THEY WERE KISSING COWS --- Hidden Idols Mark 7:1-13 INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES

Kissing Cows --- Hidden Idols Page 1 of 8 THEY WERE KISSING COWS --- Hidden Idols Mark 7:1-13 INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES They were kissing cows. That s the title of the sermon series that we conclude today. And though it may not have been a verse that you committed to memory in your childhood days, the line does come directly from an Old Testament Bible verse Hosea 13:2 And now they keep on sinning and make a cast image for themselves, idols of silver made according to their understanding, all of them the work of artisans. "Sacrifice to these," they say. People are kissing calves! We picked up that phrase and are using it to describe all acts of idolatry. That s what the focus of this series has been Idolatry, which we are defining this way: Idolatry is putting some thing or some person into that place in our lives which belongs to God alone. Let s say that together. But why spend this much time focusing on idolatry? Well, we ve got good reason to do so. First, idolatry is the Bible s number one sin. It is so important to God that it is the focus of the first two of the Ten Commandments. God absolutely hates idolatry - hates it, now. Why? Because idolatry prevents God from being in right relationship with the children He loves so much - you and me. And thus, it is the only thing in this world that can keep God from doing for His children what He desperately longs to do for them. No wonder God hates it so. Finally, idolatry prohibits all true thriving. We just can t thrive until God is number one in our lives and we certainly won t be able to help others thrive. So we have good reason to take a careful look at idolatry. INTRODUCTION TO SERMON Last Sunday, we explored what is probably the most obvious idol we have to watch out for in our world. Both Jesus and Paul warned us about the idol of wealth, money, materialism. It s not hard to identify how people and yes, even we ourselves are guilty of putting wealth what we have, or what we wish we had

Kissing Cows --- Hidden Idols Page 2 of 8 into God s place in our lives. Today, I want to explore a couple of idols that are not quite so obvious but just as dangerous. HIDDEN IDOL THE TRADITION, THE CHURCH The first of these hidden idols was a really big problem in Jesus day and thus is addressed in numerous ways and places in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the biggest form of idolatry was the worship of foreign gods but in the New Testament, the primary expressions of idolatry took different forms. Foremost among these is one that I can, unfortunately, relate to only too well. In fact, I ve confessed it to you many times before. When it comes to idolatry, this is my greatest temptation, for sure. I am in danger of loving the Church more than I love Jesus. And though that might appear to work out okay for a pastor, it doesn t because idolatry is putting any thing or any person in that place that belongs to God alone. Even good things. Even the church. If you have been following along for the last two weeks, you should remember that one of the two skills we must have to resist idolatry is the ability to recognize idols for what they truly are. Some idols are pretty easy to recognize, but sometimes we are kissing cows and neither we, nor those around us, know it because our idols are good things. The only problem is that the good thing the spouse, the children, the cause, the job and yes, the church all very important and valuable things have slipped over that fine line and are now in the best place, the first place, the place that belongs to God alone. When that happens, they have become an idol and we have started kissing cows. Now my issue of putting the church before Jesus is addressed in the New Testament but with a little bit different language. In the New Testament, Jesus regularly warned people about the dangers of worshiping tradition in place of God. It s a problem many of us inside the church still have today. We will refer to some other Scriptures as we go along but let s begin here. It s a little long but stick with me. Mark 7:1-13 1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. [They were not behaving the way the religious folks said they should.] 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the

Kissing Cows --- Hidden Idols Page 3 of 8 elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" [In other words, how come they don t do it the way we do it, which is of course obviously the right way to do it?] 6 He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' 8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition." [There is no doctrine that has not come through human hands.] 9 Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother'; and, "Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, "Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God ) 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this." Let s be sure we understand what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is pointing to a specific example of how people had allowed a teaching of the tradition to trump a teaching from God. God s teaching is pretty simple and it comes straight from the Ten Commandments. Honor your father and your mother. But along the way, the tradition had come up with a way around that. If you didn t want to be responsible for your parents, all you had to do was to declare some portion of your wealth as Corban, a designated offering to God. You didn t have to actually give it to God. You were still free to use it for yourself but you didn t have to use it to care for your parents because when you died, what was left would be an offering to God. In that way, the tradition circumvented the actual teaching and intention of God, which was that children care for and honor their parents. Jesus said the people were doing many things like this. Putting the traditions of man before the teachings of God which means you know what I m going to say: they were kissing cows. Basically, they came up with their own teachings which enabled them to pretty much do whatever they wanted to do. It s when they elevated those teachings (all of human construction) above the teachings of God and begin to put

