Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Years ago, I took my son James to a Smashing Pumpkins concert at the Target Center. It was a remarkable evening- they played loudly and well. I knew many of the songs because I had been listening to them for years, courtesy of a class called “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll” I had taught to confirmation students before I came to you. They became one of James’ favorite bands, too. So when they came to town, we got tickets- not great seats, particularly, but we were there...

Their last song was a slow, dreamy piece with extended guitar solos, and as they played, cigarette lighters and matches were lit around the Target Center, and swayed to the rhythm of the haunting melody. No one that I could see was talking; everyone was focused entirely on the band, lost in the music.

The whole experience was evoking something for me, but in the moment, I couldn’t think of what it was- and then, before it ended, it came to me. It was a worship service- only the thousands of teenagers weren’t worshipping God; they were worshipping Billy, Jimmie, James and D’Arcy and the amazing sounds they were making. And there was no mistaking what was happening; the audience there was engaged in an act and an experience of devotion...

I was reminded of that experience as I was preparing for our text today as we continue through the Book of Exodus in our series, “Richly Woven...”

We are going to have a hard look at the subject of focusing our worship on something or someone else- what the Bible calls idolatry today, as we focus on the story of the “Golden Calf. And the reason is simple: because it is pretty clear that we live in a culture of idols- I mean what’s the name of the most popular show on TV, with the most viewers? American _____, right?

We are a worshipping species. We were created by God to worship; we can’t help it. We all treasure something above anything else in our lives- we give our devotion to somebody; we offer our sacrifices to something; we look for the blessed life somewhere...

And often- too often, we focus on gods other than the One who has created us- the One who gave us the gift of Jesus, and in his life, death and resurrection, offers us the presence of God throughout our lives, through our deaths and forever!

And this is nothing new; we’ve been doing it as long as there have been people, and our text today gives us the perfect opportunity to examine this topic- what it meant to the Children of Israel during the Exodus and what it means for us today...

Let’s quickly review and we’re doing this to remind ourselves of the role God has played so far: God calls Moses to go to the Pharaoh with the command to let God’s people go. Pharaoh refuses. He sets the Israelites free after a devastating series of Plagues, culminating in the deaths of the first born of all Egypt. God has demonstrated his power in gaining the release of the people who had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years.

As we know, Pharaoh changes his mind, comes tearing after the Israelites, trapping them against the waters of the sea. The people complain to Moses and what does God do? Incredibly, the waters are parted, the Children of Israel pass through on dry land into freedom, the waters collapse back on the Egyptians and they are destroyed. The Israelites are saved!

Not long after that, the people are suffering from hunger and thirst in the wilderness, complain to Moses, and God provides water from a rock, manna- bread from heaven each morning and quails each night. Once again, God hears and meets the needs of the people.

These people have had a ring side seat, if you will, to God’s amazing and personal power- they have been eyewitnesses to things you and I can only imagine.

Now, to today’s text: the people are camped at the Mountain of God, Moses has gone up to the top of the Mountain for an extended period, has had a personal conversation with God, and received what we now call the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant.

The people get tired of waiting, go to Aaron, and in remarkably direct language (a fascinating feature in this story) tell Aaron they’re tired of waiting and they act as though Moses is not at all important to them, and God??? Where is God in their complaining??? (“...as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him...”)

Aaron is a willing accomplice- it is Aaron, Moses’ brother, side by side with him through these amazing events who tells the people to bring their gold; it is Aaron who chooses the image of calf to mold, and Aaron who tells the people upon its completion that the next day will be the consecration of the image, the idol, when power shall be given to it by the assembly...

The people actually sacrifice to the image- and revel in its presence (polite words for something utterly inappropriate...)

I don’t know if we can imagine just how offensive this story is... After all God has done- after all God has shown, the people simply turn around and away and look to something they have made to worship...

God is rightfully furious, and wants to destroy them (not without reason, don’t you think?) and Moses intercedes for the people- “Remember the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... remember all you have done in bringing the people out of Egypt... (By the way, if you saw Mary’s video this week, note the people say it is Moses who brought them out, then Aaron says it is the gods represented by the calf who brought them out, God in his fury repeats that it was Moses, and they are HIS- Moses’ people, and finally, Moses gets it right- it is GOD who brought the people out of slavery in Egypt...) God relents- the Bible says “God changed his mind...”

Moses hurries down the mountain, he is so enraged by what he sees that he smashes the tablets containing the Law- written by the finger of God! He smashes the idol, grinds it up, scattered it on the water and made the people drink it...

And then he confronts Aaron. And let’s look carefully at what Aaron says:

Not my fault- the people are evil. They came to me and said “Make us gods who shall go before us, we don’t know what happened to Moses... So I said, whoever has gold, take it off. So they gave it to me, I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf...”

Who would have thought? What a shock!!! Because Aaron KNEW what he was doing was wrong- that he had helped-had participated in making and worshipping a god- a golden calf- in spite of what he knew God had actually done... And he tries to bail on taking responsibility for what he had done.

Even back then, it was not a new story: it sounds very close to the story in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve make an idol of the possibility of being like God when they’re told not to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It consumes them; they are easy prey for the serpent!

