Shortly after I turned 16, I received my driver’s license. And shortly after that, I purchased my first car. Do you remember your first vehicle? Mine was a black Firebird Trans Am. You might recall the Smokey and the Bandit movie starring Burt Reynolds from 1977. It looked just like that. I loved that car. I washed it so often that the neighbours warned that ‘I might scrub the paint right off!’ And for a young teenager, that car was my love, my joy, almost an idol of worship (if you will).
Worshipping false idols is a topic raised in the Jeremiah text this morning. Jeremiah preaches his first ‘sermon’ warning about the worship of idols…of false gods. Remember this is the same Jeremiah we heard from last Sunday when we were reading from the introductory first chapter. Jeremiah, then, referred to himself as “just a boy” and not able to fulfill this role as one of God’s prophets. Here we are, just a chapter later, and he seems to have gained his confidence in spades!
The historical background is important and (I think) quite interesting. The Holy Land in this historical time was split into the two kingdoms: Israel to the north and Judah to the south. Israel had already fallen to the warring Assyrians a generation ago (722 BC) and Jeremiah is now prophesying (approximately 627 BC) to his community in Judah about the same direction that they are heading. The problem that he identifies is the worship of false idols instead of the worship of the living God. Jeremiah is quite harsh: “Has a nation ever changed its gods? (yet they are not gods at all!) But my people have exchanged their glory for worthless idols.” Jeremiah speaks to the break in the covenant relationship that began with Moses and the 10 commandments. The 1st commandment…to have no other gods. They were breaking this by worshipping false idols and slowly moving further and further away from God.
In his conclusion, Jeremiah calls the Hebrew people to task. He identifies the two steps that were taking the people away from God. He calls them on the “two evils”, as he puts it. Firstly, “the people have forsaken me” ~ they have followed other idols…they were worshipping other gods. In this case the Pagan god Baal. And secondly, they tried to rely on other means as the source of life. As Jeremiah puts it, they “dug out cisterns for themselves (a reservoir for holding water)” rather than relying upon God who is the “fountain of living water”. Taking idols rather than God. Failing to rely upon the source of life. It seems like this timid Jeremiah who worries about his inability to speak has quickly figured out the task of being one of God’s timeless prophets!
Now we have a dilemma before us. The problem with this text, I think, is doing the modern-day translation. Considering how it might speak to our world today. We don’t see statues of the pagan god Baal around us. We (jokingly) refer to a car, or other delight, as an idol. But we really don’t ‘worship’ it…we think. And we DO maintain stewardship over the means of much of our survival: food, water. So, what does this text mean to us…today? Does it even make sense to us ‘moderns’ reading it 2 ½ millennia later?
Timothy Keller, a theologian wrote a provocative book entitled “Counterfeit Gods”. He offers some interesting modern-day translation to Jeremiah’s words. He suggests that our human nature is wired towards the worship of idols. Keller begins by explaining that human hearts are “idol factories.” And we are hard wired to worship, to champion, to uphold those things we so deeply value. It is not just an ancient pagan practice. We all hold idols. An idol is when anything, such as success, relationships, money or power becomes more important than God.
Think about your own life. What is the MOST important in it? You can be honest; we aren’t speaking out loud here. You don’t need to tell your neighbour these private thoughts. What are your idols? Is it money; is it relationships; is it family; is it health; is it your addiction; is it your car. What are the MOST important in life…more important than God, the source of life. Keller argues that everyone worships something. The real question is what (or who) we worship. To be sure, Idols are often subtle. They are things we love too much or depend on too deeply. They slowly seep into our lives and take on increasingly more space; more authority…and they become idols…more important than God.
I chose to pair the Jeremiah reading with the continuation from last week’s lection from the book of Hebrews that Cole preached on. Paul comes at this task from a different perspective. The viewpoint of letting God “be our helper” through all the challenges in life. How we deal with strangers…with God as our helper; how we support those in prison; those being abused…with God as our helper; how we honour vows ~ such as marriage; how we deal with material temptations ~ such as money. Paul boils it all down to the perspective of “The Lord being my helper”. And when we rely upon the Lord as our helper, Paul proclaims that we can say with confidence “I need not be afraid. What can anyone do to me!”
Moving ahead, I wanted to get back to Jeremiah’s two sources of evil: our reliance upon idols and our tendency to rely upon ourselves, rather than God “the fountain of living water”. Perhaps we might allow Jeremiah to teach us two steps towards living the blessed life.
Step one…what if we began, truly, by worshipping God? What if God was your compass? God was your touchstone? God was the foundation and ground of your being? Your helper through life. If we did this, Paul says “we need not be afraid”. Might we be better at all the other roles we seek to fulfill? One common response when asked about what comes first in life would is to respond by saying “family” or “friends”. Yet…do you think you might be a better friend if you began with God as the centre of your life? Do you think you might be a better husband, wife, father, mother (you fill in the blank) if God was your helper informing your role? The first step towards the blessed life is to worship God as the centre of our being!
The second step builds upon the first. Relying upon God as the source of life. Jeremiah taught them how the reservoirs they built were cracked and leaked and ran dry; whereas, God is the “fountain of living water”. God will provide. God is the only source that can provide. We make good choices; we contribute to the process; yet God is the one who provides the depth and wonder of life. Where is it that you find the source of compassion? Where do you find the depth of wisdom? Where do you find the sustaining beauty of life? It all goes back to God. True freedom and joy comes when God, not the substitutes are the centre of our lives. Only Christ can bear the weight our hopes, fears and dreams.
We are, it seems, at a point of decision. Taking steps that lead towards death, downfall and destruction? Or stepping towards the way of abundant life? May we worship God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength as we hold a faith in the God who provides the living waters of life.
Amen