Hey, Cobblestone,
At my house, we like bacon. It’s not the main course, except for rare special occasions, but it does show up alongside more nutritionally favorable foods fairly often. “All things in moderation,” St. Augustine said – I’m sure he was a bacon-eater. Kay has a way of cooking bacon in the oven that makes it perfect: done all over, without the raw here/incinerated there condition so often brought about by pan-frying. The only objection comes from the smoke alarm.
It’s pretty much a done deal: bacon goes in the oven; the smoke alarm goes off in about five minutes. I drag a chair under the alarm, pull out the battery, then sit down and eat bacon. On a good day, I’ll remember to put the battery back in. We don’t have a lot of good days by that measurement. At this moment, trying to get a mental picture of my dining room ceiling from here at the church office, I’m not sure what state of readiness the alarm is in.
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall (1Corinthians 10:11-12).
This week’s Hey Cobblestone letter is an extension of last week’s, which was titled “Alarm Fatigue.” The idea was to Redeem useful and meaningful alarms out of the multitude of the not-so-much, the constant flashing of lights and waving of arms. The method of redemption was to look for word-of-the-Lord in a given warning – chuck it if there’s none; heed it if there’s any, measuring against the full body of Scripture and the witness of fellow believers. In a short format such as these weekly letters, there’s room for only one idea at a time, and the previous letter left a question mark where this letter puts the period – how to spot word-of-the-Lord in a warning.
In the verses above from First Corinthians, what are “these things”? What happened? The apostle is writing about events of fifteen hundred years before when the Israelites were in the wilderness. The immediate context provides a laundry list of offenses: idolatry, sexual immorality, putting the Lord to the test, grumbling – not such a happy stroll down Memory Lane. And leading the list, you’ll see, is idolatry. Is there anything significant about its place at the front of the line? See if the pattern holds elsewhere in Scripture.
Reading through the Bible book of Jeremiah, you’re probably seeing a pattern there as well. The word of the Lord came to the prophet again, this time in Chapter Sixteen – Jeremiah was told that the people would ask, “Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us?” (verse 10). The reply: “Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods… and because you have done worse than your fathers…” (verses 11, 12). Jeremiah is another round of “these things.” God had put up with all manner of foolishness from his people, but he was dropping the hammer on idolatry. And consider where else idolatry tops the “Don’t let this be your sin-of-choice” list. Moses came down the mountain with two stone tablets, on which were written – by the finger of God, no less – the Ten Commandments. Number One: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). It’s time for us to agree – the order matters.
What makes the matter complicated is finding a good, working definition of idolatry in our time. Whatever period you check, the definition gets watered down to the level of a bad habit. Lately, it’s video games; a decade ago it was bass boats; a generation ago it was “coffin nails” (cigarettes); a century ago it was Demon Rum. But the offenders could always claim there’s nothing inherently evil about any of those things. Well, taken like bacon – in moderation, that is – no. And whoever wasn’t “worshipping” the idol de jour could stand plumb clear of the charge. But idolatry has little to do with affinity or even addiction – idolatry pivots on affection.
Probably the best thing we can do for one another, Church, is hold each other to a real-world, boots-on-the-ground definition of idolatry. Prophets and preachers, from Moses up to this past Sunday, have been hammering the topic for thirty-five centuries; if we don’t nail this down, we’ll just keep wiggling out from under it.
There was a lawyer once who asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Matthew 22:36). And Jesus said to him…
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (verses 37-40).
Idols are affection-stealers. Wait. No. Scratch that. The Bible is very clear: idols are useless. To give them credit for stealing affection is too much. At best (worst?) they’re affection buckets – unauthorized depositories of affection that belong elsewhere. The idolater throws affection in there by choice. Jesus said to love God and love neighbors as ourselves – out of his great and simple command a formula arises for defining idolatry:
Does this ____________ receive affection from me that belongs to God?
Does this ____________ receive affection from me that belongs to a real live person – my neighbor?
As you look for word-of-the-Lord in any warning, check first to see if there’s anything that warns of idolatry, now that we have a clear definition. Jesus kept it simple; let’s not muddle it up. Where’s your affection going? Who’s being loved – or not? How much is left of your whole heart, soul, and mind to love God? Most warnings deal with surface stuff; we have to dig deeper. These questions might give us the tools to get there.
In the traditional liturgies of the Christian faith, there’s a practice that gladdens my soul every time – every time, I tell you – I get to participate in it. Someone will read a passage of Scripture and finish by saying, “The word of the Lord!” And the people say, “Thanks be to God!” Thanks, indeed – to God, indeed. If we were left to sift through every warning that comes our way – oh, my gosh, the thought of it wearies me so I’m not even going to finish this sentence. Thanks be to God. We have his word. We know what he will not tolerate. We can steer clear, in the power of the Holy Spirit, For the law of the Spirit of life has set (us) free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
I’ve been warned that bacon can be bad for a body. I’m listening and searching. Bacon as an idol is a terrible idea. Anything else as an idol is a terrible idea as well, and warnings thereto are to be heeded. In any case, when I get home tonight I’m going to check that dining room smoke alarm – the next batch of smoke we get might not be so innocent. For now, anyway, the rule at my house is: Where there’s smoke, there’s bacon.
Grace and Piece (oops… Peace),
John
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