Idol Talk

Pentecost +24 - Year B

Idols come in all sizes. Some are Temple-sized. Some are family-sized. Some are assurance-of-salvation sized.

Usually we are inconvenienced by idol talk to such an extent that we cannot identify that we are in an idolatrous mode. Should we come to the conclusion that we are relying on an idol for our identity, we will probably make a choice between suicide or ditching the discredited idol.

Week by week, if we wanted to investigate, the lectionary could identify idol identifiers and hope beyond idols. It depends on what questions we are willing to ask.

This week, some helpful ways of identifying a bit of our idol-thinking are:

• hanging with a crowd that only thinks the way I think
  
• asking irrelevant questions about timing and mechanisms
  
• worry about details (negative) of any other way than our status quo
  
• asking big “Why?” questions as complaint not investigation
  
• running ourselves into the ground emotionally and physically
  
• making bargains with the unknown to get what you want
  
• knowing we are the chosen and letting those others go

Some helpful ways of beginning to reduce our idolatries are:

• remember similar times (Temples are also promised to be rebuilt)
  
• remember it is the youngest usually picked by G*D, not the first-born
  
• remember, when bumping down a stair, to keep a silly old G*D with you
  
• remember we once didn’t know how to provoke folks to good and others can learn to join in this joy

It’s usually too much to ask about repressed idols. Our remembrance is often too disconnected from our circumstance. Perhaps, though, we could play G*D and be present with others, as some others have been for us, in asking questions about behaviors and their consequences.

Worried?
Really!
Sorry.
Options?