Exodus 32:1-14; 25-29; October 15, 2023; 20th Sunday after Pentecost
The title of today’s sermon has been changed to “The Golden Calf.” Because it is both appropriate for and synonymous with what we’ve experienced.
To begin lightly, the golden calf mirrors our apparent need in this society to immediately gratify ourselves. We all want it, and we want it all now. Be it from the way we shop, the way we communicate, the way we consume information, to the way we expect results to arrive; few if any of us have any patience any longer for waiting. I don’t think Dante envisioned a slow buffering speed as one of his stages of Hell, but I imagine if he were writing today, perhaps he would substitute Limbo for it. …I mean, we really can’t wait for anything these days, right? And, when we are asked to, we either get all ruffled or despondent, or downright frustrated and angry.
Which is not unlike, I imagine, the range of emotions Moses’ people must have experienced when waiting for him to come back down that mountain. And in their own impatience and frustration (even if it was with cause, for he was up there for quite a while), they end up building an idol to a Canaanite god, in erecting the golden calf.
The golden calf, mind you, was not just an affront because it was all shiny and materialistic, though it was. But because it was the literal form and substance of another god; that they not only worshipped and praised, but also danced around and reveled in. Danced and reveled. In short then, they abandoned God for a base pleasure.
And when we look at the events of this past week, I think it’s clear that God has been entirely abandoned for a base and disgusting appetite. For instead of behaving in right spirit in accordance with the loving and gracious will of the Almighty, we as a people have instead resolved to perform and execute the will of our most sinful selves. Replacing the truth that God created all of us in God’s image, with the lie that only some of us have been chosen, and that the rest are worthy to die.
Moses came down from that mountain with tablets in stone that day, which said, do not kill. Do not kill. But, you see, the golden calf that’s been erected blinds us from that commandment, and so we make convenient excuses and perform mental gymnastics so to satisfy our basest bloodlust and our worship not of creation, but of destruction. We are indeed a stiff-necked people. And sadly, it seems that a lot of us, who even call ourselves religious, are also, plainly, evil.
Evil. I mean, that’s the word for it, isn’t it? I mean I’m not sure what other word fits for what we have seen and heard about how Hamas attacked Israel. No, it was and is evil. As have been the retaliations that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives; and which has also led to the rise, again, of antisemitic and antimuslim demonstrations around the world, in cities of culture and learning, and even in our very own backyards, in our towns and counties. Evil, all of it, through and through.
It’s because of this evil that we even have to remind ourselves that not all Jews support every decision of the Israeli government, and that Hamas does not represent all Palestinians, nor all Muslims. Just the same way all Christians were not Crusaders, and that the Inquisition did not represent all Christians; not all idiots with a holy book in their hands are actually Godly people.
Honestly, it’s been hard for me, as I know it’s been hard for you, to see progress regress, and to see the images we’ve seen and read the stories we’ve read. It’s been hard to make sense of how human beings can do these awful, barbaric, and demonic things to other human beings, and then somehow celebrate it afterward in the streets. There are dead children, dead babies, decapitated and burned, and yet there is somehow singing and dancing and reveling all about it. I can’t make sense of it outside of recognizing that there is yet evil in free will.
But none of it is acceptable. And none of it is God-worship. No, all of it is golden calf worship, and all of it is ugly.
My friends, I would like to think that praying without ceasing might bring me or you or our Jewish or Palestinian friends relief today, but we have prayed and lamented all week, and even on Friday night over there in the chapel, and still the killings and destruction continue today.
I just don’t know then. I really don’t. I mean sometimes when I pray, I hear absolutely nothing in return. And in times like these, that burns me up. With the Psalmist (13) I find myself asking sometimes, how much longer must we wait O God, for you to bring down your Kingdom of peace? How much longer must we wait? How many more kids need to die for you to reveal yourself again, bringing in the new earth that was promised us to come?
But then just as I begin to despair, I’m reminded of where we began and that waiting is hard. And that it’ll never be easy. Especially as there is no peace in this fallen world, and as there is no perfect justice in this sinful life. But as hard as it is to wait, we need to somehow trust that God is yet still with us, and that we aren’t meant to take God’s judgement into our own hands. So, no, we can’t build a golden calf made in our own fallen and sinful and vengeful image. No, for the only judgment that we have been asked to be a part of, is in support of God’s children who have been wronged by injustice.
And that is why I hope you will join me and the rest of us downstairs following worship, so that together we can help make a difference in the lives we can touch locally, who have suffered from the injustices of poverty and of our violent society which counts them as less than us. So, join me, my friends, down there in Muyskens Hall, so that together we can help shine at least a little bit of light in this world, in this world that is ever filled with a bleaker darkness.
For darkness there is… you know, the most common questions I heard this past week were: Pastor, how can this happen again? How can God let this happen again? How can people do this? How can people of faith do this to each other?
And honestly, I don’t know. But I do know that sometimes, hard as it is to say, scripture and the idolatry of it is to blame. You see, sometimes, people around the world of different or similar faith, turn their sacred texts into another golden calf. That instead of worshipping God as was revealed to us in love, people revere mere words and passages that have nothing to do with God or that message of love, but instead with antiquated cultures who two thousand+ years ago lived in a very different world, and who were just as prone to error and ignorance, hate and intolerance. I mean, listen to how our story from Exodus concludes today. The ending that the lectionary apparently didn’t want you to hear.
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands.
19As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
25 When Moses saw that the people were still running wild, 26 Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, ‘Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me!’ And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27He said to them, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Get your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.” 28The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people fell on that day. 29Moses said, ‘Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of a son or a brother, and so have brought a blessing on yourselves this day.’”
This is in our scripture — a blessing (!) for killing your friend, your bother, your neighbor. Sounds a lot like the manifesto of Hamas, doesn’t it? Or, like any and all indoctrinated zealots who would rather see God’s creation suffer, rather than being redeemed.
My friends, I bring this up here at the end, knowing full well that it won’t leave you feeling warm and fuzzy, and for that I am sorry. But I bring it up all the same because 1) it’s important to know what’s in our texts; and 2) to supply an answer to your question, on how can people of faith do this? – well, they are literally reading their own scriptures too; and 3) I bring this up to say that as much as I love this book, this beautiful Bible of our faith, we all need to reconcile that it’s not entirely perfect. And that sometimes its words can embolden those who would rather worship a calf of violence than the lamb of God.
And thus, we all need to be on guard today, so that we ourselves pause and discern, before making snap judgments, quoting texts like these so to justify our inner evil and our bloodlust. Remembering always to ask, does this particular person or this particular lesson measure up next to the teachings of Jesus? Who even through his apocalyptic messages of fairness and justice, lived a life where the cheek gets turned, where the sword is stayed, where blessings are offered equally to enemies as they are to friends, and where hatred and destruction are ultimately overcome by love and restoration. My friends, read, watch, and listen carefully.
Amen.
