Youth Sunday, January 29, 2012
Preached by Alexis Nunes
What is an Idol? A hero, a deity? Webster defines and idol as any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion. But what does all that really mean to us as people? In Corinthians, we read that “No idol in the World really exists,” and yet, we as people, know that we worship many idols. We may not be worshiping other deities per se, but we are all guilty of worshiping materialistic possessions such as time, power, or money; and it is in this worship that we stray away from the path of righteousness and lose the voice of God.
So what are some common things that we worship that lead us astray? While I say to each his own vice, I do believe there are three underlying themes that pop up frequently; those being time, power, and money.
Time is a dangerous idol for two reasons. It is a very valuable thing and it is something that is often wasted. Time is meant to be spent helping others and bettering the world we inhabit, yet day after day, people waste their time on silly things such as television, video games, and flamboyant public displays. People speed down the road fifteen miles over the speed limit, dodging in and out of cars and risking others’ lives, just for a few extra seconds. Occasionally, it is important to just sit back and take some of that time to realize what you really want to spend your time on and what God is really calling you to do. Maybe it’s taking an hour to go feed the homeless on a Wednesday night, or taking care of an orphaned animal at the shelter. Then again, maybe it is as easy as picking trash up while you are walking along the beach. When we allow our time to conform to God’s purpose, we cease to worship it and find life more fulfilling and productive.
Yet time is not the only idol to guard against. Power can also lead you astray. When we seek to control others through persuasion, force, or wealth, we become dangerous to our peers and to ourselves. When we try to change or control others, essentially what we are saying is that we are superior to them; that their beliefs and values are not as important to the world as ours. But who are we to say such things? Are we not man, and flawed by our nature? Only God’s will can be interpreted as perfect. Treat others as you wish to be treated because God is in each one of us. So do not desire and worship power, for many good men have been corrupted by it. Desire to follow the path of righteousness, because it is there you find the true power of compassion and respect.
While time and power lead us away from the voice of God, the worst culprit of them all is money. We all worship money nowadays. Our lives revolve around it. Money gets us food, friends, happiness. You can do anything if you have enough money. You can found a charity or even hitch a ride with the Russians to the international space station. Now I am not saying that money is a bad thing. Without it, our entire society would collapse. But money should not run our lives. It should not make us keep jobs that we hate. It should not make us spend less time with our families. It should not make us feel superior or inferior to others. When we let money have this much control over us, when we think this highly of it, we are idolizing it. We are diverting our attention away from the love of God.
Poverty is no excuse for bad behavior. In fact, there are no excuses what so ever. In Corinth, some of the natives were telling Paul that they had to eat the meat sacrificed to idols because they were too poor to buy the kosher meat. Paul told them simply “Make no excuses for your behavior. I am vegetarian. Can you not be like me?” The moral here is that you are the greatest influence on the people around you. You are a role model; when you do good things, people will follow; when you make excuses you drag the whole society down. So therefore it is not only important that we do not worship false idols for our own sake, but also for the sake of our peers and neighbors, for we are all interconnected as God’s children and we are only as strong as our weakest link. Remember this whenever you have a chance to make an excuse and choose to do what is right.
So people idolize time; we feel that our desires are the most important things in the world. People idolize power; we feel that we are superior to others in our beliefs and values. People idolize money; we believe that we can simply buy happiness. Yet none of these things bring us closer to God; rather, they lead us away. Worshiping God means that we do not worship anything else. It means that we let go of all our worldly and materialistic values and focus on service and bettering our world and each other. It means that we model proper behavior for our family, our friends, and all those who we have a chance to meet. Sometimes, this is an awesome task, But if you don’t… Who will? If not now… then When? We cannot wait for tomorrow to do the right thing. We are called to do it now. Every person has a chance to make a difference in this world. What difference will you make? Amen.