Kissing Cows --- Hidden Idols Page 4 of 8 their trust in them. Well that s when the cow kissing started. That s when they committed the sin of idolatry. That brings me to another little idolatry test we can give to ourselves. We ve introduced one of these little tests every week. The first week I suggested that you answer this question: when something good happens to whom or to what do I direct my thanks? The focus of our gratitude will tell us what we worship. Last week, we used Jesus test. Follow your treasure as a test. Check your checkbook and credit card and debit card statements. See where your money goes and you ll see where your heart truly is. And today we have another little test. Where do you place your trust? Do you trust in your material possessions? Given the variations in the stock market, that s pretty silly. Trusting in gold? I ve never seen anyone be able to eat gold or more importantly, use gold beyond the grave. Trusting in religious traditions? Well, that might look better but really, Jesus had some choice words to say about that. Matthew 23:23, 27-28 23 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. You see the law, the teachings, the church were never meant to be the focus of our worship. They were simply given to us to enable us to better focus on God, the only one or thing worthy of our worship. They are not meant to be the things we trust in, but rather to help us find our way to the only one worthy of our trust. Let me give you an example of how wrong we can get this and still be very, very good people. One of the persons who has suffered the most because of Wade s death is my precious niece Mary Madison. And here s why. This is what she said. I just don t understand, Aunt Jan, you and Uncle Cecil are the best people I know. You ve given up so much to serve God and you ve done more for God s people and His church than anyone I know. Why would this happen to you? Now I adore my niece and will be eternally grateful for the love that prompted such a question. But here s what we all need to see and what Mae-Mae and I have talked about many times in the last eight years. Her question, which is the same

Kissing Cows --- Hidden Idols Page 5 of 8 question we all seem to ask at one time or another, reveals a misplacement of trust. We are trusting in our doing all the right things in the tradition showing up at church, serving in the church and in the name of the church, honoring the teachings of the church, sacrificing for the church to protect us. But the church, the tradition, the teachings are not the right place to put our trust. Only God is worthy of our trust. And when we trust in God, the promise is not that bad things will not happen in life, but that when they do, God will be there to see us through those bad things and even more. If we give those bad things to God, He will, with resurrection power, somehow bring good from them. That happens, not when we trust in the Church (what WE do in and for the Church), but when the Church helps us to trust in God. Do you see the difference? But what happens when we get this wrong? I mean, why is it so important to make sure that God and the Church stay in their right positions so that we don t turn the church into an idol? Well, just a few examples of what I think happens. When we make the church into an idol, we major in the minors and that just thrills the devil. We focus on lots and lots of things that just don t matter while the big, big things go unaddressed. I remember the first time I was a delegate to our General Conference that s where the United Methodist Church sets all our policies, rules, theological statements, etc. Anyway, we would get bogged down and spend hours on the minors in my opinion, of course. And people would talk and talk, saying the same things over and over again. I remember writing these words on my notepad: and the Devil laughs and laughs. When we make our human constructed teachings more important than God s, we major in the minors. The real work of the Church God s work is left undone and the Devil is thrilled. Secondly, when we make the Church into an idol, we end up focusing on excluding people rather than including people. And the true mission of the church go make disciples is all about including. When I meet with people to talk about joining the church, I always offer my short course in Methodism. Two words - balance and grace. I won t talk about balance today, but I do want to talk about grace. Listen friends, you will never understand the United Methodist Church until you understand grace. We will err, we United Methodists, no doubt but we will err not to judgment, but to grace. If we remain true to our UM teachings, we will err to inclusion, not exclusion. That s why we baptize babies. That s why we have an open communion table. That s why we ordain women. That s why people of any sexual orientation or political persuasion, nationality or position on any cause are

