Land of the American gods
Today, is Monday May 1st.
You probably are not noticing a whole lot, especially in the early hours of a Monday morning. You get up, check your phone for breaking news, roll your eyes at the latest thing that celebrity did, and turn on a pot of coffee. We collectively stumble about until coffee is freshly brewed and pumping our veins with fake motivation as we turn on the TV for early morning reports of traffic and weather. Checking Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Looking at your busy calendar awaiting the next weekend's activities wondering where the time went. You didn't get any rest. Here in KC were listening still to how the Royals managed to lose their lead in the 8th inning. Again. Hoping this year we make another run, and the fly over country is heralded again. Checking Chiefs draft picks, and finally sipping on the "real" coffee we got from our hipster coffee shop. All of which, I am guilty of personally.
We are a people of Worship.
We haven't even left our homes to the job we work endlessly at, and we already giving our attentions away to the fleeting things. We're worshiping, and we don't even know we're doing it! Worship is what we're devoting our adoration to, our thoughts, feelings, time, effort, money all going to that thing. Which got me thinking. In a country that claims to be Christians, who or what are we worshiping? Full disclosure. I'm completely guilty of all of this as well. I need prayer and reminder constantly that Jesus is my savior, not the things of this world.
A new show is about to pop on your TV, and bound to grab your attention. It's called American Gods. A TV adaptation of the book, with the same title. The show’s main storyline is that the old gods are dying off. They're not being worshiped; old Norse, Greek, and Roman gods are having to "adapt" to new American culture or die, because, new gods are taking over. Technology, Drugs, TV, Sports. This book, and now TV, show are putting it in front of our faces that we are worshiping things that are essentially meaningless. How many times do we gather during a year to cheer on our sports teams at their houses of worship? Or maybe you call them stadiums. We'll purchase T-Shirts, and jerseys, spend hundreds of dollars to let people know where your allegiance lays. We'll scream till our throats are hoarse to let the other team know they're just not as good as our team.
We'll devote our time to famous people's lives. We have to see “them” in that film or show. We have to get that song, from that artist because they're the best in the genre. Drink that drink because its the most beautiful looking drink ever! Yea I'm talking about you Starbucks with the Unicorn Frap. We are pouring our lives out into things that are temporary. We sing songs that honor no one, we encourage behavior we would be ashamed of committing ourselves, we like, heart, retweet things we would never actually say or do. But it's funny.
Quite opposite is true about us as well.
We gather in our true house of worshiping the One True God, and remain silent as our pastors pour everything they are out in hopes that we come to know Jesus truly and deeply. As Lord, Savior, and friend. But we'll scream, and rant, and give our talents, minds and money to people and things that never know our name. Never know who we are, or what we're going through. To things that will never help us in time of need, or come along side us. Yet we are silent before the one who is at the door knocking. One who knows your name, where you are in life, the one who loves you.
This is the error of humanity as a whole. God created everything to be enjoyed within its proper boundaries. This isn't a new occasion, and we can learn from the Apostle Paul while in was in Athens. They were so worried about missing the wrong "god" they worshiped all of them. Just in case. Acts 17 is where I will end I pray we come back, we worship, we serve, we love. Jesus Christ, who alone is worthy of such things.
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
Acts 17:22-27
