Idolatry (Part 2)

7-11-10

Our hearts were created ‘sacred-space’;  to be infused with God; for singleness; devotion.

They were not meant to be compartmentalized or fragmented. It’s why we experience the inner-tension of competing affections.

●The wisdom literature, as we have seen (especially in Proverbs 4:23), confirms that life organizes itself around our hearts. Our heart “orients” (adjusts) everything we do.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

●Jesus warned repeatedly of the impossibility of the heart to simultaneously be fixed upon (2) realities; (2) ultimate points of reference. James says that it leads to “instability” (1:8).

“The eye is the lamp of the body”, Jesus said. When the eye is good (functioning properly), your whole body is filled with light. But, when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And, if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! No one can serve two masters…” (Matthew 6:22-24)

●The Sermon on the Mount ends with the Jewish “2-ways” motif.

            This is obviously imagery, but we know what he means. If you are driving your car and you think your headlights are working, once it gets dark, you’ll realize that what you thought was light is actually darkness.

●Our heart (eyes) allow us to respond appropriately to our environment; it helps us to “function”.

● Wherever your eyes focus, your body will take you (i.e. horseback, driving, etc.)

● It’s why our affections (attachments) become like gods to us (Mammon), because they assume a place reserved for our Creator-God.

In a very real sense, they are “idols/idolatrous”. It’s what we worship (worth), what we look to for consolation, what we look to in order to make sense out of life, what we attach our hearts to.

But, once I choose the “one thing”, everything and everyone else ultimately benefits from that devotion, because love in its purest form flows from the heart.

To love is to know other desires besides God. True freedom is born of difficult choices. Love means that we turn to God and abandon other things.              

God will never trump us with his sovereignty. He will never violate our freedom or overwhelm us to the point where we lose the capacity for choice… even if that choice is not him.

● We say, on occasion, that “love leaves me no other choice.” While devotion is about choosing one thing, that choice is made in the context of a host of options. In order to be truly free- in order to be love, I must be presented with other options.

            In that way, love is not reduced to some sloppy sentiment. In fact, it’s portrayed as a “denial” and a “death” to/of the other things competing for our hearts.

●It means that to have the fullest experience of love is also to encounter the pain of abandoning what you thought most-precious.

Philippians says that even Jesus refused to grasp (hold onto) his God-status in order to exempt him from the pain of choosing love.

● Paul says that, “The love of Christ compels me” (2 Corinthians 5:14) Paul is saying that what he has come to understand about the love of God in Jesus has narrowed his options; led to the singular path/direction [‘compel’- narrow strait that forces ships into a channel; a chute that takes livestock into the pen].

Humanity’s dilemma has always been its struggle for freedom. That journey has always taken place in the context of competing affections and desires.

Egypt always presented itself as on option, especially when they were finding it difficult to live uniquely; freely. Even though it was ‘enslaving them’, it brought a warped sense of comfort. We’re so used to the attachments that we don’t know what to do now that they are slipping off of us.

● It’s an interesting phenomenon for those who have experienced a more “rigid” and “controlling” expression of faith. Once introduced to ‘freedom’, that very freedom seems to result in simply a diffferent type of captivity (i.e. Rumspringa, literally, “running around”. It’s like MTV Spring Break for the Amish community.  At age 16, they get experience life outside of the Amish community. They can either return and join the church or leave for good).

You might say that in order to experience the land of promise, Egypt had to continue to exist as a place to which they might return.

Living freely/uniquely/wisely as God’s people, there had to be a “crossing”. Involved with that crossing is mourning the loss of the life that we have known.

We know we are not meant for bondage, but we can’t seem to live freely; to live uniquely; to avoid conformity.       

It’s not coincidental that the Bible so often uses words like “slavery”, “bondage”, “deliverance”, “freedom”, “redemption” to describe the human dilemma and God’s desire for us. These are all adequate descriptions of our struggle to live freely.

●Jesus described us as being “sick and in need of a doctor”; as “lost and in need of someone to rescue us”. He also portrayed us as being “enslaved and in need of freedom”. That freedom he directly linked to truth- the way things really are.

Know that the truth will ultimately set us free, but, at first, it is really painful; it’s something we would rather avoid.

            Honestly, it seems that if there were no discomfort or grief in our lives, we would have little motivation to look beneath the surface and address the issues of our heart.

Wisdom helps us to see the connection between our heart, our choices and the outcome of our lives.

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive (pain, hurt, idol) way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (toward a better future).