28 April 2020
Text: Ex 34:1-28
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Christ is
risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
After
the dreadful golden calf incident, God had mercy on His people. He renewed the covenant. He wrote replacement tablets of the Law. He repeated the promise to drive out the
enemies of the people from the Promised Land. But He also called upon His people to once
more “observe what I command you this day…. Take care, lest you make a covenant with the
inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst.”
The
Lord knows that His people are easily ensnared by idolatry. And this is the First Commandment. For God says, “You shall not make for
yourself any gods of cast metal.”
So
we should be in the clear, right? After
all, I doubt that very many Christians have little metal idols that they pray
to. So we must be good on the First Commandment. Well, the forms of our idols have changed,
but we still break the First Commandment. As we recite in our catechism, “We should
fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”
This is what it means to repent of idolatry.
But
we have our idols. We Americans put
celebrities on a pedestal. We follow
their every move, watch their every movie, listen to their every song. Our celebrities tell us how to think, how to
vote, how to pray, and how to interpret Scripture. They define marriage for us. They tell us which lives matter and which do
not. And we invite them into our homes
via TV. The program “American Idol,” bears
that name precisely because we idolize celebrities.
Our
new gods consist of singers and performers and actors and athletes. Our stadiums are full, while our churches are
empty. At least they used to be before
we had occasion to put things into perspective about what is important because
of this pandemic. Our universities spend
millions on arenas while getting rid of important classes. Our schools teach radical totalitarian
politics while denigrating God’s Word. Even
Christian colleges – including those run by the LCMS – have allowed clubs
dedicated to mocking and breaking the Sixth Commandment, as well as running a Department
of Gender Studies that teaches anthropology that is contrary to God’s Word. We are like the Israelites with their golden
calf.
We
need to repent of our idolatry. We need
to appreciate what Christ has done, does, and will continue to do for us – even
unto eternity. And it is much more than
an athlete or singer. We need to reorient
our time to the Word of God and prayer, and when we are able to return to normalcy,
we need to worship God “above all things” in the Divine Service. And the Good News is that our true God, the Lord,
is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness… forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” He will fight our enemies for us. He offers us His forgiving blood as a free
gift. He has indeed made a covenant with
us, and He is faithful!
Let
us joyfully “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Amen.
Christ is
risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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