Dead Idols
Pentecost 2, Proper 7
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Outside Bryson City is road they call “The Road to Nowhere.” It was begun as a road along the north side of the Tuckaseegee River and Fontana Lake. After they had built a quart-mile tunnel, they decided to halt construction to preserve that part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So the road goes to the tunnel. You can park, walks through the tunnel and then you are in beautiful woods.
That’s great, but we don’t want to be on a road to nowhere. With that firmly in mind, let’s join Jesus as he sails across the Sea of Galilee. Just crossing the lake is a short trip that took them to an entirely different view of the world, the cosmos and humanity. While some Jews lived there at the time, this region had Greco-Roman culture. They are pagans. They worshipped the Roman gods and goddesses of their choice.
Let’s review the second Commandment. The Ten Commandments appear in two places, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. We can look at either because they are word for word the same for this Commandment.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20: 4-6 or Deuteronomy 5: 8-10)
False idols fall into two main categories. First, there were and are people who would pray to a god or goddess, as though a carved image or likeness were a direct line or a radio. That’s foolish because there is nothing listening. In this case they are false because they don’t actually exist.
Second is the metaphorical application that is every bit as important and far more of an issue for us. Anything that we place more importance on than God becomes an idol to us. Typical candidates include career, money, power, sex, addictions, ideologies, opinions and even our human relationships.
These often-important parts of our lives become false when they take precedence in our hearts and minds. Their importance is temporary, limited in time and space. God is forever. We become disordered.
Each of these categories are well-addressed by Psalm 135:15-18 (BCP p. 789)
15 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, *
the work of human hands.
16 They have mouths, but they cannot speak; *
eyes have they, but they cannot see.
17 They have ears, but they cannot hear; *
neither is there any breath in their mouth.
18 Those who make them are like them, *
and so are all who put their trust in them.
The point is: do not set your heart primarily on the wrong thing. Keep God, the first thing, first. Everything else will fade and fail in time. No false idols!
As soon as Jesus steps out of the boat, he is confronted by a naked man possessed by demons, who has been living among the tombs. Why does Luke share that detail? It helps us see how tortured this guy was. The tombs were typically natural caves or carved out of the steep hillside. How far gone do you have to be to find shelter there?
Now take a step back. He is naked and alone, totally exposed to these demons. All of the Greco-Romans were living among the false idols and their false temples, who “have mouths but cannot speak; eyes but they cannot see.” Their non-existent gods could not help this poor man. No one could help him by force or pleading, either.
Jesus has only to command them. They plead to not be tormented as they had been tormenting this poor fellow. Jesus asks their name. They say, “Legion.” That certainly implies “many” as a Roman Legion would have 4,000-6,000 soldiers. They beg to go into a herd of swing nearby, which then rushed headlong to drown in the Sea of Galilee.
Now take a step back. The Roman world view is based on power and control, their greatest idol. But it leads nowhere. Even with their great armies and non-existent gods and goddesses, the Romans cannot endure the Good News of Jesus. While Jesus is clearly not the warrior-king messiah many expected and wanted, nevertheless in time he will overthrow the Roman Empire.
That’s why the people who saw this and the people who heard about it in detail were afraid of Jesus. He threatened to overthrow their entire way of seeing life and the world. “What if we are wrong and these Jews whom we’ve dismissed all these years are right? What if their God is true and ours are all false?”
And this fellow delivered from the demons. Have you ever bathed a dog infested with fleas with flea-killing shampoo? Maybe it was a little like that, just in terms of the instant relief from a thousand biting irritants. The guy wants to go with Jesus, of course. But Jesus leaves him there to share his witness. Then he goes back across the lake. His one mission was to save that guy and leave him as a witness to the One true God.
All of that is a good story, but what does it have to do with us? A few lessons to remember.
1. Do not allow anything or anyone to edge ahead of God in your body, mind or spirit.
2. If and when you are seized by circumstances or events such that they are biting you so as to drive you to despair and/or madness, turn back to Jesus and pray for him to deliver and redeem you.
3. When you experience or witness God’s healing grace through the touch of Jesus or the power of the Holy Spirit, remember that the healing’s best gift is not the temporary relief it brings. Rather, it is the witness we gain to proclaim God as alive and real and Lord over every and any false idol we try to put ahead of him.
Stay with Jesus as the Way. Any other road is to nowhere.
AMEN