Sermon from Worship on August 22, 2021, Lectionary 21
Have you heard the midrash about the young Abram and his father Terah? Many thousands of years ago human civilization was beginning to develop in the fertile crescent, that is, in the area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Some human beings were able to specialize in trades as a result of a developing economy centered on agriculture. One such man was named Terah. He had sons: Abraham, Haran, and Nahor. They lived in Ur. Terah was an artisan. He made the most beautiful statues of gods and goddesses. He worked with stone and clay. All the people knew that he was the most gifted artisan in Ur. Furthermore, the power of the deities were attested to as well. They were supposedly efficacious at receiving offerings and influencing nature. It was widely regarded that they were not merely stone objects but vivified beings; powerful deities who were alive.
Abram was the most precocious of Terah’s sons. He would ask unusual and difficult questions of his father Terah. He wanted to know in detail how the deities worked. When did they come alive? At night? Could you see them? It was bothersome to Terah that Abram would hone in on contradictions and question the long held traditions of Ur. Occasionally Abram would wonder out loud if there was only one God. Again and again Terah would lecture Abram that he must stop with these foolish questions. Their entire livelihood depended on the fact that everyone believe and not question that the deities were real.
Then, one day, when Abram was a teenager, something monumental happened. His father Terah asked him to watch the shoppe while he went out to run some errands. While the father was away Abraham impulsively took a hammer and began to smash to pieces all of the deities. He smashed the large ones, and the small ones. He smashed the expensive and the economical. He smashed statues and images that appeared like men, women, and animals. He smashed them all to bits except for one. He left one idol untouched. He rested the hammer in the idol’s hands and then took a seat on a stool in the corner of the shoppe, put up his feet and relaxed. A while later Terah came back to the shoppe. His eyes grew as big as an owl’s and he put his hands on his head while he squatted down on the ground and yelled at the top of his lungs: “What did you do!” He stood up turning on his heels rounding on Abram staring at him with bloodshot eyes. Abram sat slouched a little and in a soft voice and gentle eyes said, “I didn’t to anything father. That one god over there did it all.” He pointed at the statue with the hammer in its hands. “It is powerful and alive, isn’t it father?” It’s no wonder they left Ur and headed to a promised land.
Have you ever noticed that it is kind of impossible to control people? Why is it that the harder and harder you try to tell somebody something the harder and harder they resist?
God has told us as humans repeatedly not to worship anything other than God; and yet we keep doing it.
“I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods. You shall not make false idols.”
Hundreds of years after Abram, Joshua gave his big speech at Shechem. Joshua reminded the people of Abram and how he led his family in leaving behind idols on the banks of the Euphrates. That was when a move from polytheism to monotheism took place. Kind of. Joshua’s speech was very inspirational. All of the tribes stood at attention and pledged that from this day forward we will leave all of the idols behind. They really meant it this time! If they quit once, they can quit again!
Have you ever asked yourself: What’s the problem with idolatry anyway? Why is that commandment one? Are we supposed to criticize, judge and feel superior to polytheistic religions? One reason to avoid it, is that it leads to anxiety and depression. Worrying about multiple gods is stressful. One always worries that a calamity may befall them for not appeasing the correct god.
You know, truth be told, many mono-theists suffer similar anxiety and depression. Martin Luther was terrified as a child and young man that God would punish him for doing something wrong. He was on his way to school when he almost died in a lightning storm. Terrified he might go to hell he promised God that he would become a monk if his life was spared. The rest is history. But it was Luther’s discovery in scripture that he was saved by grace and not by works that freed him from a deep spiritual angst.
Believing in justification by grace means not believing in a god or gods who rewards or punishes you for our deeds. I recently read an article by an atheist who said the she actually does have faith. She has faith and believes that a god who rewards or punishes our actions doesn’t exist. Instead a person is free to live their lives. I don’t believe in that God either! I also believe that we have profound freedom to live our lives how we choose! We are saved by grace through faith.
The toxic game of trying to make God happy in order to be rewarded died with Jesus on the cross. All the sin of the world and God’s punishment ended definitively with Jesus on the cross. Jesus rose from the dead on the third day as an act of pure love and grace and unconditional blessing. This same blessing, goodness, and grace is given to all of creation.
Maybe we ought to stop thinking of faith as something we have to do, and rather think of it as a powerful gift given to us freely by God. What if faith were a kind of wearable technology you could simply pick up and use when you needed it? Not unlike a smartwatch! That is what we are supposed to consider from Ephesians 6 and the armor of God.
Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Ephesians 6
The author of Ephesians who might not have been Paul, but was surely influenced by him, is helping the readers and us survive in a world where people don’t always listen or behave correctly. Don’t take it personally. In fact when people do evil things we should not see them as our enemy, but remember that the devil and the forces of evil are the real enemy and they simply bounce from person to person. The armor of God, especially faith, allows you to protect and deflect evil attacks against you, all the while continuing to love even those who you feel might have hurt you.
Believe that you are saved by grace! Have faith that there is no God who punishes you. There is only an all loving God who in Psalm 34:18 says, “Is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”
A word of caution: not everyone will understand or get on board with God’s free gift of salvation. Many people walked away from Jesus when he began to teach about the sacrifice of his body. Lots of people would prefer a strong muscular Jesus who can beat up the bad guys. But that’s not Jesus. He said that the flesh is useless. The Spirit and the truth are what is powerful. Even Jesus couldn’t control people. You can do everything right and people will still find a problem with you. The good news is that it isn’t your job to control people.
Imagine a world where every human being is free to be who they want to be. The Spirit and the truth will work in each and every person’s heart to help them grow and understand. We don’t have to worry about the flesh. All of the lies, conspiracies, and backward ways of thinking will eventually go away. God’s spirit and the truth will change hearts. Minds will change. Spirits will grow strong. Souls will become beautiful. We will all know the truth, and the truth will make us free. Amen.
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