Idolatry (Part 7)

8-15-10

● We have been pursuing this idea of “idolatry” as not just limited to the expressions of some undeveloped and primitive people and cultures, but as it comes to bear on our present pursuit of life.

● The Bible alerts us early and often to these tendencies we have to seek fulfillment in something other than God. In its broadest definition, we call it “sin”: a “going astray… turning to our own way…” (Isaiah 53:6).

            The Scriptures identify these tendencies as idolatry: quite simply, attaching our hearts to something other than God; looking to something/someone other than God for life: attempting to find in the “created” something reserved only for the “Creator”. And, quite honestly, we all practice some form of it.

In most cases, it will be necessary for your idols to disappoint and fail you before you realize that they will not and cannot ultimately satisfy you.

            The reality is that, most often, the longer our idols seem to provide the fulfillment that we are desiring, the less likely we are to consider abandoning them for something as risky as ‘trusting God’ [e.g. as long as you are healthy, gainfully employed and your 401K is performing, trusting God sounds somewhat superstitious.

You will never “hit bottom” as long as your re-course is another self-imposed, humanly-engineered strategy.

● The failure of our idols does not always evoke expressions of humility and repentance.

You see, our expressed theology is that “… I take pleasure in my weakness… for when I am weak, is strong.” 2 Cor. 12:10: we trust God for strength), but our pattern of behavior betrays our professions and indicates what we really rely on (our actual theology)….our old systems of sufficiency which, are certainly ‘road-tested’, even if they’ve never really proven effective.

It has become apparent to me that, in our weakness, we realize just how strong (how deeply rooted) our systems of survival really are, or, at the very least, our tendency to trust God as a contingency plan.

● So, these specific moments of brokenness not only create massive potential to notice and welcome grace, but they also throw open the door to further self-destruction. They are either an opportunity to call into question and abandon my own human strategies, or, further solidify our all-too-human solutions or remedies.

Isn’t it quite a paradox that the times of brokenness in our lives can actually make us even more stubbornly committed to our self-imposed methods for making life work?

It is necessary for our idols to fail because then, and sometimes only then, do we reach for grace. That in those times our desire for restoration finally overtakes our commitment to self-reliance.

At issue is our need to be ‘human’.

It’s not to deny our humanness, but to discover what it means to be human. To be anything other is ‘in-humane’ (distortion).

● To be human is to have…

~ Significance… through a vital union with God and others.

It is to be centered in and by God (way of seeing

what is- reality), and to live in proper relationship to all of God’s good creation… to live wisely [“Here’s the garden… don’t touch anything!” God empowers creation with potential; for promoting good or perpetuating corruption].

Issue? Our eyes were opened; we became conscious of self. As a result, we became disconnected and disoriented; no longer ‘centered’ in God.

When you’re empty on the inside, you start looking outside for your identity.

~ Security… a place to belong.

Such a relationship provided an atmosphere where we could live without fear of not being enough and not having enough. We could risk failure without fear of being rejected or losing our place.

Issue? Instead of celebrating others as ‘image-bearers’, it caused us to become more aware of their fallenness.

            So, we ‘perform’ and we avoid risks for fear of failure. But, when we experience the inevitable failure, we either take it out on others (through blame) or on ourselves (through depression).

~ A sense of inherent value/worth.

            We live with the realization that our sense of worth is not ‘assigned’ by others, but ‘inherent’.

Issue? Shame; the worthlessness we feel as result of having fallen short of everyone’s expectations- God’s and others. It forces us into ‘hiding’; to conceal who we really are. We isolate ourselves and involve ourselves in all sorts of self-destructive behaviors because we have convinced ourselves that ‘it’s just who we are!’

But, as Adam and Eve discovered… they don’t make leaves ‘big enough’ to cover our shame!

● At the center of our dilemma is “deception” (“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie” Romans 1:25). It’s not even that we are always openly defiant or rebellious; we’re just foolish… too easily deceived.         

● We spend a lifetime on this journey toward ‘wholeness’… ‘integrity’- trying to get our ‘inner-life’ to match up with our ‘outer-life’: trying to get all the pieces of our life to align. Wholeness doesn’t mean that we’re without sin, just without pretense! We don’t have to fake it.

The Bible never offers us a remedy to the human dilemma which ignores (2) fundamental responses: 1) repentance, 2) faith.

Acts 20:21 “I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike- the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.”

● Repentance is “re-thinking” all of life” and the willingness to abandon our former (old) systems of thought in order to pursue life according to God.

Luke 3:8 (John said) “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.”

Any approach to idolatry which does not involve repentance and faith (we might call it “repentance” and “confession”) becomes an attempt to merely improve on our dys-functionality, but leaves our idols firmly intact (e.g. making adjustments to the wheel instead of getting the car properly aligned).

            It simply rehearses all that’s wrong with us, and, may be “cathartic”, but it’s not “restorative.”

Repentance without confession is just another “Jerry Springer” episode.

                Without repentance, confession is actually “deceptive” because although we feel some sense of relief for having “spewed” all of our inner-deformities, we have failed to address the self-destructive patterns which are preventing us from experiencing wholeness.

Confession provides the safe-confines in which we can honestly confront our brokenness and the inner-turmoil that we are experiencing as a result.

Repentance is the gift that God offers us which not only allows us to admit our brokenness, but provides the courage and capacity to pursue a better, and less destructive way of life.

● In order to experience the wholeness that we were made for, our confession must involve a re-ordering and re-orienting of our lives around God. In this way, repentance actually becomes the “means” by which we experience God’s restorative love (i.e. Israelites had to leave Egypt).

Confession is not just about admitting all that’s wrong about us so that God might take pity on us and love us anyway;  it’s about the freedom to pursue a new life with the confidence that he already does.

“… do you show contempt (treat as worthless) for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” Romans 2:4

These (2) responses of repentance and faith (confession) acknowledges both our “despair” and our “hope”.