Despite losing an hour of sleep Saturday night, those who gathered for worship on Sunday seemed pretty awake -- I can't recall another service where there was so much excited talking going on before we began the announcements. It certainly suggested that we were happy to be together and ready to join together in worship.
As we are in the heart of Lent, the sermon dealt with a challenging issue: idolatry. Listening back over the sermon, I thought there were plenty of areas left unexplored, but I suppose that is inevitable on such a large, and generally unappreciated, topic. So while I know that I did not cover everything, I hope that the exploration of the Hebrews foolish worship of the golden calf did suggest ways that idolatry is alive in our own experiences. As I mentioned, I don't worry too much about Christians praying to statues, but I do think we frequently fall into the trap of idolatry, where we misunderstand the true nature of the things around us, especially other people and God. Sometimes we overestimate them; sometimes we undervalue them; all too often we do not approach them and accept them as they truly are, instead of how we imagine them to be.
I offered a couple of examples that are not terribly harmful. The problem, as the Hebrews discovered, is that if idolatry is taken too far -- as in the case of several "isms" I mentioned, like racism, sexism, nationalism (and I might have added, denominationalism) -- it takes a dramatic, painful effort to break these deceptions.
If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.
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