A Sermon
on Idolatry
“Jesus entered the
temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned
the tables of the money changers and benches of those selling doves. “It is
written,” he said to them, “’my house will be called a house of prayer,’ but
you have made it a den of thieves” Matthew 21:12-13
What
we worship and what we hold most dear is apparent in several ways: It is what
we are willing to put our best energy and passion into. It is what we are
willing to make great sacrifices for. It is where we place our trust and where
we look for salvation, when we face threat, danger, and uncertainty.
When
Jesus cleanses the temple, why does he do so? Why does he become angry and
violent, attacking the vendors and chasing them from the temple steps? The
disciples remember the Psalm of David, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
We are often told that this story means that Jesus was outraged and indignant
at the violation of the “sacred space” of the temple and so he scolded the
wrongdoers.
But
I have another interpretation. I think Jesus was trying to save their lives.
Just as a parent will angrily, even violently pull a child away from
fast-moving traffic to save that child from mortal danger, Jesus reacted in
violent anger at the mortal danger he saw those souls in. Why were their souls
in mortal danger? Because they were attached to their idols: Profits, business.
Do
you seriously imagine we, here, would fare any better with the Lord were he to
walk into our congregation? Were he to visit our Nation? Would he not instantly
react with anger, in a desperate effort to save our souls from the mortal
danger in which our idolatry places us?
Where
do I place my trust? Where do I look for salvation? We face serious problems
today: poverty, injustice, global climate warming, terrorism, job losses,
violence. Our Christian leaders in government also give us a clear, and
unmistakable message, disseminated through the media, about where we should place
our trust, and where we will find salvation from these ills: the Free Market,
Technology, and Economic Growth!
We
have so much faith in these idols that we will sacrifice the lives of others
for them. We will be content to let the poor suffer, the victims of genocide
die, the victims of AIDS die, the jobless go without jobs, if we are persuaded
that Economic Growth (the “invisible hand” of the market!) will solve these
problems. We are content to let global warming wreak its worst, for we are confident
that Technology and the energy Markets will come to the rescue in time. We are
not worried about oil shortages or high heating costs or those who cannot pay
their heat, because the invisible hand of the Market place is going to make it
all turn out okay. We are satisfied to let species go extinct, because
Technology will make up for those losses with future discoveries (yes, we’ll
clone them all back into being in the end!).
As
a nation, as a world community, our leading idol is probably Economic Growth.
We will sacrifice almost anything to this idol. We cannot protect the
environment, help the poor, preserve jobs, or do the right thing, because to do
so might threaten Economic Growth!! Our Idol! Haven’t you heard this over and
over and over again, on Fox News, in Presidential press conferences, in the
pronouncements of the vice-president, the Senators, and the editorial writers?
Always, with a righteous tone, the tone reserved for holy men. They know! They
serve their god!!
These
Idols in turn gives us a clear message: of passivity! Do nothing! Do not worry!
Here
is what the Gospel encourages us to say: Let them serve their god. But as for
me and my house, I will serve the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the
Universe, the Soul of us all, the Heavenly Father revealed to us in the Person
of Jesus of Galilee.
This
living God does not encourage passivity, but action and sacrifice for the
Truth!
Therefore,
if we place our trust not in economic growth, but in God, not in technology,
but in God, not in military prowess, but in God, not in free markets, but in
God, what would we do? Our choices would change quite a bit. Instead of
sacrificing lives and sacrificing souls to preserve economic growth, we would
do what is right to honor God, and sacrifice economic growth! A heresy. Things
would turn upside down! We would preserve jobs, preserve species, preserve
land, preserve air, stop threatening our neighbors with climate change due to
our excess use of resources—we would repent and change our ways, even though
our stock markets did not grow. Instead of sacrificing the poor to preserve
economic growth (and reassure ourselves that this will help the poor in the
long run), we would sacrifice economic growth to help the poor today! (and
reassure ourselves, in contrast, that God will see to our own economic needs:
“Give us this day our daily bread.”).
Jesus would not grow angry with us only because we are being slothful and wrong; he would grow angry because we are placing our own souls in danger, losing our soul. Like a parent angry at a child running into traffic, he would urgently call us back.
For this reason God’s
spirit asks that I commit, that I sacrifice, and that we do as a society: that
we protect the poor now, in practice, not in theory, that we take action, that
we step up, and address the injustices in our society. That spirit is not
satisfied with pundits’ clever editorials that ultimately reassure us there is
nothing we can or should do (for the market and technology will provide, and
the best that can happen is already happening), but rather demands we understand
and act as God’s people.
Take
this into your mind, and then ask, what is moral, what are my idols, how do I
free myself from them? Let God’s spirit in, and you will not be able to live
with the status quo.
This
is nowhere as true as in the case of global warming. Here, we sacrifice the
poor—who will not be able to cope with heat waves, floods, disease, or crop
losses—because we do not want to risk any economic cost to ourselves to change
our ways. We accept the facile and idolatrous reassurances of leaders who tell
us the markets and technology will solve this problem—or worse, that it is not
even really a problem. It is a lie! It is the priests of the idol speaking! Our
Lord would chase them out with whips and cords! People’s lives and livelihood
are at risk, because we lack the imagination or the collective will to demand
change! Rise up! Demand that your leaders turn this tide, reduce our use of
fossil fuels rapidly and decisively (protecting those among us who may have to
bear the greatest burden of those changes—probably our poorest members!), and
restore our society to moral righteousness!