And when God asks Adam if he ate the fruit, and he immediately blames the woman, and then she blames the snake... But neither takes responsibility; they blame others...

Fast forward twenty-five hundred years or so from the Exodus: have we really progressed? Oh, we might not have statues that we worship, but there are still idols all around us where we devote (interesting word, that) our time, attention, treasure...

Idolatry is when I take anything that isn’t God and put it in the place God belongs. Martin Luther said it this way, “Whatever you fear, love and trust the most is your God...”

And there are so many idols available to us:

Money- there was a reason Jesus talked more about money than anything else in the New Testament. He knew just how strong the temptation was to put money in the place where God belongs...

Success- climbing the ladder of success, only to discover that it was against the wrong wall when we get to the top, at great cost to our families and other relationships...

Work- closely related to that success idol, if we let it... (when I first came to Bethlehem, I was working all the time... there was a meeting the night James had a band concert in middle school, and I apologized to him, and my incredibly wise wife, Deb, said to me, “That’s OK, go to your meeting. In a few years, he’ll be out of school and you won’t have to worry about these concerts anymore...” I pulled the knife out, called the chair of that Team, told them I wouldn’t be there and went to the concert. Later that evening, it occurred to me- I believe God had something to do with it- that Bethlehem had done very well without me for 100 years, and would without me for another hundred. You can do these things; the work will ALWAYS be there...

Attractiveness- we spend so much time, money and even pain on this one. And what have we done to our girls???

Relationships- in our desire for that perfect relationship, we can give up everything... Heard about a great book title recently- haven’t read the book, only seen the title- “If you can’t live without me, why aren’t you dead yet...” It reminds me of that old Country Music song title, “I’m so miserable without you it’s almost like having you here...” When you exist for the approval of another person, these days, we call it “co-dependency.” The biblical word would be “idol...”

Pleasure- you really can spend your life oriented to pursuit of your pleasure...

I could go on and on... And if I didn’t name your idol, God knows what it is- and so do you...

And at the root of our idolatry, we share some common things with the Israelites: we are impatient to see God at work. Where is God in our lives when there is such craziness and pain all around us? And if we can’t immediately see how God is working (and even if we can, just like the Israelites had)- then there is the desire to have control over our lives- to try and keep things under control...

We tend to forget that God’s promise has never been one of a spectacular, pain-free, worry- free life- but is instead the promise of our crucified and risen Lord, and his presence in our lives every day, every hour, every minute... And that most often, it is in the people around us that we see God at work- every act of service, every act of caring, every act of love in the name of Jesus, there God is: Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est... where there is charity and love, the ancient chant goes, there is God...

As for control- it’s an idol, too! And we all know what a falsehood that is. Think you control your life? Look at the stock market... Look at your children... you can’t make someone love you... you can lose your job and it has nothing to do with you...

And that illustrates the ultimate problem with our idols: they will take more and more and give you less and less and less until eventually they have everything and you have nothing. Idols will cost you what you need more than anything else. Misplaced devotion will make you do crazy things with your life...

I heard a story about a Denver Broncos fan- although it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it happened at the Temple of the Mall of America field... A man noticed an empty seat in his section that had always been filled, and so he went and asked the person sitting next to the empty seat if he knew why it was empty.

“Yes,” the man replied. “The seat was my wife’s. We went to every game for more than thirty years, and now she has died.” The first man replied with sympathy for his loss, and said it was too bad that there wasn’t a relative or friend he couldn’t have given the ticket to, and shared in the pleasure of the game together... “Oh, no,” the guy replied. “They’re all at the funeral...”

Pretty sad, no? But you know where the word “fan” comes from: fanatic, which means mad and crazy... A serious fan worships his or her team... But the team and its players don’t ultimately care about the fans- the idol doesn’t care. (Think about that later this afternoon through the ups and downs of the game, should you watch it...)

An idol can’t give you what you need the most. No idol ever said “Come to me, all you that labor and I will give you rest...” And when Jesus said that, he was speaking to the Pharisees, the most religious people of the day, who had an idol problem and didn’t know it- their idol was their religious performance...

Jesus said to them, “Come to me and stop trying to perform for God; it will kill you... I will give you peace...”

Those are the words of Jesus to you and to me today- you and I are offered the “peace which passes all understanding” by the one who has loved you from the foundation of the world. Take Jesus’ hand, and let your idols- your golden calves go, as difficult as it may be...

He will show the people you need to talk to; where you can get the support you need. In many cases, you can start right here and right now...

Take Jesus’ hand, and stop making excuses for your life; it is not how you were created to live. You were created for God’s pleasure- you were created to worship the God who loves you and always will, not anything or anyone else, and it is in that worship you will know the fullness of God’s grace, forgiveness and love...

Let us pray: Lord, you know every one of the idols we have in our lives today, and yet, in Jesus Christ, you love us still; you offer us new life and freedom. Help us to see- to know and to follow our Savior into the life you have promised- a life of meaning, a life of love and a life eternal. We ask this in Jesus’ Name, Amen!

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