Idols In Church - Blindspots in Our Theology and Practice

Hi all,

Xin Nian Kuai Le !! Looking through some of my e mails and found an interesting article for reflection. LUSH 8 will be starting soon, so do look out for more details coming on this quiet blog :)

J.L.

Idols in Church
George S Johnson

I was a senior at the seminary when the late Warren Quanbeck preached a series of chapel talks on “Idols in the Church.” Somehow those homilies have remained in my memory bank over the years. I think his thoughts are worthy of some conversation today as well.
Professor Quanbeck talked about the Bible, the church and the sacraments getting more attention than the Gospel. We had been studying idolatry as a problem in the life of Israel and the early church, but I wondered… certainly modern Christians don’t bow to idols. Our struggles were against racism, consumerism, greed, war and exclusivity, not those things like the Bible, sacraments and the church that are so central to our faith. We don’t bow to any golden calf….do we?

Maybe idol is not the best term to use in calling for a critical look at our theology and practices in the church today. Idols in this article refer to those things we believe or practice that become substitutes or an escape from what is essential, what is primary, what is ultimate. Idols are not necessarily bad or unimportant. The problem comes when they get more attention than they deserve, or take our attention away from what should have first priority in our theology and practice.

My church is important to me

I have been part of the Lutheran family for 75 years, educated in Lutheran schools and trained in orthodox Lutheran theology. I think I understand the importance of grace and justification by grace through faith. They were central in my preaching for most of my years in the parish. My church is important to me. That is why I feel free to raise questions about its theology and engage in critical thinking.

As Director of the Hunger Program of the former American Lutheran Church I was exposed to the pain and exploitation of the so-called third world. When I talked about it, wrote about it and encouraged people to become advocates for the poor and hungry, I wondered why Christians were not more interested in addressing the root causes of the pain that people all over the world were suffering. I asked myself, “Why hasn’t the religious community taken more leadership in changing the values and structures that have messed up our world? Why hasn’t the Biblical teaching of justice been proclaimed and followed?”
It is not that we are not concerned about social problems of our day. We collect money and blankets, we bring food, we build houses for the homeless, we take mission trips to New Orleans or Mexico, and a few of us will even write letters to our representatives in government. Charity is important to us. And it should be.

Nothing has changed much

But when the hard facts hit the road we discover that nothing has changed that much. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. In spite of all our charity and grace preaching we continue to dominate others, put profit before people, destroy the environment and support the status quo. Working to end poverty is not part of our theological discussion. We stand in long lines to receive the bread and wine but few stand in line to help those whose rights have been ignored or denied. We say the systems that deal with immigration, energy and healthcare in our country are broken. I wonder if our theology is broken.

The Ark of the Covenant (a wooden chest) became very important to the people of Israel during the early part of their history. It contained the 10 commandments. They bowed down to it. It was where they experienced the presence of God. However, when it became an idol with almost superstitious elements attached to it, Jeremiah called for an examination of its usefulness. He told them to get rid of it. We all have our own arks that have become traditions and practices needing examination. Maybe we need a Moses to come down from the mountain and expose our modern golden calves.

For example: the Biblewe treasure has become an idol for many. It can so easily be used to distract us from what is central. How many years have we debated the gay/lesbian issue in our churches? At the center of the debate is the interpretation of the Bible. It matters what the Bible says, but as Gerd Theissen reminds us, we need to discover what is essential in the Bible.

The Bible is not God

The Bible is not God. We may say that but live as though it is. When it comes to what the Bible says about sexuality we become literalists, but when it comes to what the Bible says about money and greed we refer to the metaphorical use of literature by the authors? Are we not all selective literalists? When my interpretation of the Bible is the only correct one, then we can make the Bible an idol that distracts us from what is central to our faith.

Worship of the Bible might stem from our neglect of adult education in our congregations. How many active members have leaned what the Bible is and what it is not? A twenty- minute sermon each Sunday will not do it. Perhaps a greater emphasis on adult learning will help us learn how to read the Bible, how to interpret the Bible and how to recognize that the Bible is not God, but one of the ways God is revealed to us. Worship of the Bible can sap our energy needed to love God and our neighbor.

At one of our family reunions my niece told me that she and her husband were looking for a church where the pastor believed the Bible. “Oh”, I said, “Have you found some pastors who don’t believe the Bible?” She finally admitted that what she meant was that she wanted a pastor who interpreted the Bible the way she did.

