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Moving Beyond Idols

You need to expand your consciousness to worship the invisible God

Dawn Duryea

Oct 14

 

Exodus 32:1-14

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When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took these from them, formed them in a mold, and cast an image of a calf, and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” 6 They rose early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel.  7 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10 Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, and of you I will make a great nation.”   11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?   12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

 

Today’s reading recounts the construction of the Golden Calf by the people of Israel while in the wilderness during the Exodus. There’s a lot going on in this scene, but the big picture is that Moses has gone up the mountain to receive instructions from the Lord God and while he is up there the people decide to take matters into their own hands and construct a Golden Calf. They begin to worship it until God notices and threatens to destroy the whole camp. Moses then reminds God of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Israel and of the love and mercy that lives at the core of God’s heart.

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The people are wondering where Moses went. We are told that Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. The people begin to wonder if he will ever return. It seems that even though the presence of the Lord dwelt with them in the pillars of cloud and fire the people see Moses as God’s representative and as the visible wielder of God’s power. This is clear by their attributing what God has done to Moses with such statements as “this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt” (vs. 1) and others like it.

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You might think they are confused, but I think they are having trouble seeing the Lord’s presence in these “natural” phenomena and have instead decided to rely on their own senses to tell the truth. They can SEE Moses. Moses parted the Red Sea and Moses brought water out of the rock. Moses is their savior. They do not SEE God.

It’s hard to believe in that which you cannot see.

 

We have the same problem today.

 

And I think, WOW!, if the Israelites had trouble believing in the Lord when they saw some of the most spectacular wonders ever performed here on earth, how will we ever come to faith? They felt the wind which held back the sea to reveal a safe dry passage for them. They tasted the incredible provision of meat, bread and water for 40 years in the desert – never wanting for anything. And they even heard the voice of the Lord echo down from the mountain in horrifying unearthly tones.

What more satisfying proof exists for the living God?

 

Already the people have turned from the sight of the Lord and have started worshipping that which they made with their own hands – in clear violation of the newly received Law.

 

And even though the presence of the Lord hovers in a cloud at the top of Mt. Sinai AT THIS VERY MOMENT, doubt and fear grow so large in their collective consciousness that they must do something to bring God closer, to make God more real.

The only problem with this, as you may remember from last week, is that this Golden Calf falls under the definition of an idol. And construction and worship of an idol is clearly prohibited by the second commandment.

 

An idol is a religious object used as a medium for communicating with or worshiping a god.

 

As a reminder the second commandment reads: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

 

Two parts to this commandment:

 

You shall not make an idol that resembles anything you can see.

and. You shall not bow down to this idol or worship it.  and they violate both.

Now you may wonder, why is this such a big deal? They have made a representative of God and now they are worshipping it. They are still worshipping the Lord – just not in the way they were taught by God. They are doing it THEIR way. And, in reality, they are doing what they learned from the Egyptians.

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The way gods work, according to the thinking of that time in the ancient Near East, was that the gods inhabited these man-made statues and oftentimes also in living animals and you brought offerings to bribe the god to do you favors.

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But the God of Israel is DIFFERENT and this is what the Lord is trying to convey to the people. The Lord God is ONE God. Not just one of many but the One and Only.

The Lord also does not live in a statue. The Lord will not be contained. It is not possible to capture God’s presence in such a thing.

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I think also it is interesting to note that in our religion, God is not PART of Creation, not bounded by the rules of the universe, but OUTSIDE and separate. God can be immanent in creation and influence and act through created things but God is NOT a created thing and thus the laws of physics do not apply to God. God is outside of our understanding of time and space. Not affected by the one-way arrow of time and not subject to manifest in a way we can understand (hence miracles/invisible).

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And so, this God is complicated.

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We would LIKE for our God to be small and portable, instantly at our command – kind of like a genie in a lamp!

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But our God is no genie.

 

Our God cannot be made into something we can easily understand, squashed into a fake representation, tamed or domesticated.   I think the whole point of religion is to ENLARGE our consciousness so that we can approach God without fear.

The Israelites attempted to tame God, to bring God near to them, to make God into something they could understand. But this had the opposite effect of alienating God and bringing God’s wrath upon them.

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What does that mean for us? What can we learn from this mistake?

