Sunday, April 17, 2011
Thoughts and Ponderings
This week I have been thinking over what idolatry means. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:4-5). Going through different theological books with a friend, this came up and passed the golden calf I never really gave it much thought. I feel like most Christians are aware of making things or people their idols, but what about making actions their idols? Like exercising to the point of where it becomes like religious, something you have to do. Or even more profound, thought idols. It's really easy to think that Idols are real things that we can experience and touch or feel, but even thought based can be idolatrous. My favorite example, Talledega Nights, most of you know the reference, "I like to think of him as the eight pound six ounce baby Jesus." It's true that Jesus was at one time a baby, but how do we know what he looks like? God is completely apart from us except through Jesus and so there is no way that we can imagine what he looks like. This is the way I've been thinking about it, if you disagree please feel free to correct me. Continuing with this logic though, since we really can't imagine what He is like, then by trying to imagine we are just assigning Him a false identity which really becomes more like an idol.
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Cody, I think you nailed this one on the head in many respects! Yes, people/things can be idols. Yes, actions can be idols. Yes, prayer and fasting can be idols. Yes, a great Christian community can be an idol. Yes, ideas can be idols. Yes, even ideas about God can be idols.
ReplyDeleteAW Tozer says, "The essence of idolatry is to entertain thoughts about God that are unworthy of him"
Thanks for your insight on the issue... keep entertaining thoughts about God that are worthy of him!
I loved this post because similar thoughts have gone through my head over the years. In this world, we can make anything a religion—anything a "god", but Jesus is the only physical being to have walked the earth and remained truly perfect and holy within it—I mean he’s God. His example and teachings should be idolized in a way then right? Or not? All else is tainted and flawed, but he is holy. His image though can become an idol though I suppose—like the Caucasian Jesus with the white robe and blue sash that many of us grew up with. Is this the type of representation of Jesus you believe to be idolized? Just curious. Sweet post. :)
ReplyDeleteThe divide between idolatry and worship for me personally is tied to intimacy, vulnerability, and covenant love.
ReplyDeleteLuke 14 is a good example of this problem. The people in this encounter with Jesus have "image issues." Their image of God absolutely ruins the actual banquet with God that Jesus serves in their midst because they have no appetite for what is actually being served at the banquet.
Colossians reads - "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation."
Here is my problem - I feel a strong connection to Jesus when I acknowledge in my mind this image in Colossians with words and yet moments later I can walk away from Him when He asks me to serve my neighbor or feed the poor. I like the image but my heart is far from him.
I'm sorry to use this word but the best context I can offer for the problem/issue you raise is what I believe is the "pornography of Jesus." We like and seek beautiful images of God but keep them merely as lifeless pictures without intimacy, vulnerability, and covenant love.
My wife would much rather that I have no pictures of her and lived my life in sacrificial, self-giving, covenant love than that I have all kinds of pictures of her and the kids that I adored and yet never gave either her or the kids my heart.
What's amazing is that Jesus actually says in John that people will know God by His presence of love within us. Peter says that people will sense God in you by the hope that you have. Paul said that the prison guards and everyone else knew about Christ through His lifestyle. Peter says wives may win over their husbands to Christ without words by the purity and reverence of Christ in them.
I love your post because it heightens the drama that we live each day. God makes his appeal through us. His word has been made flesh in you! You are his temple that manifests the glory of God when words and images fall short. Yee haw.