It can be a sign of arrogance that ends discussion when we simply say “But the Bible says.” Luther suggested that both the Bible and plain reasonshould be used in discerning what the Bible teaches. He also warned against the Bible becoming a paper Pope.

The Church as Idol

The Church is another example of how something that we value can become an idol, something that becomes a substitute for what is most important. After Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the state religion in the 4th century, the church began to adapt itself to the ways that were patterned after the Empire. Since then we have constantly struggled with how to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus and remain in good standing with governing powers and economic systems.

George Barna and Frank Viola in their book, Pagan Christianity, remind us how much of what we do in Christian gatherings each Sunday is not rooted in the scriptures but in the pagan culture and rituals of society. The hierarchical structures of church leadership today match the structures of leadership in the Roman Empire. Visit the consecration of a Bishop to observe what the authors mean. Or note how members sit passively in the pews while one person with authority announces the evangelical truth.

This has led to a lack of encouragement for critical thinking among the laity.
We tend to put more emphasis on the Sunday worship in a building than we do on loving our neighbor. I was made aware of this recently when one young couple in my Practicingthe Faithclass told me that they had decided to practice being the church on Sundays rather than going to church. So each Sunday now they pack up some food and survival necessities and walk into the canyons of San Diego County near where they live. They learn to know the migrants who sleep there in shacks and have a meal with them. Word and sacrament are present in their effort to be church. They experience the presence of God.

Our worship of the church is also manifested in our ecclesiastical certitudes. I (an ordained pastor) was asked to come up to the altar one Sunday during communion to read the words of institution in the liturgy. The intern who was leading worship and preaching that day had not yet received ordination. He could do everything except say the words of institution, according to the rules as explained by the Bishop. He could preach and pray but not say certain words in the Eucharist liturgy. Some idols are hard to let go of.

Eucharist as idol?

Another practice in the church that can become an idol is the Sacraments. Keep in mind that an idol can be a good thing, important, but something that diverts our attention away from what is primary and essential. A study of the history of the sacraments in the church can be helpful in learning about the evolution of their development and reasons for their elevation. The sacraments can be either helpful or a distracting in our calling to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.” Micah 6:8

The Hunger Times, a tabloid used by the Hunger Programs of the three predecessor bodies of the ELCA quoted an Episcopalian bishop who said, “I want the congregations in my diocese to be as energized and active in feeding the poor as they are in participating in the Eucharist.”

A few Sundays ago we had a letter-writing Sunday in our parish. Almost everyone lined up that Sunday to come forward to receive the elements at the Eucharist and experience the presence of Jesus. I wished there had been that same line of people willing to write a letter on behalf of the poor and hungry in the world. And I wished that the subversive words and action of Jesus that caused his death would be lifted up in the Eucharist.
What would be wrong with a church that reminded its members that they would experience the presence of Jesus in the lives of the excluded in their community as much as they did in the sacraments? Is not this good biblical theology? (Matthew 25) What happened to the sacrament that Jesus instituted for us just before he was executed. I mean the practice of washing one another’s feet (or hands if it is easier)? Jesus’ command to “do this”is just as important as the do thisin the communion liturgy. Has not our strong Eucharistic emphasis encouraged a kind of individualism rather than service in our theology?

Substitution or distraction

Larry Rasmussen in Earth Community, Earth Ethics, says that “sacramentalism recognizes and celebrates the divine in, with and under all nature, ourselves included. It is presence, relationship and the care and respect due the sacred.” An idol can be a substitution or a distraction from pure religion, “to visit the orphan and widow in their affliction, loose the bonds of injustice and let the oppressed go free.
I wonder if our emphasis on Reformation Theology has become an idol in the Protestant church. It is almost as though we need to get permission from Martin Luther or John Calvin before we can take a stand or talk about changing our theological perspectives.
An idol can be something that has served a good purpose but has become a practice or dogma that has overshadowed a more important truth or current reality. Grace yes, but there is more that needs to be declared. Has “grace alone” become an idol?

No one would suggest that we are not saved by grace or that our own efforts or beliefs can earn us any merits toward salvation. What has challenged me to think about grace alone as an idol was a chapter in Walter Brueggemann’s book, The Covenanted Self. He questions the use of the word “alone” that Luther places together with the word grace. Brueggemann suggests that Lutheran theology of grace is Paul or Augustine’s interpretation of Jesus, and may be a misreading of Paul.

