Thought for 15 December 2023

 Romans 1:22-23

Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead. 

And instead of worshipping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshipped idols made to look like mere people or birds and animals and snakes.  Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies.  So they worshipped the things God made but not the creator himself, who is to be praised forever.  Amen.

At the opening of most church services, those taking or leading the service will invariably say the words: ‘let us worship God’.  We hear these words often but do we ever stop and think of what the word ‘worship’ actually means?  As far as I’m aware, it rarely features in conversations outside church.  Worship is defined as ‘showing regard with great respect, honour or devotion’ and in a religious context ‘The valuing or treasuring of God above all things’.

We learn in today’s reading and also in many instances in the Old Testament that when people drifted away from God, they replaced him with idols, the Golden Calves being one example, and this really caused God to be angry (putting these gods before him).  I had always pictured these false idols to be in the form of statues but maybe this wasn’t always the case.  There is an academic view that human beings were created to be worshippers, meaning if we don't worship God, we will worship something else!  John Calvin described the human heart as “an idol-making factory”. Instead of worshiping God, we worship things like money, luxury goods/clothes/foods, romance, family, sports, recreation, entertainment, technology, success,  career, holidays, physical beauty, science and all sorts of mindless distractions. 

I took some time to think of what idols might look like today and came up with the following suggestions which might mean things you like having or things you would like to have – maybe you could add a few yourselves : 

Ferrari – Horse signifying sophistication, grace, victory and speed

Jaguar – Jaguar

Rolls Royce - Wee silver man with wings

Lacoste – Crocodile

Ralph Lauren – Polo Player on horse

Paramount – Mountain

Apple - Apple

Twitter – Bird

Kelloggs have Monkey and Tiger

Lloyds TSB – Black horse

Burberry – Knight in armour riding a horse

Puma – Puma

Penguin – I only included this one because its one of my favourite biscuits

Jesus gave some indication in Matthew 15:8-9 as to what real worship should be like when he said: ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far away.  Their worship is a farce, for they replace God’s commands with their own man-made teachings’.  I’m guessing that this means we can go to many services, do a lot of work for the church and do good deeds until they’re coming out our ears and they all mean nothing if we have not made space in our very hearts to let the Lord in.  We need to provide more time for our creator and less time for the things he has created.

Prayer - Heavenly Father, search each of our hearts and help us root out any hypocrisy, any sinful thoughts and any insincerity you find there.  May the words of all our mouths reflect a heart that honours you in thought, word, and deed. In Jesus' name we pray,   Amen