Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday after Easter 3 – 2020

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.