And if we are a little queasy about sharing, perhaps it might be a good idea to sit with that queasiness and pray about it.
Let our grateful hearts open as we share our faith. Let the love we have found pour forth. Let the compassion we have discovered be shared in extravagance. And yes, let the redeemed of the Lord say so in every facet of their lives.