This episode reminds us that our hearts TOO are prone to wander when God’s way diverges from our way. We are tempted to add our own explanations and in this way shape God into an image we recognize. Something that fits in with our understanding of the world. Something that will BEHAVE according to the rules of human civilization.

In what ways have you attempted to tame God – to make God smaller to fit within your understanding of the world?

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We will never be able to approach God without fear if we don’t allow for the expansion of our understanding.

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Now after a mistake of this magnitude you know there will be consequences. Gods anger rises against the Israelites.   The ANGER of God – I wonder what that feels like?

Moses, as the intercessor, shields the people from the full wrath which longed to burn against the people for their idolatry for their betrayal and abandonment – their desecration of the covenant they swore to uphold [with sacrifices and blood].

Jesus, as our intercessor, does the same for us – shields us from the hot anger of the Lord.

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I tend to equate God’s wrath with God’s holiness, for it is always when humanity strays from righteousness that we see evidence of this divine anger.

This episode teaches us that there are consequences for sin.

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But you KNOW that - you’ve felt the consequences of sin in your own life. When you’ve made a wrong turn and you’ve hit a dead end or strayed into treacherous territory. These could be termed natural consequences. You’ve told a lie and then you have to remember what you said to which person and eventually when you are caught your EGO or your REPUTATION suffers. There are consequences for every sin and this cut to pride and self is MINOR by comparison to what we are talking about today.

Today, the Israelites have turned from their God. They have broken the covenant. They are no longer God’s people. With these actions they have severed that cord which bound them to the Divine presence in the world.

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And when we turn to the Gospel reading, we hear Jesus telling a parable about a king hosting a wedding banquet. The first part of this parable seems to be in our favor as Gentiles. The original invitees have not shown up to celebrate as they promised (Israelites forsake the covenant) and so the host sends out his servants to invite all the people they could find (Matthew 22:9). No longer is there a difference between chosen and not chosen (Jew nor Greek). Now EVERYONE is invited. All are the chosen people of God. But here’s where the parable takes an ominous turn. After the hall is filled with dinner guests, the king walks through the hall absorbing the merriment and enjoying the celebration. Suddenly he spots a person wearing the wrong clothes.

This seems such a minor violation to us. What is the problem here?

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This violation RUINS the king’s vision of this perfect wedding (union of heaven and earth). And this story, of course, is told by Jesus to point us towards a larger truth.

Perfection represents God’s holiness. We are called to be perfect as our Lord in Heaven is perfect (Matt 5:48) and here is a guest without the right clothes – maybe they are wearing white and everyone else is wearing red. Maybe they are in jeans when the invitation clearly stated black tie. Who knows? But what we do know is that this person has not conformed to the rules of this place (holiness of God).

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Therefore, they must be banished to the “outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:14).

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I don’t know where that is - but it doesn’t sound good!

The man once invited enters the festival hall but then decides not to follow the rules of the invitation(covenant) and so then is ejected from the party. He is cut off from the elected. Through his choices, he has severed the only connection he had with the King.

There are consequences for sin.

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But the Good news for us is that we have Jesus as our intercessor – like Moses, he stands between us and the wrath of God as a shield. Not only that, but Christ is the lens through which God views us.

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Sometimes we think our sins are minor like the man wearing the wrong clothes to the wedding banquet or little white lies, but they may turn out to be the last straw in God’s eyes. Even while trying to do our best we will make mistakes but Jesus will always stand up for us and remind God that we have been invited by him to the heavenly wedding banquet.

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If we are wise we will choose to follow the way that leads to life bound by the cord of the covenant of our baptism and keeping the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. Always seeking the way that Christ has set before us.

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And if we choose God’s way instead of our own, we can wear the robe of righteousness given to us by Christ through his sacrifice rather than the threadbare garments of our own making.

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Don’t forget you are invited guests, don’t make your excuses but always remember to come and take your place here with the other guests. Come and receive your pardon, accept the meal of body and blood and go forth clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

 

Prayer

Lord God in Heaven Above, we have accepted your invitation and are making our way to your heavenly banquet. Accept us as we are for we are invited guests of your son Jesus Christ. Christ has loved us and has given us his life and righteousness for a wedding garment. We wear it proudly as we know there is no other way for us to be able to stand in the light of your holiness. It is in his name we pray.

AMEN