“Idol Eyes”

 (Ex 32:1-14; Mtt 22:1-10) 10:30 am, Thanksgiving Sun, Oct 11, 2026; JGW, FBC Amherst

Now, in the centre of Thanksgiving weekend, we have gathered. Part of the little minority that gets together to worship God, like this. What catches our attention? Where do our hearts go now? What do we see in our mind’s eye, that gets the praise?

Today, I pick out three things in the Golden Calf story that I can understand. The need to give thanks or praise is automatic; so, it could be done well, done rightly. Two, prayer is vital, certainly in the face of distractions or destruction. Three, God is merciful and gracious, and is worth talking to about changing the plan. 

First, the need to thank is natural and real. People spent a couple hours in this room with a band of four musicians sharing their artistry with them. At the end of the concert, we all applaud, and even stand up for them. The next morning, seventeen hikers are led down into a ravine to a canyon in the ancient rock. Waterfalls shine brightly in the golden sunshine at both ends of the slot canyon. The hikers revel in the place. At suppertime, a family, with a few friends, gather for a feast of turkey, stuffing, gravy, pickles, potato, turnip, squash, carrots, cranberries, pumpkin and lemon pies. The food and the cooks get praised, and rightly so. 

It is a natural thing to praise, even to worship, in a way, what and who we appreciate. But it is easy to want to idolize things we can see and enjoy more directly, than some invisible God who can seem to many like a beautiful theory, yet totally invisible and quite mysterious. 

This is what we see in the ancient, sacred story today. Those Hebrew people camped out below a mountain, they are giving up on their leader, who has been missing for a month. Moses stayed up the hill for forty days, eh? And what do they want to do? Worship and celebrate, actually. They even still will use the name, YHWH, translated LORD (in all caps), for their ‘gods’ in the form of a gold animal statue. Interesting that the statue is made from the gold that these people gleaned from their masters, as they left Egypt. The riches they pillaged become the form of their deity. 

Meanwhile, this is the moment they are being commanded (written in stone) never to have an idol, a physical statue or image to worship as their God. 

They did not give up on the LORD God; they did not quit praising. They recreated their Saviour in a form they wanted. 

These thousands of years later, at our very different moment in culture and history, we still face the danger of wandering off to praise secondary things, and let go of the Source, the Spirit. It can be so tempting to make beautiful things and have enjoyable events, with very little contact with God. 

Thirty years ago, in the Church in at least the western world, a music and worship revolution had taken place. Contemporary music had come into its own, and many churches had become leaders or followers of the new music. One church, in Watford, England, had been a leader of new music, particularly with Matt Redman as a world-famous a songwriter in the music team. Very successful, very famous songs, very exciting. Except, things seemed to get dull, and a sort of apathy set in at the Church. 

Matt Redman tells the story. “There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.” 

One of the great and poignant worship songs of the end of the 20^th century came out of that, from the pen of Matt Redman.

When the music fades                  I'll bring You more than a song

All is stripped away                     For a song in itself

And I simply come                       Is not what You have required

Longing just to bring                   You search much deeper within

Something that's of worth            Through the way things appear

That will bless Your heart           You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus

I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it

When it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus

That church may have idolized their famous, world-class, new music. They needed to return to the Root, the Source, their Saviour and God. 

The need to thank is real. But how distracting can it be to praise our marvellous building, our classy music, our affable Ministers, our strong finances. What is our praise of God, actual, real God?

The second thing I see in today’s Exodus story is some Prayer for others in the face of idolatry. Moses talks with YHWH God; Moses intercedes for them. Makes requests to help them. Asks. We have ‘prayers of intercession’ in Christianity; here is Moses in prayer. ‘Don’t kill off the people! Remember Your promises to their ancestors: for prosperity and a land of their own. Think what their slave-masters in Egypt will say if this mission fails!’

Our prayers, and the praying of our leaders today will look different, but some of the same dynamics are here. 

I like Ruth Haley Barton’s book quite a lot, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. I bought it when she lectured at Acadia, years ago. A text for ministers, she follows the life and work of Moses throughout the book. Barton points out how much Moses prayed for the whole people, when they were a train-wreck, and deserved what they were about to get, over and over again. 

