Scripture: Exodus 32: 1-14; Exodus 34: 1-11
Sermon: American Idols
Topics: Sin, Idols, Temptations
November 18, 2007 pm Woodlawn
Rev. Mike Abma
PREAMBLE
A little less than a month ago we looked at how much of the book of Exodus is spent on the tabernacle – first the detailed instructions and then later the actual building of it.
Then, two weeks ago, Andy Kuyvenhoven preached on one of the passages that occurs between the instructions for the tabernacle and the building of it – the wonderfully mysterious passage of Moses seeing the back of God, the glory of God.
This week, we’ll look at the other main passage that occurs between the instructions for the temple and the building of it – that is, the heart-breaking incident of the golden calf.
READ Exodus 32: 1-14 then 34: 1-11
INTRODUCTION
The story of the golden calf is a heart-breaking one.
God has literally pulled his people out of Egypt, out of slavery.
He has led them by the hand through the Red Sea.
He has brought them to this mountain, Mount Sinai.
And now he is in the middle of describing his covenant to Moses.
He is giving Moses instructions for how to build the Tabernacle so that his glory
— his burning brilliant presence –
could live in the middle of his people.
And what are his people doing?
They are melting down their jewelry.
They are admiring this calf-looking piece of metal that has come out of the fire.
They are dancing around, partying, announcing that this calf-thing brought them out of the land of Egypt.
It is truly heart-breaking.
It is something like a set of parents who have lovingly brought up a child.
The child is now a teenager.
They love this child.
They pray they have instilled in this child a sense of responsibility.
Then the day comes when they give this child the car keys.
She is going to go out with friends for the evening. They trust her.
Then she comes stumbling back home in the wee hours of the morning.
She has clearly been drinking …….. and driving!
The parents, who have been worried sick, don’t know whether to hug her or strangle her.
Their hearts are broken but also bursting with anger:
What was she thinking, coming home this late and drunk?
She could have killed someone.
She could have killed herself!
What a dumb, dumb thing to do!
Or, it is like a married couple.
They love each other.
Things seem fine.
Then, one long weekend, she has to go on a trip out of town.
He stays home, and for old-times sake, decides to go to a bar,
meet some friends,
have a good time.
Before he even realizes what he is doing, he suddenly finds himself driving home with
another woman in the car.
What a dumb thing to do!
What are you thinking!
This is the type of betrayal God feels.
When the Bible talks about wisdom and folly, this is the language it uses:
To know and fear God is wisdom;
To neither know God nor fear him is folly.
We look at the Israelites dancing around this golden calf and we think,
“how foolish, how dumb, what were you thinking?”
GOD JUST IN CASE[1]
But before we start throwing stones at the Israelites,
let’s think a little about what they did.
On the one hand, remember that they were in the middle of the wilderness.
They knew they were on their way north to Canaan.
They knew the Canaanites worshipped Baal type, calf-looking gods.
Better to become familiar with the culture they were heading towards.
It would be hard enough getting through the wilderness.
No reason to create enemies on the other side.
But on the other hand, they also knew enough not to throw all their eggs into one basket.
They knew enough to diversify their religious portfolio.
So they not only danced before this image of a calf,
They also set up an altar to the Lord.
The calf was there, just in case Moses never came back.
The altar was there, just in case he did.
Either way, they thought they had things covered and under control.
Which is what idols do, don’t they.
They give us the sense that we have our bases covered,
that we have things under control.
OBVIOUS IDOLS
How can people be so nakedly schizophrenic in their worship?
To have an altar to the Lord on one hand and a golden calf on the other – how dumb.
Well, is it so ….. unusual?
In January, when Super-bowl Sunday rolls around,
won’t there be at least a few churches in town
that host a Super-bowl Party at church?
Is football an idol?
Well … one study I read this week noted that a sports fan will spend about 9 hours and 12 minutes of every day watching sports, listening to sports, reading about sports, and thinking about sports, – 9 hours and 12 minutes a day, and that doesn’t include the time at night when they dream about sports.
That is no small part of one’s life.
But it is Sunday night.
If football was really your idol,
If you really bowed down before the altar of football,
you wouldn’t be here right now.