Has “grace alone” become a distraction or escape mechanism from ethical living, from obedience to Christ’s commandment to love our neighbor? Is this why the Sermon on the Mount has remained on the sidelines in our preaching and teaching?

Could it be that our emphasis on grace has led us to be less active in the Kingdom work of making a difference in the world? I know what our theology says. If we preach grace enough people will respond by loving their neighbor and loving our enemies. Has it worked that way? Really?

Was it the lack of grace preaching that led to the rise of the Third Reich in the 30s?. To apartheid in South Africa? To slavery in our country both before and after the Civil War? To the opposition to equal rights for women and minorities only a few decades ago? To the treatment of Native Americans by Christians in our early history? To our continued support for war and exploitation of less developed countries? To our destruction of the environment in modern times? Was it “grace alone” that was missing? I don’t think so.

It was a good Lutheran pastor in Germany who, during the second World War, said: "We have gathered like eagles around the carcass of cheap grace and there we have drunk the poison that has killed the life of following Jesus. We have given away the Word and Sacraments wholesale without asking awkward questions… We have poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus was hardly ever heard." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship

Theology and practice as idols?

Do I dare suggest this next possible idol in the church? Have we made an idol of Jesus in our theology and practice? In Mark 10:18 Jesus passed off a compliment by saying, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." On other occasions Jesus shifted the attention away from himself as God so that the focus could be on something more important; his teaching about the Kingdom of God.
This need not take away the divinity of Jesus or the important teaching of the incarnation. Where we get tripped up is in our devotion to Jesus that has distracted us from Jesus’ teachings. Has our attention to the son of Mary and Joseph become an escape from the responsibility to carry out his mission?

In the Apostles' Creed we confess what is central to our faith. But nothing is said in this ancient creed about what Jesus taught, his message and his invitation to follow him. Does this mean that beliefs about who Jesus is -- his birth, death and resurrection -- are more important than our relationships to each other and to creation? Much of idolatry can be on an unconscious level. It can be a tradition never really examined.

In a book of sermons by Harry Emerson Fosdick, Answers to Real Problems there is a sermon entitled, "The Peril of Worshiping Jesus." He says the world has tried two ways to get rid of Jesus. One was to crucify him. When that didn’t work they used a more subtle technique. They worshiped him. To escape his moral insights and ethical demands, Fosdick says, the world has dressed him up in elaborate metaphysical creeds and sacramental adoration. Jesus never said, "Worship me!" He said, "Follow me!"
What then is the essential, the ultimate, the most important element in our theology and practice? Is it not the Kingdom of God, love of God and neighbor?

Critical reflection needed

I have suggested that there are theological blindspots that have kept us from dealing with our global crisis, the inequalities that are a matter of life and death to millions of people in today’s world. We need some critical reflection on what these blindspots are. You may have a different list.
Following the Holocaust, the slaughter of some 14 million people including 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany, it was said that, "no theological statement should be made that is not credible in the presence of burning children." How might we state that differently to fit our situation today? Joerg Rieger in his book, God and the Excludedsays that we need to become aware of how our theology has led to our complicity in the current structures that have contributed to the exclusion of so many from the abundant life Jesus talked about.

One thing that can help us in this critical self-reflection is a willingness to listen to those who have been and are excluded. When I took a few members of the church I served in Long Beach, CA, to Latin America to learn about hunger and exploitation, my theology was challenged. I discovered why Mary’s song in Luke 1:49-53 is more precious to them than John 3:16. Since then the person, mission and teachings of Jesus have new meaning for me. I have had to reimage some of my theology.

Solidarity with the poor means more than taking up offerings for them, or building wells and preaching good sermons about poverty and justice, important though that is. Jesus told his followers to invite the poor to their homes, banquets and parties. This means being at table with them. It means listening and being present with them in their struggles. It means face-to-face encounters and seeing through the windows they see through every day. It means going to their tables, not just inviting them to ours.
Maybe Brian Mclaren is right when he says, Everything MustChange, the title of one of his recent books. He isn’t suggesting we throw everything out, but rather be open to examining long held doctrines and practices.

I do not claim any certainty in my conclusions. I do have some questions. What I wish for is more conversation.