“Take off the gold earrings that your wives,
your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”
So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said,
“These are your gods, Israel,
who brought you up out of Egypt.” 

see Exodus 32:1-4

REALLY, AARON? “THESE” ARE YOUR GODS? Well, Moses had been up on the mountain for a long time. And God was difficult to see, in the conventional sense. In the absence of seeing and hearing, Israel demanded something concrete (or gold), to take God’s place, to fill in the void of knowing. They pressured Aaron; they came up with an IDOL.  

WE HAVE OUR IDOLS AND IDEOLOGIES, too. When we do not see God at work in the way we want, or at the pace we want, or simply find something or someone else to be more attractive or compelling, we substitute them for God. We break the First Commandment. When we fashion an image to worship, in an attempt to fix God in time and space to our ideal or fantasy, we break the Second Commandment.

The Second Commandment – basically, “NO IDOLS!” – leads us away from making facsimiles of God, which are unhelpful, even dangerous. In our relating to God, in our worship of God, trusting the Lord to be God is the best way. It requires a lot of wondering, a lot of waiting. But as the Gospel tells us: God is near. We need no idols.

YOUNG CHURCH

Chaos or Community?

Message from ZOOM Church January 17th, 2021

BEYOND SUNDAY

  • Four separate Small Groups meet via ZOOM on a regular basis – “Guys Group”; “Group With No Name”; “Crown Hill Group”; “POD-19”; email office@emmausroad.net for info
  • New Horizons Dinner – sponsored every first Wednesday; email office@emmausroad.net for info.