Idle Worship
Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts

Acts 17:22-31

Jn. 14:15-21

'Want an interesting exercise sometime? Try observing someone, or a group of people for awhile to see if you can determine by their actions or words, what their values are.

Some of you may have heard me share about one such fascinating experience I had when I was taking graduate courses several years ago. I had a course about religion and public education. A fascinating course. I found out for example that it's not unconstitutional to teach religion in the public schools--as long as it's something like comparative religions which doesn't favor one religion over another. At least that would give our kids an appreciation for the part religion plays in our everyday lives. It made me think about the opposite message we give our children when religion isn't even mentioned in school--does that tell them religion's not a part of life?

And there were several other fascinating parts of this particular course. My favorite part was an exercise where we were asked to get permission from an elementary school to observe a couple of their classes for a whole morning, to see if we could determine what religion and what values were being taught. We were reminded ahead of time that chances are those values and any religion taught would be subtle--not overt. We would have to listen carefully to the sub-text of what a teacher was saying. Well it was a fascinating experience, and two things stood out, that I remember well to this day--as I observed three different classes, each a different grade, that day.

Number one, I saw that the primary value system being taught was: "do well in school, so you can get into college so you can get a good job; and so do well on the ladder of success. " The mode of all that achievement, that was being taught, often was competition---there were some learning games where one tried to be the winner--number one again--and competition and winning was stressed in a number of other ways; so, yes, these values were reinforced often throughout the day, in the three classes I observed.

Secondly, as to any religion being taught--the ultimate concern of course was clearly not focussed on doing for God--but rather the focus was on the self-- be good to yourself, do well, beat out others. So it was a religion of self, and material success for yourself, that was being taught. Even the brief moment of silence that took the place of the Lord's Prayer in the daily opening exercises at the beginning of the school day years ago in this state, after school prayer was banned, that brief moment of silence wouldn't have given the students enough time to silently pray the first sentence of the Lord's prayer--it went by so fast on the day I was observing . Yes, a fascinating day at school it was.

In sermons where I've shared with you here on Sunday mornings, you've heard me talk a lot, I know, about materialism as a way of life and value system--and the dangers of those materialistic values. That's because as long as our primary value is a materialistic one ,(get a good job, so we can give our kids a good education so they can get a good job, so they can make more money and have more things), then it's clear, is it not, that we worship the wrong things? In a sense, like the Greek idols the Apostle Paul observed in the city of Athens, as described in our reading from Acts today, we too spend far much of our lives worshiping idols do we not?:- the false and empty gods of money, material possession, and the never satisfied ladder of success that rules many of our lives as a measure of our worth by our society. We worship idols, you see, far too often--an elusive success value--that often is never fully satisfied--so it's empty.

Indeed, you may have noticed my spelling of the word idol in the sermon title this morning. I spelled it: i-d-l-e, not idol. For in addition to the materialistic, tangible idols (i-d-o-l) of money and possessions, one of the apparent values that goes along with such success would be what? Leisure time--idle time--time when we don't have to do anything productive, expect perhaps play and seek pleasure--pleasure which of course never fully satisfies, so we may seek more in an addictive way. After all isn't that the implied reason for having all the gadgets, and wealth, to free us from work, so we'll have more time to "enjoy life"--to play in idle leisure time. As if having time when you don't have to do anything productive were to be desired! But guess what happens to us if we're idle for too long? We become listless, start looking for pleasure fixes--anything to make life interesting. But again such searches are often never satisfied. Or the other thing that happens is that we work so hard to gain some idle time, that our lives become frantic and don't even have times for rest, let alone idleness. Beyond our needed rest times, idleness, as something valued also winds up being either elusive or empty.

You see, like the Greeks Paul was talking to, far too often, we too worship false idols--idols of emptiness, and even idleness, that never satisfy. Paul was particularly fascinated by one idol that was "to an unknown God." Here the people were worshipping not just an empty false God, but one that didn't even have a name--that was unknown. For us as Christians, thank God our God is one we can not only know, but who knows us, and loved us so that God gave us God's only son. Indeed, as we follow God's son, rather than being idle, when we love as he loved our lives begin to regain the meaning and sense of fulfillment God made our lives to have. So this is no empty idol, or God of leisure idleness that we worship--but one who, through that worship, transforms us into an active, living, loving people of faith.

This is not an unknown God, we worship, but One who we come to know in prayer and experiences of the Spirit, who we come to know as we observe God's wondrous world, who we come to know in moments of love, and caring for the least of these. Yes this God is known. So how then do we know God?

