Sunday, March 6, 2022
The Light
Shines
Through
Every
Foolish Deception of Every Idol
And Brings Life
Habakkuk 2:18-20
What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it — a cast image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in what has been made, though the product is only an idol that cannot speak! Alas for you who say to the wood, ‘Wake up!’ to silent stone, ‘Rouse yourself!’ Can it teach? See, it is plated with gold and silver, and there is no breath in it at all.
But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!
Matthew 2:2
Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.
Words of Grace For Today
It is simple to understand that an idol, a wooden carved image covered with gold, silver, and even platinum with precious stones is not God at all, for there is no breath, no life, to power in such things other than the power given to them by the misguided imaginations of those who foolishly worship these idols.
Today, as in every age, we have our own idols: power, money, fame, and luxurious comforts – all stolen from other people leaving them without even the necessities of life. As the planet hosts more and more people (7 billion and counting), all craving for more and more of their idols, there is precious little to go around for those who do not clamour after these idols. With more and more people crammed into small spaces, all needing food delivered to them, all hungry for healing that the concrete-crammed-vertical spaces cannot offer and for whom a walk in a natural environment is likely only via Zoom (which does nothing to heal the heart, mind and body) … with more and more people the zero-sum game is played at all levels, from the family member who takes everything from her siblings she can, to the despot ruler who violently invades another sovereign country for it’s natural resources and location on the sea, killing millions, displacing even more – as the world watches live … helplessly.
But! … But! Now that is a call to attention here.
But! Or better DOCH! (it is otherwise to be truthfully understood.)
Doch God is in the temple, the church, the synagogue, the mosque, the sanctuary, the convent, the monastery and in each person, a temple that hosts the living God, as God walks with us.
God’s living people, God’s powerful angels (powered by sacrificial love), Christ’s hands and feet, words and hope … all this is plainly to be encountered, and if not denied, then celebrated, as dead idols are put to shame,
for no matter what, God lives.