I simplify for the sake of speaking – pardon me. But let me remind you, amid the drama and, yes, death, of Exodus chapter 32, we can read of Moses pleading for the people of Israel. The ones who just broke one of the first big Commandments. Even as Moses prayed for people to be forgiven, he said: take me instead, if need be, “blot me out of the book that you have written.” We may not approach our God the same way he did, three thousand years ago. But we – especially in Church leadership – need to be with God for the sake of the whole people. 

One little book I go back to is a deep one, by Eugene Peterson. Another book about pastors, he gives a very high role for prayer in our life and work. Let me share this one paragraph. 

[But] prayer is not a work that pastors are often asked to do except in ceremonial ways. Most pastoral work actually erodes prayer. The reason is obvious: people prefer something less awesome and more informal. Something, in fact, like the pastor. Reassuring, accessible, easygoing. People would rather talk to the pastor than talk to God. And so it happens that without anyone actually intending it, prayer is pushed to the sidelines. (Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor, 1989, p. 52)

Do you think Peterson was right about that? These are points worth pondering. Even worth praying about. Which is, as I hope most of you know, all the simple ways we find to spend time with God. Prayer need not be all about words. Not even all about requests for help from ‘the Man Upstairs.’ 

Mother Theresa was asked in an interview how she prays. She claimed that she is quiet, she listens. ‘And what does God say?’ asked the interviewer. ‘God is quiet too; God also listens.’ Something similar was said, a few centuries before, by well-known mystic, Julian of Norwich, speaking about her own prayers: I look at God, I look at you, and I keep looking at God. This too helps us keep from praying to ourselves or some other ideas. Some idol. We get to the loving Source. We simply learn to spend quality time. 

Thirdly, as we consider what happens when people replace God with something else to follow and enjoy supremely: God is merciful, gracious, repenting, even changing. We find this in today’s Exodus story. The way they wrote this down catches our attention. It gets put into English a few ways. Four hundred years ago it was translated, “And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” Nowadays: “And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” 

Perhaps a lot of our praying for help is on the side of hoping God will change God’s mind about something or other. I simply want to take the big picture, the high ‘satellite image’ view of things, and see our Divine Master as one who has mercy and grace, more than we expected or even taught that God has. 

So the children of Israel, still new in their desert wanderings, live to wander another day. Another year. Another decade. Like them, we are actually filled to the brim with blessings, despite occasional hard circumstances. Like them, we need to face our sins and failures, face our fears, and be led again. 

Before we are done, here, spend two minutes with Christ. The parable of the wedding banquet, according to Matthew. Jesus’ story today has a familiar ring to it, yet some of the details are severe. Including the finale that we did not even read here. One thing that happens is that a wide variety of people get in on this royal wedding banquet. Not the original people who were invited. That sort of multi-day event must have been incredible. Why did so many beg off? It is just a story, a parable, but we wonder. Finally, Jesus speaks of those who were gathered in for the feast, both good and bad: so the wedding was filled with guests. 

Even more than the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, Jesus surprises everyone with who gets in on the wonderful realm of God. The Kingdom of the Heavens, as He calls it. The good and the bad get in. Yet the prestigious do not. 

One of the many ideas that came up this year in our First Baptist growing forward conversations was this thought: change the name of our Church. There is a Lutheran congregation, somewhere in the US, named House for all Sinners and Saints. All sinners and saints. How’s that for the name of a church?

[silent meditation]

PRAYERS for All      With some quietness, let us   pray.

When the music fades and all is stripped away

And we simply come to You… 

The leaves are red and gold. They are falling. 

Does is hurt? Hurt for the leaf to lose the green and sharpen its colours? Hurt to break off at the stem, fall, and then die and decay? 

Master, we come close to You, with our own hurts. 

The body hurts. The heart hurts. Family, friends hurt. 

Our hope hurts. 

Let the golden light of Your mercy be upon us and shine from us.

We hear the call of the geese in the fall. We hear the wind in the treetops. We see the frost upon the rooftops. 

Call us back to You. Closer. Nearer. Dearer. 

More sure and calm. 

Let it be. Praise be. Hosanna. Hallelujah! AMEN.