Pastor Trey Ferguson contemplates in his sermon the concept of idols, considering God’s admonishment in this week’s scripture that we should have no other gods before God. Trey puts forth his hypothesis that we become what we worship. This means that we must carefully identify who and what we worship. In fact, there are a great number of gods competing for our devotion; ones we inherit and ones we create. For example, in America we often worship the impersonal god of Capitalism, whose “invisible hand” in the markets casually impoverishes many and is not concerned with our welfare, health, or if we are exploited for the gain of others it favors more. Militarism, consumerism, fame, ideology, and more compete for our adoration. Trey argues that there is only one god worthy of our devotion, because God frees us from slavery to all the other gods in our lives. God is our foundation for freedom from all slavery, freedom from gods that extract, tear down communities, and never return justice or goodness in return. Trey goes further and shows how we often construct our own unworthy gods to cope with normal human emotions, especially fears, in unhealthy ways. When we are truly free from these gods, we are truly free to follow the new commandment to love each other and work together to bring God’s Kingdom here on earth.
Leave a Reply