So maybe that is too safe an idol to target.
How about another idol that makes it into many churches these days.
In a recent essay in the Christianity Today magazine,
Andy Crouch confesses to owning a household idol.
He says that it isn’t very big – a little over 4 inches tall, a few inches wide.
He writes that as long as he remembers to feed it,
it promises to serve him.
It promises to serve him with knowledge, protection, security,
Without it, he says he is beginning to have feelings of anxiety and
vulnerability.
He brings his household idol with him wherever he goes, even to church.
He writes that his household idol is his cell-phone.
He also writes that what we call idols for primitive societies,
are what we call technology in our present world.
Then as well as now,
it is never the thing itself that is worshipped –
not the piece of gold, or stone, or wood.
Not the silicon processors, or the HD screens.
No, it is what the thing promises to deliver that is worshipped and honored.
So cell-phones promise connection,
Air-conditioning promises comfort.
Missile defense systems promise security.
We don’t worship the “thing” – we worship and crave what the thing
promises to deliver.
But all idols have the same problem:
over time they demand more and more
and deliver less and less.
Just look at our dependence on the automobile and slavery to oil.
As Thomas Merton once wrote:
“Technology was made for man,
not man for technology.”
HIDDEN IDOLS
But even here, we cell-phone free people face the temptation of feeling smug.
Technology, like football, can be one of those obvious idolatries.
What about the hidden idolatries?
What about the idolatry of “wellness.”
The people that will eat anything,
try anything
spend anything
in order to stay healthy and avoid death.
These are the people that will dance around the altars of diet, exercise and whatever medical procedures it takes, to be well or at least look well.
What about the idolatry of work.
All the people that dance around the altars of
accomplishment
recognition
and success.
Preachers are just as prone, or even more prone, to this as anyone else.
It is too easy for us to read the Bible in a mercenary way –
simply looking for ways we can use it
for sermons or Bible Studies,
for ways to pursue our own agendas and our own goals.
We try master the Bible,
and we resist letting the Bible master us.
Of course, the oldest, most deep-seated idolatry, is the idolatry of self.
Call it hubris, call it pride, call it narcissism,
This is basically the idolatry that dances around the altar of me, myself, and I.
I’ve been doing a little work at the Seminary this year, and I’ve heard Ron Nydam, the professor of Pastoral Care at the Seminary, talk about how this even afflicts seminarians.
It used to be that when students came to class late, they would apologize and say that it won’t happen again.
Nowadays, says Nydam, students arrive late and no apologies are given.
Nowadays, students think professors should feel honored that the student shows up at all.
Nowadays, he says it is almost as if the professors should feel privileged to be teaching such budding geniuses,
such obviously gifted people.
The truth is, it is often the most gifted that are most prone to idolatry.
It is often the most gifted who feel they can get by without God,
or, at most, with just a little help from the gods.
NATURE OF GOD
In his Institutes of Christian Religion, John Calvin begins by saying that we can only begin knowing God by knowing ourselves.
To know ourselves is to know our tendency to idolatry.
To know ourselves is to know that we so often put secondary things in life first.
We find delight in the wrongs places.
We chase after the wrong pleasures.
Look for security and comfort from the wrong sources.
And we try cover all the bases by worshipping at many different altars.
That is our nature.
And what is God’s nature?
When Moses came down from the mountain,
God was rightfully angry with his people.
His anger was a heart-broken anger.
He was ready to wipe out Israel.
But he did not.
Instead,
On that mountain,
he showed them his nature,
he revealed his name,
he displayed glory of his presence.
That he is merciful and gracious
Slow to anger
And abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
Forgiving our sin and iniquity.
Years later, on another hill-top,
God would again show his nature,
reveal his name
and display the glory of his presence.
On the cross, we see the nature of God,
the name of God,
and the glory of his presence:
merciful and gracious
slow to anger
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
forgiving sin and iniquity.
Repent,
Then remember and believe,
That Jesus was given for the complete forgiveness of all our idolatry.
Amen
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This is the title of a sermon by Neal Plantinga on the Golden Calf incident. ↑
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