Stewardship Pt 1 - Shiny Gods

“Shiny Gods: Naming Our Idols” Exodus 32: 2-4

Psalm 135: 15-18

Luke 10:27

How can people tell that you love God? Is it simply by the words you say or do your actions declare it as well? We find in the reading from the Gospel of Luke this morning the response Jesus gave those inquiring about what the greatest rule is in our faith journey. He responded with two - love God with all you are and all you have and to love your neighbor as yourself. But perhaps that is easier said than done. 

We are now entering into a four week sermon series on stewardship. I know that is a word that many church folks cringe at when the pastor says we are going to talk about stewardship. But the truth is Jesus talked about money and stewardship more than most any other topic. In fact, the only thing he talked about more was faith. So if Jesus talked about it, so will we. However, as we discuss stewardship we are going to do so through the lens of that wonderful verse from Luke. We are going to look at it holistically in relationship to how we love God and love our neighbor. 

The people of Israel had a heart problem. They had seemed to have lost faith in the God who provided for them time and time again. While God had brought them out of Egypt in dramatic fashion - including the drowning of Pharaoh’s army, they can be found time and time again in the book of Egypt complaining. Thinking that God had abandoned them or that God hadn’t given them enough. That’s one of the reasons they wandered in the dessert for forty-years, to try to stress to them that God is the provider and to get their hearts back in check.

Yet, in this mornings scripture passage they are right back where they started - disbelief. Moses has left them for a period of time to go up on the mountain and receive what will be known as the ten commandments, the rules of living for the Israelites as a free people. He’s been gone for so long that they are starting to worry that he isn’t coming back or that he has left them. So they go to Aaron, Moses’s brother and the second in command, and start to complain again. Start to say that they need to see the god they worship like they did back in Egypt. 

They must have complained a lot because Aaron caved - he gave in to what they wanted. He asked everyone to bring all of their gold to him and he crafted a golden calf, which the people then started to worship. Worse they declared that it was this god seen in this calf that had brought them out of the land of Egypt! 

Idolatry isn’t a new problem, as we can see from this mornings scripture lessons, but it is a big problem still. An idol is anything or anyone that receives our primary focus, energy, or resources instead of God. Rev. Mike Slaughter describes the problem plaguing both society and the church today like this: “Instead of making our primary life passion to worship the Lord our God and to serve only him, we begin to separate our spiritual life from the practical aspects of our life. We use our idols, instead of God, to provide identity and meaning to our lives.”

I would take a fair guess that none of you have golden calves that you are worshipping in your homes, but the truth is we still struggle with idols. The Psalmist describes idols as they work of our own hands that we begin to worship, but perhaps more frighteningly they can also be the good gifts that God has given us that we start to abuse. Even our virtues and gifts can become our vices. 

Rev. Slaughter writes in his book Shiny Gods: Finding Freedom From Things that Distract Us (which this sermon series is based on) about a question that he posed on Facebook about the things that his followers have turned into idols. Most of the responses were good gifts from God that people had began to substitute for God or put before God. They wrote about things like food - a good gift from God that we need to function - that people started to abuse in a way that distracted them from God. One woman wrote that she was putting the desires of her husband and children before her worship and obedience to God. Once again, relationships, especially families, are a beautiful gift from God, but we need to make sure that we don’t place more importance on them then the relationship that should means the most to us - our relationship with God! Amongst church folks, almost all of our idols are really good gifts from God that we have abused. 

What we worship is what we place worth or value upon. Worship of God should demonstrate the value and place that God has in our lives. But too many of us are claiming to worship and follow God, while still trying to serve our idols, and it just doesn’t work. Which brings me back to my original question - How can people tell that you love God? 

Let’s take a look at two places that reveal the depths of our hearts this morning brothers and sisters. First, lets look at our calendars. If you gave your calendar to a stranger and told them to decide from it what was important to you - what you valued - what would they say? Our calendars often reveal what you worship. Now that doesn’t mean that your entire calendar needs to be filled with church activities, but if our lives should be about loving God with all we are and having our hearts directed towards Jesus, does your calendar reflect that? What do you do with your week that shows how you love God and love your neighbor? For those of you who have jobs - how can you love God and love your neighbor at work? For those of you who are retired - what are you doing with your days that glorifies God? How does your time express your passion or love for God? Because stewardship isn’t just about stewardship of money, but of time as well. 

Second, lets look at our checkbooks. How do you spend your money, friends? I know many people who would say that they are just trying to pay the bills or just trying to get by from paycheck to paycheck, and if that’s you, how many of your bills are because of the possessions you thought you had to have? 

Now I’m the first to admit that sometimes bills just can’t be avoided. I have student loans from seminary I’m paying off. Many people have car payments and house payments. And there is nothing wrong with that. But are the things you have within your means? Can you afford them? And how many of your bills - like credit card bills - aren’t so much about things you need - like shelter - but about things you want? Because there is a difference. 

The problem with our checkbooks comes when we give God the leftovers because we perceive that we don’t have enough. And sometimes we truly don’t have enough because we are spending more money on our shiny gods, or idols, then we have to spend. Sometimes our idols lead us away from God, keep us in debt, and make it so we don’t have anything to give to the work of the Kingdom of God. 

We live in a society, according to Rev. Slaughter, where we have become marked by three verbs, or three actions. To want. To have. And to achieve. On the surface there is nothing wrong with any of those things, but Christ invites us towards a different verb - to love. How do the things that we are stewards of - particularly this week our time and our money - reflect that we love - love God and love our neighbor? Let us go forth from this place and have a check of our hearts, as we examine our lives and priorities and confess before God any shiny gods or idols that we have propped up in place of the lord of our lives and Savior, Jesus. Amen.