Idolatry

Thursday, March 20, 2014

3-20-14

The 20th is my favorite day of the month to write down.

Today I'm going to take a break from the reflection booklet reflections and share an insight from the Bible Study tonight.  It's "A Quick Journey Through the Bible" and today's session focused on Exodus and Moses.

What really struck me in a new way was the golden calf story.  Well, that and the way the plagues take down the Egyptian deities in a beautiful way.

Here's what I wrote down the moment it was over:

The difference between idolatry and just another religion -- which I have always believed is just another Face of God, another channel of His grace in the world -- is that idolatry is worshipping a god that you have made with your own hands -- and for your own purposes.

You're not listening, you're controlling.  Idolatry is creation not in service of something larger but to make grace something smaller and tangible and limited.  Grace and true religion are about reaching for something higher.

That's the real sin of the gold calf -- making something with your own hands and then saying "That is the god that did all of those wonders, and don't you see?  We can control it.  WE are the ones who built it.  WE with our prayers give IT life and power."  It is saying "Thanks, God, but we'll take it from here." once the trouble in Egypt has passed.

It's patently ridiculous -- to cede your sovereignty and invest your soul into something that you have created.  It's an attempt to make the divine smaller.  You might as well be writing vampire fiction -- turning the immortals into former humans.

It's so much easier to fathom than the infinite becoming merely human.

But guess which one is real love?