May the mumbling commence!
Remove the excess and there will be healing in the surgery. To quote the singer-songwriter Billy Joel, “I don’t know why I go to extremes. Too high or too low there ain’t no in betweens.” When we go to excess in our lives – no matter how those excesses take their form – our relationships with God and those around us will suffer. Read from 2 Kings 17:
When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: “Do not worship any others gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices. You must always be careful to keep the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship other gods. Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”
They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did. (Verses 35-41)
This passage speaks about Samaria or the northern kingdom of Israel. The commandments most often repeated in these verses are: 1) Do not worship other gods. 2) Worship the Lord Almighty alone. Seems like an easy list to our ears. We might say, “No problem.” But I pray that we do not think and speak too fast on this account. We have more in common with Samaria (home to the once hated Samaritans) than we may wish to think. What form do our idols take today? You know those things that get in the way of our worship of the Lord. Anything that gets in between us and God is an idol – by definition. Idols will corrode and destroy our relationship with God and with our Christian brothers and sisters. Let’s look at some passages from Isaiah to discover some of our own idols.
Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land. (5:8)
Does our accumulation of wealth and possessions become our god? You know: “Whoever dies with the most toys wins.” It is a temptation here in the US – to keep up and surpass the Joneses of our neighborhoods. It gets in the way of our tithing and supporting of the vulnerable in our world. More people get crushed because of the god of money and wealth that we too often harbor. Read some more from Isaiah:
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
and champions at mixing drinks,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent. (5:21-23)
Study can become a god. Do we seek and strive after knowledge and wisdom of the world? It often distances us from God. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the scientific method that we deny the existence of God because it cannot be scientifically proven. We get so caught up in creation that we can no longer see the Creator. We worship our perception of the creation rather than the Creator.
And there are spirits other than the Holy Spirit of God. Alcohol and drugs can become our gods. They help us to forget our problems. And our problems only get bigger and bigger as we ignore them. Our drug of choice will drive our lives to becoming something ugly – something we would not have wanted. And, if money or the bottom line drives everything, then we run the risk of acquitting the guilty and deny justice to the innocent through bribes.
Though these words were written for a people long ago, they seem quite relevant for today. No, not much has changed over the many years. Let us make sure that the object of our worship remains solely focused on the Lord. Let us cut out the excess. If we are to be extreme at anything, let us be extreme worshipers of our God – showing extreme faith in the Lord God above.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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