Reformation Sunday 2020
The Problem is Idolatry
Happy Reformation Sunday! Today we give thanks for the life and ministry of Martin Luther and other reformers of the church. The church needed and continues to need reformation because it has fallen into the trap of the worship of idols. In the time of Martin Luther the veneration and practical worship of relics was widespread and was eroding true Christian devotion from within the church. The thinking was that if you paid homage to holy artifacts, or relics, this would buy you time into heaven. Visiting a holy site, or praying to a piece of clothing that an apostle wore, it was thought would give you spiritual power. Some joked that there were enough pieces of Jesus’ wooden cross supposed to be relics that if you collected them all you could reconstruct an entire Roman Armada or Naval Fleet.
Luther didn’t have a problem so much with the relics. While some reformers insisted on gutting out churches, Luther was considered conservative, because he preferred to retain as much tradition as possible. The real issue was having faith in your own works, your own ability to earn God’s approval. This is the worst kind of idolatry. This is worshipping yourself and your works over and above God.
Jesus was asked what is the most important commandment, which we read about in Matthew 23. He said that it is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind. This is the commandment number one in the 10 Commandments. Idolatry is worshipping something or anything other than God. Do you think idolatry is an issue still today?
Idolatry was an issue in the time of Paul the Apostle. We continue to study the First Letter to the Thesselonians today and we focus on chapter 2. Paul writes that his first trip to Thessalonica was not in vain. They were productive in calling people by the Holy Spirit to faith. Paul’s team, however, came to Thessalonica having just escaped mistreatment in Philippi. What happened in Philippi was that they had liberated a slave who was being exploited. A young woman was possessed by a demon. This demon gave her the ability to practice divination or fortune telling. Her owners charged people to interact with the girl they considered to be their slave. They offered a spiritual encounter with her as a “medium.” When the young woman saw Paul she would cry out declaring his allegiance and servitude to the most high God. After awhile Paul exorcised the demon out of the young woman, liberating her from this spiritual and physical enslavement. Her owners were very upset because Paul disrupted and destroyed their business model. So they stirred up a mob accusing Paul of being unfaithful to the Roman state religion of worshipping the emperor. Which was not a false accusation. Paul and his missionary team were arrested, beaten, put in jail, and after an earthquake they were released from jail and asked to leave the city. From there they went from Philippi to Thessalonica.
Despite all of this suffering Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:2, “We had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.” What is the Gospel of God? In greek, the word, “Gospel,” is read, “Euangelion.” This is a super-charged word. In the time of Paul a “Euangelion” had a very specific meaning. It was an official royal pronouncement from the Roman Emperor declaring an achievement by him, usually in the form of conquering a new territory or city. Once the emperor or his army or navy successfully brought a rebellion down, or expanded the territory of the empire they would send out an “Euangelion” throughout the empire. It was supposed to be “good news” from the emperor, and the expected response form everyone was to show their gratitude by worshipping the emperor, making offerings to his statue and likeness, and showing their devotion to the religion of the state.
Paul takes this well known phenomenon and turns it on its head. He offers a subversive and contradictory Euangelion not from the Roman Emperor, but from God. The divine Son of God sent to bring peace and prosperity to all people is not the Roman Emperor, says Paul, but a little known Jewish carpenter named Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus used not swords, chariots, and weapons of destruction, but the power of God’s word, kindness, love, compassion, and caring, to usher in God’s kingdom. True salvation comes not from worshipping the emperor, but from worshipping Jesus the true Christ. When the people of Thessalonica hear this alternative Euangelion what do they do? They believe it! They’ve had enough of the official propaganda from the state and they are hungry and eager for a message of truth and hope. This message isn’t just received by one kind of people, no. It cuts across demographic distinctions. Women, men, Jew, gentile, slave, free, Roman citizen, and non-citizens are all intrigued and respond to the Gospel of God, the Euangelion, the good news. By the way, Euangelion is the root of Evangelical.
One has to ask, “What difference does it really make to worship God rather than Caesar?” It makes all the difference in the world! Faith in God empowers the believer to resist the temptation to worship idols and descend into a practice of trickery and deception. Paul and his missionary team proved themselves among the Thessalonians to be a people not bent on manipulation and extortion, but honesty and truth. He did not try to please anybody other than God. Paul writes in verse four:
“But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts.”
1 Thesselonians 2:4
When you free yourself from the expectation to please people, you are finally free to please God, and to truly care for people. It is infinitely better to care for someone than to please someone. Caring for people is pleasing to God. Caring for people means having boundaries. When Paul encountered the family that had enslaved a little girl and exploited the fact that she was demon possessed he said, “No.” This is a behavior that even though it makes you money, it is morally wrong and against God. You must stop. When Luther saw the church charging people money to venerate physical objects he said, “No.” Even though this is an effective fundraiser for the church, it is morally wrong. It might temporarily please people, but in the long term it is destroying their faith.
Now I invite you to think for a moment or longer. What are the idols today? What are the ill gotten half-truths, and outright lies that are spread to please people rather than tell them the truth? Reformation is not a one time occurrence. It is a disposition to carefully have boundaries in life. To say yes to God, and to show our care for our neighbors by not descending into mere pleasing though hurtful behaviors. Go and preach the good news. Salvation is a free gift from God. God gives you strength to care for others with healthy boundaries. Amen.
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