[amc] [Fwd: We Become What We Worship]

From: Micheal McEvoy <micheal.mcevoy@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Karen McEvoy <reddeputy@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:51:58 -0600
We Become What We Worship
via Jesus Manifesto by Devan DeCicco on 12/28/08

idol-mirrorIt is not news to any of us that Americans – even some
American Christians – are in fact idol worshippers. Heck, one of our
most famous televisions shows is American Idol. We drink deep from the
well of militarism and worship Empire. We love cheap “stuff”:
commodities made in…who cares? It’s a bargain!!! We love fame and money.
We love sex.

These are our idols – and we love to worship them, they are our created
things that we exchange for our Creator (Romans 1:25). Empire may appear
an idea and not a “thing” but certainly it has a material manifestation.
Fame may be an idea but it directs us to love that which is created.

However, our understanding of how idolatry affects the idolater is
limited and scholars have been limited in their treatment of it. This
is, perhaps, because it is easier to understand the internal and
external consequences of being greedy, violent, and hyper-sexualized. It
is more difficult to see the harm in idolatry. So what if I support
wealth, war, and celebrity? I can still love God right?

Well, probably not. G.K. Beale’s new study We Become What We Worship
responds to this void in understanding of idolatry. Beale is an erudite
Wheaton College New Testament scholar. I have not yet read it but have
heard great things about his treatment of the Apocalypse of John. He
also has another biblical theology under his belt on the Temple and the
Church. This is the first book by Beale that I have read.

I was skeptical at first. Beale’s methodology is to demonstrate how
Isaiah 6 describes the consequences of idolatry (as Beale asserts “What
we revere, we resemble, either for run or restoration”). The people
become deaf and blind to God’s word – in essence, spiritually dead –
because they worship created things that have no life. Beale then
examines Jesus’s use of Isaiah 6 in the Gospels as an explanation for
why he teaches in parables. This became the jumping off point to Beale’s
argument for reading the oral law as the idolatrous sin of the people of
Israel in the 1st century. This made me skeptical because I have never
really accepted the idea that adherence to the oral law was an
idolatrous sin.

However, Beale argues convincingly, even for this interpretive
minimalist, that the oral law was indeed the idol that Jesus was
attempting to root out. It is a fascinating argument that is heavily
researched and I highly recommend a careful study of it.

Beale then extends this theme of the idolater becoming like the idol
back to the OT episode of the golden calf in Exodus 32 with a
fascinating discussion of why God is mocking the idolatrous Israelites
when Moses comes off the mountain with horns (not with a radiant face,
as many modern translations get wrong according to Beale), creating a
parody of idol worship (I like it when scholars see God’s sense of
humor…and help me to see it as well).

Finally, he looks forward to other New Testament uses of Isaiah 6 and
parallel texts in the Book of Acts, Paul’s Epistles, and the Book of
Revelation.

Certain chapters are stronger than others (for example, the chapter on
Acts relies heavily on what has already been explained in Isaiah 6 and
the Gospels to justify the reading in Acts – it does not stand alone).
Certain interpretations are better than others – which Beale
consistently acknowledges. Beale does not take his argument to the
ethical and cultural implications that I am describing. He is
predictably conservative on this, imploring us to hold fast to God’s
word and to abandon “worldliness”, both of which are true. Beale and I
just differ – at points – at what it means to be separate from the world
and to hold fast to God’s word.

Yet, I would highly recommend a careful study of this text. For those
interested in addressing empire, militarism, greed, and other American
excesses, this is a great starting point for further discussion. Does
our idol of cheap goods turn us into spiritually dead consumers who care
only for bargains and not for God’s oppressed in the sweatshops, diamond
mines, and agribusinesses of the world (a la Marx’s commodity
fetishism)? Does our idol of fame transform us into a meritocracy –
worshipping those who have achieved what our sin-sick hearts consider
“greatness” – and makes us neglect the poor, the outcast, the homeless,
those who we feel haven’t “deserved” our attention – in opposition to
Jesus’s mandate in Matthew 25? Does our love of sexual excess make us
blind to sexual violence against women, to the debasing of our bodies to
sexual instruments – in opposition to the Word of God? Does our idol of
security by force make us spiritually blind to the deaths of Iraqis,
Afghans, Haitians, Burmese, etc., - in opposition to the Word of God?
All of these questions merit serious consideration. Beale’s study
provides fertile ground.

Author Bio:: Devan was called by Christ in 2006 and has been trying to
sort things out ever since. He is a homelessness activist in Buffalo, NY
and likes conversations over coffee, football, and playing the banjo.


 
-- 
Micheal McEvoy
Comanche, Texas

"Christianity has been made so completely devoid of character that there
 is really nothing to persecute. The chief trouble with Christians,
 therefore, is that no one wants to kill them any more!" 
- Soren Kierkegaard

-------
Austin Mennonite Church,  (512) 926-3121  www.mennochurch.org
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