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Psalm 138 1 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; 2 I will bow down toward your holy temple and praise your Name, 3 For you have glorified your Name 4 When I called, you answered me; 5 All the kings of the earth will praise you, O Lord, 6 They will sing of the ways of the Lord, 7 Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly; 8 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe; 9 The Lord will make good his purpose for me; This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We’ll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen. |
Our personal pantheon
The ancient Jewish prayer puts it this way: Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Our tradition holds that there is one God. But while we declare ourselves to be monotheistic, throughout scripture we get hints that there may be more than one god in the picture.
When Moses gets into his dueling match with Pharaoh, it’s really a battle of Egypt’s gods vs. the God of Israel. It’s clear that the gods of Pharaoh have some power. When St. Paul went to Athens, he wandered around the Areopagus and noted all kinds of different gods. There was even a statue to an unknown God, the Athenians covering their bases. The author of the psalm we heard in church yesterday (reprinted above) says this: Before the gods, I will give you praise.
We may think it quaint, the notion of many gods. We may think we’ve reasoned ourselves out of such primitive mythology. But it may be that we have our own pantheon.
It’s mere hours after the Super Bowl, one of the great religious rituals of our culture. Millions pay attention, offering devotion. What god is worshipped there? What of our fascinations with sports and entertainment, with Travis and Taylor (Sorry for your loss.)?
The ascendancy of the heresy of Christian nationalism makes a god out of country. Folks ascribe messianic qualities to politicians. This veneration happens around the world, as it has throughout history.
We worship technology and pay homage to those who bring it to us. It may well be that AI takes over the place of supreme being in our lives. (Read the book Genesis, by Henry Kissinger, Craig Mundie and Eric Schmidt.) We place high value on access to social media. What if we had to give it up?
We worship gods of affluence, success, education, good parenting, health and fitness. We worship the god of being right or righteous, which can morph into self-righteousness in all its unattractive manifestations. Think Dana Carvey’s church lady. Of course, there is the delicious idol of righteous indignation, and there’s the way we savor resentments.
A cutting edge for me: we can live in a me-centered universe, mindful of course that there’s peril in that. (Did you know that ego stands for edging God out?)
You get the idea. All kinds of things tug at our hearts, vying for attention and affection. There are all kinds of things that we might be inclined to worship. They may be good and noble things. They will always be part of our lives. The challenge is how we order them. How do we avoid giving our hearts to that which will not satisfy our hearts?
A priest I admire talks about the challenge of leading a parish. He repeatedly speaks about keeping the main thing the main thing. In his mind, the main thing is discipleship. It’s following Jesus. Another way to think about it is to make the great commandment (love of God and love of neighbor) our guiding principle. As theologian Andrew Root puts it, it’s about remembering that God is the star of the story. As Evelyn Underhill put it, God is the interesting thing about religion and people are hungry for God.
Think about the gods in your life, tugging at your heart this week. I’ve suggested a few, which may or may not resonate with you. I’m guessing you could name others. How might you keep all those affections in perspective? Before the many gods in your life, how can you praise the Lord who is one, the one from whom all blessings flow?
-Jay Sidebotham
