Jeremiah 6:16-8:7
Colossians 2:8-23
Psalm 78:1-31
Proverbs 24:26
In the Colossians reading today Paul says, "Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ." This is a passionate call from Paul to keep our Christian faith simple and focused on Jesus. For most of us this is difficult and a constant struggle.
Just as we all struggle with the more obviously "moral" commandments about lying, taking time to rest, not lusting after things or people, not envying, always telling the truth, etc. so we also struggle with the first two "spiritual ones." The first commands are to have no gods but God and never to worship idols (ie objects or even ideas that take the place of God).
Today we cleaned the front of the church in Tullamore and put a load of compost and some plants into the huge planter in the new back garden. Three ladies from Mountmellick church did great work clearing out the weeds from the stony areas at the front of the building. The weeds are gone for a little while but they'll be back soon.
Weeds keep coming back with boring inevitability and so do new forms of idolatry or dependence on things or people who are not God. Sometimes those new forms are really just old ones revamped. In the mid 20th century Pope Pius XII affirmed the doctrine of Mary as Queen of Heaven, a title and an idea denounced in the Jeremiah reading above as being idolatrous. The Queen of Heaven mentioned in this chapter as Astarte but the styles of veneration are almost indistinguishable from modern methods used to “honour” Mary the mother of Jesus.
Colossians 2:8-23
Psalm 78:1-31
Proverbs 24:26
In the Colossians reading today Paul says, "Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ." This is a passionate call from Paul to keep our Christian faith simple and focused on Jesus. For most of us this is difficult and a constant struggle.
Just as we all struggle with the more obviously "moral" commandments about lying, taking time to rest, not lusting after things or people, not envying, always telling the truth, etc. so we also struggle with the first two "spiritual ones." The first commands are to have no gods but God and never to worship idols (ie objects or even ideas that take the place of God).
Today we cleaned the front of the church in Tullamore and put a load of compost and some plants into the huge planter in the new back garden. Three ladies from Mountmellick church did great work clearing out the weeds from the stony areas at the front of the building. The weeds are gone for a little while but they'll be back soon.
Weeds keep coming back with boring inevitability and so do new forms of idolatry or dependence on things or people who are not God. Sometimes those new forms are really just old ones revamped. In the mid 20th century Pope Pius XII affirmed the doctrine of Mary as Queen of Heaven, a title and an idea denounced in the Jeremiah reading above as being idolatrous. The Queen of Heaven mentioned in this chapter as Astarte but the styles of veneration are almost indistinguishable from modern methods used to “honour” Mary the mother of Jesus.
Poor Mary, I always feel sorry for her when I see this kind of thing happening. Her entire life was dedicated to pointing people in the direction of Jesus and then all of a sudden people start to worship her, putting her on a pedestal (quite literally) and honouring her almost as equal with God. It is as though someone spent their entire lives promoting sobriety and then we honour them by getting drunk.
But this kind of idolatry isn’t only a Roman Catholic thing. In Reformed churches it can be the great martyrs of yesteryear whose words are treated as more sound than scripture who become our “Mary”, in liberal Protestant circles it is the next big iconoclastic scholar or the next big god-swamping idea, and in modern Evangelical or Charismatic circles it can be the famous speaker or Christian artist that we all run to and whose every word we hang.
Idolatry is something that exists in every part of the church. We break it just like we break the other commandments of God. Does this mean it’s OK? No. Does this mean we need to keep working at it? Yes. OK, How do we do that? I would suggest we do that by keeping things really, really simple. Is it about Jesus? Does it point to him and honour him? Then it’s good. Does it distract from Jesus and point away from him or cause us to spend silly amounts of time honouring someone or something that is not him? Then it’s bad and we should ignore it. Keep it simple and keep the weeds down!
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