Isaiah 45:1-7, Psalm 96, Matthew 22:15-22, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
When Paul wrote his first letter to Thessalonia, unlike some of his correspondence, it must have greatly pleased the church who received it. He calls them ‘an example to all the churches in Macedonia and in Achaia' (Greece to you and me). Why? Because they were widely known and praised for two things: they warmly welcomed Paul and his friends, and they ‘turned to God from idols' to serve the true and living God, and to await Jesus' return and God's final judgment of all humanity.
We know that though Paul and the Thessalonian church expected that the end of the world would be imminent - we'll hear more about that in the weeks ahead - we know it's still going, 2000+ years later. And we may also be tempted to park any consideration of idolatry in the same ‘I won't worry about it just now' category. The very word idol, resonating with the 10 Commandments we looked at a few weeks ago, may tie up in our minds with the making of statues and the praying to them as if they were gods. It may make us think on the one hand of Islam, so keen to avoid idolatry that pictures of God or even Mohammed are completely out, or on the other hand of Hinduism where the divine is imaged in innumerable different forms and idolatry just isn't an issue. Until recently, our own tradition of Christianity rejected any form of decoration in churches, in case it tempted people to idolatry. Within living memory, an Elder of this church resigned his membership because he feared we might fall into such a trap by displaying our Iona cross in the hall. Visual images are certainly powerful. But idolatry, as such, is not about visual representation of God. It's much simpler than that: putting anything else in God's place; giving anything in our universe a higher priority in our lives than the universe's creator. And it's quite possible to do that without a picture in sight.
I've been told that when ministers start to talk about idolatry, they often take it as an opportunity to get at some aspects of the congregation's life and priorities with which the minister takes issue. And then, of course, people start to feel got at, and stop listening to what's being said. So instead, I thought I'd consider and share one of my own temptations to idolatry, in the hope that others may understand my situation, and I shan't just be talking to myself. But to allow you a little while to speculate on what my idol may be, I'll first say something about what an idol is and what it is not.
To start with, is an idol bad in itself, or may it have some good points? When God looks at the world, in the first creation story we find in Genesis, God sees that all that has been made is very good indeed. And though in the next few chapters we hear how this perfect world contains the seeds of its own downfall, God's judgment stands. Where something or someone steps into God's place, imitating something of God's creative power, it becomes idolatrous. But in itself, restored to its proper position under God's rule, it can still be good.
It may be helpful to consider the example Isaiah gives us in this morning's reading, the second Isaiah who's writing from exile in Babylon and encouraging his Jewish hearers that God has not forgotten them.
Cyrus, the Persian emperor who has defeated the Babylonians who defeated Israel, is a very unlikely saviour. As a heathen king, he seems to be every bit as much Israel's enemy as Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. But shockingly, Isaiah describes him as ‘God's anointed' - God's leader for his day. It's very hard for me to think of a modern equivalent. For Cyrus was as brutal in his conquest as the leaders of Nazi Germany or Communist Russia. Yet his defeat of Israel's Babylonian overlords had the effect of allowing the priest Ezra and others to return from exile and rebuild the Jerusalem temple. How, Isaiah must have puzzled, could good come out of evil in this way? How could heathen Cyrus be Israel's Messiah?
And thinking about it, he made a bold leap of faith. It must be, he said to himself, that God is so powerful, being in charge of the whole world, that everything that happens, both good and evil, is down to God. For Isaiah there's no blaming evil on the devil, or on human free will: God is totally responsible for everything. Yet if that is so, nothing can of itself be totally evil; the problem only arises when something is wrongly set higher than God, the ultimate authority.
I'll come back to that in a little while. But I've kept you in suspense long enough: what's my idol of choice? I reckon one of them is busyness. When I look at my packed diary, I can feel tempted to be smug because I'm so evidently working hard for God. Kind and sympathetic members of the congregation who say to me ‘I know you must be very busy' are, I regret to tell you, feeding my tendency to idolise the state of being busy and prioritise it over my relationship with God. For if I'm so busy that I have no time to pray, I've lost sight of my real aim in life: to be with God so I can listen, learn and follow. If, on the other hand, I prioritise my desire to spend time with God over my desire to work productively - for in itself there's nothing wrong with being busy - I'll discern how to do what God wants of me, not run off in every direction at once.
Each of you will know what you are tempted to make more important than God; but I wonder, might we also have congregational - or even Presbyterian - idols at St Andrew's? When we stand to dedicate our offering to God, for example, an outsider might wonder whether it is God or the money we give to God that we are honouring! This morning I shall also be inviting you to stand up for a different purpose, to demonstrate our belief in God's power to fight poverty and injustice in our world.
Seriously, though, what are our priorities, individually and as a church? Money, choice, freedom, health, youth, security and even religion can become higher priority for us than God or our fellow human beings, made in God's image. As our psalm this morning puts it, all the gods of the peoples are idols - and that's inevitable, for our God is beyond description, and every idea of God we can conceive has something of the idol. Even Jesus could not contain the whole truth of God, but left it to the Spirit to go on teaching us more.
But the good news is that God's ultimate reality is both justice and joy, for us and for the whole of creation, so easily put out of joint by our false priorities. For the closer we follow Jesus, the more our idols are exposed for what they are - inadequate, however good in themselves, to bear the full weight of God's reality - yet the closer we come to that peace of mind which is the gift of God.