Kissing Cows --- Hidden Idols Page 6 of 8 welcome to worship here. If we err, we will err to grace and inclusion. It s the thing I think we get most right as United Methodists. Others think we are oh so wrong. But this is my point grace is a safeguard against the exclusion that always appears when the Church itself becomes an idol. When we make the Church into an idol, our focus is on the earthly rather than the eternal. Think about it. Human-constructed doctrines end at the grave. Only the divine have eternal significance. Where should we place our emphasis? In Matthew 6:33, we read Seek first his kingdom and other things will be given as well. The important thing is do get the priorities right. Jesus named them for us in Matthew 23 justice, mercy, faithfulness. Paul named them for us in 1 Corinthians 13 faith, hope, love. And one more: when we make the Church an idol, it can no longer do the work it was created to do. Now don t get me wrong, Beloved. I love the Church. I ve loved the church since I was a little girl. It has been my one, consistent home. And I will serve the Church and through the Church in whatever way I am able until I die, but the Church is completely dependent upon God. God formed the Church, calls the Church and empowers the Church. When the Church is taken out of its rightful place and made into a god, then it can no longer be what it was created to be the body of Christ the hope for the world today. God first, then the Church. That s actually the only way the Church can be the real Church. Don t you see, Beloved, it may appear to be hidden, but when the people of God commit this act of idolatry, the whole world suffers. HIDDEN IDOL SELF And finally, I think I d be remiss if I completed this series without addressing one more idol. That idol is my self. One way we end up kissing cows is to simply make our selves the center of our world. Sometimes this is obvious. We ve all known people who are the center of their own world. They have to have everything their way and they are just no fun to be around. This also happens, though, in ways that are less obvious. Remember, I m focusing on hidden idols today. How does that happen? Well, Eugene Peterson, who translated the Bible into the form called The Message identifies it this way: We ve all met a certain type of spiritual person. She s a wonderful person. She loves the Lord. She prays and reads the Bible all the time. But all she thinks about is herself. She s not a selfish person. But she s always at the center of everything

Kissing Cows --- Hidden Idols Page 7 of 8 she s doing. How can I witness better? How can I do this better? How can I take care of this person s problem better? It s me, me, me disguised in a way that is difficult to see because her spiritual talk disarms us. (Eugene Peterson, Spirituality for All the Wrong Reasons, Christianity Today, March 2005, p.45. Taken from G.K. Beale, We become What We Worship, p. 295.) The issue is not what we do good or bad, annoying or impressive. When we make ourselves number one in our lives, the issue is that God alone belongs in that number one place. Many of you will remember an Old Testament story found in Exodus 3. That s where God calls Moses at the Burning Bush. And, if you know that story, you ll remember that Moses was a bit hesitant to go back to Egypt. In Exodus 3:11, Moses raises a key objection. Listen to what he says. It reflects at least a touch of self-idolatry. But Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? You see, Moses thinks it s all about him. He thinks that what God is asking him to do depends upon him, his skill, his strength, his ability. It s not obvious but Moses has himself and God in the wrong positions. He s kissing a cow. So, look at what God says. He doesn t even really answer Moses. I mean not the way you expect. Exodus 3:12 And He, (God) said, Certainly I will be with you In other words, it s not about you, Moses. You re not God; I am. This mission depends upon Me, not you. Let s get our positions right. Then we can get started. CONCLUSION And that my friends, is the real reason we must fight this sin of idolatry. There is so much work to be done in this world: people to be freed from chains of oppression; good news to be delivered to the lost and lonely; salvation to be offered to the desperate and despairing; love to be shared; people that we can help THRIVE. But it can t happen until we get our positions right. The mission our mission depends upon our having God in that place, that position in our life that belongs to Him alone. Only then can we and the Church be what we are called to be. It s this simple, really. There s so much good to be done in this world, that God s people just cannot waste any more time kissing cows. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Kissing Cows --- Hidden Idols Page 8 of 8 Life Application Questions: The sermon suggests several serious things that can go wrong when we make the church an idol. 1. Can you think of times when the Church has majored in the minors? The larger church or a local church? Why is that such a big problem? 2. Can you name ways that the church excludes people rather than includes people? Have you ever felt excluded by a church or a church policy? How does exclusion match up with what Christians are called to do? 3. What are some of the earthly concerns that get in the way of the eternal concerns? How can we get our priorities right? 4. When we make the church or ourselves into an idol, we will have a problem with strength. Can you name times when the church or individuals have done things that required divine strength? 5. What can we do to make sure we keep God in his rightful place in our lives?