Idols

A little over 20 years ago, a new craze erupted in American pop culture. It was more than a phenomenon that enthralled the whole country and kept people glued to their TV sets week after week. It always appeared to me that people hungered for that kind of thrill. People wanted something they could hold on to, something that made them feel they belonged, something that gave them a new sense of identity. If they could talk about that one thing everyone was talking about at work, school, church, or any other function, they would be more than satisfied.

For that reason, people spent an incredible number of hours watching the show. I don’t doubt that people had different reasons for tuning in. Some simply enjoyed a judge's often crude and unsavory remarks. Some were interested in how the contestants conducted themselves, and others in the diverse talents on display every week.

I was one of the millions of Americans who called in to vote for one contestant or another. The winners became our American Idols, and those who didn't win but did very well on the show became our idols too.

Here is an interesting story about the fall and the punishment for Adam, Eve, and the snake. Remember, the punishment for the snake was the curse of eating dust of the ground. The punishment sounds a little perplexing since the snake always had food and didn’t have to worry about it. Other living things and beings like you and I have to work hard, hustle the 9-5 schedule, work overtime, maybe work double shifts, and even have a side gig in order to get by. Despite all the work we do, sometimes the gap between our income and expenses is so staggeringly wide that we have to take out loans to support ourselves.

The question is, if snakes always have food because they crawl on the ground, why is that a curse? The answer could be twofold: first, because snakes always have whatever they need, they never look up to heaven. Two, because snakes are always facing the ground, they are limited in their imagination for themselves.

When we have our faces to the ground, when our eyes are fixed to the ground, when we lack the ambition, drive, and imagination to look up, any and all things become idols for us because we see in each idol the sustenance that we lack, or the control that we want to have.

We worship those idols. We follow them. We love them. We buy their music. We go to their concerts. We watch their movies. We go to the games. We cry when we see them. We become uncontrollable at the mention of their names. We want to have more of it because we are never satisfied with enough. 

Truth is, when we fix our eyes on the ground, we take consolation in temporary provisions, and even assure ourselves that we can turn the temporary into permanence, which never happens because it cannot.

On the day I first left home for boarding school with my brother, we went to bid goodbye to an older man who lived in my grandfather’s house. He was my grandfather’s friend. They both sung in the choir of the local Methodist Church and were Freemasons as well. The circumstances surrounding how he came to live in my grandfather’s house is a story for another day.

But on that day, September 27, 1985, this man laid his hands on my brother and I and offered a prayer. The prayer was a recitation from memory of the King James Version of Psalm 121:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

From that day till the last time that we traveled to boarding school, we always went to see him for a prayer, and he always offered that same psalm. Part of the incentive was that he always gave us some pocket money for school.



I’d like to say that the first time I heard the psalm was the first time that my grandfather’s friend prayed that psalm for my brother and me.

I am not sure what it revealed to me at that time, but over the years, I came to appreciate the abiding assurance that it is only in God that we can find the help that we need. We only have to lift our eyes to the hills because our help will not come from the idols that we create, but from the hills - where the presence of the living God dwells.

It is interesting that the times we fail to lift our eyes to the hills are the times we become consumed with worshiping what isn’t the God in whose image we were created. Those are the moments when we begin to worship bits and pieces of creation. The tragedy is, the moment we begin to worship the idols we have created for ourselves, our divine image-bearing nature begins to deconstruct, reducing in us the power of being the human beings we were meant to be. 

Our story is one where, when we become comfortable in our lives, we stop living with imagination and dreams. And here’s the kicker: we stop living with prayer because prayer compels us to abandon the idols we have that the moment we begin to worship the idols we have created for ourselves, our divine, image-bearing nature begins to deconstruct, reducing created and lift our eyes to the hills.

As we inch a little closer each day to our Annual Stewardship Sunday on November 1, I’d like to share my deepest appreciation to all our parishioners who have already returned their pledges. I equally offer my grateful thanks to all who are looking forward to November and are prayerfully considering our humble plea for your kind and generous support.

As a faithful community, we join together in lifting our eyes to the hills, because we know and believe that the help that will come from God will be channeled through you, God’s faithful vessels.

As faithful vessels, we have rejected the temptation to create and worship our own idols or any other idol.

Instead, we kneel at the foot of the cross and lift our eyes toward the hills, because that’s where our help will come from. 

Blessings,

Manny+