Well first if God is definitely not a God of gold or silver--not a God experienced through any kind of material success, then indeed just the opposite: as Christ taught us, we come to know God not when we acquire for ourselves, but share of ourselves, give of ourselves for others, especially those in need. That is when we are most fulfilled as human beings. And then, does it not make sense that it is when we are most open and loving and giving toward others, that we all are most open to the presence of god. The apostle Paul said in response to the idols he saw, that [quote]"The god who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth , does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is God served by human hands, since God gives to all mortals life and breath and all things." Knowing God in our lives you see, does not come from acquiring the material. For such idols are empty. Rather it is when we share ourselves and what we have with the spiritual--not material but spiritual gift of love that God has given us, that we are most fulfilled in these human lives God has given us.

The sad thing is that our relentless pursuit for material success even manages all too often to sneak it's way into the lives of those of us who are among the faithful. I'll never forget when Peggy and I visited a Confirmation Class in Germany--where by the way, such classes are taught in the public schools--taught by the local Protestant pastor in one room, and in another by the local priest. When we visited one such class room, we were amazed to see how many children were taking confirmation classes--for they did have a choice--they could opt out and take some other course. What was their response when we asked why they were there? Several of them just used the universal hand symbol, made like this [rubbing the fingers gently by your thumb]--in other words. Money!

At first we didn't understand, until they told us that in their culture, a child was rewarded for their many hours in confirmation class, not only by becoming a confirmed member of the local large Protestant church, but also by monetary gifts, for it's their custom for families and friends to give each confirmand a monetary gift in celebration of their confirmation.

And lest we be too judgmental of the German church in this regard, do we not also, far too often, measure "how we're doing" as churches in this country, by how the church is doing financially? But that's not what the faith is all about, don't you see--it's about having our lives transformed to be centered not on the selfish acquiring of money or wealth or things, but lives centered on loving God and loving our neighbor--selflessly--in a giving, not a taking and acquiring way.

The God we can know and worship, and love, you see, is not one made of gold and silver, and green currency--but rather a loving, and giving God--whom we can know and love, and who loves us in return.

But lest we think that all we have to do is sit back and receive Gods love. remember what we said earlier-- ours is not a God who is just an empty idol of gold silver or currency, but also, neither is our faith one of idleness. Ours is not i-d-l-e worship. Since we can know and love God, and feel God's love--and since we have seen how great God's love is, willing to sacrifice his only Son for us--is that not motivation enough for us want to actively live for God, in all we do and say. Given all that God has done and continues to do for us, how can we not respond with active, rather than idle love! And behold when we do, far from being idle--we come alive. Is it not true that as long as we are only scurrying about for ourselves and our own material well-being or pleasure, that it seems like a never ending rat race, and we never have enough leisure time? But if, on the other hand, rather than being idle, we seek to actively live a life of love and care for others in response to God's love for us, then we feel fulfilled--our lives are rich--not in gold or cash, or possessions or property, but rich in love.

When I think of what a difference an active, loving, faith-filled life can make as opposed to living a life of acquiring, and protectiveness relative to one's possessions, I think of my old neighborhood in Lexington, Mass. where I grew up. Ours was a short street, in fact it was one of those few dirt road private ways, that the developer had never sought to have accepted by the town. So it was a quiet street except for the sounds made by a lot of children who grew up together, a lot of us in that neighborhood. We had all kinds of fun together, and had a great, really loving relationship among the neighbors. Except that is for the older couple who lived two houses away from ours, along with their grown son, who lived with them. I suppose not having young children isolated them somewhat from the rest of the neighbor. But this particular family, well they seemed to be an especially private people, who in fact used to get very angry with us kids if we even ventured onto their precious lawn which they kept in meticulously well--cared for condition. If for example, some of us kids would be playing catch or Frisbee on our front lawns, and the ball or the Frisbee would get away from us, and land on the lawn of the neighbors in question, it was not unusual for one of them to come and grab whatever it was and keep it. We lost more Frisbees and baseballs that way! Of course my childhood memory may be blowing one or two isolated incidents out of proportion, but what a sad thing not only did they not make an effort to get to know and love their neighbors, but they seemed more concerned for their lawn. And, too, I see now, looking back, that as far as I can remember, I'm not sure any of our families, their neighbors, made, much of an effort to get to know this particular family either.
When our focus is just on ourselves and on the material you see, and acquiring ever more of it, spending all our time caring for it, or protecting our possessions so we can live lives of idle leisure, we lose our humanity--we lose the loving being inside that God made each of us to be. No wonder then, as we worship those material pursuits and their tangible material wealth, our lives become empty--indeed idle--even hiding in protectiveness, as opposed to actively getting out and loving this beautiful world God has given us, and all it's loving people.

So what about you--who do you worship with the way you live your life? With how you spend your time? With what you most value in your life? If it's idols, or being idle--then you're missing something --you're missing the presence, the power, and wondrous love of our God, who alone, among all those other gods we try to worship, can make us come alive . . . when we seek to love one another--to be the loving people we were made to be by our living God--who loves us so! Amen.