Br Alex Swain

… Jesus said to them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? And do you not remember?
—Mark 8:17-18

Beloved in Christ,

If you reflected on time spent either thinking about or spending time with (A) God, or (B) literally anything else—what would your score sheet look like? For me, the “literally anything else” category far outweighs my time with God, much to my embarrassment.

These types of questions may help us to reveal the idols in our lives: that is, the things or people to which we devote excess time or worship or energy to.

Idolatry, that age-old pest, is one of the central sins which God demands we avoid.

It exists, in various iterations, in the two versions of the ten commandments found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. It is actually quite astonishing how much space the concern about idolatry takes up in the ten commandments. Clearly, God cares a lot about it.

In the Old Testament, the judgements of God proclaimed against Israel are due to their turning from the LORD and turning to idols. Often, accompanying the rise in idolatry comes the people’s failure to care for the weakest in society—commonly referred to in the Old Testament as the Orphan, the Widow, and the Alien/Foreigner.

Sound familiar?

Critique of idols is replete in the Psalms and mirrors the words of our Lord. “They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear;…” the list goes on in Psalm 115 and also in Psalm 135.

Idolatry is the sin of turning away from God and towards something else for sustenance, hope, worship. The disciples failed to understand Christ and behaved like idols.

What, in our lives, is preventing us from hearing and seeing and responding to our God?

Are we dead idols, or are we alive in Christ? The answer may feel like both.

The Christian journey—much like the disciples’—is to learn to see and hear and say “Amen!” to the call of Jesus in our lives. Let us see and hear and respond to our Lord more and more every day, through prayer and deep reflection.

Amen!

—Br Alex