Exodus 20:4-5a; 32:1-8; July 13, 2025; Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
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How about that hymn (We Praise You, O God), huh? In direct response to our lesson.
Isn’t worship planning fun!?
Instead of dancing and singing for Ba’al – the Golden Calf – we praise God here, don’t we? The God of our fathers and mothers, who will not forsake us, even when trials and tribulations and perils in the wilderness attempt to overtake us.
Amen? Amen!
When I was a kid, I had this trinket on my bedroom desk. I had brought it home from Disney World from the Polynesian Resort after a vacation there with my family. And as a memento of that fond time, I held onto this trinket for as long as I could. In every move and in every new bedroom. For years, a decade plus.
Well, one day, in Seminary a friend of mine noticed it and said, “hey, cool statue, dude. I didn’t know you were into Hawaiian mythology. Ku is kickass!” I said, “Ku? I think you must be mistaken. This is a figurine of the deity, Kane — the god of light and peace.”
My friend looked at me and laughed, and replied, “Man, I don’t know who told you that, but that there is Ku – the god of war.”
I said, “well, there was this resident artist at The Polynesian Resort in Disney (which sounded as ridiculous as it sounds now), and this man told me he carved it himself.”
My friend then picked it up, turned it over, and showed me the remnants of an old sticker, which though weathered and worn, clearly stated, “made in China.”
LOL. Yup. For about 15 years I held onto this cheap little trinket. Thinking it was neat, genuine, and a reminder of peace. Instead, it was a knock-off. Counterfeit. And a reflection of war.
And you see, that’s often the problem with idols, my friends. They can lead you astray. And they are rarely ever accurate, sufficient, let alone authentic.
Our second Commandment from Exodus 20:4-6 declares the following:
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above
or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” – Exodus 20:4-5a
Idols are a theological problem, for several reasons, but perhaps most notably because they are often given the pretense of somehow representing God’s true likeness and being…when they simply can’t. For nothing my friends, that we or an artist from Disney can create, will ever be accurate when it comes to the divine. Nothing will ever get God completely right. For in this world, at least, we only see through a mirror dimly.
I’ve said this before, but Karl Barth, that great reformed theologian, once wrote that God is “wholly other.” Wholly other. Which means that God is always bigger. Always beyond. And always greater than whatever sits on our desks, even if it’s a hymnal or the Bible itself.
For anything that is created can never be any more sacred than the Sacred One Himself who first made it.
Amen?
The Hebrew word for idol here in our second Commandment is פֶּסֶל (pesel) – which quite literally means an image that was carved out of wood or stone. But make no mistake, this Commandment is not concerned with ordinary statues, or art, or say, our stained glass here all around us… no, these can illuminate, teach, and inspire.
Rather, what this Commandment is concerned with is how these things can be venerated to the point that they are allocated even footing, as if they are as sacred and as holy as God Godself. And it not just like a Catholic thing either. Holy relics, Shroud of Turin (which, I mean, come on…) and things of that sort.
No, it could even be this table. Which, while the Lord’s Table, is just a wooden table. Carved probably from somewhere down the street. But… sometimes, regrettably, this very table, its tops and legs, become something more, to the point where some now see a fence in front of it. And a little bit of holy ground beneath it, and a strict code of conduct to be observed around it.
And it’s not just the table, but also our beautiful sanctuaries too. Such that when some enter them, sometimes they begin wondering if certain people shouldn’t be allowed in them. Because, you know, they don’t look right. Dress right. Or behave right. Oh, have we made this room and those like it, into something greater than they are, such that we belong and give more to them than we do and give to Christ?
And, how about when we are outside of Church? Do we idolize our money, our homes, our cars — these trinkets of paper, wood, and metal? Have we enjoyed and reveled in them just a little too much, drawing attention to ourselves, when all attention is due to God to begin with?
My friends, only God is sacred and worthy of worship and praise. And you know this. I know this. And it is what this second Commandment is all about.
For nothing can ever compare to God! No, nothing can ever compare to you, O Lord.
Do you all remember that song by the late Sinead O’Connor? “Nothing can compare to you”? Oh man, that, along with “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion were my slow-dance jams!
It’s been seven hours and fifteen days since you took your love away
Since you’ve been gone I can do whatever I want
I can see whomever I choose, I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant
But nothing, nothing can take away these blues
‘Cause nothing compares. Nothing compares to you.
Oh, you can just hear her, right? And when applied to God, it is true! So true…
And yet, at times when it feels like God has gone missing in action for like 7 hours and 15 days, or 40 at that, our human condition compels us to look for others. Comparing God to these trinkets and idols, substituting the divine for that which is available, visible, and made in China.
And we aren’t that special either. Because Moses’ own people did the same. For even though his people had also heard this second declaration about idols, from a mountain top no less, they yet grow scared, impertinent, and impatient when Moses takes too darn long to come down.
And so, instead of staying the course, trusting in God and God alone, they build something they can get their hands on. Something they can see and touch and order from Old Testament Amazon. But rather than a sanctuary or a table, they render a calf… a shiny, golden statue…and they treat it like they’re at Golden Gates downtown, or a fancier restaurant elsewhere, eating, singing, and dancing all around it, altogether forgetting God, substituting the extraordinary for the ordinary, and the divine for the profane.
And again, that’s what makes this second Commandment so important. What it’s reminding us about today, my friends… for God foresaw that there are going to be these moments when even His own people will forget Him… growing weary and impatient… and as such, we are going to be tempted to construct these graven images so to give us something more tangible to see and hold onto, especially in times when we feel aimless, abandoned, and as if love has been taken away from us.
But doing so will only lead us further away from His love and towards something that is cheaper and counterfeit, that won’t last.
For even if we feel like we’ve been forsaken, left alone in a wilderness, God is telling us: I am still with you. Authentic and true.
And that my love that has never departed from you, not now, or ever! Not even during these perilous times of trial and tribulation.
For even though I might be wholly other, sometimes unseen and misunderstood, I am yet God. Your God. The one true God of light and peace. And nothing, no nothing can ever compare to me! I who am your rock and salvation.
Amen.
