Idolatry

Recently I was chatting with a pastor friend of mine about "a great many things." The phenomenon of our current evangelical church was a part of the discussion and something of a revelation (pardon the pun) came to me.

I had asked this friend, retorically, what would happen if we decided to shut all the churches down in the town I live in (Hope) for, say, a month ... or a year. Believe it or not, there are a number of small churches here: Baptist, Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal, Harvest, Two Anglicans (recently divorced), Catholic, United, etc.. By shut down, I mean close the buildings and keep the pastor/priest from performing his 'religious' duties. What would happen?? - well, I thought, you'd probably have a good number of people down right upset! Like, they'd probably think you were loony (if YOU were the one to shut them down). The really zealous ones might say something like: 'You're destroying the work of God!' or 'Satan has deceived you!' or some such thing. There would probably be a good many who would break into the church and do something like a 'service' anyway and think of themselves as clever christians who are persecuted for their faith. And, I bet there would be a few who might actually enjoy not having to go to church on the Sunday mornings.

I had thought that something else might also happen: it might be (if the buildings couldn't be entered) that people would meet to worship the Lord anyway, just not in a church building. They might just decide to keep the old system going as best as possible. And then again, maybe there would be a change in how we view this machine we call church. Like, it might actually start looking more like a living organic thing. One that is not segregated and categorized by walls or building structures; by doctrines and emphasies on particular statements of belief. One that does not set one person (usually a man) above the rest in the spiritual hierarchy of our so called evangelical churches (the pastor/priest). One where one person is not guaranteed a wage to support a growing unsupportable system of maintaining a spiritual worldview that is limited to the confines of a few buildings, programs and people who call themselves 'Baptist' or 'Nazarene' or whatever. Of course, denominations surely wouldn't go for it. We'd be dismantling the entire organization! Plus the financial system that keeps it afloat. And the means by which spiritual success is somehow measured [sic].

And then I got thinking about how I feel like God just isn't cooped up in a church building or even every church building. Like he's just too big for this. He's so much greater and vaster! He has such grander ideas! His ways are so far above ours. As if we can keep him confined to a particular structure. Wait a MINUTE! Isn't that what the Israelites did in the desert? They made this golden calf thingy, like RIGHT after Moses brings them out of slavery in Egypt, led by the Lord Almighty himself as a pillar of fire and cloud. They make this gold cow and start worshipping God as if he's inside this golden calf!! Or ... worshipping a god as if he's inside the cow. But what is an idol but a definable, limited manmade structure? An attempt at controlling that which we know we have no control over. It's, presumably, easy to worship a cow! We know exactly what a cow does, how it lives, what it lives for, what it eats, where it stands on the survival chain. It then gives definable and explanatory reasons for a god's or God's actions and thoughts and intents. But then, does not a church building and programs do that too?? Do not our own doctrines do that too?? That to say I'm Pentecostal means I believe that God is more interested in the act of giving spiritual gifts than he is in another equally important article of the faith I have? That God really only works to bring about his kingdom through his church ... and therefore through the people who believe ... well, believe like I do? People who go to THIS building and are a part of THIS denomination? Are our churches (the buildings and organizational institutions) not just giant gold cows!!!!

I guess I'm just redefining the term idolatry, in my own mind. It seems to me that we have often used the term 'put God in a box' a whole lot but never really considered just how ridiculous that thought is because of how un-puttable God is. His dimensions cannot be grasped and his thoughts cannot be measured and our religious gatherings in NO way are any where CLOSE to the summation of His intent and action. Oh how quick we are to deify even how we do what we do. I'm not suggesting that churches are evil or buildings are useless or programs are pointless. No, but if they become the focal point and the anchoring cement to how it is we choose to know who our Saviour is, we have completely lost the point. And God, then will only be as big as we see Him to be. But that's a scary place to be for some. Myself notwithstanding. Even our doctrines can become snares and traps that give us some false hope that our God has limited bounds that give us ease in thinking about who He is.

When I hear God say 'You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.' (Exodus 20:4) I hear him say 'You shall never control me nor shall you ever make yourselves slaves to your own ideas of who you think I am. I am uncontainable!'.