Elijah and the burning altar - I always got a kick out of this story. The verses describe an embarrassing display of a people refusing to admit their mislead idolatry. I can't help but chuckle when I imagine Elijah's sarcasm in suggesting what they might try to get their gods attention. It's sad, really - their attempts just seem so ridiculous!
I thought this chapter had some good Law/Gospel balance to it that jumped out at me. Law - Every moment you live, you lived bowed to something. And if you don't choose god, you'll bow down before something else - some banal Baal. Baal isn't the name of one particular god; it's the name of any generic god. Elijah confronted the people about their wavering, their sinking, between the god of Abraham and the Baal of rain. And for us, too, there are other Balls that can be our sinking. The Baal of success and the Baal of Pinterest, the Baal of perfection and the Baal of affirmation. It's always Baals that keep us from God, the Baals of work and agenda and accomplishment that keep us from prayer. We don't pray enough only when we are practising idol worship.(148-149) Ouch. Got me there. Here I was thinking their attempts were so ridiculous - how about mine? Good questions to honestly ask myself - what do I run around crazy after? What keeps me from sitting with the Lord daily and listening to his words speak to me in the Bible? Keeps me from talking to him in prayer?
And then the Good News, the Gospel - But if you slow and still and wait, Advent whispers to you: there is one God who was cut open for you. He let His blood run so you can stop running. "The only way to overcome idols in your life, " beckons Tim Keller, "is to see that Jesus gives you freely what every other god says that you can only get through your performance. Jesus give you through His blood what every other god demands through yours." Jesus, the Gift, comes to give you freely through His passion what every other god forces you to get through your performance. (149-150) Thank you, Jesus.
Come, let us adore Him!
Question #1 - Relief, joy, a heavy burden lifted! Now I can give from myself what has been freely given to me! I'm not overwhelmed by what I perceive must be done but I've overwhelmed in gratitude of the many opportunities He gives me to glorify Him!
3 comments:
I heart Timothy Keller, so I feel compelled to respond to today's reading as well, if for no other reason than to tell people to go read all of his books. Especially King's Cross, if you want some good parallels between us and worship. Worship is not a thing that exists separately from us. It's not about what we do. It's about how we were designed, by God, for the sole purpose of glorifying God.
As a church musician, my frustrations can show through when people have such strong emotions about what is appropriate, what is best, what is most relevant for them, etc, etc, when it comes to "worship." Idols are tricky. It's not just the prophets of Baal who have gotten the wool pulled over their eyes.
God is there, when we worship, in the means of grace, offering himself and his pardon to us guilty sinners. We know it, because he promised it.
When we recognize that, our personal feelings pretty much take care of themselves.
"God himself is for us, who can be against us?"
I'll be sure to put that book on my list for the new year! Thanks for the suggestion:)
I appreciate your perspective from the church musician standpoint. Good thoughts on what worship is and isn't.
I AM made to worship God with everything that I am! But that icky sinful nature is always presenting me with Baal after Baal. By God's grace I reject them, but they keep coming! Some of them I allow to hang around for a while. And those are the ones that come back the most often. They sneak back in when I'm not looking directly at my Lord. I start chasing after them without really realizing it. It's the natural state of my sinful nature. Who will rescue me from this body of death?!?!?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Christ Jesus our Lord! (Rom 7:25) Our Lord, the Almighty God, who entered a "body of death" and allowed that body to be cut open for me. As Ann said, "He let his blood run so that you can stop running." And then the Tim Keller quote emphasizing that this miraculous gift of unfathomable generosity asks absolutely nothing of us! There is nothing left to to but to come and adore Him.
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