Our Propensity to Build Golden Calves

Exodus 32:1-14; Matthew 22:1-14

          An ancient rabbinical story tells of a wise boy named Abraham and his father, Terah, whose occupation was idol maker.  Terah went away one day and left young Abraham to run the shop and sell the idols he had made.  A man came into the shop and asked to buy an idol.

          “How old are you,” Abraham asked.

          The man replied that he was fifty years old.

          “What a shame,” Abraham responded.  “You are fifty years old, and you wish to worship an idol that was made yesterday!”

          Ashamed, the man left without an idol.

          A woman entered the shop with a plate full of food.  “Take this,” she requested, “and give it to the idols.  It is theirs to eat.”

          When the woman left, Abraham took a club and smashed all the idols except one, the largest.  He then placed the club in the hands of that last idol.

          When Terah returned, he couldn’t believe what he saw.  His little shop was in utter disarray, and his idols, the creations of his own hands, they were all destroyed, except that one.

          “What have you done?” he demanded to know of Abraham.

          The boy responded, “I cannot lie to you, father.  A woman came in with a plate full of food and asked that I feed it to the idols.  After she left, one idol claimed that it must eat first.  Another idol then rose and said that it must be the first to eat.  This continued until the largest idol rose, took the club, and smashed all the other idols.”

          Terah scoffed, “Why do you make sport of me, son?  They are idols; they cannot rise and fight or eat a plate full of food.”

          Wise, young Abraham said, “Should not your ears listen to what your mouth is saying?”

          The story ends with Terah enraged but silent. 

          It is second and the longest of the Ten Commandments:

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 worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquities of their parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

          Yet, the creation and worship of idols was a perennial problem through the Old Testament narrative.  Just name one of the Hebrew prophets.  They all condemned the people of Israel’s propensity to build idols and then bow down and worship them.

          Perhaps no Old Testament story of idol worship is better known than the one I read from Exodus.  After generations of slavery in Egypt, the people of Israel had been liberated by Moses.  They made their way through the wilderness en route to the land flowing with milk and honey.  When they reached Mt. Sinai, God call Moses to ascended the mountain.  Moses went up Mt. Sinai eight times. 

Here's a brief footnote.  In the Bible, Old and New Testaments, mountains are always associated with the presence and activity of God.  That’s true here at Mt. Sinai, at the Sermon on the Mount, and clearly at Mt. Calvary. 

          During Moses’ sixth venture up Mt, Sinai, he was delayed in his return. Forty days and nights Moses stayed on the mountain. The people began to worry.  Maybe something bad happened to Moses.  Maybe he would never return.  What would they do without their leader?  In their fear, they demand that Aaron build a god for them.  So, Aaron collected all their gold, formed the gold into the image of a calf, and said to the people of Israel, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”  Aaron then declared that the next day they would celebrate.  Here’s what the text says,

They rose early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

          God delivered them from slavery.  But how quickly they substituted a golden calf for God.  God guided them through the wilderness, but how quickly they desired something they could see and touch. The people of Israel had a propensity to build golden calves.

          Would you believe me if I told you we still have a propensity to create idols?  Even in this age of information and technology, artificial intelligence, driverless cars, this age of sophisticated medical care and weaponry. Just as we have a human propensity for war, we have a propensity to worship something we can see and touch.  Money is a golden calf for some.  Status is for others.  Physical appearance is a golden calf for some.  Sex is for some.  Technology is for others.  We could probably name many more.

          Any time we place something or someone in the role of God, that thing or person becomes a golden calf.  Let me be honest with you about something I see happening in religion today.  It is the rise of charismatic, authoritative leaders, usually men, who become a golden calf to their followers.  This happens often on the fringes of religion, but not always.  Who in his right mind would bomb the homes, schools, outdoor concerts, and neighborhoods of unsuspecting, innocent people?  Who would kill and behead infants and little children?  Who would hold women and children hostage and threaten to kill them?  And then claim that they are doing it in the name of religion?  No religion teaches that.  No philosophy approves of such barbaric behavior.  But religious fanatics, zealots, are doing this because they have given ultimate allegiance to a charismatic, authoritative human leader.  These fanatics are willing to do the unspeakable in order to be faithful.  That’s idolatry today. That’s a golden calf.  Someone, or some group, has been put in the place of God.

          The history of religion is full of examples of where someone has been put in the place of God, where a man or woman has become a golden calf.  And it never ends well.  It ends with drinking cool-aid in Guyana.  It ends with a fiery apocalypse in Waco, Texas.  Do you remember when thirty-eight people committed suicide in California in 1997?  Their golden calf, a man named Marshall Applewhite, convinced them a spaceship was following the Hale-Bopp Comet.  It was going to pick them up and take them to a higher plane, he said.  He called it Heaven’s Gate.  Who believes that stuff?  I’ll tell you who believes it:  people who have put someone in the place of God. 

          In healthy religious practices, participants are encouraged the think for themselves and ask probing questions.  In very healthy religions, dissent is allowed.  Orthodoxy is not mandated.  Creeds are not forced.  In healthy religion, the key leaders do not take on an oversized role.  In healthy religion, we worship God, not someone or something.

          Baptists guard against this with the belief called the priesthood of the believer.  We’re not perfect, but we got that right.  In a nutshell, that means you do not even need me.  You are your own priest.  You relate directly to God.  The priesthood of the believer gives you that right and responsibility.  Baptists, when we are at our best, have minimized the authority of the clergy, and maximized the authority of the laity.  If a Baptist pastor ever tells you something you don’t believe, it’s okay for you to say, “I don’t believe that.”  If a Baptist pastor tells you to do something you think is wrong, it’s okay for you to say, “No.”  We must never build golden calves in the Baptist church.

          Because we have that propensity, still. To create idols, where religious figures and political figures are elevated to such a level that people will violate what they know to be wrong.  When that happens, we need to remember the words of wise, young Abraham, “Should not your ears listen to what your mouth is saying?”

Closing Prayer 

          Save us from ourselves, Lord.  Save us from this propensity to build golden calves.  Amen.