The sermon for Sunday, October 12, was about trading in idols for peace. This picture comes from http://www.scripturepics.org/ (another incredible resource for pictures according to the lectionary). :)
The people of Israel were once dirty, slaves... building for the Egyptions, with no 15 minute breaks. They had to work hard under the hot sun, sweating, and begging for rest. But God heard their cries in slavery, and the people were taken out of slavery. They had been liberated, set free by Yahewh, their God.
You would think, after experiencing that kind of divine intervention towards peace and unity, the people of Israel would start exhibiting the peace of God. But no, they do not. They put aside God's peace and choose themselves instead.
Because the story continues like this... Moses (the people of Israel's human leader who helped with God's plan to take them out of slavery under the Egyptions) goes up on a mountain for awhile and suddenly the people of Israel get bored. He's been gone awhile so they say to Aaron, "make us gods who will lead us" (NCV). In other words, they ask Aaron to build them an idol.
An idol. They think a pile of gold fashioned in the shape of a COW can lead them.
I researched idols at some point... and learned that idols are things we fashion after ourselves. An idol is something we fashion in our own image and allow that image (of ourselves) to be our god. An idol is often a physical manifestation of us choosing ourselves over God. An idol is a physical object that represents sin, chosing ourselves.
In the Old Testament, idols were often made out of gold, like this calf for the people of Israel. Today people in foreign lands still have idols, made out of all sorts of elements from gold to sliver. In fact, recently I read about a child born with a deformity of having two heads and one body... and this child was being worshipped as an idol.
Idols are a manifestation of our own desires, what we want, and are often physical images fashioned in the image of the people who make them.
And the people of Israel, the people who SHOULD be remembering the peace of God that enabled their liberation... and SHOULD be acting out the peace of God... instead decide they want to build one of these idols.
They think the peace of the CREATOR can come from a slab of golden CREATION. They thought the creation could save them... and so they replaced the Creator with creation.
And the same sort of thing (believe it or not) is happening in Philippians. Besides last Sunday (Oct 5, when we celebrated the centenial of the Church of the Nazarene) we have been working through the book of Philippians and talking about embodying Christ.
And our main passage today comes from Philippians chapter 4. Apparently, two women who were influential and important in starting the work of hte early church, alongside Paul, are fighting... and it is affecting the Philippians.
These two women, Euodia and Syntyche, with names that require a PhD to pronounce, are fighting. And apparently their disagreement was escalated to a serious point since it made it into Paul's letter to help these women. Chances are each woman had chosen what they wanted and had most likely had people taking their side.
In these women's fighting, in their disagreement with each other, they are no better than the people of Israel fashioning a gold cow in their own image. For what is an idol? An idol is an object we fashion in our own image and is a symbol of us chosing ourselves over God.
And these women... who were a part of what God was doing through the early Church, who had experienced the divine intervention of God becomming human, SHOULD be exhibiting this same peace of Christ. But these women, too, seem to be serving the idols of themselves... even if it is not a physical idol they can hold in their hands. And Paul deals with this as he closes his letter.
All too often we think... I don't serve an idol. I don't have a physical object. I don't have a gold idol sitting around in my house anywhere! I don't need these scripture passages about idols because I am a good, pure, holy, devote Christian who does NOT under ANY circumstances participate in idolatry!
But perhaps we should look a little closer.
Too many times we are just like Aaron, good Christians (and sometimes even leaders) who get caught up in idolatry. We must look closer at our lives, because idolatry rages throughout the Church of Jesus Christ.
Idolatry is not necessarily a physical golden calf like Israel had. Idolatry can manifest itself in not so tangible (or not so physical) ways today. Like in our fights (as it did in the Church in Philippi). In our disagreements. In our disunity. In our forgetfulness of being a Church family. In our lack of community. In our inpure thoughts. In our getting caught up in having a bad attitude. In our talking about people behind their backs. In our lack of enacting God's peace on earth. In our choosing ourselves. In our choosing of anyTHING over GOd... we participate in idolatry.
In Philippians 4, Paul says we must have the peace of God above all else. We need to embody Christ, above everyTHING (physical... or not). We cannot be choosing ourselves, or an idol, or fighting, or our opinions, or our beliefs, over God. When we do we are participating in idolatry.
I don't say much from the pulpit about politics... but I did say, we must choose God and what God wants EVEN over what we think is right. Because all to often I'm afraid we choose what we believe, what we hold true, what we think is right... at the EXPENSE of God. And when we do, we're no different than countries with physical idols in their hands... just like the people we look down on in Israel and think they were stupid for fashioning a golden calf to be their idol to lead them.
