Idols today come in many shapes and sizes – they may come in the form of sports stars, actors and actresses, pop stars, or they may come in terms of the material possessions that we often strive after… This week I read a review of the Lambeth Conference by one of the Bishops present there, and I was a little surprised to find that the thing with which he introduced his report was the standard of the accommodation and the institutional food as he called it. Thinking that a Bishop should perhaps have a little more humility I was a little bit disappointed.
But I wonder if I should be surprised, because I suspect that we’re all pretty good at enjoying the comforts that we, in this country, have grown accustomed to. It is easy to be self righteous, and I quite enjoy doing that (!!!) but it’s even easier to fall into a feeling where the norm for us is just the way we like things.
In this evening’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles (17:15-end) Paul is in Athens, one of the great cultural centres of the world at the time, but what he found there was a load of idols created by man for the enjoyment of man, and the tradition of those idols had grown so strong that the people really believed in the idols, they believed that somehow these idols would perhaps help them with their daily lives.
Paul speaks to some in the crowd who we are told were Epicureans, people who followed the teaching of Epicurus, who taught that happiness should be the main goal in life, some were stoics, followers of someone called Zeno, who taught that people should live by self control and be guided by their consciences. All seemed to have some convenient form of religion to hang on to, to try and give them some sort of purpose in life.
And as Paul is called to speak before the Council he began with what was intended I think as one of the great insults, ‘I see that you are very religious’… At first sight not as bad as some insults he could have come up with, but what he goes on to do is to tell them that their religion based on an unknown God is completely worthless. What he was in effect telling them was that their lives were built upon nothing.
And of course Paul being Paul he doesn’t waste the opportunity to share a bit of the gospel message with them. He tells them of God the creator who gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. He tells them that God is nothing like anything they have created for themselves, but is the one who has the power to forgive and the power to judge – we have the proof of this, he says, by seeing Jesus raised from the dead.
And after this statement we are told some listened, believed and followed, but some laughed and walked away… Perhaps they walked in a similar direction to the way people often walk today – that is back to their material possessions, back to their hobbies, their work, perhaps back to nothing in particular.
And that is what empty religion means – walking back to nothing in particular. Somebody once said that the worst moment for an atheist is when they are really thankful, and have nobody to thank. Religion based on symbols or things is as worthless today as it was when Paul spoke in Athens, and that is nothing like the religion Jesus offers – a true and living faith, a faith which literally transforms our lives, and makes us want to live for Jesus.
There’s a joke about a Protestant man who moved into a Catholic community. Being good Catholics he was welcomed in with open arms, but also being good Catholics they ate fish rather than red meat on a Friday. So when their new neighbour began barbecuing a nice juicy steak one fine Friday evening they went to talk to him about it. After much talk he agreed to become a Catholic.
The next Sunday he went to the Priest and the Priest sprinkled holy water on him and said, ‘You were born a Protestant, you were raised a Protestant, but now you are a Catholic.’ And so, the next Friday, as the neighbours sat down to eat their fish, they were disturbed by the smell of roast beef coming from the neighbouring house. they went over to talk to the new Catholic because he now knew he wasn’t supposed to eat Beef on a Friday. When they saw him, he was sprinkling ketchup on the beef saying, ‘You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, but now you are a fish.’
The fact is that religion based on rules cannot be maintained because true faith in Jesus is built on a personal relationship with him. That is the gift of faith, that is the privilege of faith, and that is what Paul was talking about. Somebody once said that people will wrangle for religion, they will write for it, they will fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it…
Living for our faith is what the Christian religion is about. It is following the call to live happy lives, because we can be content in our salvation, won for us on the cross, it is to be self controlled following the example of Jesus to live out lives of compassion and love for all.
Of course it doesn’t mean that we will always lead comfortable or easy lives – that doesn’t happen, but God if we trust in him, will strengthen us and support us and guide us. A few weeks ago I included a quotation which I liked in the news sheet which read, ‘Sometimes God calms the storm but sometimes God lets the storm rage and calms the child.’
And so back to a little bit of self righteousness ! Or perhaps not ! It’s wonderful to stand here and preach about the abuse of religion, about the need to focus on and rely on Jesus. It’s wonderful to think perhaps that I am above those who strive after material things, that I am different from those who treat their religion as a crutch, or who dedicate themselves to it almost superstitiously, but as I think those things I realise that perhaps I, and just maybe every one of us, need to sit back and think again about the idols we make in our own lives, those things that get in the way of our relationship with God, and how those things can be removed so that we can focus more clearly on Jesus. AMEN
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