Often we are just like the Israelites. We are just like the Church in Philippi. We participate in idolatry too... when we choose anyTHING over God.
And I'm afraid it happens far more often than any of us good Christian people care to admit. I'm afraid all too often, those of us who consider ouselves good, pure, holy Christian people... choose someTHING over God. And we must look closely at our lives and examine them... to see what our golden calf might be.
And Paul teaches us what to do, once we realize we cannot participate in the sin of choosing anything over God. Once we realized we must open our lives to God and see if we have any idols, Paul's words can help us. Paul teaches us how we are supposed to act in Philippians 4, how we are supposed to BE.
We must stand strong in the Lord, Paul says. We must pray to receive God's peace. We need to allow God to reorient our minds through these prayers. To change how we think-- so we think about a peace of God that goes beyond what we understand now. We need to reorient our minds to believe peace is possible.
Paul says, focus on what is true, right, good, noble, on what is beautiful and respected... and THIS is a call to focus on God! Not on idolatry-- not on anyTHING else we might put before God.
We must examine our lives, see what idols we might have in our lives-- what we might be putting before God... and instead, pray... and allow these prayers to reorient the way we think. We need to redirect our minds to think of God, the Creator... above all else, above any piece of creation. We must... trade in our idols for peace.
For as Paul says, the peace of God comes from prayer. And what is peace? Peace is not just a lack of fighting. Peace is not just some hippies waving two fingers in the air. Peace is not just a lack of war. Peace is not just simply hugging and being friends. Peace goes BEYOND our undesrtanding.
Peace extends to all of creation. It is about loving all of creation in the way God loves creation and working towards the good as the Creator intended for creation. Peace is about valuing all of life, it is about wholeness.
Peace is so fundamental to our Christian understanding it is one of the main focuses at Christmas time. Our cards read, "Peace on earth, goodwill to man." We've heard it a million times. But I'm willing to guess... many of us do not have a clue what this peace of God REALLY is.
And I'm thinking... that God wants to teach even me, your pastor, more of what God's peace looks like.
And right now, in this moment, it is okay that we do not understand God's peace as fully as God desires for us to understand it. But we need to be willing to admit our weakness on understanding God's peace. And in our weakness, we need to focus on God, and allow God to redirect our minds... to teach us what God's idea of peace is, which, according to Paul is "so great we cannot understand it."
I don't often tell my congregation or my blog readers what my prayer is for you as you listen or read this sermon. But this week, I'm going to tell you what my prayer is for you.
First, I pray that you will look closely at your life. That even if you are a good, pure, holy Christian who would NEVER have an idol in your house, that no matter how holy you know you are, that you would be willing to look at your life and examine it... to see if there is anyTHING you are putting before God. For this is idolatry.
IT IS OFTEN THE PERSON WHO REFUSES TO EXAMINE THEIR LIFE, WHO IS THE MOST IDOLATROUS.
And so it is my prayer that you would be willing to open your life up before God... to see if there is anything or anyone (or any part of creation) you are putting before your Creator.
Second, I pray you will trade in your idol for the peace of God. That you will look to God for what is pure, what is true, what is noble, what is beautiful, what is respected... for when we focus on God, true peace comes.
Once you are willing to open your life before God to see if there is an idol, I pray you would trade in creation for the Creator. For is is through focus on the Creator, the peace of God comes.
And third, I pray that this Sunday will be a foundation for this chruch to REALLY begin to understand this peace of God. For Advent is rapidly approaching. We are 7 weeks away from hanging the greens and decorating for Chrsitmas. So I pray, thirdly, that this Sunday will be a foundation and basis to thinking about peace during the upcoming holidays.
And then on Sunday, I did something I had never done before. I opened the altars to pray about the peace of God. We had sung about peace. We had a responsive reading about peace. I preached about peace... but we needed to do what Paul said... to "pray and ask God for everything you need."
I invited people to come to the altar and pray about giving up a piece of creation for the Creator. And I invited AS MANY as were able, to join me at the altar to pray aobut peace. To pray that as Advent rapidly approaches, we would learn about God's peace in a new way. I asked board members and Sunday School teachers to join me, their pastor, up at the front and say: "God, is there anything in my heart and life that would keep me from your peace?" And then I challenged all of us to be willing to see whatever God shows us and act on it. I asked them to join me in being willing to give God permission to examine our lives to see if there is anything keeping us from BEING all God wants us to be. I encouraged my people to allow this altar to be a place where God's holy, pure, good people could come together and pray about God's transforming and incomprehensible peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment